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Eternal rest, Willie

A client of mine suicided Tuesday night. Willie was a gifted, funny teenager, a natural leader and an artful dodger. Other kids liked him, probation officers liked him. I loved going to bat for him after the times when he'd screw up, and he'd light up like July 4 when things broke our way in court. I liked him, and hated what he liked. Somehow I hoped that if he never grew out of the thug life, at least he could live in a straight-edge way. Stupid me. Stupid kid. Beloved kid.Willie dodged and stayed out of JRA a good long time. When he did go away, that wasn't what broke him. He lived too bold and too larger-than-life for the system to break him. Whatever his demon, he struggled against it off and on, sometimes winning, often not, until finally he stopped...continue to full post

Full post as published by Arbitrary and Capricious on June 12, 2009 (boomark / email).