Because They Lived; Memories & Stories of Amazing Kids Lost to Suicide: As Told by the Moms They Left Behind Volume 4 Paperback – June 5, 2024

Life after suicide loss is devastating. Our lives are shattered and we are left sitting amid the leftover pieces of our lives and hearts, numbly staring into a dark and cavernous abyss… now what? Podcast host, speaker, and author Melissa Bottorff-Arey has compiled three incredible stories here to help us see what...and, even more relevant, why. Life after suicide loss is complicated, and so is the grief and healing for those left behind. Melissa knows this firsthand. This book is a true treasure, and reading it will enrich your life. Between the pages, you will meet Jaden, a humble and bouncy young man full of love and loyalty; James, a funny traveler disguised as a computer-loving Viking Chef; and Melissa's piece about her son, Alex. These three incredible young people all died by suicide, and they all were wonderful humans whose stories matter immensely. Legacy is both complicated and straightforward. On the one side, we all leave stories and memories behind, particularly those that make their mark and then get retold over the vast years of our lives. If this naturally happens, why write someone's life story down for them? Right? The actual complexity comes when someone dies so young - the volume of stories lived, let's say, in 17 years is far, far less than perhaps 77 by contrast, and the sheer number of people who know these stories is naturally diminished. When we die tragically and far too soon, there is more need for those stories to come from those who lived them alongside us, our family - and in the case here, the one who knew us on the deepest level for the longest part of our life- our mom. The act of doing so is therapeutic for the storyteller. In this book, you will get to know the amazing young people through the stories and memories so lovingly penned by the one who loved them first and best - their mothers. In working with Melissa through a 13-week narrative-therapy style project, mothers who have lost their children by suicide have a unique opportunity to do some powerful trauma-healing work while writing the compelling tales lived by their child as a gift to the world... to each and every person that picks up this book and reads it and for each one that passes it along. This is where Melissa has weighed in with this phenomenal legacy writing project. Working with grieving moms, she discovered that one of the top three needs of every mother left behind after suicide loss is that their child be remembered. Legacy is "the long-lasting impact … that took place in the past, or of a person's life." These stories will now have a chance to make that very impact, thanks in big part to their moms for the bravery it took to put them out into the world for all of us to take in. Taking place just limited times a year, guided exclusively by Melissa, this project can help any suicide loss mom do this same thing. Thank you for reading their stories. Because They Lived...you will be better too!" Read more