Today is David Mark Austin’s 50th birthday. I haven’t heard from him in just over two years. The last time I spoke with him was when he called me in February, 2007. He was in obvious emotional distress; he said that he had really goofed up and asked me if he could stay at our house for a week while he finished making arrangements for an apartment of his own. I told him that would be fine, he’s more than welcome to stay at our house. He didn’t fill me in on any additional information as to why he was in such an emotionally distressed state. He merely said that when he was feeling less emotional, he would fill me in on the details. He hung up, but called me back a little while later and said that he didn’t need to stay at our house after all, that the apartment became available sooner than he expected. During this second phone call, he still didn’t give me any details; he just said that he would talk to me later. But he never did.
I have thought about David off and on over the past two years and have wondered where he was and what he was doing. Every time that I thought about tracking him down, I had the feeling that I interpreted like this, “David is OK and when the time is right, you’ll know where he is”.
So today, I sent out a birthday wish to David on Facebook in hopes that it would find its way to him: “Happy birthday David Mark Austin! Wherever you are!”
A co-worker saw my post and started doing a search for David. This is what he found:
As you may have guessed, I was a bit shocked when I saw this. I don’t have any details as to how he died. As of this writing, I haven’t spoken with any of his family members. I would like to, and someday I will, but in the meantime I know that David is OK and I know where he is.
I love you, David. Thank you for your friendship!
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I know you guys were close and feel it was an oversight on our part to have not contacted you after what happened. Email me if you still have questions.
D.M.A.2