That's quite a plunge from bridge to river. Photographs by Gregory Tejeda |
We’re
more likely to hear of someone taking a plunge into the Chicago River – where
the pollution likely would infect them with something more deadly than exposure
to icy-cold water.
PART
OF IT is that the Skyway is 10th Ward – that far southeastern corner
of Chicago that often feels ever so isolated. Plus there’s the fact that
getting onto the Skyway isn’t that easy without a car. And even with one, there
really isn’t a place to park it before jumping – you’re likely to get hit by a
motorist somewhere along the 7.8 mile stretch before you can take the leap.
Unless
you want to stop off at the McDonald’s franchise on the Skyway near the
Illinois/Indiana border. How depressing would it be for one’s final image of
life to be Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar? Or to learn that the particular
McDonald’s franchise has gone out of business. No final glimpse of “Mayor
McCheese” for you, bud.
So
it is with that premise in mind that I read the news report from the Chicago Sun-Times
about the person who got onto the Skyway, then took a plunge into the Calumet River.
Which
for all I know is even more contaminated with industrial waste than the Chicago
River ever was.
The Calumet River, a place where salt and sludge are stored openly |
OF
COURSE, CONSIDERING that the Chicago Skyway toll road is nearly 200 feet in
the air, that would be one heck of a plunge – one that theoretically could kill
someone before being exposed to the Calumet River water.
I
was surprised to learn that the person who jumped Monday afternoon was actually
still alive when pulled from the water by Chicago Fire Department rescue crews.
Taken
to Advocate Trinity Hospital, the person was listed in critical condition initially, but then later died. Officials were not immediately willing to identify the woman, but said it is an apparent suicide.
Now
I don’t know anything more specific about this incident other than what the
Sun-Times was able to publish on their web site. I don’t know anything about
who this individual was – or why she felt that life wasn’t worth living any
longer.
The area bridge most people know - the Blues Brothers |
ALTHOUGH
IT WOULDN’T shock me to learn in the future that some of my cousins, aunts or
uncles who still live on the Southeast Side may well have come into contact
with this individual at some point in their lives.
Neighborhoods
like South Chicago, the East Side, South Deering and Hegewisch do have the feel
at times of isolated rural towns – feeling cut off from the rest of the city
and sometimes even from themselves.
I
do sympathize with this person, wishing they could somehow have found something
in life to make them realize just how much it is worth living.
I
know in my own case, the recent death of my brother has had me pondering more
often in recent weeks about what the afterlife, if there is any, is truly like.
Truly an isolated part of Chicago |
BUT
IT ALSO has me convinced of the need to make what is left of the rest of my
life as worthwhile as possible.
Because
I suspect if there is an afterlife and I am destined to meet up with my brother
again, he’ll be waiting for me and would pound the living daylights out of me
if I were to let my loss of him totally devastate me into accomplishing nothing
else with my time alive on Planet Earth.
I’d
like to believe that the most significant thing I accomplish in my life has yet
to be done. That’s the best way I can think of to pay tribute.
-30-
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