Last Thursday, January 15thm 2004, I attended a presentation of In Our Own Voices by NAMI Greater Seattle.
I spoke briefly before the presentation and an older Russian gentleman picked up my card, I'll call him Jim. Jim called me on Sunday and asked for some help for his friend, another Russian man whom I'll call Tom. Jim told me that Tom suffered from depression and was having a very hard time with life. I told Jim to pass my information along to Tom and I would see what I could do to find him some help.
Tom called me about 20 minutes later and we spoke for more than an hour about his situation. I took his information down and told him I would get back to him with some information.
On Monday I called Tom back and left a voice mail with the phone numbers for the local NAMI chapters and the local crisis lines. I asked him to call me or call someone at the numbers I had provided.
Jim called me this evening and told me that Tom had purchased a gun and shot himself on Wednesday January 21, 2004.
I did what I could, and Jim did what he could... but it wasn't enough.
Six years ago I was where Tom was on Tuesday. For those reading this you can come out of depression. It is NOT permanent. Yes it is hard and takes more work that most people can imagine, but it can be done.