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Why did Faye's dad kill himself?

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TheEvilDog:
Why would Mr. Whitaker kill himself?

Certainly wasn't physical health problems, the medical examiner proved that.

Certainly wasn't financial trouble, it would have come up when Faye told Marten about what happened, and when she visited her mother and sister. If it was for the insurance money, than that was a complete screw-up of a plan because insurance companies will not pay out on suicide.

Certainly wasn't unemployment because that would have come up as well.

Certainly wasn't to escape an abusive relationship or environment, because as much as Faye's mother may have disapproved of Faye's father adding bourbon to his milkshake, its quite apparent from what we've see, Faye's father deeply loved his family. And it's shown afterwards by Faye's mother commenting on the headstone.

Was it stress? Or grief? Depression? Was Mr. Whitaker actually an believer that all life was absurd and that there was no point in living? Or was he told he had Parkinson's or early onset Alzheimer's and decided that rather than letting his family see him fade away a little bit everyday, he would get up, watch the sun rise and pull the trigger.

Who knows. Because we don't. All we can do is speculate until Jeph decides what happened. And to be honest, I can tell you that isn't going to happen, ever. People rarely have a reason as to why they commit suicide; its often a case that it happens and then you have family and fiends left behind trying to make sense of why someone they loved would kill themselves. I say this from experience, not personal, from seeing the effect of suicide. There is a town near where I grew up, maybe a population of 8,000, about a decade ago, it was named as the town with the second highest rate of suicide in the world. Just let that sink in for a moment, small town, maybe 8,000 people. And it's suicide rate was enough that it elevated it to the second highest in the world. 34 young men killed themselves over the course of three years, nearly a rate of 1 every 34 days. And many of the families still have no idea why their loved ones killed themselves.

Because the truly horrifying thing about suicide is, sometimes, there is no reason.

ThomasEll:

--- Quote from: Redball on 08 Jun 2013, 13:30 ---I had the same thought as Eddie on first reading The Talk, and in my naivete and before discovering the forum might even have asked Jeph (no answer that I recall). What reinforced the thought was the top panel here, and the looks from mom and sis.

But later, I decided I'd read too much into that. And I agree with IICIH, that it's better and better art not to know.

--- End quote ---

To be fair though, the page before she talks about how she told her dad about losing her virginity. She then went to college for about two years (her dad committed suicide between her Sophomore and Junior years). I'm pretty sure that if she had been sexually abused as a child she would remember it. Although I don't really have any experience to back that assumption up, it just doesn't seem likely.

Loki:

--- Quote from: Eddie 88 on 08 Jun 2013, 15:40 --- Honestly, as the child of one alcoholic non-entity parent and one physically abusive parent, I really, really envy people who have super-close relationships with their parents. If I was ever so lucky as to get married, and have children of my own, my only hope could be to be as close to them as Faye and her dad were (assuming no abuse, which is probably correct, but it's still fun to speculate).

--- End quote ---

I should probably note that my opinions of how close normal families are, too, rely on observation from afar.

Is it cold in here?:
We've seen her therapy sessions. Dr. Buenvenida should know what sexual abuse looks like and how to probe for it, but didn't seem to suspect anything of the sort.

Redball:
That's conclusive to me. Maybe I give too much insight to shrinks, but sure she would have seen it.

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