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in tomorrow. Today, learn more at

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Apollo dot com. I'm Ruby Kramer, a

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national political enterprise reporter for The

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Washington Post. I'm bringing you the

0:20

next story in a new weekend offering from

0:22

Post Reports. We're calling these stories

0:24

deep reads, and they're a collection of reporting

0:27

and storytelling that showcase the Post's commitment

0:29

to narrative

0:29

journalism. I wrote today's story

0:32

about Senator John Fetterman's family and the

0:34

challenges they faced in the aftermath of

0:36

his mental health crisis.

0:38

It's read to you by a narrator from our partners

0:40

at the app NOAA News Over Audio.

0:43

We wanted to tell a story about

0:45

a family and specifically Giselle,

0:47

his wife. She and her family had come

0:50

to be associated with mental health, even

0:52

though she herself had never

0:54

been depressed or experienced the

0:56

low lows and sadness that comes with

0:58

depression. Like so many families,

1:01

she and her kids were acclimating to life after

1:03

a mental health crisis. I felt

1:06

that I might find a family

1:08

that was still consumed

1:10

with fear and worry. And

1:13

what I found instead was a family

1:16

that was

1:17

very much mindful of

1:19

and committed to

1:20

adaptation and making

1:23

adjustments on the fly and then readjusting

1:25

and readjusting again. And my hope is

1:27

that it will reach both people who

1:30

may be experiencing depression, but also

1:32

those who care for those people.

1:34

Here's my story.

1:37

Giselle Fetterman stood outside the

1:39

bedroom door. It was 630 a.m. on Monday.

1:43

The house was dark. The kids were

1:46

asleep. Soon,

1:48

a car would approach the house on the hill, the

1:50

one everyone in town knew just

1:53

past the steel mill. Soon,

1:56

her husband would disappear into the backseat.

1:59

The car would take. him to a plane, the

2:01

plane to Washington, and then John

2:03

Fetterman would be at work as a U.S. Senator

2:05

until Friday, four days from

2:07

now. Giselle

2:10

looked at the bedroom door, waiting.

2:12

How's John?

2:14

People were always asking her now.

2:17

How's your dad doing? They asked the kids.

2:21

Giselle walked to the bedroom to check. There

2:24

was her husband holding an iPad, a

2:26

small suitcase at his feet. There

2:30

were the black shirts and shorts he's always

2:32

worn and the new medications that

2:34

Giselle picked up from Rite Aid and sorted

2:36

for his trips to Washington. I'm

2:39

packed, he said. I'll

2:41

walk you out, she said. Giselle

2:45

wheeled the suitcase down the hall, passed the

2:47

blue Post-It notes her husband had left on each

2:49

child's bedroom door. Hug,

2:51

coupon, they all read. One

2:54

for Carl, one for August, one

2:56

for Grace. How

2:59

many times had her husband taken this trip to Washington?

3:02

More than a dozen by now. At

3:05

first, during the campaign of 2022, a

3:07

U.S. Senate seat had meant something

3:09

different to the family, a chance to

3:11

lead on gun violence, abortion, immigration.

3:15

Then came the stroke, the auditory

3:17

processing disorder, the depression

3:20

that became severe depression. Then

3:23

came the hospitalization, Building 10,

3:25

Room 768 of the Walter Reed Neuropsychology

3:28

Unit. Then, an end

3:30

date to inpatient treatment and

3:32

a prognosis. Remission,

3:35

the doctors had said, though nothing had

3:37

ended, really. The center

3:39

of the Fetterman family, the thing their lives

3:41

revolved around daily, was now mental

3:44

health. How are you? People

3:47

ask Giselle if they aren't asking about John.

3:50

They tell her how strong she is. They

3:53

tell her how sorry they are. They

3:55

say they can't thank her enough. Some

3:58

send messages mocking her husband. husband's speech

4:01

or to say he should resign. But

4:04

in a time when more Americans are being diagnosed

4:06

with depression than ever before, there

4:08

are people looking around for families like their own.

4:11

And here are the Fettermans, in view

4:14

and within reach. All

4:16

day more messages arrive in

4:18

emails and tweets on Instagram. People

4:22

want to tell her about their own depression, about

4:24

loved ones with schizophrenia and thoughts of

4:26

suicide. A

4:28

man wants her to know about the son he lost a

4:31

year ago, another about

4:33

the brother he lost three weeks ago. A

4:36

woman texts her to say she's checking herself

4:38

into the hospital right now. They

4:41

tell her they are scared and worried, and

4:44

they wonder if maybe Giselle is scared and worried

4:46

too. It

4:49

was light out now and Giselle and John stood

4:51

in the garage talking not about any

4:53

of that, but about John's father. He

4:56

was in the hospital from a heart attack with

4:58

the same condition that set off John's stroke. The

5:02

news had shaken the family, causing

5:04

Giselle to ask herself, as she often did

5:06

now, because she had to, how

5:08

will this affect John?

