Suicide Loss Survivors Archives - Speaking of Suicide

A mother sits on a porch with her arms around a son and a daughter

Helping Children Understand Suicide

June 29, 2026

10

When a loved one loses their life to suicide, it’s difficult for adults to understand, let alone children. The night my husband, Jac, died by suicide, my three small nieces and my nephew were at our home. They were all under the…

Letter to a Dear Friend who Died by Suicide

by Allison Songbird

June 10, 2026

12

The last time I saw you was a Saturday night. The air was cold and crisp outside, and your kitchen smelled like mulling spices and Christmas cake. You poured me a glass of red wine, like you had done so many times…

The author's hand holding a stone heart for mindfulness

How I Survived the Trauma of My Daughter’s Suicide

by Jay E. Valusek

September 3, 2025

19

The last time my daughter, Beth, was seen alive was at 8:01 a.m., July 18, 2018. I know this from the time stamp on a grainy, black-and-white surveillance video taken inside the visitors center of a popular tourist attraction in south-central Colorado.…

Toxic Positivity Doesn’t Fix Depression or Suicidal Thoughts

by AnneMoss Rogers

February 3, 2025

32

In 2014, about a year before my son Charles died by suicide, we were sitting on the deck outside of our home in Virginia. He had just posted a rap video online. He was so proud of it, and I think with…

Silhouette of surfer in the ocean, waiting for a wave

The Shifting Shape of Grief, 11 Years After a Child’s Suicide

by Susan Auerbach

September 4, 2024

18

I’ve been tracking the shape of grief since the first nightmare months after my son Noah’s suicide in 2013. The intensity of traumatic grief once filled every moment. The core of my identity, relationships, and activities was being a suicide loss survivor. Over…

AnneMoss Rogers and son, Charles Rogers, 9/26/1995-6/5/2015

How I Survived My Son’s Suicide

by AnneMoss Rogers

August 9, 2023

68

My husband and I were sitting in a police car when we got the news my son Charles, 20, died by suicide in 2015. That’s the moment I left my former self on a shelf somewhere in the past and this new…