I must apologize for my very late post about this awesome event.
The Speech was delivered at St. Johns church in Carlisle, PA to their youth group. Of course I was nervous because my hopes were to give great knowledge about suicide prevention, and it is a little intimidating to speak to teenagers. As I stood in front of the youth group hands shaking, I spoke with passion of my Mother, and the hole that I have in my heart because of the choice she made. At this moment everyone grew quiet. As my speech continued I asked many forward questions about suicide where I received many eyebrow raises, which was good because it appeared that I cleared up a mis-understanding about suicide and prevention.
After my speech I opened the floor to any possible questions. The youth leader quickly asked away about how to bring up suicide after a suicide takes place. She didn't know how to address suicide properly without risking another copy-cat suicide. With this question I shared a true story:
A woman lost her husband to suicide and decided it would be best to seek professional help for her and her five year old daughter by seeing a therapist. The mother begged to the therapist to not tell her daughter that her father killed himself, that he instead died in a car accident. After much discussion the therapist agreed. Shortly after the daughter walked into the therapist office and begged the therapist to not tell her mother that her father killed himself, because her Mommy believed he died in a car accident.
This story truly shows that pushing suicide aside pushes away the questions that need to be answered and in this true story the missed opportunity the mother and daughter had to talk about the reality of the situation.
The speech was great, and I thank St. Johns youth group for inviting me to speak to them about suicide prevention. It was awesome to spread the awareness about suicide prevention. Thank-you as always to all who make this possible, together we are saving lives!
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