But suddenly I was born. Never should have been. My father told my mother to abort the child. Or so I was told by both parents after they reached their dotage. But that isn’t to hold it against them. After all, in their generation mental illness was the worst catastrophe and taboo.
So as the story goes, my mother fell down a flight of stairs while carrying my infant brother Ronnie in her arms. She broke her leg and had to go away to the hospital. But actually, at least I believe, she was in the psychiatric hospital. She had one of her many breakdowns. It was reported that she had one at the age of 18. But perhaps she actually did break her leg and wasn’t in the mental hospital until later. Let’s give her the benefit of doubt.
Now Sidney (and here comes the funny part) comes from a family, like most, with stories of relatives who have gone bonkers. Nevertheless, Sidney made it an issue of her family not being forthcoming with the information about Jeanette;s medical history. I guess you can't blame the guy. But he did flip out once he found out about Jeanette's hospitalization as a young woman, perhaps as a teenager, at the Buffalo State Hospital and, in addition, that her mother was there as well (on a more permanent basis) and subsequently prevented, as best as I could determine, any actual civilized contact or involvement with my mother's side of the family after that discovery.He hadn't known about this when he married my mother.
Sidney told me she (Jeanette) had a rendezvous with a lover in New York city and he was supposed to introduce her to his family but it didn't work out, perhaps she was jilted, nobody knows. Upon her return to Buffalo she had a nervous breakdown.
Buffalo State Hospital
But as mentioned above, it turned out her own mother Sarah had mental illness and was confined to the State Hospital on Elmwood Avenue. We would often drive by the hospital and one would see old women rocking back and forth in the caged areas open to the outdoors. We never did visit her and I am not sure if her family did either. Her name was Sarah Bushberg. And as it turned out, I never met my grandparents on either side of my family!