Guest column: Brock: Sobering reality of the holidays

I received a call late Sunday morning from my daughter Amanda, and the fact she wanted to talk to me before her mother seemed odd.

Amanda told me our friend, Larry, had taken his life and after exchanging small talk about how much we would miss him, we talked about our concerns for his family, the son he left behind and how she had lost touch with him in recent months.

She finished our conversation with comments about how suicide seems to happen far too often around the holidays.

I handed the phone to my wife to discuss happier topics surrounding Christmas celebrations and thought about...