Personal Narrative the Suicide of a Friend
Can you single out just one day from your past that you can honestly say changed your life forever? I know I can. It was a typical January day, with one exception; it was the day the Pope came to St. Louis. My brother and I had tickets to the youth rally, and we were both very excited. It was destined to be an awesome day- or so we thought. The glory and euphoria of the Papal visit quickly faded into a time of incredible pain and sorrow, a time from which I am still emerging.
That day. The date was Tuesday, January 26, 1999, and the entire city of St. Louis was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Pope. The day started with a bus ride to Laclede’s Landing where thousands of high school students joined together and marched to the Kiel Center where the Papal Youth rally was being held. When the Pope finally arrived at around 7:30 PM, it was absolutely breathtaking. The Holy Father’s words covered everything from baseball, and Mark McGwire, to teen suicide. Even though I did not realize it at that moment, his words were about to become a huge part of my life.
By the time I got home, my brother had already arrived and was enthusiastically recounting the day’s events to my mom, who had obviously been crying. When he finally stopped carrying on, my mom told me to sit down and then she told me. I will never forget her exact words or even the way she said them. “Megan committed suicide today.” I stared blankly at her, I knew she had to be lying, she had to be wrong, Megan would never do that. We had been too good of friends for too long, I knew her too well. Megan was always happy, she always had a joke to tell. She had such a bright future, she was an excellent athlete and it seemed as though she succeeded in everything she tried.
We played Volleyball together, we were co-captains of the soccer team and we even managed the wrestling team together. I never imagined the word suicide could even be a part of her vocabulary. That is why I knew there had to be some mistake, my mom had to be wrong.
Have you ever had the most important day of your life or the worst that has made an enormous impact on you? Well these people have also had something very a huge impact in their lives and others as well.
I currently live in a big household with my father, mother, roommate, and seven siblings. This household gains low-income and is hard to deal through the struggles. There are several issues that were hard to manage such as not being able to afford personal items for me and my siblings. We were not economically sufficient since we had utilities bills and medical bills to pay. All the medical bills includes the surgery for my sister that was born with a cleft plate, surgery for my mother tumor that had to be removed, and my dad therapy for his back pain since he works extremely hard in construction and always comes home in aching pain. Also, all my siblings have asthma and are constantly in the emergency room do to sudden asthma attacks. We have to pay for the asthma treatment for everyone of them.
I recently saw a young 18-year-old female in my clinic who was seeking pain medications for abdominal pain. Her urine pregnancy test was positive. The moment I informed her of the results, she broke down into tears. She confessed to being addicted to opiate pain medications. She was suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms and felt helpless. She said that her father abandoned their family when she was 9 and her mother recently died from a drug overdose. She did not have a job, nor had any close friends. I fought tears in my eyes as she was talking about how her former boyfriend gradually forced her into addiction. Her boyfriend recently left her after her doctor stopped prescribing pain pills.
Some thoughts sneak into our mind without our knowledge, and some thoughts are already in our mind without our knowledge. Music either triggers this knowledge, or it draws the already present knowledge to the surface. For example, this morning was like any other morning. I got up, made the bed, fed the dog, and brushed my teeth while she ate. I got dressed and took her potty after putting on the same blue leash I have put on her every morning since she was a puppy three years ago. Standing in the morning sunlight while she sniffed for the perfect spot, my mind was free of thoughts, or so I thought.
and causes suicide can be prevented. Suicide is an intentional attempt to kill oneself whether it is
My father was in the United States Army. He was stationed in Germany during the Cold War and when he returned home he starting having problems. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1992 his condition was manageable all the way up until 2008. All of sudden he did not trust anyone; he would not let anyone in his house, and he started buying plane tickets and flying to random places and staying in hotels and not letting anyone know where he was. This continued for about three years, finally in the spring of 2011 he reached out to my grandmother and said that he would like to talk to me. When we spoke he told me that he was lonely and wanted to know if I would be willing to come and stay with him for a while. I am single with no children and at the time I was unemployed.
The second Sodapop and I went through the front door on Friday evening, I just threw myself at my dad's window chair and closed my eyes without bothering to take off my coat, work shoes, or even the tool belt. My mind was in an overdrive as I sat with my chin in my hand, watching the street through the open curtains. "Then I saw something that made my mind (and heart) stop completely: the blue Corvair stopped at the parking lot at the end of our street, and what looked like a group of Socs was crowded with something that lay on the sidewalk.""Soda ...?" I called through the screen door, I knew that he and Steve saw a Corvair, they were silent and looked down the street ... I hung my tool belt next to Soda's jacket and came out for a better
I found out about her death two days after it occurred. I was in church getting ready to play my flute in the choir. My best friend was with me. I guess she knew that I didn’t see the news. I can remember still remember what she said. She told me that she was at a friend’s house on Friday night. They were getting ready for a dance that I did not go to. Her mom told them that something had happened. She conveyed the message to me by saying “Meg…I think that Tiff died.” She couldn’t just tell, because she knew that I would be devastated, but I knew that it was no mistake. I ran to the bathroom and began to grieve for my friend who never even got to receive her driver’s license.
