On Thursday, a friend gave me details on sad news I had heard in early August about a Zuni dad taking the life of his family and himself.
Ever since the start of the new school year, I was waiting to see Russell at the school grounds and wondering why he wasn’t there.
He was a likeable and pleasant person. Near the end of the last school year, we made plans to work out together for an hour every day after the summer break.
Russell was someone who would blend in right away with any group. He was always happy and pleasant.
His wife too was beautiful and graceful.
I would see this couple almost every day as they dropped off or picked up their two young sons at Zuni.
The two boys were playful and pleasant. Every morning I would see them at Zuni playground playing happily, bringing joy to Russell and his wife with their games and laughter.
I liked Russell and his family since they were likeable.
A kind, sweet, and pleasant family.
The news that it was Russell and his family came to me as a shocker Thursday. Russell killed himself, his wife, and his two boys due to financial trouble and job loss. This was the last chapter of a loveable family’s life.
I wish Russell had talked to me about his problems.
Six years ago, the movie “House of Sand and Fog” got Oscar buzz. The plot revolved around a house which was repossessed and auctioned since the owner Kathy (Jennifer Connelly) had not paid her mortgage on time. The bank sold the house to an immigrant family, a fight that ultimately ended with the death of all members of the immigrant family.
The movie started and ended with “Is this your house?”
At the beginning of the movie, Kathy responds affirmative to this question while at the end she responds negative since evidently she no longer feels she is the owner of a house for whose ownership no one helped her, not even her mother, brother, friend, the law, or the government.
Kathy’s house symbolized a country in which human and ethical relationships are sacrificed for money. Money which, according to President Nixon, is not everything in America
Naturally there is no sense of ownership in such a house.
And when money is known as the means of ownership, it takes away peoples’ self-confidence.
When self-confidence no longer exists and money is everything, you will perceive yourself at the end of the line and done for in the face of financial trouble.
Money, home, job aside, Russell had more important things in his life. Things that were way more precious: A kind wife and two loving boys.
It is a pity that he did not value these treasures.
Russell took his own life and that of his family due to imminent loss of his home in Scottsdale
Dear Russell,
I go out for the workout daily as we had agreed to do though I will never see you again. But I will always say to myself: “I wish Russell had talked to me”.
Dariush Sajjadi
Saturday October 3, 2009
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