Just like any other day...

June 20, 2007 -it had been like any other day, stessful, running my kids here and there, like any other mom. Later in the day my daughter and son were helping there father to move from his place to a nice apartment, one with a pool. He had been drinking, not unusual. As my daughter tells the story he and my son started arguing really about nothing, he was drinking and hard to deal with, again not unusual. It quickly escalated to thier father getting physical with his son this was unusual, he was in an alcohol induced blackout I am sure of it, but he had his son in a choke hold and he couldn't breath he was turning blue, his daughter walked in and begged, actually screamed for him to stop, for him to let go, she knew he was going to kill her brother. They were on the floor so she started kicking him over and over he wouldn't let go, she finally kicked him in the face and he finally let go. The kids ran, sped off in thier cars and came home to me, when they arrived at home one at a time they collapsed into each others arms sobbing, distraught. I considered taking my son to the hospital, he had some bruising but he insisted he was fine. Then thier father called desperate and so drunk, at that moment he didn't remember that is daughter, his baby girl had kicked him in the face to save her brother. He was desperate begging his son to come back and threatening suicide. I called his mother asking for help, asking her to help him, he was her son, the father of my children but my ex-husband, she needed to take over she needed to help him. She had had enough and said "tell him to do it." I would not, I could not ever tell someone who at one time had been the love of my life who at one time had been the most incredible father, who at one time was a normal contributing member to society to kill himself, my kids needed their father. I told him to go to sleep that we would talk in the morning when he was sober. I never got the chance. On June 21, 2007 at about 7:00 a.m. the father of my children called 911 and told them, "I am going to shoot myself please come so my kids don't find me this way." He hung up the phone and shot himself in the chest with his sons hunting rifle.