Claire

Some antipsychotic medications cause weight gain. I had a female friend from the halfway house with whom I used to go on outings. Being intelligent, bipolar, overweight, and divorced, her sister had custody of her two small girls. Her father had lawyers and court dates, trying to get the children back to her.

She would go off her medications, ending up in the hospital sometimes for six months at a time. I met her again during a party at the halfway house. Even there she went off her pills. Shortly after, she disappeared with a male member of the house. Rumor had it they went to the mountains to get married. 

My phone had an answering machine on it at the senior residence. She would call. I didn’t talk, only listened. Her manic ramblings went on for two weeks, telling me of this or that hospital where she stayed. Finally, an eerie silence prevailed.

Soon after, I met a counselor from the halfway house in a coffee shop. A look told me all I needed to know. My friend had suffered a heart attack in an ambulance on the way to a mental hospital. She had recently turned forty-two.