Offering hope, comfort and support for survivors of suicide loss.
As my husband and I sat parked in our car at one of my favorite locations to play Pokémon Go, I watched a young, smiling couple with their two children playing in the multicolored fallen leaves. I opened my passenger window to feel the warm, gentle breeze and smell the river nearby.
The mother raked up a pile of leaves with her hands and then placed her toddler in it to take her picture. At the same time, the father collected leaves and threw ...
My husband, LJ, and I spent the day running both personal and volunteer-related errands in the Tri-Cities, about 30 minutes from our house. We stopped at Olive Garden for linner (lunch and dinner) around 2 PM. It was much busier than we expected with lots of families spending quality time together.
My eyes were drawn to a woman with her maybe three or four year old son across the room from us. They were sitting on the same side of the booth ...
I wrote this piece about 13 months after Tom died. It has been over four and a half years now since he passed. Although I no longer look for someone or something beyond his depression and anxiety on which to blame Tom's death, I still cringe when I hear people talk about suicide in stigmatizing ways. This piece reflects on how I finally framed and processed his death by ...
I was raised in the Unitarian Universalist Church which played a huge role in shaping me. In my formative years, I had the opportunity to explore many different religions and cultures and was encouraged to make my own decisions about my faith. I attribute my openness to and unconditional acceptance of a broad range of people and beliefs to the upbringing I received in this very inclusive church. I am grateful for the role the church played in who ...
Suicide Prevention Awareness Month can be difficult for survivors of suicide loss due to ongoing messaging about suicide being preventable. I have read a number of posts and responses recently about how hurtful these campaigns feel because they are reminders to survivors of how they lost someone. In addition these survivors are convinced prevention campaigns do not work, because they sincerely believe there is no way their loved ones would have ...
