A time to be there for each other

The hopes of a family were dashed this week with the discovery of the body of FBI Special Agent Stephen Ivens in the foothills above St. Francis Xavier. Ivens’ wife, Thea, bravely refused to give up hope that her husband of eight years would return to her and their 2-year-old son, but it was not to be.

It looks more and more as though Ivens used his service weapon on himself — it was found near the body — near the time he was reported missing in early May. The massive searches, the online pleas for help, and the news conferences all ended in tragic stillness on a hill above a church.

Suicide — if that’s what this turns out to be — is far from painless, and leaves more questions for a woman, now a widow, and her child. Though answers may be hard to find, we hope Thea Ivens’ neighbors, and the larger Burbank community, find a way to soothe the pain by simply being there.

Sometimes it is enough, and in times like this, it may be the only thing we can do.