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Extraordinary Life
Each Sunday, "Extraordinary Life" looks back on someone whose life made a difference
Reprinted from the Hartford Courant, April 30, 2006
By Anne M. Hamilton
Special to the Courant
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Rene Miserez, 55, of Hartford, died April 2.
Rene Miserez battled a serious mental illness for decades and became an eloquent advocate for others fighting the same demons. The high point of his life was having a paid job with the state agency that had cared for him for years.
"He had a life," said his brother, Claude Miserez. "It wasn't necessarily the life I would have wanted, but he had a life."
Miserez was born in Waterbury but moved at an early age to Watertown, where he lived with his older brother and sister. Their father, Albert Miserez, was an American whose parents were Swiss, and their mother Lucienne was French.
The youngest child, Rene was slow in learning to speak and walk, and his mother doted on him. "He was always considered on the slow side," said Annie Richter, his older sister. But after his mother died when he was 15, his father remarried, and his stepmother thought Rene had more potential. After graduating from Watertown High, he was sent to St. Thomas More, a private boarding school in Montville, and spent a summer on his own in France.
He spent several years in college, but things didn't work out. He began working at his father's company but left town abruptly and disappeared for four months, surfacing only when his money ran out.
After his return to Connecticut, he checked himself into a mental hospital, the first of many he would visit over the years. The diagnosis was paranoid schizophrenia.
"In 40 years, he was in every [mental] hospital in Connecticut," said his brother. "The disease just took hold, and he had to be institutionalized, and then he would work his way out again."
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In Loving Memory of our friend and advocate Rene Miserez
March 11, 1951 - April 2, 2006
A memorial service was held on April 28, 2006 at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Hartford, CT. Rene Miserez, 55, formerly of Watertown died unexpectedly on Sunday, April 2, 2006. He graduated from Advocacy Unlimited on December 12, 2001. Rene was an active AU advocate and participated on all the latest events, submitted testimony and testified at the LOB. He was very passionate about advocacy and loved to help others. He would always find a way to 'get there', attending graduation events as far away as Danbury, CT! We will deeply miss him!
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When his medications worked, Rene could hold a job and live on his own. But if the drugs lost their effectiveness, or if he stopped taking them, his life would spiral downward, and he would again wind up in a psychiatric ward. It was a slow climb back, from the hospital to a halfway house to sharing an apartment and, finally his own apartment. And he did it many times.
His family tried to stay in touch, but it was difficult.
"We kept contact with him but the nature of the disease made him keep us at bay," his brother said. He did not put his brother or sister's names on any contact lists or introduced them to his friends.
"There was a lot about his life that he kept private," Claude said. "That was the sad part of the disease."
Rene Miserez moved to Hartford about 25 years ago. After a time, he rented an apartment on Laurel Street and began volunteering as an advocate for people with mental illness. About six years ago, he began working full time for the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. He was married briefly and divorced.
Miserez was outgoing and began to testify at legislative hearings on mental health issues.
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