Three generations later, my great-grandfather\u2019s suicide is still impacting my life.<\/p>\n
I distinctly remember the moment my mother told me about the family secret. I was a teenager, and she let me know with the firmness and compassion only a mother possesses that the choice her grandfather made was one nobody should ever face.<\/p>\n
Not only did it rob him of his life, it delivered countless blows to his immediate family. His children lost their father, they lost their home, my great-grandmother was forced to become a boarder who worked three backbreaking jobs to make ends meet, but it wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n
Eventually, my 12-year-old grandfather was forced to quit school to help support the family.<\/p>\n
Despite never meeting him and despite my grandfather never speaking of it, three generations later Clifford\u2019s decision shaped who I became. Not because it was something I ever considered doing, but because I felt the importance of looking for signs of hopelessness and despair in the people I knew.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n Of the many, many wonderful columns @SalenaZito<\/a> has written, this is among the very best both in style and message. Send it on: https:\/\/t.co\/NLdP9ac7Fj<\/a><\/p>\n — Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) June 10, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n