When the suicide monster invades the psyche, more than kindness is required. More than toughing it out.

The 15 dead included 10 hockey players between the ages of 16 and 21, the team coach, radio broadcaster, bus driver and other team personnel.

Every year, my sister and I take the anniversary of each of our parents’ deaths off and spend it together. We go to the cemetery and to Mass, and gather the memories and the mourning into our arms and hearts for one more year.

If someone you know loses a loved one to suicide, show up, offer words of condolences and keep doing it.

No one can love us like family, and no one can hurt us like family.

Thirty-four years ago I held my child, my 22-month-old son, cradling him in my arms as I watched the last flicker of his life ebb away.