My Mother's Story from Illinois

Where do I begin? This story is about my mother, my wonderful loving mother. My mom was a single mom to my sister and I. We never went without and had no idea we were poor. She gave us values, a sense of humor and let’s not forget plenty of love.

When my sister was about 14 years old, she started to change, little things at first, then there was no denying that she had something going on that none of us understood. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia. My mother researched the disease, kept on the doctors for all of the up-to-date medications, made so many sacrifices and never ever gave up on her, though some doctors suggested putting her in an institution, probably for the rest of her life.

She went through electrotherapy (those days shock treatments), experimenting with different medications and anything that might help. Lo and behold FINALLY she was stable and after a few years she went on to have a relatively normal life, keeping up with her meds, her doctor appointments, etc. and was stable for about 10 years.

She married and had a beautiful baby boy, who is now three. When she was pregnant, her doctor told her that she couldn't be on her medication, and somehow through the pregnancy, God watched over her, her mental state was fine. Once she had the baby, however, we started to notice her paranoia, which we denied at first, but then, we could deny it no longer. Her husband had only heard of her "episodes" and thought my mom and I were NUTS and didn't believe us, UNTIL he saw for his own eyes. My sister had to go into the psych ward for the first three months of Joey's life, my mom took care of him 24/7 at 59 years old, day and night, and again, not giving up until my sister got better. It took awhile before my sister could care for him; thank God she is doing well today.

In May of this year, we got the horrible news that my mom has breast cancer, stage 3 and it went to the lymph nodes. She has just completed 12 weeks of chemo and is awaiting her mastectomy.

To see such a strong woman become so sick and weak and lose so much of her spirit, the same spirit that has seen our family through all these years is something I cannot describe. She is in so much pain and looks so sick and is unable to work most of the time, which as you know, not good when you have a mortgage, bills, etc. It is devastating. This woman has been through so much in her lifetime (I can't possibly put it all in this letter), if anyone deserves this honor, its my mother, Camille Galasso, the best mother and woman on the planet.

Lombard, Illinois