5 a.m. Sunday and I couldn’t sleep any longer. It was my son Ben’s big day for taking his state barber’s licensing test in Kansas City.

The last exam had been in Wichita three months earlier. Ben had made arrangements through friends still living there for his models to show up but they never did. The state gave him another temporary license which allowed him to practice in a barbershop until the next test. If he didn’t pass this one then he couldn’t cut hair anymore, so the pressure was on.

I don’t know how many of my readers watch Dr. Phil but his show tonight is about Parental Alienation.

Also, for those interested in Parental Alienation here is a great site -  Disgusted with the System

When paying my insurance bill online the other night I checked my profile to make sure the information they had was current. It listed all my family members and there I found my daughter’s name with a new last name. She was now married.

I knew it was coming, just not when. Still, it stings. No one on our side of the family was invited . . . not even her brother. It’s beyond me how this happens.

I asked my son if he knew anything about it and he said, “No. I don’t know why she and mom have to be that way.”

My first exposure to mental illness was shortly after High School when my grandmother had a stroke and was moved to a nursing home near my folk’s house. My memories of my grandmother were not of a warm, fuzzy and kindly old woman. She was crabby until she had her stroke. The stroke rendered her paralyzed on her right side. I don’t know if the stroke changed her personality or if she just realized that she was at the mercy of others now and had better start to be nice.