[Fredslist] Please read this and help

[Donald Bernstein]

The  20 mile "Walk Out of The Darkness" to raise money for the American
Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) is only two weeks away, on June
9th.  I want to tell you a few things I have learned while trying to
help AFSP, and I hope you will please take the time to read this.
 
I have learned about people and what they have lost.  Go on the website
(www.theovernight.org) and read some of the profiles of the people who
are going to participate in this event.  Like Mo Krausman, who lost his
twin brother Kent to suicide.  Kent left a note, "I love you Meat! See
you upstairs," and he wrote his date of birth and date of death.  A
simple loving note, even humorous, making what followed that much more
unfathomable.
 
Another walker lost both of her twin sons, Jason and Rick, to suicide,
one after the other.  One brother could not cope with drug addiction and
took over 100 sleeping pills.  The older twin followed soon after
suffering a broken heart in a failed relationship.  Their mother notes
in her story that her sons were born six weeks early, "in a hurry to
start on this journey we call life."  So tragic.  I read her story and I
wonder where she finds the courage to get out of bed in the morning.  I
will find her during this walk, and I will hug her.
 
Noelle Schlapfer lost her mother.  On her fundraising page is a
beautiful picture of Noelle's sister and mother just three days before
her mother took her own life.  Two beautiful, smiling women.  I can't
imagine how that happy smiling face of Noelle's sister must have looked
just days later.
 
These stories are heart ripping, and they tear open my wounds from my
father's suicide 15 years ago.  And yet, what is so warming is how so
many of these people are going to walk the 20 miles starting at midnight
on June 9th at the South Street Seaport, how they have tried so hard to
face their loss and raise money for this cause, and how so many of their
friends and family, equally hurt at their loss, are so supportive.
 
Depression is the hidden, secret disease.  Yet so many people suffer
from it.  What takes someone from depression, a broken heart, alcohol or
drug addiction, or losing a business, to suicide?  We often do not know
until it is too late.
 
My father left a long note before he died.  He ended it by writing, "I
love you all.  I am so proud of you. I am sorry. Please forgive me."  I
only wish that sometime before that he had said "please help me."   And
help them we must.
 
The Walk Out of the Darkness to help raise money to bring these issues
to light is only two weeks away.  You can help in a number of ways.  You
can sign up to join the walk. Just go to the website and register. Or
you can be a volunteer during the event, many are needed, at the Seaport
or along the route (just go to www.theovernight.org and follow the link
to volunteers).  
 
Or you can contribute money, whatever you can.  Many in Gotham already
have, and thank you to all of you.  Click on this link to go to my
fundraising page:
www.theovernight.org/?fuseaction=extranet.personalpage&confirmid=1000802
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This is a good and much needed cause, I hope you will consider helping.
 
Donald Bernstein
 
 
 
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