The unimaginable happened to a FOF mother recently: Her son called her after he went on a shooting rampage and was about to kill himself. Caught stealing from the beer distributorship where he drove a truck, he had been terminated. The 34-year-old was one of two black men at the Hartford, CT, company and he often complained that he was the victim of discrimination, according to newspaper reports.
His mom pleaded with him not to take his own life. He didn’t listen.
We desperately want to take care of our sons and daughters. Protect them. It’s pretty easy to do that when they’re little and catch colds, fall from swings or get into arguments with their friends. But when little kids grow up, there’s not a lot we can do to protect them from life. And life can be pretty cruel and disheartening.
My heart goes out to the families of the victims, to the young man’s mother—and to him. He was obviously a tortured soul. None of us, no matter how great we think we are as mothers, is completely immune from having a terribly unhappy (adult) child.