SUICIDE? DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!

One day I was sitting in my office minding my own business and a young lady came in. The very first words out of her mouth were, I have a gun, a knife, and pills and if you don’t give me some answers I will use one of them before we finish here. Wow! Many years have past with lot’s of water under the bridge but I have never for one moment forgotten how I felt at that moment.

Here before me was a precious life. Here was a very unique person. How could she get herself into such a condition? Back in those days I had very few answers but I did know to keep her alive at all cost until I helped her find her answer. Of course I was not qualified to do all that so I had to seek answers elsewhere. That was many suicide attempts ago.

This fellow lived with us for awhile. We had an extra room added because we had a marvelous German Exchange Student named Martin. This fellow occupied the room that was built when Martin came to live with us. Anyway, he came in one evening. He had been drinking and he brought a lever action 30-30 with him. I was sitting in the living room about midnight when he came in. He had decided it was too late. There was nothing left to live for in this life. He sat down, loaded the rifle and proceeded to put the barrel into his mouth and cock the rifle.

What followed was a discussion about the meaning of life and living. We discussed feeling sorry for oneself and all sorts of things that he was into at the time. It was pretty sad but nothing is sad enough to pull the trigger. Did you hear me, Nothing is sad enough to pull the trigger or to harm yourself in anyway.

Why do I hate suicide so badly? Because I love people so much and I believe that there is just not anything on this globe as valuable as a person. And, irregardless of what you might think, there is nothing worth killing yourself over in all of life. You might just be that person I am appealing to right now.

I got so caught up in this subject that I did lots of training in suicide studies and prevention. I read everything I could find. I have seen it happen to several I love. I can’t help feeling the way I do about it. I do not apologize for that at all. I care for you.

Back to reality and the fellow with the rifle in his mouth. I got enough of his moaning and groaning and crying and carrying on and so I just got up and walked over and took the rifle away from him, uncocked it, unloaded it and stored it away. I did not return it to him until he was stable enough to use it properly. The young lady turned out okay too.

Let me say it again loudly: NOTHING IS AS VALUABLE AND IMPORTANT AS A PERSON. DON’T EVER FORGET THAT. Write to me sometime.