This week.
This month.
Perhaps this year.
It is the story of a statistic that became front page news in Ottawa.
The stat is a terrifying one.
The Globe and Mail reported in today's paper that "Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds and among 10- to 14-year-old girls, according to the most recent figures from Statistics Canada. In 2007, 508 youths committed suicide in Canada, with many more attempting it."
The reason that teen suicide is front page news in Ottawa is because the daughter of one of the Princes of the city, and that truly is what Ottawa Senator hockey players are in this town, Bell's Corners boy Luke Richardson's 14 year old daughter Daron, killed herself last Friday.
Instead of taking their pain to a private place, which most would do and none would blame them for, Mr. Richardson and his family took a different tact. The result "...a rare public memorial service for a teenage suicide victim – 5,600 people in Ottawa's professional hockey arena. [Becuz of this] Suicide, particularly the suicide of the young, is no longer the taboo it has been.
That is an extraordinary liberation from an age-old silence and its twin, shame. And now that Canadians can talk about it – can say, openly, that they worry that their children may take their lives, that they need to know what to do to reach their children, and if the worst happens, to be able to grieve openly, and share any lessons they've learned – how do we begin to use our new-found freedom to prevent suicide?"
That is the question and it is a pointed and difficult one.
From my vantage point and the vantage point of many in this world Daron Richardson had it all. She was beautiful, a great athlete, going to the best school in a town where her dad has been a hero since his teens. But deep inside her was a darkness that she could not illuminate.
Like Richard Cory she took her life.
Hopefully her passing will save many who are going down the same dark road.
Prayers.
WFDS
No comments:
Post a Comment