Her mother, Barbara Klein, found the letter after Donna didn't come home the night of Aug. 23, 1993. It's hard to discuss. Suicide is in that category of thorny subjects people don't like to discuss. Many can speak openly now of prostate cancer, breast cancer and divorce, but stumble over mental illness and suicide. Many newspapers, including The Tampa Tribune, don't write about suicides unless they happen in public places.
People close their eyes.
It doesn't affect them until their child's best friend kills himself. When it matters, it's usually too late. When a suicidal person picks up one of the six solar-powered telephones on the Sunshine Skyway, a line rings at the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, miles away in north Tampa. The telephones are monitored around the clock by counselors, who have 46 hours of training in crisis intervention. Those counselors juggle all types of calls from people contemplating suicide to teenagers asking about masturbation.