As to suicide episodes.................

[Bob Wright]

My next door neighbor several years ago was an older man, a bachelor. He had lived in that house with his mother until her death, then lived alone. He had no family in town, and few social connections. Not a hermit, he was out and about in the neighborhood, sort of Mr. Fixit at times.

We, seveal other neighbors, missed seeing him and decided to check on him. We knocked on his door and got no response. Trying the front door, we found it unlocked and cautiously entered. His body was in a rocking chair, a gun on the floor. He had been dead a day or so. We called the police and they came out and ran their investigation, concluding it to be a suicide. A relative in a not too distant town was located, and in time funeral arrangements and disposing of the house and property was done.

The house sat vacant for maybe eighteen months or more, when it was sold to be rental property. The house was rented to a black family, and elderly lady and her son. One day the lady caught me out in the yard and asked me: "The man who lived here before, was he a slight man, gray haired, kind of short?"

I told her that described him pretty closely.

"I saw him in the hall last night," she said solemnly.


Bob Wright

 

[Hawk-in-Wi]

could happen

 

[blume357]

I'd not judge but tell her the guy that used to live there and had passed on was really nice and a good neighbor and you miss him....

 

[eveled]

I’ll never understand suicide. So sad.

My cousin died way too young after a motorcycle accident. I was there when he died. He followed me around for over a year afterwards. It wasn’t creepy at all, but he was just always there. Like a sad little boy who didn’t know what to do.

Whe my dad died as soon as he passed, I felt a weight lift from me, and my cousin was finally gone.

I think my dad showed him the way to go. I’m tearing up just writing this.

 

[Snake45]

Contact the Travel Channel. They have whole series on such things. Y'all could be TV stars!

 

[Tallbald]

I have no doubt the lady saw him. The man might be a little confused about where he is and what to do next. Were it me, I'd be praying for him and reassuring him openly that it was OK to follow the light and move forward. But that's me. Unfinished business? Tied to the home and reluctant to let go? Who knows. Above my pay grade. My own father stayed around about three months after he died peacefully in his sleep at age 46. Pipe smoke. Footsteps up to his and Mama's bedroom. Bread twist ties on the kitchen table spinning like a propeller in the morning. His Rottweiler waking and walking to his chair to be scratched by an unseen hand. Then in a vivid dream my mother shared in March of 1979 he said to her "Jenny honey I have to go somewhere else to live, but you are going to be alright." Mom's reply was "can't I go with you Don?". Daddy went on, saying "no honey it's not your time, but when it is I'll come get you." 30 years later Daddy did, but "things" stopped happening the day after the dream Mama had. Don

 

[bogus bill]

Unfortunately, I knew about six people that committed suicide. One was a friend that came home from Nam. My closest uncle that came home messed up from world war two. Another close grade school friend. Several guys
I worked with etc.

 

[Colonialgirl]

My Mom told me the story about the time when her Grandfather (My Great Grandfather) passed away.
She said that she was sleeping when her bedroom door opened and he came in and sat down on the end of her bed at about 3:00 AM; She said that he never spoke just looked at her and smiled, then got up and left the room. He lived several miles away. She said she found out that he had passed away about the time he entered her room; She was his favorite Grand Daughter, so apparently he came in to say "GoodBye".

 

[coach]

Sounds like something Granddad might do for a favorite Granddaughter.

 

[Jeepnik]

My stand on suicide usually riles some. Many years ago I worked quite a few suicides. With exception of one all were BS attempts to simply get attention or “punish” someone.

Frankly I think if you try you should be allowed to succeed. Most of the attempts I worked weren’t the first. But each time the family went through hell. The kindest thing for those folks would be one and done. Like I said some of you are going to think all kinds of bad about me. So be it.

Oh the one that meant it almost succeeded. I got an IV in her neck and a fast trip to the ER kept her alive. I hope she never tried again but I’ll never know.

 

[Bob Wright]

Jeepnik said:

My stand on suicide usually riles some. Many years ago I worked quite a few suicides. With exception of one all were BS attempts to simply get attention or “punish” someone.

Those who are better educated than I have said all suicides or suicide attempts are a cry for help. And, I've always heard the adage "The best place to look for a helping hand is at the end of your sleeve."

