An Empty Chair

About the Book

At least 30,000 people kill themselves in the United States alone, most leaving behind shocked siblings. Yet, too often, the grief and bewilderment of surviving siblings is simply ignored, leaving the bereaved siblings feeling even more abandoned. The accounts of siblings' experiences in this book are based on interviews with more than thirty people from all over the United States, as well as the author's own experience of losing a sister to suicide.

Just as sibling relationships are varied and complex, so the feelings and experiences of sibling suicide survivors run a long and complex gamut from deep grief, to anger, to guilt, to relief. Often these feelings are intermixed. The survivors are often bewildered by the complexity of their feelings, including reactions that may seem shameful or inappropriate. These moving accounts will help other sibling survivors of sibling suicide see that they are not alone. No matter what their feeilngs and reactions are, there are others who have shared them.

About the Author

Until recently, the author has written largely for children, parents, and teachers. But, although the subject is somewhat daunting and emotionally difficult, this is a book the author felt she had to write. Her qualifications for taking on the task are, first, that years of therapy helped her to be aware of and to accept her own feelings, thoughts, and reactions following her sister's suicide. Second, she has experienced not only her sister's suicide but also the deaths of a husband and a father; and she can see how very differently her sister's suicide affected her compared to the other deaths.