About last night...

Last night I was given a wonderful opportunity to speak at a Campus Life group of about 40 high schoolers. Weekly these kids get together for fun, some food and some serious discussion. Several of them the week before had spent their Spring break going down to rebuild homes in the New Orleans area.

They are led by Nick M., a great guy and friend, once Kristin's boyfriend. In fact, they were an item when Laurie died. I hope this is okay to write, but Nick showed me the text message he still has in his phone from Kristin from March 3, 2005. It read, "She's still missing."

It was easy to understand Nick's passion for this group. They were insightful, respectful and a delight to be with. I was scheduled for the final part of the evening to tell our/my story. Earlier I got to hang out for the announcements, visit a bit with the mom whose really beautiful home all these teens take over and really a highlight, got to sit in with one of the small groups, a mixed group of guys and girls. The questions for small group were direct. "Have you ever known anyone who has committed suicide or who has talked about doing it?" ; "Have you ever thought about killing yourself and if so, what kept you from doing it?" ; "What would you do if a friend told you they felt suicidal?" Wow, no turning away from the hard questions. And what was so awesome is each of the kids in our group shared, shared some really hard stuff. I was moved by their openness and courage.

For my portion of the evening, I had brought one of the picture boards from the funeral, one that had a good cross section of Laurie photos from many different ages and with combinations of friends and family. That was sort of the backdrop and in about 15 minutes or so, I gave a family history, a feel for who Laurie was and what happened March 2nd through March 5th. The kids never uttered a peep during the whole time. The conclusion, the nugget, the take-away was "Suicide is NEVER the answer. Getting help IS the answer." I had little sheets made up with several suicide prevention websites, Laurie's website address, this blog address and then my email address and cell phone number. The hope is that if someone there last night was struggling, they now have some places to turn to and begin to get help. I was thanked many times but the reality was I thank each of them for their willingness to tackle a hard, hard subject, a killer.