The Beginning

Where to start. I guess I should take the Sound of Music approach and 'start at the very beginning.' On Saturday (June 11th), I got a call from the Pueblo police department because my dad had dialed 911 saying that there was an intruder in the house that 'looked like his dead relative.'

'Ooohh Kay,' I thought. Sure, my dad had problems with procedural memory sometimes (like washing clothes or mowing the law), but he had never had hallucinations (that I knew of). My mom had been out of town since the previous Wednesday and my dad was alone.

I called one of my parent's neighbors and they stayed with my dad until I could get to Pueblo (a 2.5 hour drive). When I got to my parent's house, my dad seemed to be 'ok,' so I told the neighbor that he should go home and I could handle everything. How wrong I was.

After the neighbor left, I sent my dad to go change his clothes (he was dressed in his church clothes), but after 20 minutes of waiting, I decided to go check on him. That was when I realized I was in over my head. He was partially undressed staring blankly at a bare wall. Before I could make a sound, my dad whispered, 'Don't make a sound. They will hear you.'

He proceeded to grab my arm and point out numerous people in the house. Pointing at thin air. In truth, I would not have been a bit surprised if he had been wearing an aluminum foil hat.

'I know you can't see them,' he said. 'They altered reality so that I can see them and everyone else can't.'

Then he continued to tell me about how the people are conspiring against him and threatening the family. Honestly, I will never be able to put into words how it felt to watch a man that was the stable, constant influence in my life become a scared, confused, man-child.

I persuaded him to sit down at the dining room table and I called the neighbor back over (so that I would have 'backup' in case something happened).

I said to him, 'I believe that you believe what you are seeing. However, I would like to make sure that there isn't something medically wrong with you.'

After much convincing, he agreed to go to the hospital as long as I promised to take him to the police afterward (so that he could tell them about the conspiracy and determine if the people in the house had any right to be there).