Phillip Herron Obituary, Death – This is the last photograph taken of Phillip Herron, 34, who was seen crying in his automobile just moments, or maybe seconds, before taking his own life.
He was a single father with three children, fighting to get out from under a mountain of debt that totaled more than $20,000, and he was anxiously awaiting the approval of a payday loan he had filed for. However, it was paid in arrears, with a five week wait time in between each installment. Because of this wait, he fell even more into debt; at the time of his death, he had $4.61 in his bank account and was obviously unable to see any other way out of his financial situation.
He, like a lot of people, especially men, kept all of this to himself; nobody else was aware of how awful things were going. He kept it to himself because he thought it would make him look weak. This sad dad had to break the news to his children that Santa Claus wouldn’t be visiting this year, and in his note of suicide, he wrote that they’d be better off if he wasn’t around any longer because they’d have less of a burden to bear without him. And at this point, he is not. We need to have more conversations. We need to be gentler. And as a nation, we need to get better at helping one other out when we’re in the most dire of straits.