Offering hope, comfort and support for survivors of suicide loss.
Celebrating Father's Day without dad can be difficult for those who have lost a father to suicide. I still feel this sense of sadness when I visit the dreaded card aisle at our local pharmacy. As I pick out the cards for the fathers in my life, I am quickly reminded that there is one card I will not be purchasing. I have found this holiday to be particularly difficult. Not necessarily because my father is not here to celebrate, but because I am ...
Guest blogger Michelle is back this week with a sentimental post about the way in which she and her son Alec have honored Marcus with memorial tattoos.
"My life now is broken up into before and after I lost my 17-year-old son, Marcus, to suicide. (Read my initial post about my family’s loss here.) Before, I would never have dreamt I would get a tattoo. In my view then, people who had tattoos rode Harleys, smoked cigarettes (and other stuff), ...
Since giving birth to my daughter late last year, I’ve often wondered how my dad’s death nearly four years ago will be addressed as she grows. What questions will she ask? How will I answer them? What will she think about all this? Needless to say, it’s one piece of “baggage” I hate having to introduce, but I feel fortunate we have a few years before this becomes a real issue.
The topic resurfaced in my mind the other day after a rather ...
Guest blogger Michelle H., who lost her son to suicide, returns again this week to share about an aspect of loss we have heard many survivors talk about in group meetings: the significance of particular dates and times associated with a loved one's death. Can you relate?
How Markers of Time Evolve
I've been thinking about why the markers of time are so important to me. In the first few months, I marked the time following my son's death by days ...
When facing the loss of a loved one to suicide, I’ve observed two camps of survivors – those who want to try and understand every detail surrounding the final act, and those who never want to know those details. I happen to fall into the former category.
In the hours following my dad’s death, I became desperate for answers. He never clued us in that anything was wrong or that suicide was something he’d ever entertained. What I knew right away ...
