Mum,

Nearly a year after your last breath I still struggle to find the words to describe how I feel. You’ve left a huge void, but at the same time you are constantly on my mind, like a relentless echo, “mum, what have you done?!”…”mum, I love you”… “mum, please forgive me for missing your last call”.

Dearest El,

I miss you, I think I always will. I'm so, so sorry, beautiful. You never deserved that pain. You were such a kind and funny friend, and I'm truly, deeply sorry it ended the way it did. I hope where you are now is as beautiful and stunning as you are.

To My Beautiful Aunt,

We weren’t always close. Yet I felt the urge to write this letter. 

I think of you often, you were such a kind soul - a failed one at that. I remember just before you had passed I had wanted to see you, as it had been so long since I had last. I felt as if that was some sort of sign that I should have listened to, and I blame myself for not visiting you sooner.

I was 14 when I lost you and now I'm 21. I’m sorry the system failed you. You should have never died, or died alone. You had your whole life ahead of you and I hate that you never got to see that. I know you were never the same after your mothers death so I don't blame you for going.

To My Forever,

I think about you so often. I think about the moments that I fight to remember. I think about the time we were so out of it under the stars, talking like life together would’ve lasted forever. I think about when you made me promise to continue life for us both incase something happened to you.

To my Best Friend,

At times it feels like you’ve been gone for so long, but sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday. The shock of losing you is like nothing I’ve ever felt. I knew things had been difficult but I never thought it would come to this. When you died, I felt angry that you hadn’t confided in me like you always had. Why was this time different? I felt like you were selfish and had ruined all our lives. I wish you’d just waited, in the morning things would have looked differently. I also felt guilty that I’d rushed you off the phone that day. Two years later I feel differently. I’m just so sad you’re gone, and you have already missed so much. I miss my best friend. I’ve really needed you at times, and my life is so different now. I wish you could see that.

Dear B

I’m writing this as we celebrate your birthday for another year— without you. There are so many things in this life that remind me of you, trigger a memory, small or big. Suddenly my eyes fill up with tears. I cry less frequently than I did in the first year, but I can still feel my breath catch in the back of my throat when I think about you, your laugh, your shoes, the way you sat on the couch, the constant twirling of your beard, the way you fit into my life.

To the funniest person I knew,

Hey. It’s been over a year now since you left. I remember the first day we met, we instantly connected. The way you’d light up an entire room without even trying is something I’ll never forget. I remember you telling me that one day you wanted to be a singer/rapper. I hope that wherever the universe put you now, you’re living that dream. I’m so sorry that life was never fair to you. I’m sorry that I didn’t reach out more once we both went back to our homes. I still feel your light on the days where things feel so dark. I can hear you telling me to keep going. So I will. I promise, I will. And someday, when my time is up, I hope we can laugh together again. Miss you every day, kid.

Dad,

Nothing is the same since you left us. There is a void that cannot be filled, and the world has changed.
I’m sorry you suffered for 2 years, you became a shell of the funny, charismatic Dad we once knew. It was nothing short of heartbreaking to watch you fall deeper into the darkness ,despite your efforts to get well again. You really did try, and I know that.

I want you to know I’m not angry, I understand you could no longer take the thoughts, and the torment of your mind, but the day you chose to end your pain, ours truly began. There is no pain like it.

To my handsome love,

It's been five years, Joaquin is now 9 and Iséla is 7. They were 4 and 2 when you ended your life. As I watch our baby boy grow, he is hitting the age where he needs his dad to help him navigate through the boy/manly stuff

My memory always wanders back to the conversation we had at our old house sitting on our couch. We were talking about your broken relationship with your own dad.

You looked at Joaquin, touched his hair and said that every boy needs his dad. I'm always going to be here for him.

Dear Grady,

I didn't get to know you very well before you died, but you've been in my head every day since. I'd like to think we'd have been friends. I remember your laughter in school and your smile. I remember watching you and your brother walk across the field together. We share a battle that I hope you knew you weren't alone in. What did you think in your last moments? Was it off childhood, of home and friends and dirt bikes and skateboarding? Was it fear and sadness so pervasive that death was a deity? I love you, Grady. And I always will.

To my wee Scottish pal,

Somedays it feels like a million years ago that you passed away but other days it feels exactly like the actual 1889 days ago that you passed away and I can feel every moment of those 1889 days.
Every time something happens either good or bad I always want to call you or message you.

To my darling Paul,

I miss you in ways even words cannot understand.

