Lucius Berlin Thorstad

GEDCOM Note

Thorstad Rites DEERFIELD - Funeral services for Lucius Thorstad, 55, lifelong Deerfield resident who died Thursday night in his home after a long illness, will be held at 2 p.m. Monday in the Deerfield Lutheran church.

Lucius By Dana Kelly

Lucius has always occupied my curiosities. I always heard stories about the crazy´´ brother who had fits´´ and spells´´ and was kept locked in the basement because he was mentally ill´´ and the family was ashamed of him. Supposedly Lucius was bitten by a dog when he was six years old and went crazy´´ shortly thereafter. After learning more about epilepsy, and that it can indeed run in families, Lucius has become an entirely new person to me. Kara and Lucius are in my mind kindred spirits. Like Lucius, Kara began having seizures when she was six years old. Seizures make a person look crazy. If we didn´t know better, we might believe Kara was possessed by a demon. The terrified expression she had on her face during a seizure could convince someone who is uninformed to pray for her soul and lock her in the basement in order to keep the devil contained. Before Kara´s surgery, her seizures were at times so violent that she was unable to function socially for hours afterward. Once she and I were Christmas shopping and she had a seizure in the store. For the first time I was able to witness the reaction of strangers to her behavior. If I lived in a time and place where epilepsy was not a household word and people with disabilities were not valued the way they are today, I would have vowed to protect her and myself from the stares and whispers by keeping her away from social situations. Perhaps I would have even been ashamed of her and wanted to hide her from the world. Lucius had two cousins on his mother´s side who were also considered mentally ill. I wouldn´t doubt that thy were also epileptics who were misdiagnosed. Because he lived in the basement, Lucius contracted pneumonia and died when he was not even sixty. The lack of information about him is a testament to how misunderstood he was. The only evidence Lucius existed are a headstone, a three-line obituary, a few census enumerations, and a draft card - not nearly enough to tell his full story. If only he could have been born 100 years later. He would be a little boy going to school and taking medication daily. He may have gotten married. He may have even gotten a driver´s license or gone to college. We´ll never know the true man masked by his medical condition.