Last night my husband and I were watching the news and was a story about a military man found dead on the side of a road we drive often. When we first saw the picture of the location, I knew instantly where it was. The news report went into further detail, saying a gun was nearby and his car was there as well. Sounds hinky. Then they said, he was on pre-deployment and was home visiting family, before shipping out.
I wondered what I would have done if I had driven down this road and seen this body slumped on the side of the road. Would I have noticed it or just driven by? Would I have turned around to make sure, would I have called 911? I probably would have turned around, no I know I would have but I wouldn’t have stopped.
They don’t know if it was suicide or murder yet. It is creepy and a little scary to think he might have been killed by someone that close to my house (10 miles probably). I’d also be very creepy if he committed suicide that close to my house.
Not too long after we moved here we saw a couple of police cars driving all over the neighborhood. It was late probably midnight… the a police chick came to our door and asked if we’d seen or heard anything out of the ordinary earlier in the day. Come to find out a single older man had killed himself about 7 houses away from our house and they were getting all their facts straight.
Shorty before I had my daughter we lived in this blue two story house. It was our first house (my husband counts our first house and the tiny single wide pink trailer we bought two days after we got married). Next door to us was a small apartment building with maybe 6 apartments in it. We had several different couples that fought through the years. I’d could hear the fighting if I stood in the bathtub downstairs with the window open, but I couldn’t see a thing. But I had a perfect view of the entrance of the building when I looked out my bedroom window upstairs but I could hear it. Yes, sad I know.
One night I was upstairs sleeping because I had to work early the next day, my husband was downstairs playing a game if I recall. Next thing I hear was screaming and fighting, then BANG and a woman screaming help me help me please help me, help me please. Part of me thought I had been dreaming but I ran down the stairs and asked my husband if he’d heard anything. Downstairs I couldn’t hear any screaming and he hadn’t heard anything. I went back upstairs to go back to sleep but once at the top I could hear sirens and this girl just kept screaming, somebody help me, please… I watched through the window upstairs, transfixed to that spot. I’d run downstairs and stand in the bathtub to see if I could hear if the person was alive or not…
Twenty minutes later, the ambulance drove away without any sirens or lights. The young man had killed himself and I was less than a football field away. I couldn’t sleep, I kept hearing her voice screaming. The next morning when I left for work I drove past the spot he’d shot himself. I didn’t want to look but I did anyway…
Makes you wonder, what could I have done. What could we as a society could we have done?
That young man shot himself that night because he was stupid, he was angry at his girlfriend and he told her if she didn’t leave him alone he’d kill himself. When she didn’t he shot himself right in front of her.
The older man down the street, had recently lost his wife and his job. He was about to lose his house and he felt he had no one left.
My Mom has a good friend, he has several health issues, but you’d never know it. He recently found out he will probably lose his sight in less than a year. He is a business owner and does most of the work himself. He is basically an all around contractor. He can do just about anything, from roofing to add-ons. So driving is a huge part of his life. He told my Mom it’d be a cold day in hell before he had other people driving him around and he’d disappear first. My Mom is rightfully concerned and she questioned him but got no answer really. I know my Mom, she’ll get after him until he gets help.
So now that I’ve gone down memory lane of all the suicides I’ve been around and gotten morbid I think I’ll say Good-night.