Read diary

The author is a fellow Singaporean woman, who shares with us her deep thoughts and feelings towards her parents' deaths by suicide.

It is available for loan from the National Library.

The book, in its only first edition, was published in 2008.

Background of author:

When she was only 7, YIN's mother took her own life. Forty years later her father jumped to his death. This is the story of how she survived her parents' suicides.

Yin, 47, was a physiotherapist before becoming a homemaker. She is married with 3 children, aged 20, 18 and 16.
_____________________________________________

Excerpts

Pg 60:

It took me more than a year after dad's suicide, to experience the benefit of mutual support through the Healing Bridge, a group started by the SOS for survivors of suicide. Although I had enquired about the Healing Bridge in my first call to SOS, it was just my way of starting the conversation.


Pg 73:

...This was one place they could express their grief without being told to move on.

Nothing can ever prepare us for the loss of a loved one through suicide, but when it happens, it helps to know what to expect.


Pg 91:

...Even now, I cannot understand God's purpose in allowing Dad and Mum's suicide to happen.

For that reason, my journey will always be weighed down by doubts, a weak faith, and lots of tough questions.

But I believe that, one day, all will be made known to me, when my journey on earth is over.


Pg 93:

...Regardless of a survivor's background or faith, the struggles that he or she encounters are similar, even in the spiritual aspect.

The sharing of my spiritual journey is by no means an indication I have all the answers. I still struggle with questions regarding God's goodness and His purpose in allowing tragedies to happen.

I know that as long as I am alive, I will be subjected to moods that will make me doubtful and even skeptical.

My mood can and will vacillate according to external factors but I would like to think and believe that God is unchanging and constant.


Last page - Pg 107:

..."Helen Keller, a remarkable American woman, was born blind and deaf, but against all odds, she learnt to speak, read and write. She said: "What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we have loved deeply becomes a part of us."

I first saw these words on a brochure from the SOS. I was comforted by the thought that although Dad was no longer around, his values and all he stood for, live on in my memories and in my life.

In that sense - in a very real sense - Dad will always live in and through me.