A place of beauty - Today, a place of death.

We went to Greenan Castle today, snez and I, one of our favorite places to lie on the grass and and relax.

When we arrived, normally empty, 3 people were there - 2 Polish guys and the girlfriend of one (also Polish) Nice people who shared their bar-b-que with us................

20 minutes later one guy was dead. Fallen from the castle window onto the shore 50 feet below........

I was first down and knew he was dead...............

I phoned the emergency services and was told to check for pulse etc.. I had already.......

So I sat with Thomas his friend - a stranger from another land while snez looked after margareite 50 feet above us and waited, and waited...........

Two phone calls and almost an hour later a helicopter was circling overhead. It finally landed and from a crew of four a woman finally emerged. She walked towards me and I took her to the body. She turned and made a slashing motion across her throat in the direction of the helicopter.................

Then we waited. 2 paramedics turned up and 2 more doctors emerged from the helicopter - finally the body was covered up.

It was explained to me that we would need to wait for the police to take statements............

They finally came - 10 police..........four paramedics..........2 doctors ...........and before we left there had been 3 helicopters...........

They had all probably saw death before - I hadn't.

So they stood around and gossiped, talked about logistics (tide was coming in)

Only human characteristic was a doctor thanking me for staying with a stranger and giving him support.

What was worst? When we finally had to leave them.........police would not interview them without an interpreter and driving back to town............ we had just witnessed death - close up and sudden - life goes on..........

z