I remember the phone call from Alison when we had the first inclination that something was wrong with Pete. I also remember when I was finally able to make it home and see for the first time the distress and heartache that Pete's decision had caused.
This was not my first brush with suicide. Due to the nature of my work I have had four friends take their own lives hence my passion to include the military aspect into the PD profile.
The hardest of these particular incidents was that of one of my very good friends. After our team dissolved, Bruce and I went our own ways but always remained in contact. One of my last chats with Bruce was him saying how bored he was (he had been injured when we were working together but the injury had worsened and meant he couldn’t really work). He was fit again and wanted to get back into the sandpit so he asked me for a job, as he had heard of my good fortune in being promoted. This wasn’t something that was feasible with Bruce being American but that fact didn’t stop me from feeling like I had actually lost a brother and that I had let him down badly when he needed someone, when shortly afterwards I got the call to say that Bruce had taken his own life.
I saw the impact that his choice had made on his family and friends and it is much the same as I remember for my own family. It is how I know that Pete’s Dragons is a vital life line to people who have lost someone through suicide.