Terry's friend Alvaro recently died at his own hand. Suicide is a serious issue in our country and people commit suicide for different reasons. Depression can lead to it, some of the medications that people are prescibed have the side effect of causing those who take it to have suicidal thoughts. There is help if you think a friend or loved one is having thoughts of suicide:

-There is a National (U.S.) suicide hotline: 1-800-273-8255
-Your local or nearest Emergency Room should be equipped and staffed on how to be of help (at major hospitals, maybe not so much at small county hospitals)
-Most counties now have a consumer/public information hotline that will inform you about agencies in your area that can help you
-The internet has information from valid sources such as www.webmd.com , major research hospitals (e.g. UAB, John Hopkins, Emory, etc.) and there are support groups that can be found for families and friends of those who have committed it

In closing, I am sorry for your loss Terry. If you need more information, email me and I'll be glad to help.

We were very sorry to hear about this, Terry.

Our prayers are with you and Alvaro(and his family and friends).


-J/S

Thank you so much.
I wish I had known more about how to spot someone with those tendencies. Maybe therapy or medication could have helped. I truly appreciate you posting the 800 number.

Terry

I'm so sorry Terry to misunderstand.....I thought you were referring to some guy named Alvaro....not Al Rio

I didn't notice this until I just checked out your FACEBOOK page. Apologies for the misunderstanding of the comic world's great loss.

Thank you Zenos

I have seen you do this before---it's just an idea---"What if you made a banner on the gallery that links people straight to Al Rio's art in the gallery and features a scene of his work like you have in the past to honor 'an artist of the month'?"

Maybe people would look at his area and if you left a line about donating to his family or a line or two about linking to www.alrioart.com and then donating??

Just some ideas to help out,

Zenos

I will definitely do something like this in the near future - thanks for the great suggestion.
Right now I'm just so slammed with orders I don't have time to do anything extra. But that's something I'll definitely do when I have time to.
Thanks again.
Terry

I hope the orders are still coming in

For now, yes. It will dwindle in time unfortunately.

Well...maybe the more rare Al Rio art becomes...the more it will be worth