Coping with Suicide’s Aftershocks

Thomas Curwen’s article on suicide was published on the second anniversary of my brother’s suicide (“Psychache,” June 3). Curwen [raised] the same [questions] that my family and I face every day: Why? What could I have done? What didn’t I do? Curwen looked at all of the aspects of the suicide victim’s motives--mental illness, depression, alcoholism and even the right to die. But he never addressed the victims directly. So to all those who are contemplating suicide, I say this: Please don’t do it. Those of us left behind will forever pick up the shattered pieces you’ve left us. I think of my brother’s suicide every single moment of every single day. I would give anything to have him back. Suicide provides no answers. It only creates more agony and sorrow than the heart can take.

Leslie Perea

Burbank

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Please tell Curwen that his article was superb.

Doris N. Finck

Via the Internet