There was a time that Evelyn Camp was only peripherally aware of mental illness and its impact on individuals and their families.
"Until we have a reason, we don't participate. We don't get educated," Camp said recently at a luncheon hosted by the Utah chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.
Camp has at least two reasons. Her sister, Wanda Barzee, is in the State Hospital for evaluation and treatment after she was deemed incompetent to stand trial for her alleged role in the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart. Camp's husband has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder since serving in Vietnam and has repeatedly uprooted their family "to get away from the enemy." In May 2003, he finally accepted help, Camp said.
When her sister and brother-in-law were arrested in Sandy in Smart's kidnapping on March 12, 2003, Camp's husband was in a dark place with his PTSD.
How did Camp cope?
Learning more about PTSD and, later, the brain diseases that have clouded her sister's judgment and sense of self so severely that she embraced Brian David Mitchell's bizarre teachings and lifestyle choices have helped Camp better understand what has happened to her sister and enabled her to support her husband in his ongoing challenges with mental illness.
"I'm glad for that education now. It's a lot easier to deal with things," she said.
There are times, Camp admits, when she is at a loss as to what to do. She had often prayed for Elizabeth Smart's safety. Never in her wildest imagination did she suppose that Wanda had anything to do with the girl's disappearance.
The day that Smart, Barzee and Mitchell were found, Camp said she prayed thanks for Elizabeth's return to her family. "I didn't know what to pray for Wanda," she said.
For years, Camp, her sister, Janice, and their mother, Dora Corbett, had watched Wanda's slide into worsening mental illness.
Wanda and her first husband had six children. They also moved 33 times in 22 years. During the union, Wanda was abused in ways "not appropriate to talk about," Camp said. After the couple's divorce, the children had nothing to do with Wanda and she consequently fell into a deep depression.
Throughout her life, Wanda has exhibited genius at the keyboard. Camp recalled that Wanda played the organ at the dedication of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in 1993. While her performances were extraordinary, looking back, Wanda's mental health was faltering. "She said she felt an evil spirit here," Camp said, during her speech last Friday, which, coincidentally, was in the same building. "She said it was a 'worldly building' and she never wanted to step foot in this building again."
Some time after Wanda had married Brian David Mitchell in the mid-1980s, her family grew increasingly concerned about how they were living, particularly how they had fallen away from their LDS beliefs. While living with Wanda's mother, Mitchell, then a street preacher bent on his own brand of religion, wanted to hold meetings at her home. The would-be attendees were mostly homeless people Mitchell and Wanda had met on the street.
When Wanda's mother refused, "Brian went into a rage like Satan himself. My gosh, he looked like Charles Manson," Camp said.
After that, the family would periodically cross paths with Barzee and Mitchell, who were often seen in downtown Salt Lake City dressed in robes. The pair came to Wanda's stepfather's funeral in April 2002, but it was a tension-filled ordeal. By then, Camp was even more concerned about her sister. "There was no light in her face. This was a girl who was always smiling, was always laughing."
Wanda remains at the Utah State Hospital for treatment, where she is learning to let go of her past. Camp says she sees a difference in her sister. "She's getting help in the mental hospital."
Meanwhile, Camp listens, prays and teaches others about mental illness and its impacts on families.
And she and her sister, Janice, and their mother, Dora, help in a way no clinician can.
"Janice says, 'My love for Wanda is unconditional.'
"I feel the same way," Camp said, her eyes brimming with tears.
Marjorie Cortez is a Deseret Morning News editorial writer. E-mail her at marjorie@desnews.com