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.
Telephones connected to the Skyway sit apart from the others.
You never know what to expect. One caller had a telephone receiver in his hand and a leg over the railing, said counselor Pamela Smith. He was intoxicated. He said his wife didn't love him anymore and he couldn't live without love. Troopers had trouble finding the man.