18 March | 0:01  |  doris

small world! i just met someone at the seattle times (thru an intense five-day program, so we became very close), and here's what she had to say:
I found out Monday afternoon that one of my friends from college committed suicide. His name was Eran Karmon, he lived down the hall from me in college, we lost touch, he went to get a Ph.D. in statistical physics, then came to do a summer internship at the Seattle Times. He was one of the best science reporters I've ever met, I almost peed in my pants once laughing over some prank of his, and I will never be able to comprehend the darkness he faced in his life. ... the best way to honor his memory is to live our lives most fully and to just be compassionate toward others.

27 March | 21:44  |  jennifer karmon

eran karmon was my husband's brother. i can't even begin to describe how strange it is to come across this almost-random mention of him.

there is so much i want to say, but i hardly know how to say it or what to say, except to tell anyone reading this how deeply sorry i am for you, that you never met him and that you'll never *get* to meet him.

i do want to say, though, for the record, that our family does not think eran committed suicide. we think his death was unintentional. i know that sounds like the sort of deluded thing you'd expect any grieving family of a suicide to say, but there are solid reasons for our belief. we are asking the seattle times to publish a clarification or amplification (not a correction, because it *was* investigators' official conclusion, and he did "die at his own hands," as the obit originally said before the copy desk changed it); we'll see.

by now, though, with the associated press having picked up the news, the "fact" of his suicide will probably proliferate, i am sorry to say. i feel certain that eran would be mortified to know that people believe he committed suicide. maybe it serves him right.

and doris' seattle acquaintance is right about what sorts of lessons to draw from this, if there are any. in fact, it's kind of uncanny, but if you go to jdate.com, i think eran's posting is still there (he called himself "ghost of slug," a reference to a dearly departed family cat, and he lived in berkeley). he said much the same about himself -- living life fully and being compassionate toward others. in my more bitter moments, i just wish he'd been a little more compassionate toward us, his family and his loved ones and the rest of the world, who deserved better from him than this.