Waiting for the Trial

1985

Waiting for the Trial is a collection of photographs made during the three weeks my mother, my brother, Lind, and I were cooped up in a motel in the Arkansas Delta, waiting for Lind’s court date. At my mother’s request, I came home from California to be with my family. 

James, my Granddaddy's right-hand man, met my mother and me at the airport. He shared news about the family as we drove towards Northeast Arkansas; our cat had died, Lind, my brother was in a correctional facility, and my Granddaddy was worried. 

Getting closer to home, James politely mentioned we would be staying elsewhere. I wanted to stay at my grandparents' house where I had spent much of my childhood, but my grandfather’s second wife said that my mother wasn’t welcome there. A room was reserved for us at the Best Western Motel near the edge of town.

Lind had run away from a rehab facility in Missouri, where his mental illness and alcohol addiction were treated with humiliation and punishment. When Lind returned home, he was placed in a correction facility as a holding place while he awaited a court date to determine his fate. 

Lind was represented by a court-appointed attorney, and pleaded his case. The court stated that Lind must leave Mississippi County and report to a parole officer once a month. The next day, my mother, Lind and I headed for Los Angeles, seeking a fresh start. We didn’t understand the extent of LInd’s suffering, or how to support his recovery. 

Lind died of a self-inflicted gun wound to the heart on December 25, 1990. He was twenty-five years old. 

Since my brother’s death, mental illness and addiction are significantly more understood and discussed. I share his story as a sincere contribution to this conversation in the hopes that the stories of others can end differently.