What makes folks think suicide is a way out is way beyond me. I've been in some pretty rough circumstances and never once felt killing myself was any solution. Much of my outlook on life, and circumstances, comes from many years of religious, for lack of a better term, study and training. In short, my faith has carried me through. Why anyone would choose to take any other course is beyond my ken. Feelings of despair and depression are feelings that have escaped me, and I thank God for that.

Bob Wright

 

[JFB]

Jeepnik said:

My stand on suicide usually riles some. Many years ago I worked quite a few suicides. With exception of one all were BS attempts to simply get attention or “punish” someone.

...Why anyone would choose to take any other course is beyond my ken. ...

I'm posting but relultantly (should keep my mouth shut, i've been told)

taking breathes, pumping blood, even with a concinous but not able to move and respond is a dread full exiestanse. there are diseases with end of life consiquence that some concerd selfish to just stay

as for the spiritaul discussion. . .
I didn;t see a light, nor talk with no one. (just sore from being zapped some many times)
I've look in the eyes of the one i loved most as she died and have not had any "visits"

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

I've known a few "successful" and a couple of "unsuccessful" suicide attempts. And no, I don't understand that route at all.

Guys I used to listen to on the radio had a fellow on one morning who was a "successful person with a great life" on the surface--some kind of a celebrity--but had been thru some pretty rough stretches in his life. One of the guys asked him what kept him going thru some things that would lead a lot of people to the brink, and over...

"Curiosity! I still want to see what tomorrow brings."

Him I could understand.

Back to the OP, my mother told a story of something that happened just a few days after my father died. He always went to bed early, she'd be up half the night knitting, watching TV and who knows what. When he went to bed, he'd come out to the end of the hall that opened on the living room, and say "Good night." A couple of nights after he died (peacefully, at home), she said she was watching TV and about the time he usually went to bed, she just happened to look toward the hallway. She said he was standing there, plain as day, and just waved at her once, then disappeared. I guess that was his final "Good bye" as she said it only happened a single time.

Rick C

 

[Ugly Hombre]

I worked in a old military hospital for a decade and a half and that place was full of haunts..

No joke in some areas of that place after dark the house keepers would only go in threes..

Even the Commander had a episode, ran into a nurse from the 60's about midnite- circa 2003.

 

[Thumbcocker]

They do it because being alive is more painful than the thought of oblivion or even eternal torment.

When you come home to find the most compassionate soul you have ever met on the floor with a hole in that beautiful body that held that beautiful soul next to a Ruger .44 that you taught her to load so she would be safe and realize it uas a bullet you cast and loaded that let the life out you know it was not a bs attempt at attention.

When you watched for 21 years as she fought against a condition she couldn't change and still fought on trying to be normal even though she was so much better than"normal" you know it wasn't a bs ploy for attention.

When you stand up before 300 crying people holding it together and try to focus on all the positive points and memories you know it was not a bs ploy to get attention.

When you remember the first words when you asked her to help with a chore and the reply was always "anything to help " you know it was not a bs ploy for attention.

When you sit on her bed with a box of ashes and her cat a know he was the last thing to see her alive you know it was not a bs ploy for attention.

When you saw how hard she worked year in and year out with professional and others who loved her like their own and made great progress but never enough to meet the expectations she set for herself you know it is not a bs ploy for attention.

When you are left with that damn gun that can never be anything else you know that it was not a bs ploy for attention. You dont attempt with a .44 nope it does what it was designed to do and does it well.

When the only conclusion you reach is that the merciful and all powerful God that she and hundreds of others prayed to for her either chose not to stop it or could not stop it or help before it was too late you are left with a hole in your heart that she used to fill and a hole in your soul where belief in that merciful all powerful God used to be.

Not a bs ploy to get attention but a weariness of fighting so long and so hard that nothing or eternal torment is easier than one more day of fighting it. When being alive hurts more than anything you can imagine on the other side, that's why they do it.

 

[bobski]

people who commit suicide don't know the value of life or respect the property of others.
afterall, "know ye not you were bought with a price?"
we rent our bodies.
the owner decides when it comes back to him, not us.

 

[Acorn]

I won't condemn person that would do that other than a criminal trying to escape incarceration. No-one knows what goes on in their minds and what demons they are fighting. People react differently to their troubles. Some can cope others cannot. It’s not for me to judge.