My eldest sister
I have one younger sister, a psychiatric nurse, and an older sister, a psychiatric case.

Over the years, my elder sister:

Left home at 15, shoplifting (she's a strong girl) and burgling houses to make a living.

Came back home at 17, with two years of probation, and was then sectioned at 3:15am one June morning - hallucinating in our parents room, she hurled a bottle of whiskey through their bedroom window, after stabbing my wisely locked bedroom door with a kitchen knife.

We couldn't save the whiskey (which was probably full of cold tea anyway, as I'd been secretly consuming and replacing the contents over the previous six months. OK, because Dad didn't drink spirits - but bad because he periodically gave them away as presents).

Went to visit her at the local sanitarium, and have an abiding memory of her zombie like state, and a man somersaulting around the room giggling - Father would never take anything seriously. Sorry, I'm being flippant, we were all taking it all very seriously indeed.

She met her future husband there and got married shortly after she turned 18, moving into his house. I would go round to visit her with Dad, but never saw her husband again after the wedding - as soon as her front door bell rang, he'd leg it off down the garden and jump over the hedge.

She had two children, and when they were 2 and 3, she left him because her husband refused to put the heating on (and kept somersaulting around the room giggling), and moved back in with our ever forgiving parents.

When the kids were 7 and 8, I went to the cinema with her. She announced to the lady behind the food counter, confidently and very loudly, that she would like "Two large cockporns for the children, and one for myself".

Six months later, more sectioning ensued. We couldn't get her to leave the garage, as she thought there were crocodiles and lions in the garden - not reasonable as it was a garage in England, nowhere near a zoo. That happened quite quickly: pop out to the freezer in the garage for a pizza, get sectioned a few hours later.

More time in hospital.

The kids moved away at 18 and 19, and elder sister got a job for the first time in her life, at a care home. She's been working for 6 years now and we're very proud of that.

She's now left home (yay for Dad!) to live with an alcoholic whose suffering from pancreatitis, has one kidney, and who is in the process of spending all of her money.

Still, at least he doesn't jump over the garden hedge when I pop round to visit, and I've yet to see him somersaulting around the room giggling.
(Mucky has squinted at the screen with one eye shut since, Tue 30 Dec 2008, 9:06, 2 replies)

1 large popcorn each!
Blimey.
(Burt Burt, Tue 30 Dec 2008, 12:47, closed)

Yep
Well, she is bonkers... and they did take it home.

The elder boy is at University now and, after having finally finished the contents, is living in the container.

Saves money, and gives him something to talk about.
(Mucky has squinted at the screen with one eye shut since, Tue 30 Dec 2008, 13:19, closed)