The Beauty in Breaking

Harper tells the story of Mr. Paul Williams, a patient of hers who experienced a psychotic break and was now the sole suspect in a murder case. As Harper treated Mr. Williams, a veteran, for a cut on his hand, she noted his erratic behavior, as he fidgeted incessantly and screamed at unseen figures in the room. Only after Harper stitched up his hand did she learn that police officers were waiting just outside, ready to arrest Mr. Williams. Harper was indignant, upset at the police’s inaction in leaving her alone in the room with a man who was clearly psychotic and who possibly just murdered someone. Still, she saw Mr. Williams with compassion, knowing that his pain was rooted in something very real and difficult. Once Harper finished his stiches, the police detectives took him into custody. As Harper reflects on her experience with Mr. Williams, she argues that we (as a society) “have taken too many liberties with their [veterans’] health” (229). The veterans she treated at the VA Hospital taught her that much of their pain was not just physical but emotional and mental.

Back in her apartment, Harper took out a letter from her father, in which he explained to her how he lamented his role in her life and in her family’s story but that he spent the last 20 years of his life trying to process and recover from the damage he caused her and the rest of the family. She then decided to call her father, an act of forgiveness toward him that she could extend only after truly healing from the traumas of her past. As Harper writes, “In this forgiving, I had allowed us both to heal” (233). Just by speaking with her father, she allowed herself to see how far she had come in her personal journey.