Monday, November 17, 2008

1850 60 90 90

Thats the number of the samaritans here in Ireland.
Put it on you phone memory now.
2 weeks ago I met an old friend in our local supermarket.We shook hands and talked for a while. He had just retired and had bought a taxi.
My heart skipped a beat, Sean that was an awful mistake.
So I called around to his apartment with the taxi drivers handbook a present for his 60th birthday which was coming in a few days.
During my visit he told me that he had had a nervous breakdown and had just come out of hospital,for those not in the know depression comes in many forms,the lows are like influenza you are really not well at all.

He was glad of the visit but he wanted to lie down, so I promised to call back when he was an older wiser man. I called back to the apartment as his phone did not answer.
I had a didget wrong in the number and I corrected that.
On Tuesday I dropped in a few taxi driver magazenes in his post box, but still got no reply from the doorbell.

Well to cut a long story short they found his body on Friday evening and he was buried today.

A great person who will be sadly missed by many.

I do not attribute his death directly to buying the taxi but there many drivers who are at the end of their patience as I write.

Please please ring the Samaritans or speak to your doctor if you are depressed.

The pain your death inflicts on the ones you leave behind is so severe that it can not be measured.

It is a constant pain that the regulators office governs our trade through comities and public relations companies while the quality of the service to the public gets worse by the day, she is wasting vast amounts of money with useless surveys.
Guinness never asked me if it would be OK to stick 10c on the pint,mu local garage man ditto. Yet the regulator WAISTED thousands of Euro asking the public if the thought it might be a good idea.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:11 AM

    As I started reading this entry I was fearful of the end, sad story for sure.

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  2. it is a sad story, i have a similar one from OZ but hoepfully the guy in question will be able to sort his problems which concern me greatly

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  3. Anonymous9:10 PM

    A sad story indeed.

    But there will be more stories like this in the aftermath of the Celtic Tiger.

    In the IT, last month,
    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/newsfeatures/2008/1011/1223560389905.html

    the guy from MABS said he had 3 suicides over the past few months.


    All we heard about was the winners.
    Now we will meet the losers.

    The Celtic Tiger was a con job.

    All borrowed money.

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  4. Anonymous7:10 AM

    hi john dont give up the blog .i have met you once or twice on the protests and always check for your latest entry .
    i had a niece who at 16 hung herself just this year ,her poor father and mother are just shells of what was a loving family .
    her fathers quote "we were,nt the fucking little house on the prarie and had our rows but i never thought she was thinking such things " you are right in what you say TALK TO SOMEONE . be it that taxi driver who just might care .
    the devastation thats left behind is,nt worth it

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  5. It is the pits when a very young person ends their own life.
    You must be careful what you say to people,what you mistake for rudeness may be a much bigger problem.

    ReplyDelete