Monday, July 16, 2007

Last stop




The sun comes out to play for a day. Rose garden festival St.Annes park Clontarf.
A selection of foreign language papers sitting in a shop.
Many are printed in Ireland.

If life gets you down Mrs.Brown.....
Well you know by now its the Galaxy song.Look back in the blog its there.



Boys and girls I hate to be the boil on the backside of life.

But this has got to stop.

There is nothing ..apart from a few things that upsets me more than when people start behaving like lemmings.
The Lemming is an animal that lives in N.England and Scotland that decides to swim to N America every few years.
They jump off the cliffs.
Many many years ago America was close to Scotland and they could swim now they don't make it now.

Suicide is one of my hobby horses.

Then one after the other they come.

OK your wife talks on the phone when you are at home and you have problems.

No one will listen.

Ring the Samaritans

In Irealand its 1850609090
Or e mail jo@samaritans.org
Or better still send them a cheque
113 Marlborough St.
Dublin 1
Opposite the Abbey

Throw the TV out the window if you must.
Blow the building society or bank up to get attention.

But don't kill your kids and then jump from the highest bridge.

A son shoots his elderly mother and father then kills himself today.

In New York a man from Ballyjamesduff killed his kids then himself, seems like his wife was giving him a tough divorce.

A wrestler from Canada killed his fam1ly and then himself 2 days later, TV over there goes into the smallest detail.

A mother and infant drowned yesterday in Cork.

I was forced to meet a friend the other day who killed his son on the eve of the child's birthday.

He was having mental problems and when this happened all the alarm bells started to ring.
Before it happened,every effort was made by different people to divert the tragedy.

His wife was contacted but would not pass over the phone to him,with all the calls,she hung up, they rang back many times until the phone was taken off the hook.
His siblings rang the police. They got the call.But they did not go to the house.

They cannot be at every hand bag fight, I accept that.
But you know perhaps they should have been at this one.

He killed the boy and to the day I met him in Dublin I have not spoken to him.

What do you say ?

Now 7 years later he himself still cannot even begin to realize what he did.

I could not speak to him until now.

I can not understand how you can harm your own child.
Our sons were the same age.
I could kill my own kid at times, but not literally.

The emotion left me drained like I had been playing football for 2 hours.

If I seemed distant when you got into my taxi recently this is the reality I was dealing with.

Fuck me this is a long way from BIG BROTHER.
Which occupies most peoples thoughts at present.

One reality for you,the other reality for someone else.

It seems to me that I got on the big dipper at Blackpool.
While you guys got on the Luas.

I was facing 40o inclines.

While I speed down steep slopes withe knuckles bleeding.
You complain of slow trains.
Reality for me and you was different.

Later if you hang on all will become clear.

I picked up a girl one day beside my own house
(I live in a very posh area)
A great looking kid looked 14, no not even great, but fantastic looking.
During the journey to Jamese's st. hospital she opened up to me.
She had tried to slash her wrists and the local doctor had sent her for stitches.
She is a alcoholic and has been since she was 15, she could not get treatment and her parents would not listen to her,they are too busy.
I pulled into the hospital and spent an hour talking to her, I sat on the step of the van so as not to intimidate her.
In the end | wrote to the samaritans and had stickers for taxis and cards printed, the cards to hand to passengers and stickers for taxi windows.
Also to send posters to every doctors waiting room.

Put the stickers up.

Boys and girls go to the NTDU offices and Mr. Tommy Gorman will give you some.
Call into the Samaritans HQ and they will give you the cards.
If you live overseas print out cards with details of your local samaritans on your printer, so that you have them.

Think of UK telecom people who check the phone box at Beachy head 4 times a day to make sure the phone is working. The people who put stickers in the phone boxes in the area.
Even the guys who wait there to pull back the jumpers. The jumpers fight to die.

People are under a lot of pressure now.

Listen a little, as a Taxi driver from N Ireland told me,"she had terminal cancer.She had decided not to tell her family instead she loaded me with all this".

A quote Gareth Owen whose wife and child were buried yesterday.
"When my wife walked into my life I found my sun,moon and my everything".
With the birth of their son their lives were complete".

It is believed that his wife was suffering from post natal depression.
She drowned herself and the baby.

"My sense of loss knows no bounds. My whole world lies before me in a wooden box. Family no more. Its place in the universe snuffed out. My grief and pain has no limit".

Today or tomorrow you could save a life with a few well chosen words.

4 comments:

  1. I read your post and more aware of the problem now, i will definitely listen more carefully to people.There are so many people going through hard times now.Thank you for reminding us to take care of our brothers and sisters.

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  2. Anonymous1:43 AM

    Hey John

    I understand what you feel my friend, I cannt understand what makes people kill their own kids, I know Id shout at mine but I would NEVER EVER hurt them in any way. Some people dont know how lucky they are to have kids and others are unlucky to have kids who have serious illness, my heart goes out to these parents cos it isnt easy for them

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  3. John, As taxi drivers we may not be aware of the grief we may have averted by simply listening to what a troubled person has to say. It's a very admirable trait to be willing to listen to another person, particularly someone you've never met before. But don't let the troubles of the world at large get you down. Remember the news media is in the bad news business. Good, uplifting news is rarely mentioned. It may be a good idea to limit your own "news" consumption.

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  4. You'r right Gene. Got to find my fishing pole and sit by the lakeside for a few hours.If it ever stops raining that is. Time to turn off that TV and just look at the crosswords in the paper.

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