5:11

Dad comes home, he asked.

5:14

Wednesday, Giselle said. Wednesday,

5:17

John said. We'll call him every

5:20

day, Giselle said. What?

5:23

We'll call him every day, Giselle

5:25

repeated, a little louder. He

5:28

still had trouble hearing. The

5:30

kids and I will FaceTime him every day.

5:34

John nodded.

5:36

Giselle did not live with worry, at

5:38

least not in the way strangers sometimes assumed.

5:41

Giselle,

5:42

people used to ask when she was young, in school

5:45

or in job interviews, long before she'd

5:47

met her husband, where do you see

5:49

yourself in five years? She

5:52

hated that question. She could never

5:54

answer because she couldn't see herself anywhere

5:56

in particular. Life

5:58

was a series of attitudes. adaptations. Something

6:02

only had to happen once or twice before

6:04

it felt normal to her. So

6:06

now this was normal. How

6:09

would anything affect John?

6:11

She didn't know. And how would that affect

6:13

her or the kids?

6:15

She didn't know that either.

6:17

This was a new kind of adaptation. So

6:20

many families made space for it and now

6:22

her family was one of them. Here

6:26

came the car. She

6:28

put her arms around her husband. She

6:30

watched the trunk close, watched him climb

6:33

into the back seat, watched the car

6:35

pull away, and then she was waving goodbye.

6:39

Gisela tried for years to figure out why

6:41

John was so sad. She read

6:44

books. She asked John to read books. Soon

6:47

after they started dating, she handed

6:49

him a copy of Understanding Depression

6:51

by J. Raymond DePalo, Jr., a professor

6:54

of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University

6:56

School of Medicine. She

6:58

had been 25 when they met. She was 41 now.

7:00

He was 54. He

7:04

never touched the book until this year when

7:07

his doctor recommended the same one. Gisela

7:10

used to ask John's parents about his childhood,

7:12

the times he was bullied in school,

7:15

always the tall kid, so

7:17

big with such big ears. She

7:21

wanted a story that made sense. His

7:24

mom and dad were teenage parents and John

7:27

had told her he felt guilty for derailing

7:29

their plans for young adulthood. So

7:32

many times she told him it wasn't true. Your

7:34

parents love you. But

7:37

how could she convince him if he didn't believe in himself?

7:41

When John was mayor of Braddock, a job he held

7:43

for 13 years, she watched

7:45

him return from crime scenes, devastated.

7:49

John could absorb the pain of others and

7:51

she knew that made him a good man and a good

7:54

mayor, except then he carried

7:56

the pain around for days. He

7:58

didn't sleep.

8:00

Why are you so sad?"

8:02

she'd sometimes ask, and John

8:04

would say that he wasn't sad, she was

8:06

just too happy. "'Normal

8:09

people aren't like you, Giselle,"

8:11

he'd say.

8:12

"'Normal people are like me.'"

8:17

Sometimes Giselle did what millions of people do, and

8:19

she blamed herself for his sadness. Melancholy,

8:22

she used to call it. Sometimes

8:25

she tried to imagine what it felt like, to

8:27

be so sad. Giselle

8:30

was happy. She was eager

8:32

to share her life on Instagram and make

8:34

mosaics for friends and mail sunflower

8:37

seats to people she met online, because

8:39

that was how she thought of herself, as a

8:41

sunflower craning to face the sun.

8:46

It was 8 a.m. now, and John was probably

8:48

on the plane, or he would be soon. Giselle

8:52

didn't track his every move. The moment his car

8:54

drove off, she turned around and walked back inside,

8:57

tending to the dogs, waiting

8:59

for the kids to wake up. "'Get

9:01

through today,' she was always telling them.

9:04

"'Then tomorrow, we'll handle it when it comes.'"

9:08

Today then tomorrow. She

9:10

was almost compulsive about living inside

9:13

those bounds. She never

9:15

wanted to make a promise with certainty.

9:17

"'I love you, and I hope to see you very

9:20

soon.'"

9:21

She sometimes heard herself tell the kids as she dropped

9:23

them off for a sleepover.

