Art by Richard Smith
The day after Alex came home from hospital, they found a crow on the ground.
It was a warm mid-June day in Montana. The school year was finally over – 10th grade for Alex, and sixth for Talia.
It was in early March of 2019 when Alex was admitted to residential treatment for suicidal ideation and self-harm. Although it had been a relatively mild winter for Montana, snow covered the ground. Every weekend trek we had made from Missoula to the state capital Helena to see Alex, we had worn our bulky coats.
Some weekends, Alex was allowed to check out for a few hours. We would get pizza or wander up and down Helena’s small downtown strip, or explore the ceramic statues and broken teacups strewn about the grounds at the Archie Bray studios. These were the things we did on the weekends when the nurses said Alex was stable enough for short outings. Many weekends, though, the nurses put a red wristband on Alex. This meant outings were forbidden.