Sad.
Obviously this is a really depressing thing to write about but it is what happened today. I told part of this to Badger last week. The son of some friends of ours in the next village, the same age as my older daughter, committed su1c1de a week ago by driving to one of the lonely l-ndmarks on the m00r and sh00ting himself. One of the main reasons for the total shock that everyone felt was that they were an almost joke ideal family. The kind who make you think, 'God, I really must pull myself together and get out into the community and do something for others for a change and I could be a bit pleasanter around the house while I'm about it'. The parents still in love after thirty years and all the grown up children still living at home (a beautiful old manor house) and helping with their father's business. The father a local magistrate and reading lessons in church while the mother runs the parish magazine and organises endless charity events. They even walked across the harahaS* for h0meless ch1ldren or something.

So as soon as this happens you can't help thinking that obviously nothing can be quite as it seems. What strangeness was swirling beneath that admirable, charming facade? Was there no need for me to be envious of them after all? Was it drugs or secret mental illness or parental neglect or even parental cruelty? Or the crippling boredom of contemplating a life to be spent on the moor?

It is surprising to find that you are prepared to envisage the possibility of almost any kind of nastiness in a family who you counted as medium level friends. And it turned out to be none of these things .. as I so definitely should have known. He had no problems of any kind and was totally happy with his family and his life. He had recently come back from some time in Afr1ca and had been taking airalam* tablets which had affected his brain and caused strong ladicius* thoughts, which he had only mentioned, passingly, to one friend. The one brand which was notorious for that has been withdrawn but apparently any kind can affect some few people totally randomly.

So how sad is that?

(You will notice that I am now efficiently marking backwards words with * in case they are not obvious but just weird).


- posted by Iris @ 8/05/2004 11:30:00 PM comment