The Sad Legacy of a Suicide

 

A mother sits alone tonight, wondering why her 20 year old daughter jumped from the Angus L. McDonald Bridge. The bridge, completed in 1955, links Dartmouth to Halifax and is the bridge I take every morning to my job in Halifax. Some say 6 people a year jump from this bridge to their deaths, their depressions so deep that out of desperation, they jump to their death. 

  

 Tonya Kalos, pictured above behind the lady in the wheel chair, and a picture of her distraught mother, mourning the loss of her young daughter who's life is now gone. Tonya talked about suicide quite a bit, often wondering how deep the water off the bridge was. It's a sad waste of a young life too short to know what life was about. Apparently she jumped from the Dartmouth side and landed on the concrete below, missing the water and was killed instantly. Passerby found her body that night at 11:30 PM. 

On the Halifax side of the bridge, anti-suicide barriers have been erected over the bridge ends. It's called the Luminous Veil, a beautiful word that describes bars arranged to prevent one from climbing over and jumping. The only reason why the HRM put up the barriers was the Department of Defence was going to sue the city (HRM) because people were throwing stuff onto their land & property, and, also jumping to their deaths. 

If you think suicide is limited to a few people and a few landmarks, you'd be wrong. The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the largest suicide magnets in the world and does not have a suicide barrier in place yet. If you haven't seen The Bridge, I suggest you watch it, below is a trailer showing several stories of people who have jumped off the bridge.