9:25

Once, when her oldest son, Carl, 14,

9:28

learned a friend's parents were getting divorced, he

9:31

rushed into the car after school and asked his

9:33

mom and dad if they would ever get divorced. From

9:36

the front seats, John and Giselle answered

9:39

at the same time. "'No,'

9:41

John said. "'Maybe,' Giselle

9:44

said." If

9:46

something bad did happen, she didn't want her kids

9:48

to feel like it was big enough to break them.

9:51

She never wanted them to think, "'Oh my God,

9:53

this is it. This is the end.'"

9:57

Tragedies and accidents did happen.

9:59

Be flexible. flexible and adapt.

10:02

A man who is a husband has a stroke.

10:05

Adapt. A man who is a

10:07

father of three suffers severe depression

10:10

and checks himself into a psychiatric unit.

10:12

Adapt.

10:14

A man who is a U.S. Senator says in a televised

10:17

hearing, can you walk, walk

10:20

by my me happens

10:24

when in Pennsylvania a working

10:26

family can't get insurance coverage.

10:29

Adapt, adapt, adapt.

10:32

Be like a tree, she told her 12-year-old

10:35

daughter Grace. The wind

10:37

comes. You have to be prepared for

10:39

changes.

10:41

Trees snap,

10:43

Grace replied.

10:45

Depending on the kind of tree, Giselle said,

10:48

there are trees that will snap

10:50

if you're not flexible. There are trees

10:52

that will flow with the wind. Flexibility,

10:57

day by day by day. They

11:00

had always been easy concepts for Giselle.

11:03

She was seven years old when she moved from Brazil

11:05

to New York with her mother Esther. They

11:08

were undocumented and uninsured. Esther

11:12

was a nutritionist in Brazil. In

11:14

New York, she was a house cleaner. She

11:17

learned English in four months by watching

11:19

television. Then she

11:21

learned to clip coupons, searching

11:23

the trash outside newsstands each night

11:26

so her family would have coupons for tomorrow. She

11:30

applied for citizenship in Portugal, the

11:32

country where her husband at the time was born, so

11:35

her family would have a plan B in case

11:37

they were deported. Adaptation

11:40

was a necessity. Esther could

11:42

jump to plan B in a second. The

11:46

day John had his stroke, Giselle again

11:48

tried to make only promises she could keep. It

11:51

was Friday, May 13, 2022, four days before his Senate primary.

11:53

From the hospital,

11:58

she FaceTimed the kids.

12:01

Is Dad going to be okay?"

12:02

they asked. I hope so,

12:05

Giselle told them.

12:08

The public knew even less.

12:10

The campaign had canceled its events on Friday,

12:12

then Saturday, then

12:15

Sunday, initially saying John

12:17

was not feeling well before

12:19

finally releasing a statement about the stroke. The

12:23

good news is I'm feeling much better, he

12:25

was quoted as saying, and I'm

12:28

going to be ready for the hard fight ahead. Two

12:32

days later, it was the primary, and Giselle

12:34

was at John's victory party in his place, telling

12:37

the crowd that the stroke had been a little

12:40

hiccup and that he'd be back

12:42

on his feet in no time. At

12:45

the hospital, doctors had told Giselle that

12:47

John would make a full recovery, but in

12:49

public, there was a slow trickle of information

12:53

and the realization that his condition often comes

12:55

with lasting consequences. It

12:58

would be another two weeks before the campaign

13:00

learned about his underlying heart condition and

13:03

released another statement from his doctor. It

13:06

would be another five months before voters really

13:08

heard what his recovery sounded like when

13:10

he was on a debate stage, struggling to form

13:13

words. Giselle

13:16

wasn't even thinking about depression yet. In

13:20

November, after he won the general election,

13:22

John was the saddest he'd ever been. He

13:25

wouldn't leave the bedroom. Giselle

13:29

would say something, but she could feel he wasn't listening. He

13:31

was somewhere else.

13:34

They could try therapy,

13:35

she told him. Medication.

13:37

I'm fine, Giselle. I'm fine.

13:40

I'm fine, he'd say. Dad

13:43

is having a hard time, she told the kids.

13:46

I think Daddy is depressed. She

13:50

tried saying a lot of things to John. It

13:53

was February when she hardened her voice one day

13:55

and said, John, which

13:57

she only called him when she was mad. Usually

14:00

it was Zhao. If

14:02

something happens and you die tomorrow, she

14:05

said, your kids are going to remember you

14:07

as

14:07

a really sad person.

