Thursday, November 24, 2011

Giving Thanks

While tears run down my face because I will never be able to fill the hole in my life I give Thanks to God, my family and my friends for holding me up when I want to crumble to the ground.

You provide your arms for hugs, your ears for listening, your words for encouragement and your hearts for love and for that I am forever grateful.

My husband has held me up in his arms when my legs have fallen from under me. My daughters have held me in their arms and reminded me of the undying love in our family. God has provided me faith and visions of my angel son.

Today, through my many tears and cries I give thanks...without each and everyone of you I would not be where I am today...I would not have the strength I have today...I would not have the love I have today. Thank you God and thanks to each of you reading this today. ♥

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Family: Teasing pushed 10-year-old to suicide

This heart breaking story comes from the Chicago Tribune




The family of a 10-year-old Illinois girl found hanging in her closet believes teasing and bullying by classmates drove the little girl to kill herself.


Vermilion County Coroner Peggy Johnson said Tuesday that the final results of the autopsy on Ashlynn Conner won't be ready for some time but it appears she took her own life Friday night.


Ashlynn's family said she had been teased by children at Ridge Farm Elementary School and in her neighborhood in the small town for several years. Ridge Farm is about 45 miles southeast of Champaign.


"When she started cheering for youth football, we'd gotten her hair cut in a bob," Ashlynn's grandmother, Lory Hackney said. "The kids started making fun of her then. They started calling her a boy.''


Since then, she'd often been called fat or ugly, her family said.


County Sheriff Pat Hartshorn said investigators are considering bullying as a possibility. "We are not ruling out bullying, but we don't have any firm evidence to support bullying," he said.


Suicide among young children is uncommon but does happen hundreds of times a year.


The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 200 children between the ages of 10 and 14 killed themselves each year between 1999 and 2005, the most recent year for which data is available.

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In the US, a suicide occurs every 15 minutes...every 40 seconds world wide.
It's time we start talking to our kids about suicide.