On Sunday morning, at a church

in Fayetteville, Iris Bolton, a nationally known expert on suicide prevention

and aftercare, spoke to a crowd of 200 bereaved parents and teens. She

used the following analogy to help give perspective. "Imagine a cup

of water, full to the brim, rounded off, it's so full. The act of adding

just a couple more drops makes the cup overflow." She continued,

"It isn't those last drops that make the cup overflow, it's the accumulation

of all the drops in the cup that cause it to overflow."

I say, we must all forgive

ourselves for not knowing how full that young man's cup was. Mary Ann

Stark, a member of the Link Counseling Center's Survivor Support Team,

provides hope when she adds, "We each can empty our cup at anytime.

How? By sharing our burdens and our feelings with people we trust."

In the seven years I have attended

Survivor of Suicide support groups, I have seen the pained faces of parents

who have lost children. I have heard their stories with agony in their

voices. As a community we must retreat from the blame game and wrap our

arms around this family. They need our support, they need our love and

they need us to act in positive and proactive ways.

Kathy Bruce

[email protected]

Member of The Survivor Support

Team of The Link Counseling Center's National Center for Suicide Prevention

and Aftercare and Suicide Prevention Advocacy NetworkCommunity Organizer/Fayette

County

770-719-9893