14:10

He'd been a senator for just 43 days.

14:14

The next night, when he was admitted to Walter Reed

14:16

just outside Washington, she sat

14:18

down with the kids. Daddy

14:21

checked himself into Walter Reed, she

14:23

told them. He's going to be working on

14:25

his mental health. She

14:28

said it carefully, just as she'd planned

14:30

to, as if she had the most amazing

14:32

news. Their dad was getting

14:34

help, she told them. He'd

14:36

learn new tools, find the right medicine,

14:39

be an example to others, to seek

14:42

care when you need it. Zhao

14:44

felt relief. Inside

14:47

her family, this would be news to celebrate. Great

14:50

news, she said, like the best

14:53

news ever. Their

14:56

news went public the next day. Outside,

14:59

through her living room windows, Zhao

15:01

saw reporters and satellite trucks lining

15:03

the street. She told

15:05

the kids they were going for a drive. Okay,

15:08

Mommy, they said, let's go for a

15:10

drive. They got in her

15:12

Jeep and Zhao pulled out of the garage heading north.

15:15

And then she was answering questions again.

15:18

Can we see him?

15:21

As soon as you can, we will.

15:23

Can we talk to him?

15:25

As soon as we can, we will.

15:28

What does his therapy look like there? I'm

15:31

learning, but I'll tell you when I know more.

15:34

How long will he be there?

15:36

We don't know, as long as he needs

15:38

to be.

15:41

She had no idea then that he would be there

15:43

for six weeks.

15:45

They kept driving, crossed into Canada,

15:48

and after five hours stopped in Toronto. She

15:51

wanted a place big enough to make them feel small

15:53

and distant enough to feel anonymous. They

15:56

jumped on the beds in the hotel room. They

15:59

went ziplining. Two

16:01

days later, they came back to Braddock. She

16:05

started visiting Walter Reed every Thursday.

16:08

She tried to keep the kids busy. She

16:10

called her mom.

16:12

When would it end?

16:13

How long would he be there?

16:15

She couldn't see a week ahead, much less five

16:18

years. What was Plan

16:20

B? No

16:22

Plan Bs, Esther said. We

16:25

wait. He's going to get better. You

16:27

have to give it time. We just

16:29

wait. Waiting

16:33

now was easier than it had been then. It

16:36

was Tuesday, 27 hours since

16:38

John had left the house for Washington. Giselle

16:42

was at the free store, the donation

16:44

center she opened in 2012 when John was still

16:46

mayor. She grabbed a box

16:48

of hangers and sorted them into another box. She

16:51

unloaded a palette of GMC vitamins and

16:54

arranged them on a table outside the store. She

16:57

hung a dress, straightened a display of

16:59

books, sorted more hangers. She

17:02

didn't stop moving. Her

17:04

cell phone didn't stop ringing. Giselle's

17:07

number was printed on the door. People

17:11

knew they could find her here, Tuesdays, Thursdays,

17:13

and Saturdays. It

17:15

was at the free store that friends or volunteers

17:17

or customers or total strangers

17:20

came to talk to her, sometimes about

17:22

John, but more often about their own mental health.

17:25

They looked at Giselle and saw someone who

17:27

could understand. I'll

17:30

be down shortly, one volunteer

17:32

wrote to the store's Facebook group chat explaining

17:35

why she wasn't there yet. Just

17:37

having real bad anxiety right now. Giselle

17:41

saw the message and replied, then kept

17:43

moving.

17:45

Sit, Giselle,

17:47

said one of the volunteers. I

17:49

can't sit, she said. A

17:52

car approached and a 70-year-old woman who

17:54

liked to stop by the store to see Giselle stepped

17:57

out of the passenger side door.

17:59

been waited in the car.

18:02

The woman lived with depression and grew

18:04

up with a mother who suffered from it too. I

18:07

know what it's like for John, she told

18:09

Giselle. I know what it's like.

18:13

Giselle nodded.

18:15

People don't understand it, the

18:17

woman said, looking across the parking lot to her

18:19

car.

18:21

My husband doesn't understand. He'll

18:23

never understand. I've been married

18:25

to my husband for 47 years. It's

18:28

a long time to be married to somebody who doesn't

18:31

understand. There

18:34

was such intimacy to what people told

18:36

Giselle and by now she had grown used

18:38

to it.

18:40

I've gone back and

18:41

forth on reaching out, a friend

18:43

wrote to her one day. Most

18:45

people don't know this, but

18:47

her husband had died of suicide, she confided.

