MY OLDER SISTER Liza died on October 25, 2020, when all her struggles came to a head; no single factor was to blame. She did not treat or really acknowledge her #mentalillness. She misused #drugs and #alcohol. She and her wife had divorced a few years earlier, and there were rifts between her and some relatives, including our brother. Her finances and housing were unstable after a failed real estate investment in Tampa, Florida. The culmination of these circumstances made her a live grenade with the pin pulled.
When she died, friends said, “You must be in shock,” but I wasn’t. The last few years, I dreaded the day that Liza would kill herself, though I was powerless to stop it from coming. The turmoil that defined 2020 whirled Hurricane Liza bigger and stronger, until she was lethally out of control.
In 2017, Liza tried to take her life and was psychiatrically hospitalized. Her hospitalization was awful, and seemed more harmful than beneficial. She was not allowed to have her phone, so I had to call the hospital staff to retrieve Liza to take my call. It seemed overly restrictive and demeaning; I didn’t think Liza was that sick. I told her unequivocally that I needed her here and that it would be a disservice to deprive my young #children of their fierce, one-of-a-kind Auntie Liza. “C’mon, you are the only one that I actually like!” I said. That coaxed a laugh. “I know, I know. I love you too,” she responded, but she didn’t promise me that she would stay. I didn’t realize that asking her to stick around, in enormous pain, so that she could see my #kids every few months was too much to ask.
The hospital seemed focused on avoiding costly litigation by physically keeping Liza from harming herself and then releasing her as soon as possible. Once she convinced hospital staff that she was well enough, her discharge plan included a therapeutic day program, which I knew she would never attend, and more medications, which I knew she would not take. My nagging phone calls to “check in” and ask if she went to the program yet made no difference. With her #mentalillness untreated, I picked nervously at the skin around my fingernails, and I waited for the other shoe to crash down. Mom and I visited Liza during the week after she came home from the hospital. We milled around in the open space between Liza’s newly renovated kitchen and the living area. She and her wife moved to a condo in a high-rise building in Guttenberg, New Jersey, sometime after Liza sold her longtime home in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens.
Their marriage was deteriorating. Liza’s mother-in-law had been visiting from Moscow for over six months. She spoke only Russian, was overtly homophobic, and for her benefit, everyone had been pretending Liza and her wife were roommates. A few years earlier, I had given them an image on canvas of them smiling in a dancing embrace at our wedding. I saw it hanging in the hallway and wondered what the mother-in-law thought about it. Liza’s wife was at work during the afternoon of our visit and her mother-in-law wasn’t there either.
Everything – from the heirloom furniture that belonged to Liza’s mother (Liza and I have the same father, but different mothers), to the artwork on the walls – was closer together here. The 200-year-old baby grand piano from my #childhood home in Connecticut stood in the living room. Mom sold the house following Dad’s 2015 death, and shipped the piano to New Jersey, though she was concerned there wouldn’t be space for it. Liza said that she was teaching herself to play with my old piano lesson books that were still stored in the bench, but the piano served as a stand for potted plants and framed photos for the time being. It had served the same purpose in our house.
We all hoped our chatter about kitchen renovations and long-forgotten piano instruction would cover up the real reason we were together that afternoon. Though #mentalhealthissues were becoming less taboo, we three #children of the ’50s, ’70s, and ’80s were not terribly comfortable discussing #suicide. I planned to let Liza take the lead on whether she wanted to talk about what happened. She’d been through a lot and I didn’t want to push. I was also avoiding the topic of #suicide, just like everyone else does.
Today, I know that not asking a depressed person about #suicide is just as short-sighted as not talking to #teenagers about sex. It has been a cruel education.
Whether it was due to shame or true denial, Liza did not characterize the overdose as a failed #suicide that day, but she didn’t insist that it was accidental either. She vaguely mentioned prescription drugs and that she had been drinking too much vodka lately, but I struggled to follow the conversation because she was talking so much and so quickly, and jumping around from topic to topic.
Looking at my sister that day, I saw distress in her black hair’s grey roots and her tired clothing. She was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and looked terribly bedraggled. I was used to seeing Liza put together in a perfectly orchestrated outfit, flawless skin, hair, and shoes. She always wore incredible shoes.
No one in our family seemed surprised by Liza’s new diagnosis of #bipolardisorder, but I was still skeptical. Liza wasn’t in the hospital for very long, and I questioned how extensive any diagnostic testing had been or whether she had cooperated with it. Liza asked Mom and I to follow her into a bedroom to listen to some music she was working on. She was always a passionate music lover, and had produced two tracks that charted on Billboard for her genre. She sat on the edge of the bed at the large-screen Mac computer that Mom helped her pay for. Mom and I stood behind her for what felt like a very long time. Liza blasted music so loudly that I was concerned for her neighbors and for her dog, Lady’s, ears. She went on excitedly about how this song was going to be her big breakthrough. The song sampled A Horse with No Name, a song that reminded her of Dad. Mom shot me an eyebrow-raised, wide-eyed look over the top of Liza’s head, as if to say, “she’s lost her mind.” I shook my head and dismissively broke our eye contact.
#James Donaldson notes: Welcome to the “next chapter” of my life… being a voice and an advocate for #mentalhealthawarenessandsuicideprevention, especially pertaining to our younger generation of students and student-athletes. Getting men to speak up and reach out for help and assistance is one of my passions. Us men need to not suffer in silence or drown our sorrows in alcohol, hang out at bars and strip joints, or get involved with drug use. Having gone through a recent bout of #depression and #suicidalthoughts myself, I realize now, that I can make a huge difference in the lives of so many by sharing my story, and by sharing various resources I come across as I work in this space.#http://bit.ly/JamesMentalHealthArticle
Order your copy of James Donaldson’s latest book, #CelebratingYourGiftofLife: From The Verge of Suicide to a Life of Purpose and Joy
Beyond the piano, the back wall of Liza’s condo was all windows. Out of those windows was a breathtaking, clear view across the Hudson River to midtown Manhattan. I commented to Liza that she didn’t need artwork because the view was more stunning than any painting she could hang. She said that she loved watching the fireworks from her sofa.
