TV chefs and tales from the hotel

 My mother was a hotel housekeeper and supervisor for thirty years. She got to see and hear a lot of things. Rich people and business people on expense accounts tend to let their hair down in various ways  when they travel.  While natural deaths in the hotel were not uncommon, suicides were so rare that it only happened twice in my mother's memory. One woman took pills and another hung herself. When  the houseman let himself in he saw her swinging. He staggered back and swooned from the hideous sight.

When TV chef, Anthony Bourdain  hung himself he left a horrible scene for the hotel staff who found him. Some poor person had see his discolored face and what was on the floor. Somebody had to cut him loose. Somebody had to cart his body away. Somebody had to clean up and as soon as the police say that the hotel can rent it out again some staff member is going to have to force themselves to go back into that room and carry on as if nothing happened there. According to the coroner's report there were no drugs in Bourdain's system so his embrace of self annihilation  came from a source  other than being high. Whatever his reasons were, there's nothing romantic in what he did or the mess that he made for innocent people, including his child.