27 May 2004

She once was lost, but now is found

Police found the missing author, Helen DeWitt, alive.
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1 comment:

Helen DeWitt said...

The police are our friends.

On the way to Niagara Falls I got many heartrending messages from my mother and sister and thought I could not put them through this. I checked into a hotel. The next day I headed for an Internet cafe to book a ticket to Buffalo to buy a ticket to Washington, where my mother lives. I was stopped by a policeman who said he must take me to the emergency psychiatric ward, but I would be released upon discussion with a psychiatrist. Many hours in the waiting room followed. My mother was forced to fly to Buffalo and make her way to Niagara Falls to get me out of the hospital. Staff at the hospital then explained that it was necessary to admit me overnight because the psychiatrist had left for the day.

This was all VERY good news for the hospital, which was then able to charge me $1600 for one night's stay on the ward. Well, if you think about it, it makes sense: if you want to milk someone of $1600, who better to pick than someone on the brink of suicide, who is in no position to defend herself? It was awfully nice for my mother, too.

If I understand the reasoning correctly, the idea is to make the would-be suicide see that we actually live in a world of really really really nice people by, um, stealing from people in no position to defend themselves. You can tell somebody is insane if she thinks this is not really really really really nice.

What can I say? One day all those really really really nice people will be at rock bottom and someone really really really really nice will come along and help them out. I do hope so. I do so very much hope so.

8:27 AM

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