The Path Less Clear

We attended today, on-line, the funeral of the twenty-year old son of very good friends of ours, who live in Bath, who committed suicide two weeks ago. Rupert, the father, was in my IESE MBA class and we had met Ivan as a boy when the family visited Barcelona in recent years.

The emotion was raw but everyone managed to hold themselves together to speak well in a very touching service. What a tragedy that Ivan seems to have been so close to getting through the depressive illness that had grabbed him especially hard during the covid lock down.

It was so strange for us to see so many young people at a funeral . . . several young men, especially, clearly and uncontainably moved. One tiny silver lining may be that they come earlier than otherwise to a profound valuing of what truly matters in life - friendship, kindness and love - not that I would wish this shocking learning curve on anyone.

Dd and I gave each other the Ivan-inspired physical hug requested in his memory. I’m sending a virtual one to all of you now. Please pass it on to someone you hold dear.