The Dougy Center Fire

The Dougy Center is an incredible place for grieving children and families. Many centers in the US are based on it. In June, the building was in burned down by an arsonist. If you can help with any donation, please do. The service they offer to children and families is so important to help repair lives and help people find hope again after loss. The web site is here.

Purple and turquoise pins for suicide prevention

World Suicide Prevention Day is September 10. We’ve been using the colors purple and turquoise for people to show their support for people who have lost loved ones to suicide for several years. The color scheme was started by Sandy Martin and me when we were discussing how the suicide cause had no color but because many causes already use one color, we decided to go with two. We chose purple and turquoise because they are healing colors and our hope is that we can help people show their support for lives that have been altered in some way by suicide and show hope for the future with suicide prevention. Please order your pins soon here!

The loss of a 13-year-old girl

Yesterday, I found a friend of mine, who I work with in the suicide world, had a heart attack on Friday. This rocked my reality. Although his daughters are about my age, sometimes we think people will live forever. And it's a reality check for him and his family as well. A short time later in the morning, I found out that the daughter of one of Denise's childhood friends (they go back to elementary school) had died of a brain tumor yesterday morning. She was 13. It was through facebook that we had connected because I had posted some photos of Denise and her Brownie troop and some birthday parties and Jen saw them and friended me. She worked tirelessly to help her daughter since her diagnosis last fall. I haven't been able to stop thinking about their road and reading the blog entries of the journey of Brianna and her family. Jen wrote how Brianna told her she didn't want to die. While it's a different kind of death than suicide, it's still a loss and the one of a young person always is painful. I know the grief journey they are on and I hope they continue to feel Brianna's presence in their lives because she is now with them, although in a different sense, and guiding them as they move forward without her physical presence.