Surprisingly, he became ill about 2 years ago. Even stranger, instead of getting better, he only got worse. Even so, when the idea of voluntarily ending his life came up, I was taken aback.
You see, he did not have leukemia or Aids or anything that 'regular' people understand as causing a slow drawn-out death attendant with bank-breaking medical costs; he had allergies. Well, there's more to it, actually. He'd moved home to his country of birth after being an expat for many years. This involved transplanting his business as well as estate. The place he chose was idyllic in every way... except for the fact that it made him physically ill. So severe were his allergies that despite being virile and active, he found himself 'under the weather' on an increasingly frequent basis. This progressed to time in the hospital where it was determined that he had to move to a different climate or slowly perish in paradise.
While ill, he was unable to work regularly and lost client after client, burning through his savings in the process. He finally decided to pull up stakes and move his home and company to another part of the country, for the sake of his employees and clients, as well as his own health. In order to do so, he needed a business loan. This should have been simple enough, given the long-term stability of his company. But red tape reared its ugly head and he was told that because he'd been out of the country for so long he would have to show financial statements from a certain number of years, proving that he'd been conducting business in that country. Only, he had not been there long enough yet to meet the loan criteria and became too ill to do business, and each day had less and less money available for the move that was necessary to get him healthy and working again. And thus, the downward spiral deepened and sped up.
The climax of the situation came when he stated that the only way he could go on living was to raise a specific sum of money, and he asked if I knew anyone who wanted to invest in his company to pay for the corporate move and get things up and running again. He was actually more worried about the welfare of his employees than his own well-being. He further informed me that since his health was daily deteriorating in his current environment, if he didn't raise the funds needed, he saw no other option but to end his life, legally, with the assistance of doctors licensed to handle euthanasia as is legal in his country of residence. I was floored, to say the least. He was the last person on the planet I would expect to be ill, let alone to the extent that he would seek to end his life. He was just too darn full of life for such a course of action.
Financially, he faced a deadline. He needed to raise capital by a certain date or he would have to lay off his staff and close his business, thereby losing his sole source of income. As the days ticked by, funds trickled in, sometimes in dribbles, other times in deluges. We chatted daily about this and that, with lots of time spent on spiritual topics as well as light-hearted joking. Finally, he stopped responding. I was aware that his parents had passed and that he had no relatives with whom he was involved. It was just him. And so I had no one to contact to ask what was going on.
He'd chosen the date of his father's passing (a few month's hence) as the date to effect his farewell. At one point he told me that he'd decided to move the date up to sync it with the financial deadline. He was matter of fact and logical about the decision from the outset, saying it was practical and that he was ready to go. As the date got closer, he became more desperate to gather the funds to beat the deadline and stay alive!
The day in question has since come and gone weeks ago. Whereas we used to interact daily, none of my messages have been returned. I don't want to assume what's transpired, but....
For now, Guillermo will remain in my most devout prayers. And who knows, maybe one day I'll find a happy surprise in my message box.
No comments:
Post a Comment