long term mental hospital patient -Mr. C.

Ms. C., lives in the same mental hospital as Ms. X., was also born in 1985, same as Ms. X. But unlike Ms. X who is still single, she has been married for many years, and given birth to two children. A tall (over 1.7 meter), medium-sized woman, she has long black hair, though not tidy, and fair and smooth skin. I would not say that she is beautiful, but she is not bad looking. A notable feature of her is her significantly distended belly.

 Always in slow motion, she did not talk much, and was not very active and fell asleep easily, which could be the effect of her medication. She is private about her family, and would directly refuse to talk about anything she is not comfortable to talk about. For example, she did not want to talk about the reason she dropped out of school at a young age, et al. Therefore, although I talked to her multiple times, I only got a partial story from her.

 She was born in the countryside of Fujian Province. She has three younger brothers, and her father died early when she was about 10 years old. Her mother remarried, and took her brothers with her (I am not sure how many). She was left with her great parents on her father’s side, and only finished elementary school and did not enter middle school because her great parents did not want to pay for her education any more.

 Then she left her village and went to Shenzhen to work. It is not clear at what age she went to Shenzhen, because it is illegal to hire a teenager younger than 16 in China. According to Ms. C, she got training in Shenzhen, and found an office job later. At the age of 19, she met her husband, who is at least 22 years older. Thus, she was 19, and the guy was at least 41. In addition, this guy, who was a doctor according to Ms. C. was raising a 2-3-year-old daughter from an extramarital relationship then, whose mother had already left. Consequently, she got pregnant and gave birth to her daughter. After she reached the age of 20, she got married. Three years later, she gave birth to a son. She told me that during the 10 years she stayed in Shenzhen, she spent most of her time taking care of three kids at home, and did not work much.

In 2014, she and her kids came to the USA to re-unit with her husband, who had already been in the USA for 2-3 years. It is not clear how her husband got the chance to enter the USA at the first place. They lived in Silver Spring, MD ever since. She still stays at home to take care of their 3 children and at the same time study English and try to look for a job, but never succeeds.

 

Now, her daughter is already 18-year-old, and has just been admitted to the Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland with a full scholarship. And her son is a 15-year-old high school student, and can take care of himself. Her step daughter, ~23, is still living with them. Her husband, now in his early 60s, became a truck driver, and spent a lot of time away from home. It sounds like their financial status is not very good, since they lost their house, and now rent a 3 bedroom apartment.

None of her kids contact her in the mental hospital, especially her daughter. Only her husband would call her. She also told me although three of her brothers were over 30, none of them were married, two work in Shenzhen and one is in her hometown living with great parents. 

Ms. Chen got into a fight with a salesperson in JCPenney in early 2020, because she stole 8 pieces of mirrors with a total value of about $200. She was first arrested and then put to a mental hospital where she stayed for a few months. After being released from the mental hospital, she went to work with her husband, so they went on trips together a week to 10 days a time,  and left her children at home to take care of themselves. She said this is the happiest time in the USA. However, she got into a conflict with a staff member in Safeway over a bottle of wine in October 2022, and was arrested for the second time. Later, she was transferred to the mental hospital, and has stayed there ever since.

There are still mysteries about Ms. C.. First, is she pregnant? Since her belly is so protruded, it is very natural to think that she is pregnant. Additionally, another interpreter told me that when he first saw her in January, her abdomen was not so big. However, she has been kept in detention since last October, so if she was pregnant before that, she is already very close to her delivery day, and should receive intensive care because of it, and she is not. If she was pregnant after that, then how could she get pregnant during detention. I asked her about her protruded belly once, and she said she just got fat because of lack of exercise in the mental hospital. However, how could all the fat go to her belly but not to other places in her body?

 Secondly, it is difficult to understand why she became mentally unstable in 2020. It is obvious that when she stole the mirrors in JCPenney, it was not because she needed these mirrors or wanted to sell them for money. Then, what is the purpose of her behavior? Based on the fact that she was sent to a mental hospital, she should go through a mental crisis then. But at that time, she had already been in the USA with her family for about 6 years without obvious stress, what could be the trigger?

I felt like that Ms. C. is smart. She could use English in most daily communication, and she told me that her English is better than her husband’s. Considering her highest education is elementary school, it is a significant accomplishment. Her hearing was scheduled on July 11. But I did not feel she was ready to be released to the community. Since, I will not go back to the mental hospital, I will not know the end of her story.