Perspective

I sat down the other day to begin a post about solo dresses when the phone rang. It was my friend and neighbor with some terrible news. The thirteen year old boy across the street from us had committed suicide. He hung himself a week earlier and had been in a drug induced coma since then. He passed away that morning. I was stunned! The previous week I had dropped my daughter off at rehearsal and was on my home when I received a text message from my husband. There was a commotion across the street - five or six police cars, a fire truck and ambulance. I arrived home several minutes later. The ambulance was gone but the street was filled with the other emergency vehicles and neighbors either outside or looking out their windows. My husband thought it had been the elderly grandfather but since we had not seen him a couple of years I said it most likely wasn't him.  Besides the number of emergency vehicles indicated it was something other than an old man. Having not heard anything else and the house looking calm since then we forgot about the incident - that is until Thursday morning.

I remember when the family moved in - just a few years after we did. They were from Russia but not new to the area as the father owned a furniture store nearby. Nick was 8 or 9 at the time and there were no young boys in the neighborhood. When he was bored he would come over to play with my daughter who was 4 years younger than him or shoot hoops with my husband. He had a sadness about him even then which I attributed to loneliness and boredom. As the years went by we saw less of Nick and I assumed he had become acclimated in school and developed friendships. Judging from the outpouring of grief I have heard about over the past few days I know that he did have friends who loved and cared for him as his family did. I have to wonder if the sadness I saw in the younger boy was something deeper and a cry for help was missed along the way. In a world that has become busier and busier we often don't make time to pay attention to those around us. A young man chose to end his own life before it ever really began. How bad can things be at thirteen? Yet for Nick it was and his death puts into perspective how little things like solo dresses, medals and championships mean and how fragile life can be.