I’m sitting at San Jose Airport waiting to board a JetBlue flight to New York for a week of fun, sun (well, snow), and excitement in Armonk and Somers. The weather in New York earlier today was not good, so the incoming flight was delayed, and therefore, my outbound flight was also delayed by about 90 minutes.

I took advantage of the delay to have lunch at home instead of bringing it for the plane (of course, that means I’ll be bringing dinner for the plane instead of eating it at JFK — I think I come out ahead anyway).

Clearing security today was no hassle (unlike two weeks ago, when it took about 45 minutes). And when I got to the gate, I was very surprised to see baskets full of snacks and drinks available for the taking — I’d never had an airline do that for a mere 90-minute delay. Especially a weather-related delay, which really was out of their control. I was impressed.

I’m beginning to think that JetBlue’s slogan, “we like you, too,” isn’t entirely puffery!

A few days ago, Garrett pointed to one of Al‘s old blog entries titled “Suicide is Painless-Not!”

I read it, and went about my business.

Today at the end of Torah Study, Rabbi Aron said that [name] was in the ICU at Kaiser Santa Teresa and that the prognosis was negative, and that his husband, [name2], would welcome visitors. She went on to say that [name2] didn’t want any misconceptions about what had happened: [name] was suffering from depression, and had attempted suicide.

After services, we ran into mutual friends in the parking lot who said that Rabbi Aron was going over to the hospital to talk with [name2], who was ready to sign a DNR order for [name] — so if we were planning to visit, now was the time.

So we rearranged our tickets for Pride and Prejudice and went to the hospital to do what we could to support [name2]. We had no problems finding the ICU, and other friends were going in at the same time, so we went directly to [name]’s room. He was lying on the bed, with a ventilator breathing for him, hooked up to various monitors which kept beeping ominiously from time to time. [name2] was in the hallway behind the room, with yet more friends (I’m sure we were well over the hospital’s visitor limit). He greeted us and said that he was waiting for the neurolgist’s report, but that all signs indicated that all that was left was to say “goodbye” to [name].

I don’t know if [name] felt any pain. I do know that [name2] did.

[Name2] said that the reason he hadn’t tried to “protect” [name] by telling people that there’d been an accident was that he thought that if people knew what had happened — that [name] had attempted to kill himself because of depression — that it might help someone else. And especially that it might convince someone who saw that someone else was talking about suicide (or was just depressed) to get that person some help.

And that’s why I’m relating their story. At this point, it’s the most useful thing I can do for either of them.