What you wrote hit a little too close for me.

In January of this year, a young man who was working with me and my business partner (BP) on a charity event was found dead in this same manner.  My BP and I, along with everybody who was working on the benefit, were shocked.  Both my BP and I believe that it was accidental death via autoasphixiation (sp?).  However, the coroner decreed it a suicide.

Our project, one that the young man involved with believed in passionately, was almost derailed.  I had to spend WEEKS convincing my BP that he needed to continue on with the project IN HONOR of this young man.  If he only knew how many hearts he broke by leaving us… if he only knew how closely his beloved school (which benefited from our event) has come to closing because when he left us, he took knowledge that has taken months to recover.

There are times when I know everybody around him, including myself, is angry with him.  It’s to be expected: we lost him!  Even at the funeral, his parent’s friends were quick to remind us: it was his decision.  My BP and I, sitting next to each other, crying our eyes out (me thinking of my beautiful 17 year old daughter: so close in age to the young one gone!) were thinking… well, maybe, maybe NOT.

The fact of the matter is, my young friend left more questions than answers and I"m sure that this young lady’s friends are going through the same thing.

But we have to move on.  And last week, we finally had the event and raised a bunch of money…. and dedicated it to my young friend’s memory.

I hope somebody does that for this young lady too.