Google Gets It … According to the New York Times, when a person searches with terms that could indicate suicidal thoughts, Google results will automatically include suggestions about suicide prevention, including a hotline telephone number. This policy, thought it cannot respond to every potential end-of-life search term, may make the difference in helping a person decide to live. I’ve pasted in a graphic of the Google response. Bravo!
When a suicide occurs in a family, it is never really forgotten. On a beautiful April day more than ten years ago, my parents lost a son and I lost my bother to suicide. I read somewhere that in spring, as the days get longer and the flowers come out, people with depression or bi-polar disorders can’t figure out why they are so unhappy. Some of them decide to kill themselves. Recently when my aging parents and I visited my brother’s grave, I realized again how raw the pain is and that while they have moved on in life, the grief continues. How much it has affected their health in subsequent years, I’ll never know.
Thank you Google. If even a few people have second thoughts, an enormous amount of grief and pain will be prevented, especially for aging parents who never stop asking, “Why?”
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