We were interrupted by a phone call from my dad. My mom was still joking and in a silly mood when she started talking to my dad. Suddenly the conversation turned from joking to dead silence and my mom started crying. She tearfully asked, "Is she ok? Was she alone?" I was thinking my sister went riding and fell off her horse or that something had happened to my grandma.
The day that changed my life. It was 7am that morning I woke up and got my black dress on with white lace at the top. I waited for my dad and brother to get ready as I waited I sat and thought to myself “how am I going to get through this today?” I never did find an answer to that question and I probably never will. I walked into the funeral home that morning, and with my family we entered the room this was the very last time I will ever get to see my grandma. She laid there as I stood there looking at her, granddaughter to grandma. She looked completely like herself mostly other than the makeup which wasn’t her at all. My grandma was apostolic which if you knew my grandma you would know she never wore make up. Not in her entire life all 94 years of it. But it was kind of relieving to see her look so peaceful she looked like herself in her handmade rose colored blouse and
Suicide is a serious public health problem that causes immeasurable pain, suffering, and loss to individuals, families, and communities nationwide. Family members, friends, coworkers, and others in the community all suffer the long-lasting consequences of suicidal behaviors (United States Surgeon General, 2012). According to the United States Surgeon General (2012), suicide is the 10th leading cause of death, claiming more than twice as many lives each year as does homicide. Most people are uncomfortable with the topic of suicide (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2015). Part of the problem with helping those with suicidal ideation could rest within clinicians finding suicide a difficult subject to discuss with their clients. For various reasons such as discomfort with the suicide assessment process, fears of client vulnerability and suicidality, clinician counter transference (perhaps one’s friend or relative attempted or completed
Suicide has become one of the many means that problematic individuals take into consideration to exempt from an unpleasant or oppressive situation. Suicide can be generally defined as the act of causing one’s death usually out of despair. People who are likely to commit suicide are those who suffer from severe mental illnesses and are involved with alcohol and drugs. Other than that, individuals who are experiencing unemployment and divorce can also be possible victims to commit such act. Based on the study done in the year 1997, an average of fifteen-percent who are clinically depressed ended up committing suicide. Furthermore, suicide was the eighth leading cause of death in the US (“Suicide”). It is prevalent for depressed individuals to consider suicide when major issues in life do not work out well. The big question is, what makes a person thinks that ending his or her life can help oneself to escape from the reality when life has so much more to offer?
Throughout life I have had many memorable events. The memorable times in my life vary from being the worst times in my life and some being the best, either way they have become milestones that will be remembered forever. The best day of my life was definitely the day that I received my drivers’ license. This day is one of the most memorable because of the feelings I had when I received it, the opportunities that were opened up for me and the long lasting benefits that I received from it that still exist today.
I can still remember the day my life changed forever. I am a single mother of two children struggling with income. Life has been a constant struggle since my husband left me. I was not only in depression, but I was a gambling addict. I bought a lottery ticket every week in hopes of winning and not having to declare bankruptcy to pay off some loans. I never had any luck until the day I will always remember: December 11th.
When I went to bed around 11 o’clock, I was crying, like I usually did, but this time was different. I couldn’t fall asleep and my cries got heavier. I began hyperventilating, which soon woke my little sister, who was sleeping in the bed above mine. She called out to see if I was ok, but I was unable to respond. She ran down the hall to my parents room and told them that something was wrong with me. My parents ran to my bedroom, which awakened my whole family. My mom was yelling at me to respond, but I couldn’t. I was paralyzed. There I was sitting in a ball on my bed, hyperventilating uncontrollably, with my family standing in a circle around me. They had no idea what was going on, and there was no way for me to tell them. My mom crawled into bed with me and the two of us just laid there. She was silent, just listening to my deep, powerful sobs. It took a long time for me to calm down. It had been 5 hours since I first went to bed. Around 4 o’clock was the time I was able to sit up and answer my mom’s questions with one word answers. we talked the rest of the morning, and I told her all about what had been happening for the past 7 months, except I left out the part about being suicidal. I couldn’t bear to tell my mom how bad I was, and that I never told her before.