I better get my jump in while it's still free

[twoplus2equals5]

Life - or death - at the Golden Gate
SURVIVOR: Jumper says barrier would have stopped him

Tuesday, March 8, 2005

By PAUL PAYNE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Comments

[puzzledmike]

Reminds me of when I once witnessed a suicide. This was about 20 years ago - I was living in Israel at the time. I had just been made redundant from my IT job, and was feeling depressed. I was living on the 5th floor of an 11-storey block, and was spending the day reading alone. About 10am a big dark shape went whizzing past my window. I thought "What the fuck! Someone's thrown their garbage out the window!"
Then I heard a commotion, and went out into the lobby. My neighbour was already there, and I asked her what was going on. She just pointed down: I looked and there was a woman's body on the roof of the ground-floor lobby area.
The body was face-down. I noticed there wasn't very much blood around, but the woman's shoes were off, and her arms and legs were at very odd angles.
The police came, and a police photographer. I heard the senior police guy say "take some extra pictures for my private collection - no I'm not joking".
The body stayed where it was for most of the day. It was about 5pm before an ambulance came to take it away. During much of that time it was guarded by a bored-looking cop, who spent a lot of time just mooching around the communal garden area. And it became an attraction for the local kids - they went up to the first floor to get a closer look, encouraged by their mothers.
The woman's mother came along, an old Russian lady, and became hysterical. She sort of half-picked up the body and had to be held back by the cop.
A lot of the neighbours were originally from North Africa, and when they found out the dead woman was a Russian they were overjoyed. It was like a carnival, with the laughing kids and their grinning mothers.
I heard later that she was a young mother whose husband had left her. I can't believe any guy could be worth doing that over.