[Alffe]

"Suicide is like a haunting fog, having no boundaries and forever lingering in the thoughts of those who have survived it. I speak from experience when I say there is nothing more devastating than losing a loved one to suicide. Afterward, my family did not talk about it, and we bore the heavy burden of that tragedy in secret. Like many survivors, I wondered who was to blame and what I could have done to prevent it. My embarrassment and shame made a melancholy situation even worse. It was difficult to explain to others, especially when no one wanted to talk about it.

For many years, I kept my feelings to myself. That finally changed when Mike Wallace, the normally stone-faced CBS news journalist, testified before the Senate Special Committee on Aging. Mr.Wallace had tears in his eyes when he spoke about thoughts of taking his own life, and I was forced to finally confront my feelings about my father's suicide. His soul-baring experience gave me the courage to be open about my father's death. For the first time, I found myself sharing with my Senate colleagues the fact that my father killed himself.

Since 1997, I have been on a crusade to bolster suicide prevention efforts, and through it all I have come to learn many things. I now understand that my father was not alone, and neither was I as a survivor.
Suicide is not just an individual's health problem; it is one of the leading causes of death in our country. Every time someone commits suicide, we all lose in many different ways. Someone once said, "The person who completes suicide dies once, but those left behind die a thousand deaths."

-----Harry Reid, 24th U.S.Senate Majority Leader
-----Voices of Strength Sons and Daughters of Suicide Speak Out.
authors Judy Zionts Fox, RN, LSW & Mia Roldan