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My family in rural Kentucky won't talk about my cousin's suicide at all
When my cousin Josh shot himself back in 2018, my grandma told me to say he had a heart attack at the dinner table. I sat there biting my tongue while 12 people ate fried chicken and pretended the empty chair didn't exist. Has anyone else had to choose between honoring a dead person's truth or keeping the peace with people who think mental illness is shameful?
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skyler_anderson656d ago
In 2019 at my cousin's wedding, my uncle stood up and gave a toast to "our family's guardian angel" after two glasses of bourbon. Everyone knew he was talking about his son who overdosed three years before, but nobody said a word. My aunt whispered to me that the pastor said addiction "runs in the blood" and we should pray harder. @the_jason I think your family's "moved away" story might actually be more honest than what mine did. They literally scrubbed his name off the family Christmas letter like he never existed, which is a special kind of hurt.
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the_jason6d ago
Did your family also pretend your cousin just "moved away" like mine did with my brother?
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