Young man from Ohio jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge
The identification of the human foot found at Doran Beach in February solved a local mystery while it closed the final chapter for a grieving family far from the Golden State.
According to his mother, on March 16, 2016, Taylor Schwartz purchased a plane ticket and the next day flew from Sunbury, Ohio to San Francisco. He left behind a suicide note for his family, and a farewell message to his friends on Facebook. Shortly after his arrival in San Francisco, he jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge.
“There was video evidence that he jumped from the bridge, that we didn’t watch, “ his mother Ginny Schwartz said. “However, without a body they still considered him missing. By the time we got the Coast Guard out to the bridge, he had already jumped and they could not find him, however they did find all his belongings.”
As for his choice of endings, Ginny Schwartz said she doesn’t really know why he came west, but she thinks he was happy with his choice. “I am not sure of the reason he decided to go to California. I know by his last Facebook comments that he thought San Francisco was a beautiful city. I think he just loved the bridge and thought it was a great way to go. He had previously mentioned to his brother if he ever were to take his life, that is where he would go.”
According to Schwartz, her son struggled with anxiety and depression for most of his life. “According to his final letter he was living in a ‘personalized hell.’ I think what hurts me most as a mother is, as much as we as a family tried to help, we weren’t able to succeed and he felt this was his only way to stop the pain.”
Despite that pain, he was known as “the kind of person that would give you the shirt off his back, even if it was his last shirt,” Schwartz said.
She went on to describe him as a “funny, very artistic and empathetic person” who loved online gaming and through that medium made friends all over the country and the world, including two he ended up helping out personally when they needed it.
“At one time he was in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Program,” said Schwartz. “And he worked as a van driver for Meals on Wheels. He would come home so upset because he was so empathetic and he cared about the clients.”
He was also an artist, though that passion was both problematic and somewhat extinguished as he got older. “His artwork was very good, however as with most artists, he didn’t agree and the older he got the less he would draw,” Ginny said. “He got in trouble in school all the time because he would doodle all over his papers. If he had an empty envelope sitting in front of him, he would doodle on it. He had a nice display of his work at his memorial. People were blown away.”
Since the tragedy, friends and family of Taylor Schwartz have started a Facebook page called Paying Forward For Taylor, or PFFT. The group is filled with small good deeds done in his memory, such as paying for someone’s food or gas, offering a smile or a compliment to a stranger, or doing some other form of community service. The group had PFFT cards printed up, and they hand them out when a deed is accomplished. Many on the group reports seeing cards they’ve given out being passed on multiple times, as the pay it forward ideal travels through the community.
“PFFT started not even a week after he died,” Schwartz said. “My best friend was in Chicago with her daughter and they went out to dinner. They saw a homeless man that was hungry and took him some food. They commented to each other that Taylor would love that they were doing that. When she told me her story, we starting talking about how we make this a thing; we could make it go viral.
“I thought we could make cards we could hand to someone anytime we did something nice, and that it was in Taylor’s honor and they could reuse the card to do something nice for someone else,” Schwartz continued. “I also then started a Facebook page and we added our friends, family and I even had a lady I had paid it forward to request to join. She was able to go online and thank me. We thought it would be a nice place to go and be able to share how we paid it forward and all the good that comes from it. I figure any good deed makes something positive out of this devastating situation.”
PFFT currently has around 800 members, with more joining each day.
While Schwartz is trying to find a silver lining to this terrible cloud, her sorrow is never far from her mind. “It is something no parent should ever have to go through,” she said. “And thankfully they are going to start work on the (anti-suicide) net for the Golden Gate Bridge next month. Even if it saves one family from having to go through this, it’s worth it.”
While the Schwartz family accepted that their son wasn’t coming back, finding at least part of his remains helped both practically and spiritually.
“After Taylor passed I had prayed that they would find him and bring him home here to rest,” Ginny said. “Then over the past year I came to think that was where Taylor wanted to be. That was his choice for his final resting place. Then when the sheriff came to our door the other day with the news that someone found his foot on a beach it reopened up some of that closure I had.
“The good part about them finding it and identifying it is that on paper he is no longer just a missing person. We were able to get his car title in our name, close out his bank accounts, etc. The downside to it, in my opinion, is that we only have a piece of Taylor back. My heart also goes out to the couple that found the foot. I can’t even imagine being the one that had to come across something like that. I would like to tell them I’m sorry they were the ones, but I really would want to thank them for saying something to the authorities, so we could get the closure,” she finished.
Taylor left behind his mother; his father Keith and twin brothers Kevin and Matthew. “Taylor was an awesome young man with so much talent and a huge heart. We miss him terribly,” Schwartz said.
Anyone contemplating suicide can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
