‘You need to know the story.
In college I fell in love with a boy, we dated for almost 3 years. Through him I met my best friend. One day the boy & I split, my best friend remained. 5 years later I married my best friend. 13 years later we would split, he would go back to being my best friend. Then, after 25 years, the boy from college would return to my life, a broken man from the loss of his brother by suicide. I knew his brother & family so well, he was the last person you would expect. My love said he could never cry when standing over his brother’s body. Our reunion would bring life & love back to him. We got engaged. My former husband & best friend finally succumbs to a quiet internal battle & dies in the exact same manner as my now fiancé’s brother. He too is the last person you expect.
My fiancé & I stand together over his body, my love finally releases the grief of his brother & cries with me over the body of my best friend & father of my children. The grief is beyond words for me, our relationship won’t survive it.
14 months later enters life & love once again. This man makes me feel as though love can heal my broken heart. We fall in love, blend families, eventually get engaged and begin a new life. Then he finds his child death by suicide. Now I stand with him as he cries over his child’s body. I cry, and like my love before with his brother, I too am then released. His grief would be more than our relationship could handle. Trust me, I understand. Now I stand alone. I intend to stay that way. To be a voice for the fallen, & the loved ones left behind. The lines in my face, the pain in my eyes, the tears as they fall are mere traces of the scars left from the tearing apart of my heart.
3 families, 3 deaths by suicide, and an endless trail of pain, bewilderment & broken dreams.’
Letitia Frye
