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Learning too late

Ellis remembers trading MySpace.com chats with 16-year-old Dustin Link the night before he took his own life. They'd long been friends, but had not been in regular contact in recent weeks as Nevada Union High School juniors.

 

“We had fewer classes together and we'd only see each other every now and then,” Ellis said. “I just thought we were both busy.”

 

She said she remembers Link writing about trouble he was having with his car's power steering.

 

She said she simply sent him a note to remind him, “I'm always here to talk to you. Miss you.”

 

But she would not hear from him again.

 

“He was the funniest person ever,” Ellis said. “He was always laughing. He was always the one cracking the jokes. That's why I was so shocked.”

 

She wondered whether the fact that she had not seen Link leading up to his suicide was actually him withdrawing from friends, one of the signs she now knows to be common among suicidal deaths.

 

That she learned of such warning signs after the fact — the day after, in fact — was not lost on her.

 

It spurred something within, she said.

 

“I remember, the next day teachers were handing out information on suicide warning signs and I couldn't help but think ‘This is a little too late,'” she said. “I mean, it's great they were educating kids, but the reason why was because of my friend. I felt at the time, what else could I do? Was I a bad friend?

 

“I remember thinking ‘This is what I should have seen.'”