Our
I
WAS
Responsibility? waiting
for my
morning
train, my mind divided between
the fact that it was some time overdue and probably cancelled, and an effort really to take in the newspaper report of the vastness of the tragedy of the Persian earthquake. So do the trivial and the vital mingle incongruously in one's thoughts. One of the station staff came down the platform, and said: "There's a You'll suicide at Stamford Brook. have to take the Broad Street line and change at Willesden or go up to town by bus. The District trains won't be running for some while." A fair-haired woman standing nearby murmured: "How inconsiderate," and then laughed nervously, probably regretting her words. I thought of the man or woman lying on the track, perhaps killed outright, dying or maimed, for the station official would not really know what had happened. It could be an accident, and presumably there would be an inquest and no official verdict would follow until then. The papers would use the phrase: "fell in front of a train", and the driver and people waiting on the platform would never forget that morning. I decided to catch a bus to town, forgetting that it would pass Stamford Brook station. As we drew near, the queues of people waiting for buses grew longer, and the traffic thicker. By the time we turned down towards the station a traffic jam had built up; fire engines were pulling out into the main road, others were parked in rows facing the station entrance, breakdown cranes stood by, ambulancemen and policemen were rushing dangerously between the stream of vehicles, drivers leaning out to ask what had happened, commuters going into the station entrance not realising what was wrong, and quickly coming
out
A
again.
dark-haired young
man
came
running?probably a journalist. The evening and morning papers were both 138
to carry the story of the woman medical student who had helped the dying man trapped for half an hour under the train. One dying man; and everyone trying to aid him, to comfort the moments of life that were rushing away. Was it an accident? Or would the coroner's court add another statistic to the Registrar-General's cold list of suicides? If the second, how had the community failed in its responsibilities? How much better if all the helpunderstanding and comfort that had been bestowed at the time of dying had been given in life.
Turned
away
Yet, how many times in
our
liveS
of us turned away impatiently when a friend, neighbour, acquaintance or relative has begun to "tell us his troubles". Perhaps we have listened for a while, murmured has
each
one
sympathetically, given
vague
advice*
patted him on the shoulder and said: "Don't worry," or "It will all work out in the end?you'll see," ?f, even: "Perhaps it's all for the best. or
Of course everyone has problems, and most people have to face extremely serious and far-reaching challenges and can face up to then1' though how few?if they are scrupulously honest?bear them entirely alone without discussing them with at a least one confidant. But there is
breaking-point
and
some
within each one of us, force of circum-
through
stance, innate temperament, person' ality, medical history or effect 0 environment reach this point mud1
than most of our fellows. Each year in England and Wale? about 5,000 people know such stres of mind that they kill themselves. ^ How far is this our responsibilitysooner
Beryl Cross This article was written before the cial enquiry was held into the cause death. An "open verdict" was reac',e
j
I
WAS
Responsibility? waiting
for my
morning
train, my mind divided between
the fact that it was some time overdue and probably cancelled, and an effort really to take in the newspaper report of the vastness of the tragedy of the Persian earthquake. So do the trivial and the vital mingle incongruously in one's thoughts. One of the station staff came down the platform, and said: "There's a You'll suicide at Stamford Brook. have to take the Broad Street line and change at Willesden or go up to town by bus. The District trains won't be running for some while." A fair-haired woman standing nearby murmured: "How inconsiderate," and then laughed nervously, probably regretting her words. I thought of the man or woman lying on the track, perhaps killed outright, dying or maimed, for the station official would not really know what had happened. It could be an accident, and presumably there would be an inquest and no official verdict would follow until then. The papers would use the phrase: "fell in front of a train", and the driver and people waiting on the platform would never forget that morning. I decided to catch a bus to town, forgetting that it would pass Stamford Brook station. As we drew near, the queues of people waiting for buses grew longer, and the traffic thicker. By the time we turned down towards the station a traffic jam had built up; fire engines were pulling out into the main road, others were parked in rows facing the station entrance, breakdown cranes stood by, ambulancemen and policemen were rushing dangerously between the stream of vehicles, drivers leaning out to ask what had happened, commuters going into the station entrance not realising what was wrong, and quickly coming
out
A
again.
dark-haired young
man
came
running?probably a journalist. The evening and morning papers were both 138
to carry the story of the woman medical student who had helped the dying man trapped for half an hour under the train. One dying man; and everyone trying to aid him, to comfort the moments of life that were rushing away. Was it an accident? Or would the coroner's court add another statistic to the Registrar-General's cold list of suicides? If the second, how had the community failed in its responsibilities? How much better if all the helpunderstanding and comfort that had been bestowed at the time of dying had been given in life.
Turned
away
Yet, how many times in
our
liveS
of us turned away impatiently when a friend, neighbour, acquaintance or relative has begun to "tell us his troubles". Perhaps we have listened for a while, murmured has
each
one
sympathetically, given
vague
advice*
patted him on the shoulder and said: "Don't worry," or "It will all work out in the end?you'll see," ?f, even: "Perhaps it's all for the best. or
Of course everyone has problems, and most people have to face extremely serious and far-reaching challenges and can face up to then1' though how few?if they are scrupulously honest?bear them entirely alone without discussing them with at a least one confidant. But there is
breaking-point
and
some
within each one of us, force of circum-
through
stance, innate temperament, person' ality, medical history or effect 0 environment reach this point mud1
than most of our fellows. Each year in England and Wale? about 5,000 people know such stres of mind that they kill themselves. ^ How far is this our responsibilitysooner
Beryl Cross This article was written before the cial enquiry was held into the cause death. An "open verdict" was reac',e
j
