It was indeed untoward in the classic definitions of the word, as in unexpected, surprising, bad, unforeseen, unusual, improper, inopportune. I have gone days wondering if I would write about what happened here in our little condo community just three days after the New Year. Or if I should. But ultimately I feel I must because it hit "home" literally, and figuratively. And because the suffering and death of another requires something to mark it, some testimony. So does the suffering, in greater or lesser degrees, of those whose lives have been touched. And it raises all those philosophical, theological, existential questions that never receive fully satisfying answers no matter how great the thinker who offers them.
A long time resident of my building shot himself to death by our pool early in the morning. I did not know the particulars right away, as since I am a late sleeper and in the back of the my apartment, I didn't hear anything. I came downstairs late in the morning on my way to daily Mass. There was the yellow tape for accident or crime scenes. And there were two sheriffs deputies standing at a distance from my stairwell. I did immediately think that someone had died, but assumed it was of natural causes. Even with natural causes, a death at home is by statute one that requires investigation.
I think I said a short prayer of some nondescript verbiage requesting God's intervention as I left the building. When I came back in the mid afternoon, there was a sign offering a meeting for the neighbors regarding the "incident" at the pool. Ah. An incident. Whatever had happened was outside, around that little oasis so many of us love, living the California life. I had begun to surmise who the victim might be, in part because of where the sheriffs had been stationed when I first saw them, but hoped against hope that whoever had died, for it was certainly that, had gone "naturally". But the word "incident" somehow stretched that likelihood.
The meeting was somber, and a chance for a kind of therapy for those with greater or lesser need. No one was on the spot when it happened. I say, "it happened" because the best anyone could assess he probably didn't intend to shoot himself. The bullet went into and out of his chest. That's what the people in the apartments nearest the pool heard, the shot. And his saying, "Ow!" which somehow suggests the unintentional. Somehow, I don't know precisely how, that makes a difference. One neighbor came out immediately. The paramedics were called. And obviously the sheriff. Another neighbor felt guilty. She saw him shortly before as she was returning with her dogs. He told her he was waiting to be taken to the hospital. He was afraid that they would take him in a straight-jacket. She didn't know that he was having a delusion. Although he had given her and other neighbors in our pet friendly building complaint over barking, she saw his vulnerability of the moment, and they hugged. She said she'd put the dogs back in her place and come and wait with him. She has nothing to regret. The night before, another neighbor with whom he had dissension, over pets, said he had the first civil conversation of their acquaintance, although it was clear there was something bothering our neighbor.
In that brief interlude, he went back into his apartment and came out with a gun no one knew he had. He was the last person one would imagine would ever have a gun. And then he was dead.
There was a young woman who rented a room from him in his condo. She moved the next day. I understand that she is being assisted by the family of our late neighbor to find new quarters.
It was not a particular surprise to hear that there bi-polar disorder might be involved. He was edgy. He was often loud. I was happy to have a cordial relationship with him, although there were a few occasions in which whatever drove him led to calls to the police. When my father lived in the building I understand these were more frequent. Although he was certainly close to my age (he would never have said what that was) he seemed like a kind of Peter Pan. Puer Aeternus. The eternal child. Except he never seemed particularly happy.
He didn't buy the gun, apparently. He was given it. What I heard in that regard troubles me deeply. If someone knew of his condition, his bi-polarity, as it were, the last thing he should have had was a gun. I hope that isn't the case. There are few threats in our building or in our community. He didn't need a gun.
We have all been pretty quiet during the last days. You couldn't miss the guys from one of those companies that do crime scene clean up by the pool, where it happened. They left some rust colored chemical on the terrazzo for a day while the pool was drained so they could work there too, for yes, there was blood there too. I felt bad that I was angry now, where a day before I was sympathetic and sad. How could he do this at all? But how could he disrupt this peaceful place, my/our little meditative space? I noticed today that the bullet hole in the wall by the pool, very near another neighbors apartment, has been plastered.
Today, a young woman saw me as I was again leaving for Sunday Mass. She was a friend. She didn't know where he was. How do you break that news. I started slowly, using the euphemism--"He passed away." "In the apartment?" she asked. "No", and I hesitated, "By the pool." "Did he drown?" she pressed. That was oddly preferable to say if it had happened that way, at least in telling someone. "Are you sure you want me to tell you?" I didn't want to say, I realized. "I'm his friend," she repeated. I told her what I knew. And I introduced her to a member of our HOA board who I knew had the family's number.
Untoward? Surreal? Sad? Behind every face is a story, and some kind of pain.
It's warm enough today to be out on my terrace, and I have been. The hummingbirds have been especially active by the feeder, which overlooks the pool, in that corner that I love to sit in, reading, or writing, or praying or thinking.That has been a small blessing to moderate the awkward, weird, disrupted feeling I have and I am sure that every person in this condo shares.
All I can think to do is to pray.
Eternal Rest grant unto him O Lord. God knew all his struggles. Maybe now, he can rest in the peace that he did not apparently have in this life. Make it so, Lord.
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