@firefly,
I have to say I was shocked to hear he died, hearing the manner of death on television it's so desperately sad. It seems incomprehensible, especially for people who don't understand the dynamics of depression, but it's a much more serious problem than just not being able to shake off the blues.
My next door neighbor's killed himself in his parents basement. We all thought he was a happy kid, his mother has never been the same.
In 1978, a was recently assigned to a new branch, in the branch next to me were two people I knew by sight but not by name. It's more accurate to say three people. They all worked the same target, but at some point it became painfully obvious that one man was infatuated by a women who worked there. It seemed to be mutual. What I didn't know that the man and woman were married to other people, and the woman's husband worked with the two lovers. I didn't know the story until the suicide happened. Seems everyone knew, but they liked the husband and he had been so humiliated no one talked about it and the supervisors knew but no one counseled anyone on this affair. One morning the husband was several hours late, highly unusual but no one called for fear he would be too emotional to talk. Sadly, he killed himself at 11 in the morning and the paper on the kitchen table didn't arrive until 10 earlier.
DOD has a policy that if someone doesn't call in within 2 hours of arrival time, a phone call to the employee must be made. If they can be reached by phone, Security officers are dispatched to ascertain nothing is wrong. They didn't do it that day, because they thought they were cutting him a break. That's one rule that no one can ever make a judgement call. I have friends who have gotten sick and would have died if the security folks hadn't arrived.
I have other memories of suicides, I hope I never have to hear about one again.
