Since Andrew’s suicide, I have often thought that had my son not been able to get to the tenth floor of NYU’s library, Bobst, he would not have killed himself. The moment would have passed and he would have lived to see another day, and another and another. He would still be here today. Since [...]
Archive for January 2010
Common Misconceptions About Suicide
January 31, 2010The Andrew Williamson-Noble Spirit Award
January 30, 2010THE AWARD: The Andrew Williamson-Noble Spirit Award is sponsored by the Westchester-Rockland Division of the United States Fencing Association and is presented in memory of Andrew Williamson-Noble, captain of Irvington’s varsity team. Andrew was instrumental in starting the fencing program at Irvington, and he led his team to League Championship Titles in 2006 and 2007. [...]
Final Voyage
January 29, 2010One evening, late last September I drove my daughter back to the city. After dropping her off, I went on to meet Andrew who’d asked me to bring him his sleeping bag. As I pulled up to the corner of 14th and 3rd by Duane Reade, there was Andrew, already walking towards me, and [...]
The Blizzard Of ’96
January 28, 2010The snow covered trees and the white lawn outside, came as a total surprise when I woke up this morning. “Did you know it was going snow?” I asked Robert. “No,” he said. “I don’t watch the weather forecast.” “Did you know?” I asked my husband. “No, I didn’t,” he said. I realized that since [...]
Yoga Class
January 27, 2010“I normally start with a theme or a story,” the yoga instructor said. “Today, I’ll start with a theme.” And she went on to say that people tend to look outside of themselves, for things they think will make them happy, when all knowledge, all happiness can only be found within. The purpose of Yoga, [...]
Therapy Session
January 26, 2010“You know,” I said to my therapist when we were both sitting down. “I told my daughter that I didn’t think I needed to come any more. And she said; what? You’ve had two sessions and you think you’re done?” “Why do think that?” my therapist asked in her quiet, even voice that was in [...]
Pommes Frites
January 25, 2010After brunch yesterday, my daughter and my younger son went to see the 3D version of Avatar; my husband and I joined what Andrew used to call my Ammassociates, my Amma friends. One of Amma’s Swami had just returned from Haiti and, on his way to India, he stopped in New York to give a first [...]
Dearest Andrew
January 24, 2010Dearest Andrew, I think about you all the time. I miss you all the time. I go into your room every morning, I pull up the blinds, I look at your tidy bed and I remember when your head with your ton of hair lay on the pillows, and your six-foot long body reached the [...]
Out To Lunch
January 23, 2010Two friends took out me to lunch yesterday. When they first asked me, a couple of weeks ago, it seemed so far away into the future that I said yes. Now I wasn’t too sure. “Go. It’ll do you good to get out of the house,” my husband encouraged me, seeing that I was getting [...]
You Walked Out In The Middle Of Your Song
January 22, 2010I’ve just seen a photographic tribute for Chris, a twenty five year old who died by suicide on December 5, 2009. “You walked out in the middle of your song,” were some of the lyrics. I found myself drenched in sadness. Only a few minutes earlier I had replied to an email from a mother [...]
