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In this paper, the author describes her son's first psychotic break, subsequent hospitalizations, and outpatient care. By melding poetry, prose, dream journal entries and medical case notes, she tells the story of how she became his primary caregiver. This narrative describes interactions that she has had with her son's psychologists, psychiatrists, and physicians, framed by imagined interactions that she has had with a former mentee who is now mentoring her about autoethnographic research. In telling her story, she hopes to convey what it is like to be a single parent of a young man with mental illness in a community in which the quality of mental health care is abysmal. By invoking alternative modes of inquiry, such as autoethnographic narrative, poetry, and imagined interactions, she challenges traditional methods of social science inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]