My family has an extensive history of mental illness. This isn’t an article about my family’s battles with mental illness, though, so I’ll just tell you about my grandfather, who served our country in World War II and returned home to Waldo, Ohio after V Day. Physically he was okay, but mentally he was broken.
He struggled with depression, and the PTSD he brought back from the war eventually claimed his life. He died by suicide shortly after my eighth birthday. He’d waited a couple of weeks after my birthday to end it all, hoping that a little distance from my special day would make it easier for me.