Subj : A Sad Encounter To : All From : Mike Dippel Date : Fri Jul 18 2025 23:05:48 I'm not sure this fits the criteria of this category, but here goes. It deals with mental health issues. Back in April, 1979 I was a Detroit Police Officer working a 2 man car in the area of Belle Isle, an island actually north of Canada. After finishing our lunch on the island, we started to leave the island and saw a vehicle with the door open and the engine running. The owner of the vehicle had stepped out and stepped over the railing and looking down at the rushing water below. I spoke calmly to him in an attempt to get him to climb back over the railing, but I was unsuccessful. He jumped to his death. This has always been hard for me to talk about and is something that has stuck with me for all these years. Inside his vehicle was a wallet containing 2 uncashed paychecks from Pontiac Motors, and pictures of his wife and a one-year old child. For all these years, I wondered what would make a man with money, a wife and child want to commit suicide. 3 weeks ago, I received a phone call on my cell phone. I have a Google Pixel phone that allows me to screen calls and read the live transcription of what the caller is saying. This allows me to decide whether or not to answer the call. It was obvious by the text that the caller was nervous and tense. In short, the caller wanted to know if I was the same Detroit Police Officer that worked the area of the bridge in 1979. At that point, I realized that I had to answer the phone. The caller was that one-year old that I saw a picture of in the wallet of the jumper. She was very emotional when she first spoke. She was crying, and I admit that I was as well. She said that she had been searching for me for years to thank me for what I did for her father: to try and talk him off the ledge, albeit unsuccessfully. It was very cathartic for both of us to speak about this tragedy. After we hung up, we texted each other to say the words we wanted to say but were unable to because of the emotions when speaking. I bring this up here because I wanted to talk about suicide and the mental problems leading to suicide. The caller had years to process this and came to one conclusion: she is satisfied with him taking his life because it is probably better than the alternative where he survived and would possibly go in and out of mental institutions. Her mother did a great job raising her. The mother explained that her father had some mental issues after serving in the Army being deployed to Viet Nam. There is of course a lot more that we discussed, but too much to mention here. That phone call was definitely the most powerful phone call that I ever received. My wife and I Zoomed with her 3 days ago. She wanted me to record the meeting so she could get a copy of the video. That too is the most powerful Zoom call that I was involved in. We will probably be meeting up with her sometime on the future since she lives just 1- 1/2 hours away from us. More to follow? Mike Dippel D.P.D. 1977-1979, when I was put on indefinite layoff status along with 1,000 other officers. --- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v7.0 * Origin: ILink The Hobby Line! BBS hobbylinebbs.com (454:1/393) .