Chapter 9 - A Decade of Loss

In which I present the last chapter of "Part 1 - The Burial of the Dead" in my memoir "My Own Private Waste Land"

Photo by Jim Thring on Unsplash

9 – A decade of loss

A bridge. A forest. A lonely room. A sterile hospital.

The next decade was a deluge of death, loss, betrayal, and mental illness.  By the end of  2011, the last year I saw any of my family, I had a boat named Pegasus and an Australian Shepherd named Moby-Dawg. Three years later, the boat was sold. Seven of thirteen relatives in the photograph from the 2004 family reunion, two others not in the photo, were dead. Of those seven deaths, three were suicides.

Death has undone so many.

And then, more than a decade after my brother’s death, welling deep inside like cells being born or stars going supernova, I felt him stir again, a cosmic supra-identity that catalyzed my sadness and anger into rage.

Unlike my brother, I knew how to read the signs.

*     *     *     *     *

Under the bright lights of the ER, blood pounding in my temples, there will be no respecting privacy during this difficult time. Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata. Time to chart a course out of the waste land.

I am the last male Hornbrook in our family.

This is – and is not – my brother’s story.

This is my own private waste land.

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I hope you enjoyed this last chapter of Part 1 - The Burial of the Dead. One more short chapter for Part 1 and then we’re into Part 2 - A Game of Chess, also a collection of shorter chapter.

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I write about:

• writing, literature, and the writing life

• writing process

• memoir craft

• mental illness - major depressive disorder, suicide, borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder

• sailing

• alternative lifestyles - polyamory and kink

Until next time, I’ll . . ..

Just keep writing!

As always, thank you for reading. Comments are appreciated. Let me know what you think. Let’s get to know each other. All the best!