2 Shadows, 1 House

My early memories come from my baby book. In it were many pictures of us: me, my dad—and a longneck. I presume my mother took the pictures. My father was an alcoholic. It took me a long time to fully understand the implications of his disease. There was a lot of chaos and erratic behavior at home. I was in the second grade when our living circumstances disintegrated: a house lost, a dad gone, a mother in tears, and the word divorce being used. And I now know my mother was experiencing the initial outward effects of Huntington’s disease, a condition that would kill her 15 years later in a state hospital in Toledo after years of mental and physical deterioration.