a sad ending to a wonderful friend
 

i'm so close to yelling i can't even begin to tell all of you all. this afternoon at around 3:15 cdt i received a phone call from mike, the owner of the flight school i work at on the weekends.
me: "hey mike"
mike:"hey. (loooooong pause) scinto's dead"

god. where do i begin. i'm so heart broken i don't know. i'm tearing up now as i type this. i met scinto back in 2002 when i was studying for my instructor rating, in a bar. yeah, in a bar. i can study a helluva lot better with distractions than i can alone in silence. anyway scinto has had some problems over the years, be it alcohol or drugs but when he was sober, he would give anyone the shirt off of his back to keep them warm or dry. whew. this is hard. i'm going to cut to the last 3 weeks.

a week ago friday scinto calls me and tells me he's stuck in the mud over at pearland (our home airport, we are opening a satelite location in a nearby town which is where i was located) while we're waiting for someone to drive along to pull him out he tells me that his AA sponsor got him all fucked up. "what?" i asked...he said "yeah, he asked me to go on a retreat which turned out to be a bunch of fucking weirdos! i'll explain when i get there, i'll get someone to pull me out." and he hung up. about 45 minutes later he showed up and proceeded to tell me how his AA sponsor took him to a "cult" retreat. i'm an open minded person. he isn't. he's very susceptible to actions by other people. he tells me that he was held against his will and forced to dance naked around a bon fire and that if he tried to leave he'd be killed. i could see in his eyes that something wasn't right. he was truely scared. i suggested that he dump his AA sponsor and chapter and go with another to which he quickly agreed to. then we just started bsing about other stuff. flying, chicks, friends then he left for home. that was the last time i spoke with him and saw him.

last thursday he showed up at the airport and was drinking, albeit with no intention of flying, he "quit" flying several months prior. a tell tell sign something wasn't right with him? maybe. then again maybe not. you'd have to of known him. i can't explain that part. he's gone off before, but not like this. apparently (i was not there) he left to give some guy a ride home who is not the most desirable people to hang out with. a coke addict. my heart just fell on the floor. no it's not me, but i know this person and can't wait to confront him. god i feel the hate coming out. HOW IN THE FUCKING HELL CAN SOMEONE WHO HAS NO DIRECTION IN LIFE FUCK UP SOMEONE WHO DOES!?!?! AND WHY IN GOD'S NAME CAN HE LET THAT HAPPEN TO HIMSELF?!?! HE HAD FRIENDS TO CALL. WE WERE ALWAYS THERE FOR HIM BUT GODDAMNIT WE COULDN'T BABYSIT HIM. WHY IN THE FUCKING HELL DID HE AGREE TO GIVE CRACKHEAD A FUCKING RIDE HOME WHEN HE KNEW GODDAMN WELL WHAT HE WAS GETTING INTO? WHY WOULD HE PUT HIMSELF IN THAT F U C K E D U P SITUATION?

alright. sorry for the drama, but i don't express myself in typing very well.

the owner of the flight school got a phone call around 5 am friday morning from crackhead that scinto was waving a shotgun around and threatened to shoot him. that's the last we heard. i called scinto friday, saturday, sunday, and monday as well. nothing. voice mail. then i got the phone call today. he had shot himself in the head. rummor has it that there is no head left. fuck. i don't even know why i'm putting this here. to get it off my chest i suppose.

good night all. and remember: no matter how bad it seems, things will always get better. and I sincerly mean that. suicide is NOT THE FUCKING SOLUTION!

more on the wonderful part later. right now i'm still pissed at the hurt that he caused his family and friends.

Plthijinx, I am so very, very sorry for the loss of your friend. My words, all words, are woefully inadequate to the task; but I am sorry and I do feel a bit of your anguish. It comes through your post, I can imagine your anger, sorrow, confusion. You have helped me today by sharing this with me. I will reflect on your friend, and I will offer you my sincerest wishes for healing. God bless.

thanks bri, and your welcome.

