My Crazy Brother Kirt

Understanding that my brother is insane doesn't make him any less of an asshole in my opinion. Is that cold? Is that calloused? I honestly don't think I care anymore. He's pulled my last string, got on my last nerve and now I'm done. But...my family saga does make for entertaining reading!

The story of my nutty brother started about four years ago. It was mothers day, the whole family with the exception of one of my brothers were gathered at my parents home to have dinner and celebrate. Kirt, my brother who wasn't present was living in Mesa at the time. During our visit he called to wish my mother a happy mothers' day, and I happened to be the one who answered the phone call. We had always had a close relationship so we got to talking and eventually it came out that he and his family left the LDS religion.

Kirt and his wife had always been very religious, even overly zealous about it at times, so to hear that he had denounced the religion and further-more, that he was no longer Christian, came as quite a shock. My stunned silence spoke volumes, in his mind it was my disapproval. But I assured him that his beliefs had nothing to do with our relationship and that I didn't think any less of him. He seemed to appreciate the words of comfort. He asked me to relate the news to the rest of the family and I agreed. Then with a positive note, our chat ended. That's where I thought the discussion of religion would end, but I was wrong.

It was about a week later that my mother recieved a letter from Kirt. She called me to tell me she now knew what had happened to him, "He's gone insane." She said, matter-of-factly. I didn't quite understand until she let me read the letter for myself.

The letter was four or five pages, typed and single spaced. At first he went on about all the historical evidence that "proves" our church to be wrong. (stuff I've heard a lot before, from others who had left the church). But then Kirt began to say things about his inlaws trying to poison him and his wife with aluminum poisoning in order to control their minds. When they "figured out" what these people were up to, the poisonings became attempts to murder Kirt. Everything he said was very strange, like a scene straight from A beautiful mind.

I was dumbfounded. I didn't really know how to take all of this. My first inclination was to book a seat on the next flight down to Phoenix to talk some sense into my brother, or at least persuade him to seek professional help. It was obvious from the letter, however, that his suspicions had begun to spread to our family too. He mentioned several times how he supposed we would now try to "love" them back into the church, or hold some kind of intervention. Any drastic action would only heighten his paranoia. In the end I decided that writing a letter would be the best course of action. I wanted him to know that I cared about him and his wife and son, that I would be there for them if there is anything they need.

A little over a week after sending him my letter of sisterly love and concern, I recieved my own long-winded angry letter attacking my beliefs, my character, even my intellegence. He also added some new interesting accusations against his former ward members, stating that he believed many of them to be in on the plot to poison him and his family. He claimed he discovered neighbors following him in the grocery store, people breaking into his home while he was out, just to slip some mercury into his food, he even claimed there was an organized commitee of neighbors and former friends all working for the same common goal: get Kirt.

I couldn't leave well enough alone. I had to talk to him. I wrote again, figuring a letter was a lot less threatning. I asked him to explain why he would be a target. I thought that by challenging his belief system, it would eventually break down. Boy was I wrong.

The next time I heard from my brother, he called me obscene names and drudged up my past in order to throw it in my face. I couldn't take it any longer. I wrote him one more time, this time writing him off completely. What can a girl do? After all, I'm no shrink I'm from the same disfunctional family he's from.

My next post is going to be the second part to this story. I lost contact with my brother for about a year and a half. Then, out of the blue, our paths crossed yet again. And the story gets even stranger the second time around.