You Didn't Cause This

You Didn't Cause This

Your child has questions, and each one is harder than the last.

When someone dies by suicide, the preteen or teenager in your house is left holding questions nobody wants to answer. Did they want to leave me? Was it my fault? Could I have stopped it? In the silence that follows, children fill the gap with their own explanations, and the ones they invent are almost always crueler than the truth.

You do not need perfect words. You need honest ones.

Written by a hospice nurse practitioner who has spent her career with grieving families, this book is meant to be read together, one chapter at a time, in language a young person can follow.

Inside you will find:

• Clear, non-graphic answers to why it happened, whether your child was to blame, and whether they were loved
• What to say when kids at school find out, and whom to tell when someone will not stop
• How to recognize warning signs and ask for help, in a friend or in themselves
• A parent-teen safety plan and a safe-people list you fill out together
• A closing chapter about being allowed to be happy again

Written for parents, guardians, grandparents, school counselors, and anyone raising a young person through a suicide loss.

If your family is in crisis, call or text 988 at any hour.

Book One of The Hardest Conversation