Offering hope, comfort and support for survivors of suicide loss.
I feel I’ve reached quite a milestone in my grief journey, which is slightly bittersweet. Less than two weeks ago, I passed the fifth birthday following my dad’s death by suicide. He would have turned 69 this year. It's amazing to see how my emotions and reaction to this date have changed over time… Thanks to Facebook’s “See Your Memories” prompting, I scrolled through the posts I issued in his honor through the years.
In 2012, just eight ...
This quote perfectly describes the grief journey. It demonstrates an continued journey, that doesn't have an end. Our grief journey is ongoing; we will not stop loving or missing the person we lost. While we will get to a point where we are able to integrate this loss into our lives, we will still have days filled with sadness. We often associate these days as a step back in our journey. They aren't a step back. They are reminders of the ...
Through my own grief journey I have come to find that regret lives in the past, hope lives in the future. I think this was a notion that I believed even before losing my dad to suicide. However, I think in the aftermath of a loss by suicide, we almost have to go back before we can move forward.
I believe that we can find answers when we go back. They might not be THE answer, but they are answers that help us make sense of something that ...
Finding closure after suicide seems impossible. We don't have time to say goodbye. We don't have time to process that this individual will not be a part of our future. In an instant their life has ended, and their physical presence has been taken away from us. Their pain ended, and ours begins. There is simply no way to prepare for the pain that follows a suicide. While my dad was ready to leave this world, I was not ready to let him go. I ...
During the mourning process after a suicide loss we often talk about finding forgiveness. Forgiving the person that we lost for leaving us. Forgiving them for not being able to see the world through our eyes. Forgiving them for not asking for help. What I have found is that this forgiveness often comes with relative ease. Sure, we still have anger but we have forgiven them for what they have done. The type of forgiveness that often takes ...
