No doubt everyone who thinks of the Carly Henley that they once knew, or never knew, keeps wondering and imagining where 36-year-old Carly would be in life today. If they had the opportunity, most anyone would settle for just having Carly in life, today.
It seems doubtful that society all around us has learned anything truly significant about suicide during the time since Carly's passing. We want to believe that, like medicine, the understanding about suicide and what motivates it doubles every 7 years, as they say.
There just isn't anything around us to indicate that experts are making any inroads with regard to suicide prevention.
Suicide rates in the USA remain what they've long been, with steady rises more the rule than the exception. We all want there to be better numbers when a Carly Henley is involved - somebody that nobody can imagine not admiring and wishing the best for.
When you're the person hosting those unimaginable thoughts and you're resolved to do something in response, you probably can no longer recognize that you are a Carly Henley or that people all over the world would race to help, if only they had known...
We read periodically about people who are on the edge... some literally on the edge, before they are talked down by a caring soul who happens to be nearby at just the right time. That's what random people might do for anyone if placed in the moment at the crucial time.
Just imagine how much concern Carly Henley could raise if her ilk could somehow get her feelings out there, perhaps anonymously.
Maybe the "Go Fund Me" concept, only for those immersed with suicidal thoughts:
"Come Save Me" might appeal to a whole lot of people who might never contemplate suicide themselves - they could be the caring souls missed by so many in their final hours.
Whatever brought on the suicidality too often masks the sincere interest that others would have in helping the affected person. And it certainly had to mask the social worth and appeal to the Carly Henleys of the world. Just her musical talent alone, for those happily in the audience at a local coffee shop, had to be enough to make anyone pause with thought about her.
No one would ever allow themselves to imagine she might be in a dark place deep within. Maybe that's a curse - when your exterior and your seeming zest for the world around you is such that nobody pauses to see anything deeper. But you keep offering what they want because all they've communicated is that they like your music and your delivery.
They evolve to think that you're happy, and you think they're happy for the musical performance you've shared. There's no depth, there's no connection. It's a ritual shared by millions all over the world. Something about the steady introduction of that approval at least seems deeper than the hypnotic, sometimes tiresome approval of your exterior self which echoes all around your being.
Thinking of Carly Henley on still another birthday long after she left this Earth.
