Morning Update
Doug and Rayna slept in until 7:00am (which was pretty good!)...then they played together fairly quietly. Darcy and I slept in until 8:30 and Grant is still sleeping. All in all a successful Saturday morning!
Last night Grant and I watched a movie called "Lars and the Real Girl". It was a touching movie. The main character, Lars, reminded me so much of a friend I had back before I met Grant. Lars (the movie character) is raised by a grief-stricken, withdrawn father after his mother dies giving birth to him. Steve (my friend) was raised by a devastated/withdrawn father after Steve's mother committed suicide when Steve was 6 yeas old. Steve was a young man starving in a banquet hall overflowing with food. All around him were friends who genuinely cared about him, but like a man with no mouth in a room full of food, he slowly starved to death. He could not even manage to meet anyone's gaze. He always had his gaze focused awkwardly on the ground. He was the most cripplingly shy person I have ever known.
One summer, I was taking a one hour college credit just to get a PE requirement out of the way. I have always been horribly non-athletic, but I was taking a racquetball class and I was actually enjoying it. One day that summer, Steve offered to help me practice racquetball. It was so out of character for him to reach out. We had a really nice day. Just before he left that evening, he told me, "Today was my birthday." I hadn't known. It saddened me that none of us had known...and that he hadn't had any plans with family that day. In the movie, the community gathers around Lars and helps him t finally learn to connect with others. In real life, even though surrounded by friends, Steve, committed suicide at a very young age. He desperately wanted to connect with others, but he just could not trust enough to truly ever allow others close.
4 comments:
I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. So tragic.
It happened almost two decades ago. I only brought it up because the movie was so touching and just got me to remembering my friend, again. We really don't know what lives our life touches...and how tenuous a hold some people along our path have...
It was a good movie. An encouraging, heartwarming movie.
Yes, it's incredible the lives that our own touches, and devastating to know that some people just could not bear life any longer, perhaps not quite fully realizing just how important they really are and how their own quiet lives have rippled to touch others.
I too, have lost a friend to suicide (last year, in the fall), and still think about him often, half expecting him to turn up, although I've since moved away.
I'll check out the movie. A very touching post.
Oh, my. I had no idea that Steve committed suicide. How awful. I remember how much you cared about him.
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