Robin Williams: He Lives Among the Stars

“I love you. I miss you. I’ll keep trying to look up.” – Robin’s daughter, Zelda Williams

Robin Williams was a good man. He was an artist overflowing with talent. He was devoted to his family and lived a quiet life. Unwittingly, his suicide was the most attention grabbing thing he ever did. I hope the light shining on this desperate act is redirected to his illness. Robin suffered from debilitating depression. That he chose to take his own life, shows how severe it was.

It’s well known that he struggled with addiction. Just last month he checked himself into a treatment center in Minnesota to reinforce his sobriety. In a statement last week his wife Susan said, “Robin’s sobriety was intact and he was brave as he struggled with his own battles of depression, anxiety as well as early stages of Parkinson’s Disease.” It’s rumored, that at the time of his death, the actor/comedian was taking prescription drugs to help control the symptoms of depression and Parkinson’s disease. One of the side-affects of these drugs is suicide. We may never know if this is what caused him to take his own life. What we do know is a brilliant man is gone and the people who loved him are heartbroken and baffled as to why.

“Tears may be the beginning, but they should not be the end of things.”

-Eleanor Farjeon

One thing is for certain, Robin wouldn’t want the world to focus on the horror of how he left. Our energies would be better spent on ways to prevent the kind of anguish he lived with. Perhaps Robin McLaurin Wiliams’ passing will draw attention to the massive cuts being made to mental health services across the country. It would bring meaning to something that didn’t have to be.

I believe in an afterlife. In my mind’s eye, I can see Robin in the heavens. He still has that irrepressible grin, and his humor is intact. He is free, and that twinkle in his eye lights up the night sky.

For a short, beautiful You-Tube tribute to Robin Click Here