Last week I wrote
about Senicide. The following is a real life story. Not a
fiction. I knew the characters personally. Very tragic.
His name is Larry. An
Anglo Saxon White guy. He was working in our company as a junior level
manager. He was a bachelor, never married. He lived with his aged
mother. He was not heterosexual. Unlike some others, he never
advertised his sexual orientation as a gay person. But his mother and
friends knew this and accepted that fact. Of course, he had a lover. His
name is Charles.
I knew him well. But he was not a
close friend of mine. We have been to his house one or two times. He,
his mother, and his lover have come to our house once.
Larry loved his mother to death. He
took care of her daily needs with love and affection. He would cook for
her every day. Made sure she had her medications every day. Daily,
Larry would take her mother for walking exercise. He took her on exotic
vacation twice a year. In short, he took care of his mother as if he would
take care of his own newborn baby.
He never drank. He never smoked.
One day, the fate struck. His doctor
diagnosed he has AIDS. He was devastated. His mother was even more
devastated. As months went by, his health deteriorated. Larry weighed
200 lbs. And, after 9 months he weighed only 130 lbs. He could not go
to work. Therefore, he went on medical disability. He was unable to
drive his car. His lover, Charles and another close friend, Sam (a
straight guy) took care of the daily needs of Larry and his mother.
Larry was becoming depressed more and more
every day. One day, he took several sleeping pills in order to commit
suicide. However, Charles saw this and rushed him to the hospital in an
ambulance. Doctors saved his life.
Many visitors came to see him at the
hospital. All of them (except Sam) were unanimous in their scolding to
Larry. “Why did you do this stupid thing? Your mother is very old. Who
is going to take care of her if you die? If you die, your aged mother will
become an orphan. Your mother is having health problems. You are
going to aggravate her condition by committing suicide.”
Larry was discharged from the hospital 3
days later. Since Larry cannot take care of himself, Sam and Larry’s
mother decided to admit him in a Care Home. Care Home is a home where they
take care of sick people for a fee. He was there for a week. His
mother was lonely at home. Sam went there every day to see how she was
doing. She knew that her son was dying of AIDS. She decided to take
Larry back home. Since Larry had suicidal tendencies, Sam was opposed to
this idea. Sam and Larry’s mother approached the doctor in that Care Home. The
doctor refused to talk to Sam. It is the law that doctors are supposed to
talk only to family members, if the patient has one.
Larry and her mother talked to the Care
Home doctor. No one knew the conversation. The doctor decided to
release him from the Care Home and let Larry go home with his mother.
On a Thursday evening Larry called Sam
about his car insurance. Sam said he will do the needful. On Friday
evening Sam called Larry at his home. The phone was ringing and there was
no answer. Sam decided to go to Larry’s house on Saturday. Larry’s
neighbor called Sam on Saturday morning at 10 am. He said he knocked
Larry’s door and there was no answer. The newspapers have not been picked
up from the patio.
Since the neighbor had the extra key to
Larry’s house, Sam asked him to open the door. After 10 minutes Larry’s
neighbor called Sam and informed him that Larry and his mother are dead. There
is blood all over the house. Sam asked the neighbor to call the police and
rushed there.
To end this post, this is what happened. The
visitors who came to see him in the hospital were scolding him as to what would
happen to his aged mother if he committed suicide. This was a very poor
judgement on the part of the visitors. Since Larry was already depressed
and loved his mother, he was worried so much about the fate of his mother in
case he should die naturally or commit suicide. He finally decided to kill
his own mother, before taking his life, so that she would not suffer or become
a helpless orphan after his death. So on Friday he took a claw hammer (a
sharp V shaped at the end) and hit his mother forcefully in the back of her
head several times. Blood was forced out of her head. There were
blood marks on the ceiling, on the window screen, and on the side lamp shade. She
died.
Larry then went to his room. Took a
blade and cut the veins in his hands, legs, and neck. He also died 20
minutes later.
This is not a fiction. This is a true
story. Larry and Sam worked in our Company. I have changed the real
names to protect their privacy. Couple of days later Sam came to see me
and told me the whole story. I said Larry made the wrong decision to kill
his mother. Even if it was right in his mind, I told Sam, he could have
put a bullet into her head as opposed to beating her forcefully in the back of
her head several times. Sam just wept.
The lesson: When we visit someone who
is very sick, we should say some encouraging words. We should not depress
more a person who is already depressed.
