Still Alive!

When I was 12 my mother chopped off my hair against my will. Rapunzel, Rapunzel! I cried and cried. "Now I can't draw girls with long hair anymore," I thought. I also had a big round white Styrofoam box full of barrettes, pins combs and colorful ribbons that were now useless with my new helmet hairdo.

My mother dressed me from a new 1970's India Imports store. I wore these exotic clothes to school. I didn't understand that she was unable to buy things for herself. She bought herself clothes and made me wear them and then took them back! What a thing.

Understanding these and many other things about her puzzling mental illness took me half a century. I am just glad I am still alive to figure it out.