Always and forever
Your Dawn
xxx<3xxx

The best big sister,

I have written to you every year since , all the things I would usually tell you , the things I would only go to you for . I miss your smile and your voice and how easy it was for you to light up a room. I miss the times I needed you and you were there.

Dear Mum, Dear Bro,

I am angry you left without explaining honestly how you felt and what you were considering and let us help you. I'm angry you didn't fully seek mental health support, when we could have paid.

Mum

I wish you'd have stayed

I wish you'd have stayed

To my Florist,

To my Florist,

To my baby brother,

My other half is a term associated with love

I’m using it to describe you, my brother up above


My brain etched with memories of laughter and joy


Only shared with you my brother, my special boy


There’s a poem called the dash, about time on this earth


About the use of our time from the day of our birth


Your time on this earth so short and sweet

To my Dad

It has been one year, two months, and 25 days since you left us. There hasn't been a single one of those where I haven't thought about you, about why you did this, about what I could have done to change things.

Of course the answer is I couldn't.

To my Brother,

I lost you nearly three years ago, and I am still to process it all. Some days are good, and the relief I feel is no longer just temporary- but the reality and reminders of you still crush me before the day is done.

Dear S,

Next Sunday would have been our 6th wedding anniversary. It's strange to think back on our story now - things happened in such a whirlwind at the start, and now I've been grieving you for longer than we had been married.

Reader

Where to begin? Well,

typically, anniversaries might celebrate something like a relationship or a work achievement. This anniversary certainly didn’t feel like an occasion for celebration.

To my Matt

It’s been just over a year since you left us. The pain of losing you is still so raw. I loved you so much and would have done anything to help you, if only you had been able to tell me how you were feeling.

I had no idea, there were no signs that anything was wrong. We were so happy, planning to move away and have a better future. I am so sad for you and also angry that you have taken that future away from me and from yourself.

Dearest Christopher

Five years, two months and two weeks. The love, loss, guilt and anger I feel will be with me until I draw my last breath.

To my beautiful son,

The day you decided you couldn't live anymore with the pain and thoughts in your head, was the day part of me died too. I will forever ask why and although I'm told that it wasn't my fault, I blame myself for what you did.

Anna,

It's the type of pain that will never end, I'Il miss you forever, my fierce friend.

Your suicide is the most difficult thing I've had to process. I don’t feel it’s my place to tell your story and I find it hard to admit that it’s part of mine.

To my baby sister

It’s scary without you. Like, nothing feels right. Most of my days are just dull and hopeless now. I do have some interesting ones but the fact that I can’t tell you about all those moments is PAINFUL.

To My Only Aunt,

on march the 14th you went to work. and then the post office. for a long time i held unnecessary anger towards those who saw you that day, did they sense something? i have since faced the fact that nobody knew; i wish i could say differently. i wish to shop in a florida mall with you again and to dance to stevie nicks one more time. you were, and will always ever be my only aunt. i have unlearned blankly staring and spacing out when the word "aunt" is used in conversation, i have unlearned hating the universe for putting you in this situation, i have unlearned hating myself for how i treated you before you died.

It’s been over a year.

As we approach the 2nd Christmas without you I am trying so hard to remember all the things that made Christmas so lovely growing up. Was it the tree, was it waiting for Father Christmas, was it the presents? And as I think about these things I realise that it was your love that made any celebration special. We really miss you. I just hope I get to see you again one day. My son misses you and talks about you often. My daughter doesn't remember but we will keep your memory alive I promise. And I see you in her a lot!!

Mum

I miss you, the world isn't the same without you in it. Although a year has passed I still feel like someone will tell me that they got it wrong, you aren't gone and you'll walk in that door again. I used to wonder why we hadn't been enough to stay, but now in my better moments I have such clarity of your love, how your actions were out of a desire to protect us and how cruel your mind was being to you that it didn't let you see any other way out.

My best friend Jon

Someone said to me that suicide doesn't remove the pain, it just moves it somewhere else and I've never felt truer words. The pain I feel that your gone is unbearable. You've left a hole in my life that can't ever be replaced. The pain I feel is so strong I don't ever think I'll stop hurting. A huge part of this pain is from the guilt I hold. The night you passed away you reached out to me like you had done so in the past. We had a unique friendship built on us both struggling and reaching out to each other. You always helped me and I always tried my best to help you. The hardest thing is that I knew how much you hurt. We had some pretty big and deep conversations, we trusted each other so much that we could be fully open.