Patsy Lou - A Family Blog

I have an Aunt that I've never met.

My Aunt Patsy Lou has been institutionalized since she was a small child. When she was around three years old (my family can correct me if I'm wrong on any of this story), she had to go for her vaccinations at the local health department. Since she was a little behind on one of the vaccinations, they gave her a double dose. That night she started running a fever and when it finally broke, she wasn't the same child.

Patsy Lou, up until that point, had been a normal, healthy baby girl. The first baby girl in the family if I'm correct. My Mamaw eventually had 11 children, of which my Father is the youngest. There was John Henry, Clayton, Leonard, Hershel, Odell, Eugene, Douglas, Ida, Loretta, Patsy Lou, and my Dad, Eddie. (Although that isn't their birth order, I can't remember what order they were born in, but I used to know...and yes, I do keep track of things like that in my family.)

My Mamaw Mae kept Patsy Lou at home with her for as long as she could, but with younger children in the house, it became too much for her to tend to, so she made the heartbreaking decision to send her to a state hospital. Ida told me today that Patsy Lou first went to a hospital in Frankfort. In 1971, she was admitted to a facility in Louisville. Keep in mind, my family lives in Gray Hawk, so that's quite a distance if someone wanted to travel to see her. My Mamaw didn't know how to drive and so I'm not sure how often, if ever, she was able to go visit Patsy Lou. Not that it mattered much to Patsy Lou, because she had suffered such severe brain damage that she had pretty much regressed back to infancy.

Several weeks back Ida and I had planned to go visit with Patsy Lou in Louisville. She has been assigned a Social Worker that I would like to meet and discuss Patsy Lou's care-plan with her (Ida was named Patsy Lou's guardian when my Mamaw passed away). I wanted to tour the facility. I wanted to meet Patsy Lou. And I'm not going to lie, considering that I would like to work in a mental hospital at some point in my social work career, I was curious as to what that would actually require.

I don't talk about it much, but mental illnesses and especially mental disabilities are both things I can be quite passionate about. There's a lot of stigma associated with both things, but believe me when I say, I'm a firm believer that at some point in our lives, we all suffer from a mental illness...we just don't always get diagnosed for it.

Mental disability is different from illness though. Patsy Lou doesn't have a mental illness, she has a disability. It bothers me that all too often people with mental disabilities that are institutionalized are forgotten about. Its much the same way when someone is incarcerated. "Out of sight, out of mind" is very true in these situations. So I wanted to go see Patsy Lou because even though she won't know the difference, I wanted her to know that I was thinking about her. Every day I think about her. Which may sound strange to people, seeing as how I've never met her. I still consider her my Aunt though, just as much as my Aunt Loretta and my Aunt Ida. I'm sure that if circumstances had of been different, she would have been a great aunt too, just like Loretta and Ida. It makes me sad to think of things she has missed out on in life and by default, the things her family has missed out on as well. And I can't imagine what Mamaw Mae felt like.

Today Ida got a package in the mail that contained copies of Patsy Lou's "Individualized Support Plan." I told Ida I wanted to take it with me and read it tonight. I'm learning new things about Patsy Lou and because I don't know her well enough to have a family post containing all my thoughts and memories of her, I wanted to include a few things from her files.

First, her "profound mental retardation" was caused by encephalitis due to the vaccination. If you want to know what encephalitis is, then follow this link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002388/
She obviously has other physical and mental problems due to the encephalitis, her age (she's 60) and to being institutionalized for so long. During one of her evaluations, it was noted that she could "hit the switch" during one exercise and that she maintained eye contact and "leaned forward...as if trying to initiate an interaction" with one of the test administrators. I know those things don't sound like much, but they actually made me smile.

The thing is, I'm not writing this to be sad or make anyone feel bad. I'm writing this to celebrate the life that Patsy Lou does have. It may not be what I wish it was, but it doesn't mean that she's less worthy of celebrating or loving. People with mental disabilities are still people. If you have a child that is healthy and happy and "normal" then thank your lucky stars. Be grateful for the small things in life. If you have a child with a mental disability, then be grateful for them too. Love them no matter what.

I may not have any memories with Patsy Lou to share in this particular family blog (the trip Ida and I were going to take never happened due to circumstances beyond our control), but I felt like she deserved a family blog of her own just as much as anyone else in my family. So here's to Patsy Lou. I hope to meet you soon!