Almost three year later, when the #pandemic began in 2020, everyone seemed to be struggling with too much or not enough solitude. Singles were lonely and feared they would become celibate, while families felt the #stress of being shuttered inside with their #children and spouses. Liza, divorced and without #children, was especially affected by the #isolation. Her dogs, Lady and Petunia, provided her only companionship. She was an extrovert, a hugger, and a close-talker, and she relied heavily on human connection. The lockdown abruptly cancelled the things she loved: the gym, dining out, dancing, traveling, hugging and kissing her friends and family.
The volatile social and political climate of 2020 only added fuel to Liza’s fire. Anyone who cared to know my sister knew that her tough-guy exterior was truly an act. She absorbed and internalized the pain around her, and 2020 was rife with suffering. She loathed the Trump-Pence administration and spent a lot of energy ranting about it to me during phone calls and on #socialmedia. Liza was a genderqueer #woman with a chronic illness (a thyroid disorder called Graves’ Disease) and a #mentalillness; her disdain and fear of the administration was intensely personal. Under Trump’s rule, people like her simply did not count. I know Trump didn’t kill Liza, but his leadership fostered a pernicious atmosphere for what became her perfect storm.
I breathed a sigh of relief after the election, not realizing that I had been holding my breath. Inauguration Day – barely a week after my sister’s death – was the first time I felt hopeful and physically lighter in a long time. I wish Liza could have believed that the good guys always win. I looked up at the sky and said something aloud to the effect of, “Did you see, he’s gone? I hope you are happier. I wish you could have just held on a little longer.”
Then, six days into 2021, the nation was locked on the media and at least half of us watched in terror as an armed mob of right-wing extremists invaded the Capitol trying to block Biden’s confirmation. I watched in disbelief as angry people wearing Make America Great Again hats, animal fur and horns, and draped in #American flags, poured screaming into the Capitol building. I don’t know how long we can ask people like Liza to hang on by a thread in the face of such chaos.
In 2022, the #pandemic still has a tight grip on us. Most employees are working remotely. Emergency rooms are bursting at the seams at 115 percent capacity. People with broken bones, bleeding injuries, and #COVID-19 sit on gurneys that line the hospital hallways. The National Guard fills in the gaps in hospital staffing. Any #psychiatric treatment has been especially scarce during the #pandemic, even in the medical Mecca of Massachusetts. A #patient might sit in the emergency room for more than two weeks awaiting a psychiatric bed. It is easy to see how someone suffering from #mentalillness might forgo the hospital and succumb to suicidal thoughts, rather than wait in an emergency room for treatment that may or may not help.
The development of vaccinations seemed to be the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, but it wasn’t. Instead, vaccination became a divisive, politically charged topic. In some poor countries, there were not enough precious vaccines to protect the population. Here, many #Americans refused the readily available, free vaccines for everyone older than five. The #virus, of course, continued to circulate and mutate. Still, some people refused to wear face masks. Others sent their sick #children into the public #schools, so as not to be inconvenienced. Some people seemed more concerned with their individual liberties above all else.
The true toll won’t be measured in weeks, as we naively thought at the pandemic’s onset, or even in years, but in generations. In addition to the more than 800,000 #Americans who have died of #COVID-19, we are losing people like my sister, Liza, too.
We must check in on our loved ones, especially the fragile ones. We cannot use our discomfort as an excuse to avoid discussions about #mentalhealth and #suicide. My fervent hope is that we consider the collateral impacts that our choices have on on other people, especially those of us whose physical and mental health already hang in the balance, sometimes fatally so.
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James Donaldson is a Washington State University graduate (’79). After an outstanding basketball career with WSU, he went on to play professional basketball in the NBA with the Seattle Supersonics, San Diego/L.A. Clippers, Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, and Utah Jazz. He also played for several teams in the European Leagues in Spain, Italy, and Greece, and he toured with The Harlem Globetrotters to wrap up his career. James was an NBA All-Star in 1988 while playing center for the Dallas Mavericks. In 2006, James was inducted into the Pac-10 Sports Hall of Fame and also the Washington State University Athletic Hall of Fame. In 2010, James was elected as a board member for the NBA Retired Players Association.
James frequently conducts speaking engagements (motivational, inspirational, educational) for organizations, schools, and youth groups.
In 2010, James was the recipient of the NBA Legends of Basketball ABC Award, awarded for outstanding contributions in Athletics–Business–Community.
He believes in being a role model for success and professionalism to the scores of young people to whom he devotes so much of his time. He currently serves on several boards and committees and is a member of many organizations.
James believes in developing relationships that create a “Win-Win” environment for everyone involved, and in being the best he can be!
For more information about James Donaldson or to request he speak at your event, contact him at:
James Donaldson is the author of “Standing Above The Crowd” and “Celebrating Your Gift of Life” and founder of the Your Gift of Life Foundation which focuses on mental health awareness and suicide prevention, especially pertaining to our school aged children and men.
If you’re interested in having James come and speak to your group of young adults, business entrepreneurs, aspiring political and community leaders, and athletic teams, please contact him at jamesd@yourgiftoflife.org and or leave a personal message for him at 1-800-745-3161. Keep up with him and read about how he is reaching out and making a difference in the lives of so many around the world at www.yourgiftoflife.org
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