A Killer's Family

This essay on NRO by Jennifer Roback Morse reminds me of something that I meant to write about the other day, that is, how awful it must be for the parents of that young man. I once had a boss, a retired Navy Captain, whose son killed himself (over a girl) two days before he was supposed to graduate and get commissioned in the Navy. For a year afterwards, I would find him occasionally just sitting at his desk, staring out the window, lost in his own thoughts. There is little more tragic than losing one's child and I can't think of a worse way to lose a child than through suicide. But add to it the knowledge that your child took with him 32 innocent bystanders has to be unbelievably devastating. I don't have any idea how one could cope with that.