Since Robin Williams’ very public death, my family and I are back to square one at having to defend the death of our much loved son and brother to suicide/mental illness. I am absolutely appalled at the ignorance that is in this world….a very hateful world that is seething with vile and vitriol about the things it will not understand. It gives credibility to the phrase, “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
“However, despite the tremendous amount of love and admiration for Williams being expressed pretty much everywhere right now, there are still those who can’t seem to resist the opportunity to criticize, as they do these days whenever a celebrated or successful person commits suicide. You may have come across this yourself; people who refer to the suicide as “selfish”. People will utter/post phrases such as “to do that to your family is just selfish”, or “to commit suicide when you’ve got so much going for you is pure selfishness”, or variations thereof.
If you are such a person who has expressed these views or similar for whatever reason, here’s why you’re wrong, or at the very least misinformed, and could be doing more harm in the long run.”
Source: The Guardian
In the Wake of Suicide 
I used to be ignorant about the real cause of suicide. Your blogging/journaling has helped me to understand much more.
I can relate to things said and done almost automatically…and how that can hurt us.
My kids died way too young to have much of a fanfare upon departure. Heck, being still hospitalized, even I wasn’t at the funeral. Almost all there–were mourning my husband–and for my children…only in reference to him.
No “Your son/daughter helped me in THIS way” ever can be. No parks, hospitals or schools named after them in honor of their influence. No phone calls, Facebook posts, special annual gatherings of any sort to mark their physical deaths (or birth). It’s as if they simply “vanished”.
Enter much interior grief work on the subject of worth and value. Conclusion…human value placed on a life has little value, compared to how God values an individual’s life…
Anyway, those of us with transitioned very young children find ourselves trying to “defend” those not really needing to be defended, ultimately. Not much else besides publicly educating (like you faithfully do) can be done. (Prayer always helps though!) Ignorance and insensitivity will always be present. It helps us to change how we handle the darts that come our way-using Jesus and His Truth as our ultimate “shield”…to lessen our increased feeling of damages.
Love ya,
Donna
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