Welcome! This blog is a laboratory wherein I conduct ongoing experiments with language. Sometimes those experiments manifest themselves in poetry, short story, personal narrative, or something new. Please check out my work and feel free to ask questions or make comments. I blog because I want to connect with other readers, writers, and thinkers - do not hesitate to contact me and even share links to your own work.
Showing posts with label suicide hotline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label suicide hotline. Show all posts
Friday, February 11, 2011
Placed on Hold by the Suicide Hotline
Before my Mami met my Papi and created a brood of big-nosed children with him, she worked as a telephone operator at a hospital in Miami. One night she received a call from a man who wished to speak with someone about his suicidal thoughts. My mother tried to transfer the man to the hospital's suicide hotline. Mami was surprised when the hotline representative placed her on hold before she could get a word out. They put suicidal people on hold? she thought. She was more stunned when she heard the on-hold music: Peter and Gordon's "A World without Love" was playing on the Muzak station. People called this suicide hotline to be talked out of offing themselves and the hotline not only "experienced high call volumes," it also played a song which featured the refrain, "I don't care what they say / I won't stay in a world without love." Brilliant. :)
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