Murder in the madhouse
In the summer of 2004 an older women went missing from the psychiatric hospital, Pines Place. This mental institution was build at the end of the nineteenth century and contains several pavilions. Until the seventies it was common practice to incarcerate the mad in order to cause no grief to society. The use of psychotropic medications gave the patients freedom of movement at the expense of their freedom to think and feel.
After about three weeks one of the gardeners stumbled on the decomposing body of this lady. Her remains had been laying all this time in the bushes outside the chambers of the directorship, located on the ground floor. Although their last meetings took place with open windows, it was a beautiful summer, no one of the attendees had recognized the smell of death and decay.
Somebody had violently ended her live. In turned out that the board of directors had secretly placed the criminally insane with the non-criminal ones. They must have lost track of the differences.
A story about grief
It was 15 december 2004, late in the evening, when Goldy Silverfall got a call from the Pines-Resort. They told her that her mother, who had been staying there for the last three years, wasn’t in her room. She was missing.
Three weeks prior Goldy also got a call. Then they warned her about the condition of her mother. The nurse explained how mother ended up with one side of her face lying open. The injuries gave the impression that someone had dragged her across the asphalt with her face down. Mother repeated verbatim the story of the institution. She had fallen down outside the domain of the institution. It was the last time that Goldy saw her mother.
Mother was compliant. Being very low on energy, she rarely spoke and caused no disruptions or disturbances. Nevertheless, once a week the workforce jumped her, pinned her onto the ground and pulled her pants down. A nurse would then inject some ‘good medicine’ in her buttock. When her daughter complained about this treatment they told her that they would otherwise kick mother out on the street. Two months before the disappearance, the medical staff informed the daughter that they would start the use of a new medicine. She falsely assumed that this drug would replace the old one.
Causing grief
After Goldy Silverfall was informed of the disappearance of her mother, she hit a wall. The mental institution refused to give any information and seemed annoyed when Goldy contacted them to inquire if her mother had already returned. The police refused to write up a rapport.
It took an official statement before the police and the hospital started to act as if they were cooperative. “The family would in no way hold the hospital responsible or liable for whatever had happened to Mrs. Silverfall.” They obviously weren’t afraid of being held accountable by the judge who ordered mother to be placed in their care.
After three weeks the care-facility gave mother’s room to another patient. Goldy had to retrieve her mother’s belongings. She contacted papers and tv programs but the many disappearances and victims of the Tsunami overshadowed her missing mother. She knew and felt that her mother was no longer alive but nevertheless her mother would appear in her dreams, asking for help. The moment Goldy relaxed, mother appeared in her thoughts.
False relief
Three and a half months later, on april fools’ days 2005, Goldy Silverfall received a call from the police. A body was said to be found just off the shore of the lake close to Pines Place. The relief Goldy felt when the remains of her dead mother were found still fills her with frustrated anger. It successfully distracted from the questions about responsibility and accountability and added to the grief.
Mother Silverfall didn’t speak much. If her daughter asked her a question, it took her forever to come up with an answer. The answers would be appropriated and coherent and mostly that she didn’t know. Two months before her vanishing, mother thanked Goldy for taking such good care of her. This was followed by a heartbreaking admission that she hadn’t been taking such good care of her mother. Grandma reached the age of ninety-three while mothers’ life ended at the age of sixty-two. So who did the better job?