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In this paper, the author, who is a single mother of a young man with mental illness, describes her son’s first psychotic break. By melding poetry, prose, dream journal entries, and medical case notes, she explores the embodied experience of witnessing her son’s decompensation. In sharing her story, she reminds other caregivers of people with mental illness that they are not alone. She makes sense of her experience with findings from the literature about posttraumatic stress among family caregivers of people with chronic illness and explores the implications for caregivers, practitioners, and scholars of mental illness, trauma, and loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, the author gives voice to turning points in her life related to infidelity, mental illness, and forgiveness. By melding poetry, prose, dream journal entries, and medical case notes, she tells the story of how she became a single parent of a young man with mental illness. This narrative constitutes a defining moment in which she reframes an unforgivable relational transgression as an unforgettable opportunity for forgiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]