The Vista - One Year Later

***ATTENTION!!!  This post talks about a traumatic event.  It talks about death and suicide.  If you are going to write a hateful comment on this post, be warned that I WILL DELETE IT!  I almost never do that but I will delete ALL HATE posted under this entry.  If you don't want to read it, then don't.  These events will be told as I remember them.  If you weren't there that day, then don't be telling me what I did or did not see.  THANK YOU!***

If you go to the archives of my blog, to January 2013, you will see an entry called The Vista Bridge (or something like that.)  It was posted January 23, 2013.  If you haven't yet read that entry, go read it now.  But beware, the content might be shocking.

3% of suicides in Oregon are the result of a fall.

Two days ago, on January 22nd, marked the first anniversary of the death of a girl who took her own life by jumping off the Vista Bridge in Portland.  I didn't know her.  It was a sad day for the people who did know her and loved her.  I have since found out her name, but that's really all I know. 

In 2012, 709 people in Oregon took their own lives. 

The things I saw that day when I drove beneath the bridge, just after she jumped, are imagines I can't erase from my memory.  It took several seconds before I could even comprehend what I was seeing!  I knew about that bridge's reputation, but it didn't really apply until right then.  One thing I know for sure - the way it looks in the movies and TV shows when someone jumps or falls off a building is NOT ACCURATE!  They don't land and just lay there with some blood trickling out from beneath their body.  No, it's more like the popping of a water balloon.  Things go up and out.  Blood goes up and out.  It's a very startling, shocking, horrifying thing to see.

Suicide rates are highest in the West.

There have been fences put up on the Vista now, in an attempt to deter people from jumping to their deaths off of it.  However, death struck the Vista again on January 2, 2014.  A 14 year old boy shot himself and tumbled off the Vista bridge, coming to rest on an embankment below.  This bridge!! I swear!  

Suicide rates among youth have declined, but not among adults.

I still feel sad when I think about that girl who died last January.  I was angry at first because a) I was horrified by what I saw and couldn't forget it, b) I wasn't the only one who had to see it and c) her family and friends lives would be forever incomplete from that moment forward.  I thought she was incredibly selfish and I was MAD at her!!!  But then... the initial shock wore off a little and I just felt so sad!  It was so fucking tragic.  She was so young.  If only someone had been up there and maybe could have said something.  Maybe if someone had smiled at her that day.  Or asked her how she was.  I mean.. I don't claim to know anything about her or her life but... damn.... it's just so sad!  She must have been so sad and in so much pain.  I hope that she is free from all that now.  Honest to god I really hope that.  And I wish for peace for her family and friends who must love and miss her so much.

(suicide statistics from http://www.oregonlive.com/living/index.ssf/2013/05/why_oregons_suicide_rate_is_am.html)