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It is now four years since the death of my father, Martin Richard Bragen.  

I recall when I was about twenty and in the early stages of recovery from a psychotic relapse, I was in tears because I was in a new environment, I felt overwhelmed, and medication side effects were making me suffer a great deal. I called him and he drove right over to where I then lived, a halfway house in Hayward, and he told me he was proud of me for the fact that I was able to cry. He said something to the effect that he had seen me a lot of different ways, full of craziness or in other states, but he had not seen me cry. He hugged me and said I should "get it all out."  

That lesson somehow stayed with me, and when he passed away at about this time of year, four years ago, I cried profusely, and grieving wasn't as bad as some of the other things I had been through.  

My father was an imperfect example of how to be a good person. He provided for his family, tried his best to teach us right from wrong, and helped us whenever he could, to the extent that he could. The last time I saw him, his words to me were, "Keep out of trouble." 

Now my brother David L. Bragen (not to be confused with David A. Bragen, another author) has produced an e-book, called "Letters to my Late Father." This book is a memoir, and it is in the format of a monologue in which David is speaking to his [our] father.  

David is also mentally ill, but his history is completely different from mine, and his literary style is completely different from mine. His book is available on Amazon Kindle, and if you do not own a Kindle device, Amazon offers "Kindle for PC" which can be downloaded and installed at no cost.