Good guy, known him for around 30 years but haven't seen him as much recently. Straining to remember the last time, not too long ago, I'm sure.
Apparently, life went off the rails and not many people knew about it in detail. He was a divorced father of one teenaged daughter whom he adored and he was getting screwed out of his time w her by ex-wife and her new husband. He also had health and financial stress, apparently.
I may have had an inkling that times were not perfect when I saw him but life is tough sometimes and frankly, quite a few people my age are struggling w one personal problem or another. I am, but nothing overwhelming at this time. Just normal sadness over older relatives dying and some health stuff mixed w happiness about other things. I'm in mid-50s, he was close to me in age.
Anyhow, it's incredibly sad because he had a lot of friends and he basically live-streamed his suicide on Facebook. No, he did not film it but he wrote a suicide note and then shot himself in the head while on the phone w a friend who saw it and was pleading w him to reconsider. A comment thread ensued w hundreds of responses, eventually someone was able to confirm that he did it.
I don't know what this says about the web and the times we live in but it actually makes perfect sense-what better way to broadcast your final message to everyone you want to see it. There was a little shot at the ex-wife and her husband but not really excessive. He was a nice guy, not a vindictive or angry type.
His name was Robert, I don't want to put last name here because I don't want this thread to come up in a search. Please don't add it if you happen to know him. He was a Canadian of Croatian descent who was an extremely talented pianist, also a song writer. He had some success as a young man but in the note, he complained that he hadn't written a song in a long time and pronounced himself a failure. Absolutely no one who knew him considered him a failure, just a good person and talented. "Making it" in a creative or artistic field can be very difficult and have more to do w commercial appeal at the time or other factors beyond one's control.
Now I'm babbling but thought I'd share it here in case anyone is hurting and needs to talk about it. Everyone who cares about you wants to know. Anonymous people on the internet are willing to help, though the risk of insensitive remarks is there.
Just sad.