scinto was a character. we'd always try to out land each other, bust each other's chops whether it was on the deck at the school or on a beach surf fishing, or just hooking up for lunch. i remember this one time, no not at band camp, walked up at the school with this goofy ass look on his face and said you'll never guess what just happened to me. we all looked and listened on: "i was driving down I-45 and my cell phone rang, so when i answered it some guy asked me if i wanted a blow job! shit, i thought it was one of y'all so i said 'sure, why not, i haven't gotten one in a while. promise to play with my balls too?' then the guy was like sure! let's pull over! and i was like 'who is this?!?' he said 'see the blue truck in front of you and in the middle lane?' then i remembered that i'd just put my company name and phone number on my truck and said 'uhhm no thanks, i gotta go now'
by now we are on the floor holding our guts we're laughing so hard! then someone asked him, can't remember who, 'so do you still have the number in your caller i.d.?'
always pretty quick witted he said "no, i deleted it so i wouldn't be tempted to call him later." man. we got some mileage out of that one! we had fun with that for about a month. i'll see if i can resize a pic of him that i have here at work so y'all can put a face to the name.......

I'm sorry you lost a friend, plthijinx. You may never know exactly what was going on inside him to make things come to this, but you can always cherish the good memories. Hope you feel better after awhile. :(

gah. sorry plthijinx. suicide is the absolute worst thing to cope with in the world. even worse than murder, imho. prayers to the family and you and your friends. :(

thanks guys

may 1st of 2002:

I'm sorry Plthijinx, that seems so wrong. I don't know what to say. Life doesn't make much sense sometimes.

Damn damn damn. I am so sorry hijinx - Lost a close friend the same way on January. We knew he had some issues, but no-one ever even considered the idea that he might take his own life. I don't think he did either until that moment. I'm really trying to stop asking "why", and just be grateful for the time that he was a part of my life, and never forget the cherished memories. Here's a big hug for you and his other friends.....

I'm terribly sorry... I know that situations like this are tough. My thoughts are with you, his friends and family right now.

Wow, I'm so sorry plt. That's just terrible...

thanks again everyone. yeah, i'm trying to forget about wondering why and am trying to focus on the better times. that's why i mentioned the story above on his bj proposal. *chuckle with a smile*

the night i met him we exchanged phone numbers and agreed to go fly the next day to which we did. god this is embarrasing. we had just moved to pearland and where we were set up, there wasn't a concrete ramp. just grass taxiways and it was hard to tell where to turn off onto them. well it had rained real hard either that day or the day before i don't remember, but anyway, yours truely was taxiing a piper tomahawk (a little bubble shaped cockpit funny lookin' 2 seater thing) and after the flight i uh, well i turned short of the grass taxiway and got into the goopy mud. i buried that damn plane all the way to a prop strike! that prop slung mud all over that plane!!! nothing was damaged since the ground was so wet but geeze. having to pull that thing out of the mud by the tail tie down with a truck was sooo embarasing. lol. i caught shit for that one for a loooong time!thanks again everyone. yeah, i'm trying to forget about wondering why and am trying to focus on the better times. that's why i mentioned the story above on his bj proposal. *chuckle with a smile*

the night i met him we exchanged phone numbers and agreed to go fly the next day to which we did. god this is embarrasing. we had just moved to pearland and where we were set up, there wasn't a concrete ramp. just grass taxiways and it was hard to tell where to turn off onto them. well it had rained real hard either that day or the day before i don't remember, but anyway, yours truely was taxiing a piper tomahawk (a little bubble shaped cockpit funny lookin' 2 seater thing) and after the flight i uh, well i turned short of the grass taxiway and got into the goopy mud. i buried that damn plane all the way to a prop strike! that prop slung mud all over that plane!!! nothing was damaged since the ground was so wet but geeze. having to pull that thing out of the mud by the tail tie down with a truck was sooo embarasing. lol. i caught shit for that one for a loooong time! :smack:

Hang on to the good stuff....tight.
I've been fortunate that none of my friends have offed themselves except by doing stupid shit. Come to think of it, that may apply here too. :(

One of my Dad's best friends jumped off a high bridge in the middle of winter and I think that haunted Dad for the last 25 years of his life. I think the problem was Dad refused to talk about it with anyone.
You're doing the right thing, plthijinx. Talk about it with everyone....get it out there, especially with anyone that knew him. Hell, we're always here, man.

btw- Stay the hell away from the crackhead...it really won't help you and it could cause you a lot of grief. :headshake

Bizarre Twilight Zone shee-at............my friend who shot himself's mom just called - I havent' heard from her for a while. Weird. She must have sensed I was thinking about him.