Sat, May 17 2008
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Published May 10, 2008 09:08 pm - Still a mother, Nana Depression took her son, but mom celebrates day anyway By Travina Coleman Phoenix Features Writer
Pam O’Connell remembers wandering alone in the cold, up and down the long driveway to her son’s apartment complex, waiting for something she has never truly found — peace. She had received a call from his girlfriend telling her that her son had shot himself. “It was awful,” she said. “I was in shock, I couldn’t think.” Her son, Kelly O’Connell took his life March 2, 1999, when he was 26 years old. In the bitter cold of the evening Pam could find no solace to her confusion and her pain. She said the minute police officer Scott Shields grabbed her and hugged her, she knew he was gone. “They wouldn’t let me go in,” she said. “All I could do was wander around.” Pam said she knew someone had taken her to the hospital but she couldn’t remember who. “I still have no idea who brought me, or even what car we were in,” she said. Pam said she had no idea her son’s depression would take away her best friend. “Kelly got depressed after difficulties in his personal life,” she said. “I knew he needed help so I took him to my doctor. He gave Kelly medicine and told me to make sure he took it every day. So I went to his apartment every day to make sure he did. I thought he would be okay. Four days later he was dead.” Pam remembers her son as a person full of life and promise with many loyal friends. “Everyone loved him,” she said, wiping a tear from her eye. “I loved him.” She said she never saw depression as a disease before. “I know now how quickly depression can overtake you and make you think the things you once lived for weren’t worth it anymore,” she said. “It’s a very serious affliction.” 
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