Saturday, November 15, 2025

Suicide

By Margaret Dore

In another life, most likely in 1980 when I was 23 years old, I talked three young men down from suicide.

What I think happened is that a final exit network person had given them my phone number by mistake.  This was before the age of caller ID.

I was contacted by each of the three young men over a period of time, each one wanting assistance to kill himself.

I called a suicide prevention person to ask what I should do, i.e., with regard to the first one.  The person told me to ask the suicidal person why?  To engage him.

So that’s what I did.  I met each young man at a local park [Seattle's Green Lake, pictured above], which I thought would be safe for me.  I asked each young man why, and then I tried to expand to other topics.  

The last one I got him laughing.  He told me that he no longer felt like killing himself.

To the best of my knowledge they all lived, but I don't know for sure.