For this one, you must eliminate suspicion about your provoking a suicide.
EULOGY (any gender, mid-teens to early twenties)
I want us to go ahead and have the final morning meeting. God, "mourning" meeting. Bad pun. Maybe.
At camp, we have closing circles before you go home. It's tempting to take what happened to Iris and just run away from it. But Iris was a part of our camp community. A great counselor. A good... friend. And even though it's a shock... what she did to herself last night... it's important that we talk about it. We TALK about things here. I can tell you that back home, I don't really get to talk about my feelings, my sadness, my fears, my... guilt... but...
But I want you to understand that nobody did anything wrong. Well, Johnny went missing for a little bit. But he came back. It wasn't a big deal. The police have serious doubts that Iris drowned trying to find him.
And yes. I can say that to you: Iris drowned early this morning. It was in the pond, just past the grave- just past the churchyard. And it was a suicide. We can say that word: Suicide.
It's a scary word. It's a sad word.
When a suicide happens, people who were close to the person... they wonder what they could have done to prevent it: How could I have not seen it coming? Should I have stayed with her? Was it something I said... why did I have to tell her--
But... but maybe I don't have to talk anymore right now. This is a community. Each of you has the right to share your thoughts and feelings. We'll start with the campers to my left, go clockwise.
Just... just know. That it's sad, it's scary, but we are all SAFE.
Copyright 2016 by Matt Haynes.
If you would like to use this piece, please credit: "Courtesy of Matt Haynes and The Pulp Stage"