Sibling blog

My father died on Chrismas day, while eating a last piece of chocolate that I had given him and bent over double while I did the hoovering. He was an alcoholic, but I also had a mother with schizophrenia  and experienced the aftermath of her suicide; the bullying as an outsider at school and an eating disorder. I have so much to write but I don't think a blog is the place for all this. So this blog is primarily about my brother - lets  call him Arthur - who is a light-speed runner and is currently homeless.

When my 89-year-old father died, in 2006, my life changed completely. He’d taken care of my older sister Barb, who had as yet undiagnosed schizophrenia, for over three decades. She had returned home at the age of 31, after living an independent, full and somewhat glamorous life.

In my last post I told you it would get better - things had reached their worst for me and my sister following her latest hospital admission. I felt like it was important to be honest about how bad things could be but nothing stays the same for long, and thankfully we're all coming around.

Warning: This post discusses suicide and may trigger. Our blogger was going through a period of stress after her sister’s attempted suicide, and has since had time to recover, but she felt that sharing her feelings at the time and explaining in her next post how things have now improved might help others dealing with the same thing.

Due to my involvement with Rethink Siblings I have been thinking a lot about the past, when my brother became ill. I felt that I needed to remember him in a good way - needed a reminder of what he was like before he became ill. I was also curious to understand whether his friends were aware of what was happening at that time...