18:51

I wish I had more to offer in the way of advice

18:53

to families and to John. She

18:55

one day with clarity, I will. Every

18:59

time she picked up her phone, she knew another

19:01

message could be there, waiting for her response.

19:05

This is Giselle Fetterman, one

19:07

woman began in an email. I

19:09

am reaching out to you personally because

19:12

I feel that you can relate

19:13

with your heart.

19:16

So much went wrong, a

19:18

man wrote about his son.

19:20

I'm going to the hospital now instead of waiting till

19:23

tomorrow, a

19:23

woman wrote. I'm so scared.

19:28

You're doing a big important thing, Giselle

19:30

wrote back.

19:33

I'm walking in.

19:34

I just keep holding Mr. Fetterman in my head

19:36

so I can do this.

19:40

If Giselle asked questions during these exchanges,

19:43

it was always to ask about their situation, not

19:45

her own. She didn't seek advice.

19:48

She was the one listening, sending

19:50

encouragement, offering support. All

19:54

day, more messages. All

19:56

day, people wanted to talk.

19:59

the hospital again," another woman

20:02

said when she found Giselle outside the store. Giselle

20:06

was one of the people the woman told when her adult

20:08

son tried to take too many sleeping pills and

20:11

afterwards said he was going to drown himself. Now

20:14

he was in and out of the hospital. "'Talk

20:17

to me,' Giselle said. She

20:20

put her arm around the woman and led her to the parking

20:22

lot to talk in private.

20:24

What's new?"

20:27

It was almost 1 p.m. now, time to close.

20:30

Giselle got in her Jeep and turned

20:32

right onto Braddock Avenue, heading

20:34

home. The kids had

20:36

a pediatrician appointment in 30 minutes. Then

20:39

she remembered. She swung left

20:41

and drove northeast. Rite aid,

20:44

John's medication. When

20:47

John was at Walter Reed, she had made friends

20:49

with all his nurses. She

20:52

still texted with them. She'd

20:54

made mosaics for the hospital garden. Now

20:57

she knew the pharmacists at Rite Aid. The

21:00

medicine was one more thing she had to think about.

21:03

She couldn't be impulsive and travel, she'd

21:05

told herself.

21:07

She had to plan ahead,

21:08

which she couldn't do well for herself, but

21:10

it was okay if it was for someone else.

21:13

"'What happens if he misses a day?' she

21:16

said as she got

21:16

back into her car with the paper bag.

21:19

She pulled into her driveway.

21:22

"'Guys,' she yelled, walking inside.

21:25

She put the bag on the counter and cut up a watermelon.

21:29

"'We're going to leave soon, okay?' Carl

21:32

and Grace came running into the living room, racing

21:35

to the garage to fight for the front seat. "'We

21:37

might have to get shots,' August 9

21:40

told them as he started running too. "'Framing,'

21:44

she thought. Just like she told

21:46

them she had the most amazing news. "'That

21:49

would be a great thing,' Giselle

21:51

said.

21:51

And then she was out the door

21:53

again. Always in motion,

21:56

always offering advice rather than asking

21:58

for it. her brain

22:00

busy with Tetris or Sudoku.

22:04

If she was bored, something was wrong. Those

22:07

were her days, all through the afternoon,

22:10

the evening, until it was late

22:12

and she allowed herself to stop and climb into bed.

22:14

A few

22:16

hours later, at 4.30 a.m., she opened her

22:19

eyes.

22:20

She had a new idea.

22:22

She got up, the street outside her house.

22:25

It needed something. She

22:28

found white spray paint and a flower stencil.

22:31

She laid the stencil on the asphalt, one

22:34

square then another, and painted

22:36

until the sun rose. There

22:41

were three people Giselle did turn to for

22:43

advice. John, her

22:45

mother, and the therapist she began seeing

22:47

in 2022. It wasn't because of

22:50

depression. She'd never been depressed.

22:53

She cried often, almost every

22:55

day, but always at things like a sad

22:58

commercial or something sweet the kids would say.

23:00

It was just like John had

23:02

said. She was not a sad person.

23:05

She didn't cry at Walter Reed. When

23:08

she started therapy, she was seeking different

23:11

answers. Why she couldn't see

23:13

herself in five years? What

23:15

years of living undocumented can do to a

23:17

childhood? Looking

23:20

ahead, she saw herself nowhere,

23:22

she told her therapist. Like it

23:24

was a mental block. Her sense of time

23:27

flattened and compressed. She

23:29

sometimes couldn't remember if something happened a month

23:32

ago or six months ago. She

23:34

kept her passport in her purse at all times,

23:37

just in case. Of what?

