You expect when the phone rings in the middle of the night that it's bad news. You don't expect it at 4:45pm. It's usually a telemarketer or a bill collector or my father calling at that time. Today, the news was bad. How is it that a teenager comes to end their life? The only nephews and nieces I had were through marriage. I still came to love them over time as my own. I still think warmly of them even seven years after my divorce. My nephew Jonathan hung himself this morning between the hours of midnight and 2am Christmas day. His father found him several hours later. "Johnny" as everyone called him had been dead for several hours. Nothing could be done.
My ex-wife called me with news this afternoon. My heart is broken for her and her family. They were a very big and involved family. I come from a dysfunctional family. I am a survivor of suicide. My brother killed himself in 1980. Carbon Monoxide. I don't know what's been happening with Johnny. He was a good kid while I knew him. I have known six people now that have committed suicide. Each time it was shocking.
There are no answers.
There is grief.
There is the sound of silence.
