Australians are mourning the death of the man known as the "Angel of The Gap", who stopped hundreds of people from leaping to their deaths at Sydney's most notorious suicide spot.
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The Gap at Watson's Bay and Sydney Harbour Photo: Alamy |
From The Telegraph
By Jonathan Pearlman, in Sydney
Don Ritchie, 85, who lived across the road from The Gap – a treacherous coastal cliff in Sydney's east - would stop people in distress and say: "Is there something I could do to help you?" Hundreds of strangers subsequently stopped for his "kind word and a smile" and then changed their minds about jumping to the rocks below. Some had laid their shoes, wallets and a note on the coastal rocks and were poised to leap before being gently coaxed back from the edge. Officially, Mr Ritchie saved 160 people over the past 50-odd years, though his family believe the number is closer to 500.
