Bruised and Wounded

Recent incidents have shown once again how suicide affects all of us, often when we least expect it. But how can you deal with the sadness that comes after such a difficult, and often vilified, death? Ron Rolheiser can assist you.

When a person is diagnosed with cancer, one of three things can happen: doctors treat and cure the disease; professionals cannot cure the disease but can control it so that the person suffering can live with the disease for the rest of his or her life; or the cancer is of a type that cannot be treated and all medicine and treatments in the world are ineffective - the person dies.

Suicide may be precipitated by emotional despair. Sometimes a person can be treated so that they are effectively cured; sometimes they cannot be cured but can be treated so that they can live with the disease for the rest of their lives; and sometimes, as with certain types of cancer, the disease is untreatable, unstoppable, and no intervention by anyone or anything can halt its progression - it eventually kills the person and there is nothing anyone can do. Thus starts Ronald Rolheiser's short yet powerful novel.

With chapters on "Removing the Taboo," "Despair as Weakness Rather Than Sin," "Reclaiming the Memory of Our Loved One," and "The Pain of the Ones Left Behind," Fr. Rolheiser gives hope and a fresh perspective on suicide death.