SUICIDE

Some time ago an article in the paper recorded two deaths. A middle-aged couple died in each other’s arms—the result of a suicidal overdose of drugs—because they couldn’t face separation by death.

A psychiatry professor at a large university and his wife left a suicide note explaining that the wife was suffering from emphysema and kidney, liver, and heart ailments. Doctors had told her she might live up to five years or die at any time. Their oldest son said, “My father and mother were very much in love with each other. We wondered what my father would do if anything ever happened to Mom.” Lewis said his parents often discussed suicide. “This solution was not a bad one,” he added.

This couple could not face reality, because they had no hope beyond the present.1354