“I lost someone incredible, who meant the world to me, and showed me how to find the light even on my darkest days.”

“Years of covering up my identity to avoid feeling negative emotions and avoid not looking ‘cool’ caused me to never really explore who I was. Now, I am involved in many things I love. And I am comfortable with myself.”

“I’ve survived all of the days I thought I wouldn’t. I can tell you I will be here for another birthday and another Christmas, when a couple weeks ago I couldn’t tell you if I’d be here another minute.”

“My youngest son, Benjamin, died by suicide in 2010, which catapulted me a million miles away into a strange new existence.”

“A death, and particularly a death by suicide, teaches us lessons about life through a prism of puzzles.”

“In a way, beginning Narratives of Hope has been a celebration of how far I’ve come. I am still standing and I’m alive, and it has never felt so undoubtedly clear that this is my purpose in my life.”

“He was always so loved — I don’t know if that is enough in the face of something as formidable as a serious mental illness, but I wish it was.”

“If I called you one more time then, would it have changed it, or made a difference? Am I foolish, slightly selfish, to actually think that… I guess I just miss you.”