Be the Difference, in a Survivor's Life!
Your support and letter submissions have brought me hope for what’s possible with this project. THANK YOU! I am a stand for The Afterw@rd and, if you are reading this, then so are you.
Want to be a part of this? Help break the silence. Encourage 10 survivors to write their Afterw@rd by April 25, 2007!
2 comments:
The first suicide in my family took place before my birth: my grandfather. My two uncles (I knew one not at all, but did know, appreciate and respect the second) committed suicide, the first when I was a child and the second when I was a young adult.
I didn't learn the cause of my first uncle's death for a long time, and it took even longer for the cause of my grandfather's death to be revealed. When I learned that multiple suicides had happened in my family, I was stunned. To have so many sucides take place seemed shameful, as if something was terribly wrong with my family that could not be erased or cured. The presence of multiple suicides also caused me to fear that suicide might strike our family again.
Many years later, I understand that medication and perhaps counseling might have helped those in my family who chose to take their lives rather than continue to struggle with the pain, difficulty or fear that took them. Still, the 'whys', the feeling of shame, and the fear that our family might again be visited by suicide have never completely left me.
Perhaps eliminating the shame and the fear starts with a message to those who have gone. Here's mine:
Dear Grandpa and Uncles,
I am sorry that you committed suicide and wish that you had not done it or felt that you needed to do it. I am sorry for your pain and your belief that taking your life was the only way out. Uncle A, I know that you were ill and that Aunt E had died, but even though I realize that you felt your choice was reasoned, your death still brought pain.
I bless your souls on their continuing journeys, and ask God to release you and your survivors from any lingering pain, difficulty and sorrow that you might feel from your final days and your death.
I now ask God to release me, my family and our descendants from the pain, sorrow, guilt and shame that surrounded your deaths, and to bless me, our family and those who will follow us with the health, knowledge, wisdom and good fortune to face our challenges, or to stumble through them, without resorting to the finality of suicide.
I now release myself from the pain of your suicides and the fear that suicide might strike our family again. I give myself the permission to move on. I embrace life with all its difficulties and surrender myself to God and God's purpose as I walk through this world and those beyond.
With love,
Your Granddaughter and Niece
Thank you Anonymous for such a powerful foreword and message. Be blessed.
The Afterw@rd
Post a Comment