Just heard that a former co-worker of mine (from two former employers) has died.
I actually mentioned him in a thread here a few weeks ago. He was the guy who was so depressed by what he felt were irredeemable flaws in a table he'd built, that he abandoned a woodworking hobby. But he'd often say that "some day" he might try again, "when I have the time".
Turns out, after a forced retirement (job-loss), he had the time, but used it to drink himself to death. Pushed away everyone he knew, friends and family both, and spiraled to what by all accounts was a very lonely and bitter end.
Sigh.
I'd lost touch with him, because he stopped replying to emails. (Turns out, that wasn't unique to me.)
And I wasn't very close, but we shared some good & bad times on the job, and he was usually a genial fellow to work with.
I'm just having a hard time reconciling that person and the person who found life so painful that they ended it. I knew he tended depressive, but most of the time it seemed more like performance art than something he couldn't cope with.