Sadness
2022 04 10
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Every once in a while I think about one of the most tragic and heartbreaking things I've ever seen.
I went to a hospital ER one night for something, probably to get glass out of my foot. I'd stepped on a lot of broken light-bulb shards for a period of time, and being vision impaired I had to get help to get them out when it happened.
As I waited, other people coming and going with their various concerns, an older couple came in with their daughter, about 30 or so. She was definitely well into adulthood. She was severely intoxicated, and not on traditional alcohol. She was laying on the floor, rolling around a bit, making fetal poses, et cetera. I'd overheard some of the conversation they had with the person doing their intake. Their daughter was a severe alcoholic. She could not live alone it was so bad. So her parents, now in their early 60s, I'm guessing, had her living with them so she could be looked after, and supervised. She'd gotten into something in the medicine chest that they thought was secure, and that's why she was in such an extreme state.
While that was tragic in and of itself, the part that got me were the looks on their faces. At casual glance you'd think they were impassive, expressionless. But you could tell it was an exhaustion so extreme it was into their bones. Exhaustion coupled with sadness and more than a little dejected defeat.
I cannot begin to fathom what was going through their heads. I had the impression these were good people that had tried their best, but their daughter's condition had just been too much. I know what's going through my own head right now, but I'm loath to say it; partly because some of them are far too close and personal to my own life experience and the alcoholic I grew up with. I don't voice them. I can't.
I hope, for the sake of them all, there is peace in their lives and the situation has been resolved as much as any situation like that could be.