Every once in a while, one reads in the newspaper stories of someone killing his family and commiting suicide.
One (at least I) think most of the time of it in rather abstract ways: "what a pitty. Those poor people. And what a tremendous loss for society...". Most of the time these things happen far away, in another part of town, in another country, or so we would like to think.
Alltough it's nonsense of course, it provides some safety, to think of it as: "well, you know... Those people are very different from us. The see things in an entirely different way!".
But sometimes it hits home.
On january 6th, a sunday, a 60 years old partime forester/park ranger went into the house of his former girfriend, a nurse in her thirties. They broke up just before new years day.
His friends later told the investigating police officers that they had the impression that the man was OK: "Such a split up is never pleasant, but we tought he was coping very well...".
Hi didn't.
After shooting his former girlfriend, he called the local police station:"I've killed my former girlfriend. I will kill my son and finally myself!".
A massive search was immediatly launched: lots of cops, volunteers, search dogs, a helicopter. The works. A few hours later the remains of the man and his son were found in a nearby wood.
We heard it first on the radio news. "Multiple homicide in the village of Moerbeke-Waas. The police is searching the area".
When my girlfriend logged in on Facebook, there were already some messages from other parents in the neighborhood: "did you hear about that situation in Moerbeke? That killed kid attended the same school as our children!".
The school my daughter attends has a policy on teaching kids "responsability": the kids between 6 - 12 years of age have to take care of a kid from the kindergarten at noon. They have to acompany the kid to the school cantine for lunch, and after lunch back to the school's playground. All carefully monitored by kindergarten nurses and teachers. I consider it a very wise thing to do. It also means, that any kid knows any other kid in school, regardless of age or attended class.
That killed kid's name was Lars. He was only 4 years old and, according to my 7 years old daughter, "a nice kid. Well... Not always that nice, but generaly spoken: a nice kid". More or less what she wrote in the mourning register at school.
Yesterday evening there was a silent wake, organised by some unnamed volunteers. A few hundred people attended. A local newspaper headlined the wake as "the impressive silence of the villagers of Moerbeke", see
Moerbeke indrukwekkend stil voor slachtof... (Moerbeke-Waas) - Het Nieuwsblad .
Only losers, here. There are no winners.
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