This quick little article is not a funny one this time around. When I look for odd articles of things that happened in the past, I typically come across quite a bit of death and I’ve become somewhat numb to it. However, this one from the Detroit Times on April 26th of 1909 just struck me for some reason.

NURSE KILLS SELF. TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., April 24. -Esther Heller, 25 years old, a nurse at the Northern Michigan insane asylum here, committed suicide last night by swallowing carbolic acid. Miss Heller, who was pretty, carefully planned the deed. She had been in ill-health for sometime, but her friends say her physical condition was not serious enough to drive her to end her life.

Esther was a young woman, who according to the article, was pretty. She had what was presumably a tough profession, as asylums of that time were likely not very forgiving to anyone. It seems as if she had a rough life. There was nothing of note in the article as to who she was or what she meant to her loved ones. I couldn’t find any other evidence to her existence. Esther existed and died. People of the past are not always people of history, which really brings your own mortality and inconsequential existence to light. It reminds us to cherish the present times with the ones we love, because that is all we will truly ever have.

I am not sure if the artist Banksy is a beautiful artist or a fraud, but he once said, “I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” Today, Esther lives on, and I hope you and your loved ones do too.