09/10/2026
Today is World Su***de Prevention Day, a day that didn’t exist until ten years after the su***de of my younger sister Denise. As a 21-year-old college student when she died, I felt like my hope had been ripped away and I had to do a lot of hard work to find it again. I then wrote my first book about sibling su***de because I wanted to help others like my family cope with a loss that often felt swept under a rug. I wrote more books, traveled the United States and the world educating people about su***de, then was elected as the president of the American Association of Suicidology. Today, everything I create as part of Chelle Summer is about my hope, about the color and prints from the childhood I shared with Denise. It’s how I continue to tell our story, the one that was cut short when she ended her life. Somehow we must always keep walking toward the light, toward hope. If you or someone you know is suicidal, please contact 988 for help.
