"In 2006, deciding she no longer needed Depakote, Ms. Dennard stopped taking it."

In stark contrast to tragedies like that which befell Christina Eilman in Chicago, the case of Janet Dennard in New York is uplifting and heartwarming.

While they both have bipolar disorder, a serious mental illness, the difference between them is that Ms. Eilman, who was a student at UCLA, was not legally forced into treatment, while Ms. Dennard was.

Eilman ended up the victim of a terrible crime. Dennard is once again a productive citizen.

Here is Dennard's story in the New York Times. This is the key sentence: "While Ms. Dennard was at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, a court mandated that she be medicated."

She was next provided with housing at the Transitional Living Community, a shelter in Brooklyn for women with mental illness. Seriously ill people like Janet Dennard can function, as long as they have supervision. In early December, she received a permanent apartment in an S.R.O. in Queens that specializes in looking after people with mental illness.

It's a shame no one took control of Christina Eilman's life. She could have been productive, too.

Janet Dennard can still hear the hum of her sewing machine. Late at night, the memory of it lulls her back to sleep.

Ms. Dennard, 56, who loves to sew and crochet and has battled bipolar disorder for the better part of her life, does not miss the low points. But she does miss the high ones. When she channeled her elevated moods into her work, she produced scarves and hats by the armful.

“With manic-depressive illness, you’re really up or you’re drop-dead bottom,” she said recently. “When I got depressed, no one could change the thoughts I was dwelling on.”

A native of Ohio, Ms. Dennard moved to New York more than 30 years ago, with her daughter, Dannela, now 36. Ms. Dennard ran a small business from her apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn: from costuming dance companies to upholstering large pieces of furniture. After school, her daughter would help out, sewing buttons and ironing. For years, it was mother and daughter against the world. One day, that changed.

“When she had her first breakdown, the mother I knew was no longer,” said Dannela, who was 15 then.

Glass was thrown, tables upturned. Thoughts of grandeur and paranoia took over.

“When you’re in that state, you do things that hurt people,” Ms. Dennard said. “What makes you crazy are the flashbacks. You can’t make amends for all the crazy stuff you did.”

After receiving a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and being briefly hospitalized, Ms. Dennard was given a daily prescription for Depakote, an antiseizure drug also used to treat the manic phase of bipolar disorders.

In the 16 years between that first episode and a second one, Ms. Dennard’s emotions were kept more or less in check, as long she as took her medication. But family life frayed.

Dannela began dividing her time between her stepfather in New York and her biological father in Virginia. When she moved back to Brooklyn at 19, Dannela was pregnant with a baby girl.

In 2006, deciding she no longer needed Depakote, Ms. Dennard stopped taking it. With a monthly income of $1,010 in Social Security disability payments, Ms. Dennard moved out of an apartment she had shared with her partner of 15 years and into one that cost $1,300 a month. Before long, she was homeless.

With nowhere to turn, she moved in with her daughter and granddaughter, Nephteli. But her behavior became increasingly erratic, and finally Dannela reached her limit. In May 2006, Dannela asked that New York Adult Protective Services forcibly remove her mother. While Ms. Dennard was at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, a court mandated that she be medicated.

After a few months in a halfway house, Ms. Dennard briefly moved back in with Dannela before moving, first to Ohio and then to Delaware. Two years later, Dannela brought her mother back to New York.

Over the summer, Ms. Dennard moved into the Transitional Living Community, a shelter in Brooklyn for women with mental illness. It is run by the Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service, one of the seven beneficiary agencies of The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund.

A $240 grant from the fund was used to buy a vending license so Ms. Dennard can sell her handmade wares at sites throughout the city.

In early December, she received a permanent apartment in an S.R.O. in Queens that specializes in looking after people with mental illness.

Upon leaving the Transitional Living Community, Ms. Dennard was given a used sewing machine as a going-away gift. A miniature version of what she used to work on, it is a reminder of her need to get her belongings back to New York. She pays $450 a month to store three industrial-size sewing machines, fabric and supplies in Ohio; furniture and other belongings are in Delaware.

In a 12-by-12-foot room, she is already at work, sewing pillow and cushion covers for her new apartment. For Ms. Dennard, the future looks like a small sewing business, where she plans to employ people with mental illness.

She has even picked a spot, a corner between the door and the kitchen, where her larger sewing machine will soon live. Her only worry now is for ample electricity — enough to power her creativity.