...whilst doing my rounds of the news headlines, I saw this one, which nearly crept in under the radar....reading it made me think...just how sad.....
Suicide is an ugly beast, and I am not about to write all I know about suicide, because I know very little about it nor what drives someone to take that ultimate step........however, in my life, I have had 2 experiences of a close association to suicide, and both times when I was told, they were like a bolt through me and whilst I can't claim to be close to the individuals who took their own lives, it still had an impact on mine.......being in a car with 23 year old lad for an hour, who's mum had just taken her own life, what in god's name can you say........ I said nothing........
I consider my life quite ordinary, so for me to have two direct experiences, is that unusual ? Neither of the persons were blood relatives, but in my recent life I have also known 2 other people who each had an experience of the suicide of a blood relative. So it's hard to know what the true impact in society suicide truely has. It is a complex subject and take for example, the hoax queen call suicide, what ever the puerile nature of the 2 antipodean disc jockeys might be, I do think it was disingenuous to plant the guilt of Jacintha Saldanha suicide, squarely at the feet of the DJ's [shortly after her death].
......and so to my 2nd experience, last year there I was on the other side of the world, having just come out of an intense session of meetings and I read my text.....Richard has taken his own life........ How could that be I thought, he was such a smiley happy chap......... my daughters were bridesmaids at his wedding, his wife was a bridesmaid at our wedding, my wife was a bridesmaid at her mothers wedding...... But for reasons that he has taken to the grave with him, in the middle of the night he went into the garage, he took his own life....... a wonderful wife and two young boys left behind.....
And so that's what caught my eye, when I saw this mornings story..... to all intents and purposes she is a complete stranger, and had I not scanned the headlines I would never have known her story.
When all said and done it is a Daily Mail headline, so one can only surmise at the true nature of her relationship with her husband and the lecturer, but what can be readily inferred, is that they both cared for her, such that had things been different, they would have both shared the joy of a new life being born within her, but instead it all just ended so sad....... and so now there are two men who will never see life the same, a daughter who will never know her mother to the full, and a child unborn.
I make no judgement about her act, people are too quick to condemn those who take their own lives.....when I think about my 2 experiences, I can only think how sad....and that's what I thought this morning.....what a sad story....
