At dinner time tonight I looked out our back dinning room window and saw two police cars stopped side by side in the middle of the major street that runs by our house. A few moments later three police cars, an ambulance and a fire truck were all parked along the road, next to the big field which separates us from the road. As I put down my fork and got up to see what was going on, I notice several people walking into the field from the police cars. One of them seemed to be pulling something long and flat. They were all headed to the big tree in the middle of the field.
The boys being ever curious and always looking for a way out of eating dinner, wanted to get their toy binoculars and see what was going on at the tree. Over dinner we wondered about whether someone had fallen out of the tree and were hurt. We had not seen anyone out there in a while. We ourselves have not ventured to the tree in weeks, but it is a good play place for the neighborhood kids. Once the binoculars showed up, I moved to get a better view of the big tree, and noticed our right-side neighbors on their upper deck with real binoculars. Cindy asked if I could see what was going on. I could not. Next she told me that it might be a good idea to take the boys (Jake and Ben) inside. She proceeded to tell me that she was the one who called the cops!
It turns out, that while she was bird watching toward the direction of the big tree, she noticed something odd hanging in the tree. It was a body! Someone had hung themselves in the big tree in our backyard. At that moment I tried to coral the boys inside.
When I got inside I went to get my video camera, not for footage, but because it has better magnification then the boy's binoculars. Sure enough there was a dead person hanging in the tree.
It seems like the person wanted people to see what they were doing. They could have moved more into the brush around the tree and closer to its trunk, but they chose to hang themselves facing all the houses. Only distance made seeing this sight difficult.
As we watched the police, firemen, CSI and coroner come and go over the next two hours, I found myself profoundly disturbed by this recent event (who wouldn't!).
When did this happen?
Was I home when it happened?
Was I asleep?
Was I not paying attention?
Why was there no "some disturbance in the force" letting me know something evil was about to happen? How come no angel or shinning light clued me in to the fact someone needed help. Don't get me wrong, I do not feel guilty about this, just sad.
I am sad partly because someone felt so hopeless they told God, "I quit!" Partly, because I can never look at that tree the same way again. I have an odd feeling about letting the boys go out to that tree now. They don't know what really happened. They think someone got hurt, which they did...ultimately!
I am just sad.
Hopefully, I can learn more from the news tonight.
2 comments:
That is so sad. I am glad your boys were shielded from that vision of their tree. My sister's brother-in-law committed suicide a few years back and I remember how hard it hit us all.
The policed called my neighbor to confirm that the body was of a male teenager who took his own life. They gave no other details.
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