Falling to freedom

Tuesday night, the girls get together to celebrate summer, graduation and the fact that we're an awesome group of women :) After a great meal, we sit on the deck, enjoying the night and having many laughs.
We hear the neighbor boys (who we'd never met, just saw in passing) come home and Pam yells "Hey boys! What are you guys up to tonight?". Soon after, Tyler and Conor are sitting on the deck and we've finally met the neighbors.
It all started with a simple question "So how's your summer going?". We asked this to our neighbors, Tyler and Conor. It's a simple question, one we ask to create small talk and fill the silence with words.
They told us about their friend Dav, he'd been missing for 10 days and they were pretty sure that he wasn't coming back. That night, I am sure that Tyler and Conor couldn't have ended up with a more compassionate and caring group of people. We listened openly and tried to put ourselves in their shoes. Impossible. I honestly wouldn't know what to do if any of the girls disappeared for any length of time and we knew that they weren't coming back.
It's been on my heart and mind since Tuesday night. Shook up by it all, Maja and I talked about it on the beach while recovering from the night before. What would we do if one of us girls went missing? When someone is so fed up with their life, is it ok to leave it behind? If they've been upset and feeling down all their life (and have seeked help), as a friend, is it ok to let go and tell them it's ok to pass away? Would we be happier knowing that our friend is no longer sad? We'd then lose a friend and we'd miss them terribly. All of these questions didn't really have answers. We discussed them but nothing really came of it. When jumping off a bridge, when does one die? We agreed that realistically they'd most likely drown. The myth is that people die of a heart attack, however I strongly doubt that, otherwise the vast majority of bungee jumpers and sky divers would be dead. For the sake of our own peace of mind, we agreed that mid way through the fall, they'd slip away, feeling free (and hopefully not filled with thoughts of regret).
Tyler and Conor left for Banff yesterday (where they're from) and over the course of yesterday evening, I caught myself glancing over every time I heard the creek of the gate or the sound of foot steps on gravel. I guess I somewhat took over care of guardian, waiting for Dav to come home. Who knows if he ever will walk through those gates again. I hope he does.
I don't know why this has hit me so hard. I guess it's made me think of life and death. It's brought me back to my conversation that I had with Eric about death a couple of years back. He believes that after death we shouldn't be sad. After a time of mourning, we should celebrate the person's life. I agree but I find it hard to do (I tried to practice this when Minette passed away). Perhaps it's because I didn't know Dav at all. Sure I'd seen him walk in an out of his basement suite, I'd jump every time I was studying and he'd slam the gate (my desk is right next to the gate but there's no window so I can't see if any one's walking up to it, I only hear it slam) and we'd exchanged a couple of hellos and simple conversation but really, I can't claim to have known him. It's been interesting.