When DS1 (14) came home from school today he told me that there had been an "incident" on the railway line, 200 yds away - someone had stepped in front of a train. This was about 4pm. We talked about it and thought it was sad but that was all.
About 7pm, next-door-neighbour's son asked if we had seen his dad, Tom. He had gone out for a walk about 3.30. Tom has been suffering from cyclical depression - 6-7 years - he just went into the current cycle about 6 weeks ago and was due to start ECT today.
You can see where I'm going, can't you? The body on the railway line was Tom. We are all totally devastated. Both my DS's are gutted and it is hard to esplain to them - when Tom's son asked, in all innocence, if we had seen his dad, we just gaped at each other, having put 2 + 2 together in about 2 seconds. Apparently he had twice tried to take an overdose in the last couple of weeks so he was feeling pretty desperate.