The Last Exit

Troubleshooter · 03-09-2005, 09:00 AM

Whole article here.

The Last Exit
By Bethany Kohoutek, Rocky Mountain Bullhorn
Posted on March 9, 2005, Printed on March 9, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/21442/

At 1:25 p.m. on Jan. 4, Laramie County Sheriff Danny Glick received a letter with a Cheyenne, Wyo. stamp, postmarked the previous day, and immediately had two deputies dispatched to a home on County Road 110A, a few miles west of town.

On the same day, staffers at the Casper Star-Tribune and the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle opened letters bearing the same postmark. Kerry Drake, assistant managing editor at the Star-Tribune, was one of the first to see its contents. The envelope contained a double obituary and a final opinion column penned by Helen Levine, a regular contributor to both newspapers and a personal friend of Drake's.

"I just stared at it, totally disbelieving," he says.

Ethan J. Levine, 50, and Helen G. Levine, 73, died together through united self-deliverance on New Year's Day ... .

Cremation, it read, had already been arranged.

There will be no service. Those who wish to make a contribution in their memory may do so to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association or any wildlife protection organizations.

Around the same time, deputies arrived at the Levine residence, a modest and tidy cream-colored home situated in a neighborhood of small ranchettes and acreages. Following detailed instructions from the letter mailed to the sheriff, they located a key hidden in a magnetic holder stuck to the electricity meter behind the house and used it to unlock a door leading to the garage. Once inside, they discovered a pickup truck still running, its gas tank half full. A hose ran from its exhaust pipe up into a thin crack, stuffed with towels, in the front passenger-side window of a green SUV parked next to it.

Inside were the bodies of a man and a woman, lying down in the back, holding hands, surrounded by pillows and blankets. Deputies also noticed the corpses of two pet cats, one resting between the couple, the other curled at the woman's feet. The Laramie County coroner would later report that carbon monoxide had taken the lives of all four.

In the following days, friends were quoted in the local papers as saying that, despite their shock at the Levines' action, they weren't surprised the well-known and well-liked couple had faced death together. The two were deeply in love, and they'd been heard at various times saying they couldn't live without one another.

"Later on, I realized Ethan and Helen would have planned as much as they possibly could," Drake says. "Still, it was kind of a tough way of finding out. It was a hard loss to accept."

Contrary to popular belief, made-for-TV movies and selective media coverage, people aged 65 and older are more likely to claim their own lives than those of any other demographic. With the recent and notable exception of author Hunter S. Thompson, who was 67 when he died last week in his Woody Creek home of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, many slip by without mention, even in their own obituaries, where the cause of death is often listed only as "a sudden illness."

Rest of the article here.

Catwoman · 03-09-2005, 09:25 AM

That's not true love that's true fear. I feel for the cats.

xoxoxoBruce · 03-09-2005, 06:28 PM

Quote:

One of the factors that distinguishes elderly suicide victims from any other age group is their sheer determination to end their lives. In general, older people have fewer prior suicide attempts and use deadlier means than younger individuals.

I highly recommend reading the rest of the article.

elf · 03-11-2005, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catwoman

That's not true love that's true fear. I feel for the cats.

I disagree. It's not fear. It's resignation. It's deciding that life's not worth the pain of continuing.

All the 'if only's keep running though my head. I think the biggest one is if only there were pain medication that actually worked well enough and didn't cause so many detrimental side effects. . . well, then getting old wouldn't be quite so terrible.

I hope that such a medication exists by the time I get old (hell, <i>now </i>would be nice, too...), or I might follow that same route. Having suffered through a helluva lot of back pain already puts me at a level of understanding for making a decision like that. (I thank vanity so very much for corsets!)

I feel pretty damned useless. I do keep encouraging my boy-child to follow in his dream of becoming a scientist. Maybe someday he'll make a difference at some of these things that I am useless for.

Ok, yeah, I'm rambling. I'll shut up now.

03-09-2005, 09:00 AM	#1
Troubleshooter The urban Jane Goodall Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Florida Posts: 3,012	The Last Exit Whole article here. The Last Exit By Bethany Kohoutek, Rocky Mountain Bullhorn Posted on March 9, 2005, Printed on March 9, 2005 http://www.alternet.org/story/21442/ At 1:25 p.m. on Jan. 4, Laramie County Sheriff Danny Glick received a letter with a Cheyenne, Wyo. stamp, postmarked the previous day, and immediately had two deputies dispatched to a home on County Road 110A, a few miles west of town. On the same day, staffers at the Casper Star-Tribune and the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle opened letters bearing the same postmark. Kerry Drake, assistant managing editor at the Star-Tribune, was one of the first to see its contents. The envelope contained a double obituary and a final opinion column penned by Helen Levine, a regular contributor to both newspapers and a personal friend of Drake's. "I just stared at it, totally disbelieving," he says. Ethan J. Levine, 50, and Helen G. Levine, 73, died together through united self-deliverance on New Year's Day ... . Cremation, it read, had already been arranged. There will be no service. Those who wish to make a contribution in their memory may do so to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association or any wildlife protection organizations. Around the same time, deputies arrived at the Levine residence, a modest and tidy cream-colored home situated in a neighborhood of small ranchettes and acreages. Following detailed instructions from the letter mailed to the sheriff, they located a key hidden in a magnetic holder stuck to the electricity meter behind the house and used it to unlock a door leading to the garage. Once inside, they discovered a pickup truck still running, its gas tank half full. A hose ran from its exhaust pipe up into a thin crack, stuffed with towels, in the front passenger-side window of a green SUV parked next to it. Inside were the bodies of a man and a woman, lying down in the back, holding hands, surrounded by pillows and blankets. Deputies also noticed the corpses of two pet cats, one resting between the couple, the other curled at the woman's feet. The Laramie County coroner would later report that carbon monoxide had taken the lives of all four. In the following days, friends were quoted in the local papers as saying that, despite their shock at the Levines' action, they weren't surprised the well-known and well-liked couple had faced death together. The two were deeply in love, and they'd been heard at various times saying they couldn't live without one another. "Later on, I realized Ethan and Helen would have planned as much as they possibly could," Drake says. "Still, it was kind of a tough way of finding out. It was a hard loss to accept." Contrary to popular belief, made-for-TV movies and selective media coverage, people aged 65 and older are more likely to claim their own lives than those of any other demographic. With the recent and notable exception of author Hunter S. Thompson, who was 67 when he died last week in his Woody Creek home of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, many slip by without mention, even in their own obituaries, where the cause of death is often listed only as "a sudden illness." Rest of the article here. __________________ I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law. - Aristotle

03-09-2005, 09:25 AM	#2
Catwoman stalking a Tom Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: on the edge of the english channel Posts: 1,000	That's not true love that's true fear. I feel for the cats. __________________ I've decided I'm not going to have a signature anymore.

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