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How a Former Bank Robber Saved Her Mentally Ill Football Star Son
How a Former Bank Robber Saved Her Football Star Son from a System Unkind to the Mentally Ill. Antonio Carrion was headed for the NFL when the voices started and he drifted away. Then his estranged mother finished her time for robbery and saved his life.
This is an interesting and touching article about a mother's love, mental illness and perseverance - and hope for her son's future.
From the article:
When she finally found him, after months of searching the streets, she barely recognized him. It was a baking-hot August afternoon in 2016. Antonio lay slumped against the front wall of Our Lady Queen of Angels cathedral near Olvera Street, shirtless, pants torn, hair greasy and wild, chin on his chest, eyes closed.
Stephanie Nieves stared for a minute then composed herself. She walked up to him, quietly so as not to scare him. “ Tonio?” she whispered. He opened his eyes slowly, making an effort to focus. He muttered the name of his cousin: “Sharon?”
“No, Tonio,” said Stephanie. “It’s me. It’s your mom.”
Antonio squinted at her. “You’re my mother?” he asked.
“Yes, Tonio.”
“If you’re my mother, you’ll sit right here next to me.”
He was eyeing her suspiciously, and he smelled like rotting meat, but, of course, she sank down next to him on the tiled walkway. She forced herself not to cry. Who knew how he might react? She hadn’t seen him in months. She was sure he’d been off his medications for at least that long.
The important thing was that she had found him. After all those days and nights of hunting for him, all those calls to hospitals, jails, and the morgue, she finally knew where he was. Even with everything they’d been through, the past that weighed them down, she felt sure this would be a turning point, the beginning of a better future. At last she could help her son.
But it wasn’t that simple.
https://www.lamag.com/mag-features/a...football-star/
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