ANGEL @ SUICIDE GAP

Of utmost grief moments, depressed and desolated souls stuck out atop the Suicide Cliff in dilemma to end their lives, a gentle voice shattering the wind waves just as an angel whispering, "Why don't you come and have a cup of tea?" would ask.

The Angel, Don Ritchie, considered as a guardian angel living across the street from Australia's most notorious suicide spot, a rocky cliff at the entrance to Sydney Harbor, otherwise known as “The Gap” has energized countless people away from that suicide edge for almost 50 years in his life and how wonderful, this former life insurance salesman says, to save so many and so money for the life insurance companies.

As per statics, around one person a week commits suicide there and efforts are made to build a higher fence and enhance security, but Ritchie keeps up his voluntary watch and Ritchie and Moya, his wife of 58 years were named as 2010's Citizens of the Year.
Each morning, he climbs out of bed, pads over to the bedroom window of his modest, two-stored home, and scans the cliff. If he spots anyone standing alone too close to the cliff, he hurries to their side. Ritchie once rushed over to help a man on crutches. By the time he arrived, the crutches were all that remained.

But he remains available to lend an ear, though he never tries to counsel, just gives them a warm smile, asks if they'd like to talk and invites them back to his house for tea. I am offering them an alternative, really," Ritchie says. "I always act in a friendly manner. I smile.” A smile cannot, of course, save everyone; the motivations behind suicide are too varied. But simple kindness can be surprisingly effective. Mental health professionals tell the story of a note left behind by a man who jumped off San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. If one person smiles at me on the way to the bridge, the man wrote, I will not jump.

This former Navy seaman now battles with cancer and his advancing years have taken their toll though every now and then, he looks up to scan the horizon for anyone who might need him.

He says he'll keep doing so, he says, for as long as he is here.

And when he's not?

He chuckles softly. “I imagine somebody else will come along and do what I have been doing." He gazes through the glass door to the cliff outside with a smile on his face.