She Killed Herself With Kindness

She had a tendency to always look on the bright side. She, if you will, viewed the world through rose colored lenses. If it was not “positive” or “uplifting”, she wanted nothing to do with it, she did not want to hear it or see it. If you could not say something nice, then you should not say anything at all – that was her simple philosophy. This is the way that she lived her life and the way that she believed others should live their lives, so much so that she would not socialize or associate with anything or anyone who ever even thought to speak a negative word.

She was a happy woman on the surface. Well, wouldn’t you be happy too if you turned a blind eye and rejected anything negative? Wouldn’t you be happy if you never had to confront the darkest parts of yourself and the world? Wouldn’t you be happy if you could just remove anyone from your life who tried to make you acknowledge that there is bad both in the world and within you? Yes, she was happy and always wore her signature smile. Such a superficial smile. So much kindness.

One Sunday morning, she sat in her cozy living room drinking her sweet cup of coffee while listening to her favorite songs that brought about positive vibes and feelings to her. This Sunday morning was like any other Sunday morning, except, she was overcome by an overwhelming odor coming from her back room. Though the door was closed because that back room is where she stored everything negative, ugly, smelly, and unpleasant. She never went into that room unless she was throwing something that threatened her peace into it. On the rare occasions when she would let her friends and family visit, they would comment on the smell coming from the room, she often dismissed their concern as it was negative. She even went so far as to stop anyone from coming into her home because she could not stand to hear their negative observation of the foul odor coming from her back room. Her neighbors, her friends all stopped visiting, knocking on her door, and even calling because she would dismiss their concern as negative if they commented on the horrific smell in her back room, that she had apparently gone nose blind too; besides, she hadn’t smelled it before that Sunday.

She continued to sip her coffee ignoring the horrific fumes that penetrated the backroom’s door into her pleasant and positive living room. For days she sat in her living room, smiling, listening to her sweet positive music until one day, the fumes in the backroom became so intense that she was unable to breathe. She continued to smile struggling to breathe not acknowledging that the life was leaving her body. She continued to smile until every breath in her body was gone.

Two months later, The Department of Health knocked on her door due to the complaints of her neighbors, however no one answered. Her neighbors thought that she was just ignoring the knocks as she had often expressed that she was not interested in hearing anything negative. The Department of Health called the fire department who knocked her door down. Upon entering the apartment, they were first overtaken the smells that filled the entire apartment. The smells were so strong that they had to wear gas masks. They entered the apartment ready to confront the woman about the fumes coming from her apartment; they were shocked to find a smiling decaying corpse holding a cup of coffee with soft music playing. “My God! What happened?” one neighbor asked from outside of the opened apartment door. Another neighbor standing next to her replied “She killed herself with kindness!”