I know this is not a usual entry from me, but It's what was on my mind and my heart.
I am very sad this evening, the last
one of a beautiful September. Another young man has chosen a permanent way out
of a temporary situation. I know his family. His sister goes to our church. His
dad is a cousin of a dear friend of mine. I met this man and his parents and
two sisters at another church my son and I attended.
A few months ago, our town lost a
professional man who also chose the same way to deal with a few problems. One
of the young mothers at church had worked for him for a long time. No one saw
the signs that he was depressed.
Right after the first of the
year, we received a call that a son of a lady in our area had a son die. This
mother had been in the church we were a part of near our home. My dear friend
and I really didn’t know what happened until we attended the memorial service.
He had a substance abuse problem that caused his heart to stop.
Each of these three men was reasonably
young, in their 40’s. When I saw the one who left us this past January, he was
cordial and spoke to me. This was one recent summer. He called me by name and I
had to tell him, “I’m sorry, I don’t recognize you.” When he told me his name,
I felt so silly. We talked a while. I asked where he was living. He was living
down the street from his mother. The summer before he died, I took some of our
tomatoes to his mother, at that time, he and one of his brothers lived with
her.
My heart aches for these men and
for their families. Parents should not have to bury their children. Each of
these three men left children. Their actions may leave scars on the hearts of
those children. Each of these sets of children will continue their lives
without the fellowship and the wisdom of their fathers.
A lot of people are not trained
to recognize the signs of depression. But we need to read and study what we can
to learn to be able to spot that a person isn’t acting as they would normally. Our
society needs to learn the art of listening.
Sometimes, all we can do is pray for the families who go through this horrible loss.
This is a good reminder to us to pay better attention to those around us. We never know how someone might be really feeling inside...but they often give out little signals/warnings that we need to recognize. Thank you for sharing this. I am sorry for each of those families who have lost someone so young. We lost our 41 year old son this past spring too, and he left behind a 14 yr. old son and a wife. No, he didn't take his own life...cancer claimed him as a victim. Thankfully we know that he loved Jesus and was ready to go to heaven and we will see him again. I hope these parents/families have some comfort about their loved ones...if they ever accepted the Lord as their Savior. Yes, even Christians can fall victim to depression and suicide. Only God knows for sure what was going on inside their hearts, and we must let Him be the one to judge. I can only pray for mercy for them and comfort for their loved ones. It's hard enough to lose someone who was suffering from cancer, but to lose someone who just didn't have the heart/hope to continue on is a double heartbreak. Praying.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pam. I went to the memorial service last night (Friday.) There were some manyvisitors the service started an hour and twenty minutes late. The parents had no idea that so many people would come. I told a lady from our church about the situation. She was thankful they had that kind of support.
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