Suicide is never the answer

This arrived through the post today.

I was driving home from work, my last day in fact, and I must've driven home this way about 1000 times; this time though something happened.

I drove past what looked like a person standing on the end of the bridge I was driving across, it was really dark and I caught them from the corner of my eye. I looked into my rear-view mirror to see what looked like someone swaying back and forth on the other side of the barrier on a ledge, I kept thinking to myself "nah that couldn't be" but then I thought "what if". So I turned my car around sharply just before the large roundabout and headed back up the bridge, and I found a man standing on the edge. I shouted "Hey are you okay"? But I got no response, I tried to shout over the numerous cars passing so he could hear me - "Excuse me are you alright"? He didn't reply but instead shook his head, that's when it hit me; this man is suicidal and is going to jump off of this bridge.

I put my hazard lights on as I was blocking a lane in the road so cars could go around me. A woman must've noticed as well as she pulled up behind me and put her hazards on, she asked me if she should call the police and I said yes. I ran over to him and started talking to him.

He wasn't very responsive at first but slowly I got him to open up. He told me that this was the end and the only place left to go was 'down there' which looked to be at least a 100 foot drop to the bottom, on solid concrete. I was scared, I hadn't come across anybody in this state before. We talked a bit more and I built some rapport with him, his name is Karl and he is 30, homeless, with three kids. He said that life has never been good for him, he lost his job, broke up with his girlfriend and lost custody of his 3 children who were 3, 7 and 11 years old; he lost custody and wasn't able to see them when he became homeless, he lost a court case after she had allegedly accused him of abusing drugs as well as the kids, something he stated as untrue, but nothing he could do about nonetheless. He didn't go into much detail about how he became homeless exactly, but just that he had been homeless for the past 2 years. He told me that he was sick and tired of having to eat his way through life.

The police arrived and what arrived on the scene was a couple of young officers, a man and a woman. I was relieved. but then the policeman started aggravating Karl, he wasn't giving any supportive words but rather asking him lots of questions and demanding that he came onto our side of the barrier; this police officer was obviously inexperienced with handling these situations. Karl became frustrated and told the man to "leave him alone" then when he wouldn't stop, Karl simply said "fuck off". They started edging towards him, then Karl said "I can see you inching towards me! FUCK OFF OR I WILL JUMP RIGHT NOW I SWEAR TO GOD!!" Then bursting into tears right after he said it; the police officers backed away, and then they what looked like to be ushering other police officers behind me away that must of been moving in.

It was just me and him, and a very harrowing, nerve-wrecking reality set in as I looked behind me and scanned the area, there was about 3 dozen or so onlookers and just as many police officers, blocking off the road with police cars everywhere, all of the police had stepped away, not uttering a single word. The only thing between Karl and that solid cold concrete floor was me, I was shaking uncontrollably, it wasn't cold, about 22℃ if anything, but I was shaking like I was standing naked in arctic winds.

I hadn't ever spoken to anyone depressed, never mind someone who was suicidal; but I myself was depressed at a time, severely, for several years. No I couldn't relate to him directly, with his specific issues he was struggling with, but I could sympathise with how he was feeling, that dark, empty feeling of depression that gnaws away at you every day. He looked at me and said "I can't beat it", and I said "of course you can! You can because you're strong! You've come this far and you don't know how close you are to a better life; look at it this way, you're at the bottom, and the only way to go from the bottom is up, things can only get better from here on out". He hadn't told anyone that he was depressed, never mind on the edge of a bridge.

I told him that things will get better, I promised him that. He had travelled all the way from Cheshire (about 50 miles away) to kill himself. It might sound silly but I remember reading an article on Cracked about how to talk to suicidal people on the edge, and one of the points I remember is to keep them talking, it doesn't matter what about, just keep them talking, about food, their family, favourite hobbies, anything, and that's what I did, I talked to him about lots of things.

Karl turned to me and said "I haven't eaten in 2 weeks", I said "come with me and we'll grab a pizza, any takeaway, or I could just give you £10 to go and get something to eat"; he said "I'm not a beggar" to which I responded with "it doesn't mean you're a beggar, I'm just trying to help you like people have helped me; it doesn't make you weak to accept help, the most successful people in the world have had all the help they can get, no one is truly self-made without another's help, please accept mine".

He said "okay, but what are the police going to do if I step back over", I said "They'll just take your details and offer you a ride home (I honestly had no idea what they were going to do, I was just winging it the whole way through). It then went dead silent for what felt like forever, but was probably about 30 seconds, then he threw his jacket over the barrier and stepped on over. The police then proceeded to grab him and he started saying "I'm not a criminal, let me go I've done nothing wrong, I'm okay now I swear!" I stood there awkwardly as about 7 officers took him away, the policewoman told me to wait by my car, which I did. An older policeman then approached me and sincerely thanked me for what I had done, and "that it can be very difficult in times like this, just finding the right words to say, but sincerely, thank you." He said that an ambulance was on its way and if I needed to be checked over, I said that it was okay, that I will just sit in my car for a few minutes. I sat there in my car until I stopped shaking, then I drove off and all of the police officers at the scene, about 20 of them waved me as I drove off.

It was quite funny actually, I drove to the top of the road to turn back and drive home when a policewoman stopped me, she said "there has been an incident" and that I need to turn back, I tried to explain "yes I know, I'm the one who.." she then cut me off saying "SIR, PLEASE TURN AROUND NOW" to which I then obliged saying "alright jeez" under my breath.

The reason I'm posting this on Imgur is because he told me that he liked to browse it in his spare time whenever he sat near a WiFi hot-spot or had any charge in his phone. I tried to get his details through the police but it was a breach of confidentiality apparently. So Karl if you see this then feel free to message me, as I haven't yet been able to be true to my word and get you that meal. I'll travel down to Cheshire and we can share a nice big takeaway, or go to a buffet or whatever you wish. I'd rather this didn't get lost in user-sub so that you have a better chance to come across it. Whatever the outcome I just hope you're okay!

*Edit:

Thank you all so much! The support and kind words really has moved me in a way I never thought possible! This is quite a late edit I know but for those that catch this I want to say thank you for reading and lending such kind words!

I've yet to hear anything off of Karl unfortunately and since this has fallen from the front page I will have to try other methods of contacting him, and I am currently making many phone calls with the little details I have about him to hopefully get in touch. Also a big thank you to all of those that wish to donate gift cards and money etc, but I couldn't accept any of it until I found Karl, and I'm not sure how to set up a fund me for Karl and whatnot so don't worry about it; when I find him I'll treat him to a nice big dinner on me and most certainly make a follow up post, with his permission of course!

Actually something that made me chuckle was that when I had just finished my shift at Asda I was still in my bakery uniform with my jacket and everything, so as I was speaking to Karl I had pancake mix and flour all down me, with a jacket that said 'We're happy to help' written on my back - I was an absolute mess but you can't always look your best at times like these :')

All of this has just shown how amazing and supportive of a community Imgur actually is, and how amazing each of you are individually. I know it was a long read, I hope it was worth it, and from the bottom of my heart - thank you.