Shh, It’s a Secret – Part 2

Something awful had happened to the little girl’s brother! He was in a very confused state. He was so confused that he didn’t know who his mummy and daddy were. He thought they were someone else entirely.

The little girl’s brother was also hearing things and seeing things that were not there. For instance, he would ‘hear’ strange voices coming from nowhere. He thought the voices were very real. They were telling him what to do and telling him awful things about people, even people who were trying to help him. He also thought other make-believe things were really happening. For instance, he thought there were cameras everywhere and that they were filming his every move.

The little girl’s brother was in a very scared and angry state, and so, his mummy and daddy had telephoned the little girl as they didn’t know what to do.

The little girl immediately got in her car and drove to her mummy and daddy’s house. She and her mummy called the doctor. The doctor said that the little girl’s brother had to go to the emergency hospital straight away.

The little girl was worried. She wasn’t sure if she could convince her brother to come for a car ride with her. Most of the time, he didn’t like her very much. But this time, surprisingly, her brother was happy to sit in the car with her. He said he was very hungry and wanted to get a pizza, so off they went to the pizza shop – their mummy, the little girl and the little girl’s brother.

After the little girl’s brother ate his pizza, they drove on to the hospital, where the brain doctors were very nice and very kind to them. They explained that the little girl’s brother was having something called a brain attack. It was a bit like when her daddy had had a heart attack a few years before, only it was an attack in a different part of the body.

They very patiently helped the little girl and her mummy to understand that it was nothing to be ashamed of. They said there were lots of reasons why a brain attack might happen and that it could happen to anyone at any time.

Because of this brain attack, the little girl’s brother’s brain was poorly right now. It wasn’t working like it normally did, and that was why he was feeling so scared and angry and why he couldn’t understand what was real and what was not.

The brain doctors said he needed to stay in the hospital for a while and have some treatment until he felt better. He was going to stay in a lovely big area of the hospital called the psychiatric ward with lots of kind people there who knew all about how to take care of him.

The little girl went up to the ward with her brother. There she saw that there were all sorts of people with poorly brains too, some just like her brother’s brain and some a bit different. Some people were talking to themselves. Some looked very quiet and sad. Somewhere, someone was talking loudly or crying. The little girl was shocked. She had never in life realised that people could become poorly like this. She wondered how many people there were in the world like this, and it made her sad to think that there could be lots and lots of people who didn’t have kind doctors or loving people in their lives who knew how to help them. It made her very sad indeed, and she knew she wanted to do something so that there would be fewer people suffering like this in the world.

In the big, big psychiatric ward, the little girl and her brother were shown to his room. It was a nice, simple, clean room with two small beds and two small cupboards. Her brother was going to be sharing the room with a lovely young man whose brain was quite poorly too. The young chap was on his bed, reading a big, faded shopping catalogue over and over again. Once in a while, he would jump up and say hi with a big smile. At first, it made the little girl jump too, but then she smiled back, and although he didn’t make much sense, she talked with him a while.

The next day, during visiting hours, the little girl was worried about her mummy and daddy coming up to the psychiatric ward. She felt it would be too strange and frightening for their weak hearts to bear. She knew they wouldn’t sleep well at night if they saw all the people with poorly brains up in the ward where their little boy now slept.

So, every day, the little girl asked her mummy and daddy to wait in the pretty gardens outside. She would then collect her brother and bring him down to see their mummy and daddy.

On one of the days, the little girl’s mummy’s curiosity got the better of her. She said wanted to see the ward. She didn’t want to feel scared of anything. With a big breath in and holding her little girl’s hand to help her feel strong and brave, in she went.

The little girl’s mummy looked around. She felt very heartbroken to see all the lovely young and old people there with poorly brains. But she also said that she was happy she saw them too because she learned a lot. Something inside her felt different. She said the way she saw the world was a bit different too. In a good way. Just like her little girl, she felt even more of something very beautiful called empathy.

Over the years, the little girl’s mummy did her best to make sure her little boy took his medicine and attended all his appointments with the doctor. She did what she could to help him feel as calm and happy as possible. It wasn’t easy, and there were times the little boy stopped taking his medicine, or went out to party, or something stressful happened, and it made her little boy have brain attacks again. And would feel very frightened and confused all over again.

Sometimes, he was so confused that he lost all his money. Sometimes, he was so angry and scared that his mummy had to call the special Crisis team. Sometimes, an ambulance came. Sometimes, the police had to go too to make sure the little girl’s brother didn’t try to hurt himself or anyone else.

Those times were very difficult indeed for everyone. And each time they happened, although it was quite distressing for everyone, the family learned more and more about brain attacks and poorly brains. It helped them understand what the little girl’s brother needed, what made him worse, and what helped him to feel better. And it helped them feel better about it, too. They never told anyone else in their family about it though. They still felt a bit ashamed.

Aside from the occasional brain attack, little girl’s brother was able to have close to a normal life. He had a nice car and a job in his father’s company. He lived at home with his mummy and daddy where they looked after all his needs.

But they did feel very sorry for their little boy because, one by one, all his friends stopped asking him to come out to play. He began to feel very lonely indeed.

And then, one day, something very very wonderful happened to the little girl’s brother, something that he never thought would happen. A beautiful angel with dark flowing locks appeared in his life.

Continues in Part 3