Gene Gilbreath

For Pete's Sake: a Son Reflects on His Father's Forty-seven Year Confinement with Mental Illness Gene Gilbreath Rev edition

TLC? Tender loving care, remember? Tender loving care about those in hospitals, nursing homes, mental facilities, schools, disconnected families, underprivileged children, an abandoned spouse,  and all we who face our limitations and don't know where to turn? A Nigerian proverb says, "Not to know is bad. Not to want to know is worse. Not to hope is unthinkable. Not to care is unforgiveable." Let me tell you about Pete, my Dad, so that you may know him. I wrote this book feeling that maybe you would want to know about this mental patient who spent forty-seven years inconfinement. His life seemed worthless, of no value to society. After his death at eighty-seven, I thought again, this time with hope that there was a way to redeem his existence. FOR PETE'S SAKE helps you to become aware of mental health issues in our ordinary circumstances. From my g-g-grandparents' conception, through our childhood and schooling in rural Sullivan County, Indiana, through the State hospital and nursing home experiences of Pete, through the triumph of my Mom, through questions of faith, purpose, and meaning, we learned to hope and care. Meet PETE as Rip Van Winkle I Iand learn, hope, and care about the mentally ill and their families.