I Love a Schizophrenic

My mother's side of the family wasn't terribly affectionate. I really never noticed this as a kid because I always got hugs and kisses as most kids do. It's no surprise that my mother isn't that affectionate (never has been...) and my uncle (her brother) NEVER has been that I recall. My uncle also has late on-set Schizophrenia (started in his 40s, maybe). Although he hasn't formally been diagnosed (and obviously not medicated), it is very obvious that it is a paranoid type as he talks about "the voices" and "THEY did this". He rarely could hold an actual conversation up until he started working in the real world a few years ago. Since having more contact with other people, he's been more "normal", so to speak, but today, he came over for dinner. My parents went to out of town for Thanksgiving. They love going to this amazing bed and breakfast so it was just us here (my kids, my husband, and me). We invited my uncle over. He was very talkative which I just loved seeing. He watched football with my husband and even talked with my kids (12 and 15). My kids, like all siblings, have their love/hate moments and today, it was a hate moment. They bicker back and forth and take stabs at each other until they are blue in the face. I had to put my foot down and threaten to take their electronics away. They stopped, but NOTHING..and I mean NOTHING...could prepare me for what I witnessed next. My uncle bent down to my son's level (he was sitting in a chair) and put a hand on his back. He said, "You only have one sister....and one day you are going to love her as much as I love mine." Mic drop. I think my heart stopped for a moment.