I wondered as a small boy why I didn’t see my aunt Evelyn. It later emerged she had been placed in a mental institution because she had an illegitimate child (c. 1932) and suffered from bi-polar (then called manic depression) and was an alcoholic.
The worst aspect of the tragedy was that she stayed in the hospital until she died in 1980.
Buckland in the Moor
Late 1950’s
Memories of family holidays where seven to twelve family mambers – aunts, grandparents etc – all stayed in a three-bedroomed bungalow in Hayling Island. One of us was always ill.
Penny
My grandfather recently died. He was a wonderful, kind, gentle man with a cheeky smile, loved by all.
When he died, my mum really struggled with her feelings about his death – we discovered that she had always felt like the “second best” daughter because my aunt was the apple of his eye.
She never really dealt with this until he died last year.
franklandandsons 