By Ellen Cans
A 24-year-old Brooklyn woman jumped to her death from the top of the Vessel in Hudson Yards on Tuesday morning. She wrote an intelligent, kind and heart-breaking farewell letter on Instagram and scheduled it to drop one day after.
“If you’re reading this, I’m gone,” Yocheved Gourarie wrote in the post, revealed after her tragic leap. “I hope you can find some comfort in knowing I am no longer in pain.”
As reported by the NY Post, on Tuesday, Gourarie, of Crown Heights, took the subway into Manhattan headed for the Vessel, a popular tourist attraction, at which another suicide had taken place in February. Moments before 11:45 a.m., she leaped off the top of the structure. EMS pronounced her dead at the scene.
“I don’t care to go into the reasons why I’m gone, but there are certainly more than thirteen. I scheduled a note to send to my parents posthumously….Even just publishing this may pain them. I don’t want to do that, I just want to leave my last mark on this world,” her note reads.
Her final note concludes by saying: “All of you have made my life so much more full, brighter, and happier than it would have been without you. Your support, your encouragement, your hugs, your invitations, your smiles, your texts, your tagging me in memes you think I’d find funny.”
“None of you could have done anything – or done more – to prevent this from happening. You all did your absolute best and for that I am eternally grateful. I hope you can find some comfort in knowing I am no longer in pain. I love you.”
Gourarie had a bachelor’s degree in psychology and neuroscience at CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College, as per her LinkedIn profile. In earlier Instagram posts she had revealed that she struggled with mental illness, and anorexia, and she expressed gratitude for the support she had received. “I am also blessed with an incredible support system of friends and family, something that many others with eating disorders aren’t fortunate to have,” she had posted in August 2019.
Gourarie had spent two months at Center for Change, “a wonderful residential facility in Utah for women struggling with ED,” or eating disorders, her grieving father, Avremi, posted on Instagram on Friday. “We are only finding out now how she gave of herself to others and how many lives she touched. I guess I should feel blessed that we [were] given 24 short years to have and to hold her.” He added, “Life will never be the same.”
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please get help by contacting the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255.
