When I was fifteen I came across a young man, he was eighteen or nineteen at the oldest, and he had his head in his arms and he was crying. I wanted to make sure that he was okay. He told me that when his girlfriend (who was a couple of years younger than him) became pregnant they had both been thrown out and disowned by their families.

They had been living out of their car since then moving from place to place. The baby was now a few months old. Both of the parents were addicts and his girlfriend had been threatening to kill herself.

I had told him about Suzie, who was this social worker who worked with underprivileged kids in the community, I was pretty sure that if anyone was going to help them it would be her. His girlfriend came back and she was just... unhinged. They had been in a terrible position for a long time.

She was screaming at her boyfriend about being replaced, at me for being there, while holding their baby who had started to cry at the yelling. I had been about to go to get Suzie but I just froze. I don't do well around that kind of anger. I don't remember quite what happened in between, but she had put down her son and then she slit her wrist about three meters away from me, while kneeling in front of him. It just seemed to happen really fast and I didn't realise what was happening until it was too late. I don't even know what she used. Then she just started screaming.

The hospital was about about half a kilometer along the road and I took off. It didn't click that they had a car, or that the building halfway along the road might have had a phone. I think I was in shock. My in shock self is apparently a moron.

I don't know if it was a serious suicide attempt or not, but they did save her. The last I heard their son had been in foster care for several months but they were looking into reuniting them.