Extended Family Drama

Why do we get our self in these situations? Sometimes I wish we could just keep our mouth shut and not care so much about other people.

Thursday night Brenna and I are sitting there watching TV trying to get thru all the shows we had DVR'd thru the week. Ron was at work, so it was pretty quite. Brenna was also IM'ing with a 2nd or 3rd cousin who happens to be in Iraq with the Army. They had just recently started chatting in the last few weeks and she had kept telling me he really needed a friend. This is Ron's side of the family and he is not close at all with this kids parents as they are ultra religious and basically don't tolerate people who don't have the same beliefs as they do. Whatever.

I had noticed Brenna's fingers flying faster and faster on the keyboard, but didn't say anything. Finally, she pauses the TV and looks at me with tears in her eyes and says she thinks Chris is going to commit suicide. WHAT???? She shows me the conversation they had been having and he was definitely saying things like "I don't want to live like this anymore, life isn't worth it, you will have to get used to not talking to me anymore" stuff like that. What would you think?

So, we both proceed to somewhat freak out. We call Ron and he gets ahold of another cousin who will call the parents. Brenna gets on the phone to suicide prevention hotline and spends the next hour and half trying to find the right person to talk with to get this kid some help. I call the mother and tell her what he has been saying. She freaks out too and tells me he is already on anti depressants. She gives me his contact into and by this time Brenna has been passed to the Red Cross who promise to do something. They actually call her back and tell her they have talked to his commanding officer and he is getting help, so we feel a whole lot better.

All thru this Brenna is still trying to talk to him on line but he is no longer responding. His mom had told me he sounded really down when she was chatting with him earlier that night too, so we were just really concerned.

Yesterday morning we wake up to all sorts of nasty emails and facebook messages from Chris. He is totally pissed that we "interfered" with his life and now "have messed up everything for him". I'm still not sure how to take those statements. Did we screw up his plans to kill himself? If that's the case, no problem. Did we screw up his career in the Army by reporting this? Was he crying wolf and is mad that somebody actually listened to him and cared?

I am not sorry we did what we did and I would do it again if I read those types of messages. I hope his parents understand that their kid needs some help either way. But I mostly hope this doesn't cause any more family drama for Ron's side but I'm not going to hold my breath. This side of the family likes to keep their secrets so I have a feeling we will be judged harshly for stepping in. Oh well.