When is Death the only Option?

I recently learned that an acquaintance of my husbands committed suicide over the weekend. I will spare you the details, but needless to say it was shocking. He seemed like a nice enough man; wife, children, big house. I cried when I heard this news, wondering what would compel someone into thinking that death was the only viable option? How bad was it for him?

In high school, I had friends who died, whether it be by accident, or suicide. Their deaths troubled me. How could you take your life at 17 years old when you had so much ahead. Maybe that was the problem. The ahead was too overwhelming and scary.
As a youth in college, I saw a film in a Philosophy class about this very subject. When is it okay to take your own life, or better yet, when does death become the more noble, honorable way out of ones life? This film presented numerous scenarios, and as a viewer, I began to understand that sometimes, in some situations, death is the better way.

My prayers to the family, this man leaves behind. His parents, friends, business associates, his wife and children.

Immortality

"The first condition of immortality is death."

Stanislaw J. Lee

I love this quote. A heady reminder that to achieve eternity one must lose their most precious possession; their life. Is it a fair trade? Is it one I would make? All novelists writing about vampires much address the issue of immortality with their vampires: is it a gift or a curse? In the last episode of TruBlood, Bill Compton and Sookie Stackhouse are walking past the cemetery where his wife and children are buried. How strange and disconnecting that must be?

I once asked my husband Marvin what if you could live forever? We were walking through the historic district of my hometown one summer night and the topic naturally turned to vampires. His response was so touching. He said that he would have a hard time watching his two children grow older than him and then die. Not being a parent I had never thought about it. In the natural order of things, most children do outlive their parents. To watch them age, suffer and then die much be surreal indeed and lend such a sense of disconnect to your life.

For a vampire, it must be so strange and sad to watch your mortal family do the same. In Immortal Obsession, one of the vampires is faced with his offspring begging him for eternal life when she is faced with her own death. When she is turned by another vampire, she forever carries a grudge against her father for refusing to give her such a great gift. This impacts his life in present day New York. The consequences of our actions and our decisions.

What would you do if given the chance at immortality? Be honest.