My son was wise beyond his years. He wanted to see American Beauty because Thora Birch was in it. We talked about the fact that it was a "dark" movie. He wanted to see it anyway.

Was this one of the first clues that we should have been aware of? That there was a dark side of his brain that we'd never know about?

It was one of his favorite movies of all time, and every time I see a plastic bag tangled in a tree's limbs, I think of him.

He would have been 36 this month. He died by suicide at 31.