David Lambert
David developed mental illness at the age of 21 while attending college in San Jose at the university. He was in the navy pilot program and had already had his basic training at Pennsacola. He had always loved airplanes and flying and had taken private flying lessons and was about to solo. He had been an average young man growing up. He was a very good athletic. A good left handed first baseman and a shortstop. He played on the highschool golf team. He was the ping pong champion among all our friends at our family bar-b-ques.Dave was our only son, we had 6 daughters. Fortunately he was able to escape with his Dad and go fishing and hunting (deer) and he was pretty good at those hobbies also. When he came home from college in a delusional state and paranoid we were at a complete loss as to what was happening. We were sure someone had put some drug in his pepsi for Dave never drank nor took drugs. Dave was somewhat of a health conscious person. He also liked to run 'and this episode was one that set our world in a spin. He recovered or seemed to and went on to become a ceramic tile contractor and married a woman with a five year old daughter and eventually had a son which he named after his own father. The marriage was difficult and in much turmoil and when she wanted a divorce, Dave was so upset with losing his son that he experienced another break with realty and during this time had a terrible accident. He was in a coma for six weeks and in the hospital for five months. During his rehabilitation he had to learn to crawl again and pull himself up and finally to walk again. We were so grateful to God for his miraculous recovery. Dave was never able to return to work and was left with a short term memory loss and then was diagnosed with bi-polar. He seemed to be doing well on some of the new medications and lived in a home in Ceres and I was able to call him every week and write him a couple times a week and he came home for all the family occasions. He was on a outing with the group from the home and got lost in the casino and on the wrong bus and finally was let off in Pollock Pines where he seemed to be familiar with some of the streets as he had visited there often when he was married. Dave was probably somewhat confused and thought he was walking home to our place, it got dark and he couldn"t see his way and fell into a drainage ditch and drowned. He is in Heaven and we will be together again one day. I serve on the Mental Health advisory Board and I am committed to working hard for others who suffer from mental illness. The King's View staff voted to name the drop-in center in memory of David. I am ever grateful that he will not be forgotten and that his name on the center will always be a reminder of what we can do as a community to make things better for those who live with mental illness. Dave would have loved a place like this and our family is pleased to be associated with the center and with all of you.
Sincerely
Jeanette and Dale Lambert and family.