For The Heart Cries

Eighteen years after I wrote, Let's Stop The Suicide Epidemic, I wrote this article in February 2018 and it was published in the Cape Cod Times on March 8, 2018 "We need to change the culture of this topic and make it OK to speak about mental health and suicide." New York Islanders assistant coach Luke Richardson, whose 14 year old daughter took her own life in 2010. Epidemics that can last for weeks or even months are always newsworthy, generating major stories in newspapers and on TV. Recent epidemics have included the Zika virus, Ebola, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, otherwise known as MERS virus, and avian and the swine flu. Today there is a widespread opioid epidemic throughout the country. Next to President Trump, there have probably been more stories on opioids than any other subject - and rightly so. There is also another epidemic occurring throughout the country, one that is not only under reported but rarely reported, and that is suicide, the si...

In Memory of George Leo Frawley February 3, 1895 - September 26, 1957 Although I wrote about my grandfather a few times in my journal, For The Heart Cries,  I wanted to write more about the man. I wrote this in January 2017 and submitted it to the Cape Cod Times in September - it was published on September 30, 2017 under the title, After All These Years, Still My Grandfathers Boy. This is a longer version of that article. "All men live in suffering, I know as few can know."                                   William Butler Yeats George Frawley was a rough, tough and gruff man, cocky, confident, fearless and street smart. He could be as blunt as a sledgehammer and as abrasive as course sandpaper, but he also had a soft touch and the tenderness and gentleness of a butterfly. He was a fiery and opinionated Democrat and as Irish as a pint of Guinness and a shot of Jameson. In his...

This is a slightly longer version of the article I wrote in April 2014 that was published in the Cape Cod Times on May 13, 2014. "A man awaits his end, Dreading and hoping all."                                       W. B. Yeats Twenty years ago, on Sunday May 15, 1994, I planned on dying. I expected and wanted to die. I was in a motel in Chatham, on Cape Cod, and at 7:00pm the time had arrived. I was ready to die. * * * * * On a day in late January 1994, I decided to kill myself. My life had become meaningless and unmanageable, my future nonexistent - a black hole with no escape. To kill myself was a perfect and brilliant solution, a remedy of redemption from a worthless life. It was an easy decision, almost predestined. I've had bouts of severe depression for decades, had lost my grandfather, my college girlfriend and childhood friends to suicide - and had made two a...

In Memory of Anne, The Sadness of Suicide It took me over 43 years to write this article. For decades I only had two lines: Anne, you said I love you but you never said goodbye and Anne, your smile was a false god. That was all I had and as hard as I tried I could not write anything more. Then I woke up one morning in October 2012, and the entire article was written in my mind - I sat down and wrote it. It was published in the Cape Cod Times on November 30, 2012.                                              * * * * * "You know my love goes with you, as your love stays with me."                                         Leonard Cohen Anne, you said, "I...

I wrote this article in March 2000 and it was published in the Cape Cod Times on March 21, 2000. Over the past few months, the surgeon general, Dr. David Satcher, has stated a serious, sad and tragic fact about American life. Suicide has reached epidemic proportions within this country - taking far too many lives and causing far too much suffering to innocent families and friends. I am writing this with words that are from the deepest part of my soul. I thank Dr. Satcher for focusing his attention on suicide. I read it was the first time a surgeon general made suicide such a prominent public health issue. I suffer from bouts of severe depression. In 1969 and in 1970 I made flirting attempts at suicide. But in 1994 I made a far more serious and almost deadly attempt. So now, with the new millennium at hand, I challenge Dr. Satcher to hold true to his word.  Suicide is an epidemic that kills more than its victims. It kills, breaks and crushes the hearts an...