Once in a while you get a reality check that makes you stop and reflect. I didn't know that this would be the case when I received an invitation to go to a friend's one man show that he was performing as a benefit for NAMI Berkshire County.

Frank La Frazia was talking about his autobiographical solo performance piece that deals with the issues of a teenager caring for his mother who suffers from Bi-Polar Disorder. The title is "Living with It". Frank doesn't hide much in his portrayal of teenage life with a mother suffering from a mental illness. His story is brutal in its honesty, yet compassionate and loving in his portrayal of a mother who loved her children so much and yet could not take care of them. He also showed the stigma of those teenage years when you want so much to be just like everyone else, to have the 'Leave it to Beaver' family stereotype, to be able to bring other kids home from school to hang out, to be able to participate in activities and not worry that your parent needs your care.

Frank was only 19 when his mother died suddenly. Just starting his freshman year in college in New York, his adventure was brought to a sudden halt by his mother's untimely death while she was visiting him for a weekend. He ends his piece by showing the love that always underlined the hardships that he and his family lived through in trying to cope with his mother's illness.

As I sat in the audience and watched his performance, I alternately laughed and cried; but most of all I just wanted to hug the boy that he once was. Perhaps because I grew up in my own dysfunctional family which came to a head during my teenage years, I identified with a lot of what Frank had to say. Friedrich Nietzsche said "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." As a teenager trying to deal with adult problems, you can't possibly see the wisdom in that saying, but as an adult, you can appreciate the inner strength that you obtained through the trials you endured as a youth.

In the Q&A after the show, Frank said that he couldn't have written this piece when he was 19. Only after several years did he have the perspective to sit down and put this on paper. He is using his personal experience to bring more light on the world of mental illness and also to benefit NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Berkshire County, where he serves on the Board of Directors. I applaud his courage in bringing such a personal story to the public.

After the show I went off to another party, but the show stayed with me. When a friend asked me how the performance was, all I could say was "My heart is full."