<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Dante-Gabryell Monson</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dante.monson@gmail.com">dante.monson@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
Date: Sun, May 8, 2011 at 7:14 PM<br>Subject: Australia : Man Lives on cliff and talks down suicide jumpers...for last 50 years<br>To: <br><br><br><span style="line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"><div>
Sounds meaningful - who will take over when he passes away ?</div>
<div>Working in the field of life insurance, and developing a vocation , talking people away from suicide by giving them a hospitable alternative...</div><div><br></div><div>----</div><div style="font-size: 16px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<br></div><div style="font-size: 16px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-weight: bold; font-size: 10px; line-height: normal;"><a href="http://current.com/http://gawker.com/5563648/meet-the-australian-whos-saved-160-people-from-suicide" title="http://gawker.com/5563648/meet-the-australian-whos-saved-160-people-from-suicide" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(10, 154, 215); outline-width: 0px; font-size: 1.4em;" target="_blank"><font color="red"><b>MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "current.com" claiming to be</b></font> http://gawker.com/5563648/meet-the-australian-whos-saved-160-people-from-suicide</a></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 16px;"><br></div><font size="3">Meet the Australian Who's Saved 160 People from Suicide</font><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<font size="3">Don Ritchie lives across the street from the most famous suicide spot in Australia: A cliff known as "The Gap."�</font></span><div><span style="line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">(�</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gap_%28Sydney%29" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gap_(Sydney)</a>�)</div>
<div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">Most people would move, but Ritchie's stayed for almost 50 years�saving an estimated 160 people from suicide.</span></div>
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</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">So what's his big secret? Ritchie wakes up every morning and looks out the window for "anyone standing alone too close to the precipice." If he sees someone who looks like they might be contemplating a jump, he walks over and... strikes up a conversation.</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">He just gives them a warm smile, asks if they'd like to talk and invites them back to his house for tea. Sometimes, they join him.</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">"I'm offering them an alternative, really," Ritchie says. "I always act in a friendly manner. I smile."</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Ritchie's house might be the worst real estate ever. One person a week commits suicide at the "the Gap," the cliff he lives across from. It's protected only by a small, one-meter fence, despite its legendary reputation as a suicide spot dating back to the 1800s.</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">But the former life insurance salesman says he doesn't feel "burdened" by the fact that people are always contemplating jumping to their deaths outside his house. In fact, he and his wife Moya see it as a blessing: "I think, 'Isn't it wonderful that we live here and we can help people?'"</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Obviously, he's not always successful, and, at times, he's had to physically restrain people from jumping while Moya calls the police. But it isn't necessarily traumatic:</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Despite all he has seen, he says he is not haunted by the ones who were lost. He cannot remember the first suicide he witnessed, and none have plagued his nightmares. He says he does his best with each person, and if he loses one, he accepts that there was nothing more he could have done.</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Ritchie, who basically sounds like the nicest guy in the entire world, is 84, and has spent much of the last year battling cancer. But, as you might expect for a dude who's managed to live across from a fucked-up, tragic place, and not become a casualty himself, he's optimistic: "I imagine somebody else will come along and do what I've been doing." I hope so.</span></div>
</div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a>� - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br>
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