23:41

Something, anything. But now

23:44

the thing she was trying to understand was

23:47

depression. An awful

23:49

drone of nullity. DePaulo

23:52

had written in his book. The

23:54

way John had explained it was this. The

23:57

whole world can tell you that you've won. But

24:00

all you know is that you've lost. The

24:04

more Giselle tried to understand depression, the

24:06

more she thought that her friend at the free store had been

24:08

right. If you've never experienced

24:11

depression, you'll never really know it. The

24:14

most hopelessness Giselle had felt was from

24:16

chronic pain in her back. She

24:19

knew what that was like, constant

24:21

pain that seems like it will never go away.

24:24

Maybe that was what depression felt like. But

24:28

I have no idea,

24:30

she said one night, sitting in her backyard.

24:34

It was a warm evening. Fireflies

24:36

circled the rose bushes she had planted.

24:39

She could see the portion of the street she had painted

24:42

and wanted to continue the stenciling, up

24:44

the driveway and all the way to the house. Inside,

24:48

hanging on the wall of her bedroom, was

24:50

a collage of the post-it notes the kids had written

24:52

to John when he was still in the hospital.

24:55

Happy you are becoming happier, one

24:58

of them read, and

24:59

Giselle had the notes framed because

25:01

she wanted the memory of that time preserved,

25:03

not hidden away.

25:06

We just had to face it and see what's next,

25:09

she said of the hospitalization.

25:11

What does next look like?

25:15

She was still finding out.

25:17

Just a few hours before, walking to her

25:20

car in a parking garage,

25:21

Giselle had looked up at the ceiling, sloping

25:24

at the same angle as the garage at Walter Reed,

25:26

and then for a moment, she

25:28

was there, back at one of her visits. Major

25:32

Walter Reed vibes, she said. And

25:36

then she simply let the feeling pass. As

25:39

for the kids, she could see how aware they

25:41

were becoming. They knew

25:44

that strangers in a crowd, that friends

25:46

at school, that anyone might know the

25:48

intimate details of what their family had been through.

25:52

Their dad was always so easy to recognize,

25:54

6'8 with his slumped

25:57

shoulders and bald head. The

26:00

depression and the family's decision to share

26:02

it meant that even more people stopped

26:04

them now. The kids

26:06

could respond with something simple and short. She

26:08

told them, a thank you so much

26:11

and leave it at that.

26:13

Whatever you're comfortable with.

26:16

If they wanted to miss school, they could miss school.

26:18

They could sleep in and go somewhere

26:20

or do nothing at all. Whatever

26:23

the day required, that's what they would do. Giselle

26:27

had friends who sometimes worried that she

26:29

wasn't more worried.

26:30

Like, this is not normal. Your

26:33

behavior, you have to be concerned,

26:35

she said, repeating what they had told

26:37

her.

26:39

But she wasn't worried.

26:41

Half a year had gone by since John had checked himself

26:43

into the hospital. The kids

26:46

seemed to be doing okay, John too.

26:49

He was taking his medication. In

26:51

Washington, he was in a new apartment, this

26:54

one with more sunlight. He was

26:56

back on the Senate floor, casting votes, learning

26:59

the job. What

27:01

was the opposite of worry? Each

27:05

day she realized again that she had been

27:07

right about what she told the kids when their dad

27:09

went into the hospital. For

27:11

her family, it had been amazing news.

27:15

Every family defined by mental health had its own

27:17

way. Hers was to stay

27:19

in motion, to paint the street, to

27:22

adapt, to respond to every

27:24

message about John that came along. I'm

27:28

grateful for your encouraging words, she

27:30

replied to one. I am

27:32

so sorry your journey was so difficult,

27:35

she told a woman.

27:37

May I call you?

27:38

She asked another.

27:41

Friday now, another text message came.

27:44

This one wasn't about John, it was from

27:46

him. I can't wait to see

27:48

you,

27:49

he'd written.

27:50

How would things be five years from now?

27:54

DeSalle had no idea,

27:56

but she did know how things were on this day,

27:59

and she immediately wrote back.

28:02

I cannot think of anything

28:04

else.

28:06

You were listening to the Washington Post where

28:09

Ruby Kramer writes, what

28:11

does next look like inside

28:13

the unfolding recovery of the Fetterman family?

28:15

This article was published

28:18

on the 23rd of September 2023 and was read by Adrian

28:22

Walker for NOAA.

28:25

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