Victor D'Altori, an honest, self-reflective acting teacher in Los Angeles, had cancer repeatedly. He did the treatments, the chemo, he fought for his life, a life he loved, but the physical pain, constant at a seven on a scale of ten, kept coming back. He still had joy, but the unrelenting pain put a negative wash over his existence in his body. After all, we experience this life in this one vessel.
Victor told his loved ones that he planned to exit his body with intention. He challenged the notion that suicide is a snide, selfish, angry act. He did not want to hurt anyone, and this in fact, caused him to stay longer than he wanted. He was in pain, he had no way to remedy that, so under those sad circumstances, he wanted to leave. He wished it were otherwise, but he saw no choice but to take action.
Brendan Brandt, a young filmmaker, decided to document Victor during this challenging stage of his life. Victor agreed. These two men grew attacted during the filming process. Brandan tried to give Victor something to live for and set him up to teach one more acting class. Victor was a wonderful teacher, whose students adored him and were positively affected by the exercises and lessons he shared. Victor loved it too, but it was not enough to overcome the reality of unrelenting pain.
Brendan wanted to change Victor's mind about suicide, but Victor, still in pain, had consciously, over a long time, evaluated his situation, and he knew what he had to do. One of my dearest friends did this recently.