Just buried my brother on April 1. I lost my best friend, my protector, and older brother to suicide. I swear I can still hear him walk through my house and call my name. There is not a day that has gone by that I don’t cry. My birthday was 4 days later; it was the second worst day of my life. I am 33 – my brother would be 37 in July. Is this pain going to ease? I’m lost without my friend. I’m confused – why? Why did he have to come to my house and shoot himself in my driveway? We have always been so close…why would he do this to me?

I lost my 37 year old brother one month ago today. It feels like a nightmare and I would give anything to make it go away. If I can barely get through a day without a wide range of emotions, how on Earth will I make it a year and beyond? This didn’t need to happen, shouldn’t have happened; please Lord help undo this painful mess. The love of your kids…why couldn’t you at least still feel or see that? It could have pulled you through. I would have done anything if you just would have called me. Are you ok? Are you at peace? Are you by me? I don’t feel you by me. Please stay close.

Dear Luis,
It has been a month and a half since you died. I miss you so much I cry everyday. I miss how you’d tell me every time I saw you that you loved me. We weren’t brothers by blood, but that didn’t matter. I miss how you’d make me laugh like a fool, and I loved making you laugh. I still remember your voice so clearly. Remember when I taught you those words in Gypsy? May tut kamavva. – I love you.

I’m so sorry that I ignored your calls and texts so many times over the last year always saying that I was too busy. You stole such a big piece of my heart, and when I heard you passed I thought I was having a heart attack. Even still my stomach aches for the pain that I know you were in in those last moments. I told you that I would die for you because you were so afraid of death.

Mom and dad are having a hard time, I see them almost everyday. At your funeral your mom looked at me and said “Alex, my lovely, you have lost your true brother.”

I never wanted you to have any pain. Now, you don’t, you’re free, that’s what I lived and prayed for all these years. I love you. I always will.
Love,
Alex

Happy Birthday, you would be 24 years old today. I was only 13 when you took your life at 18 years old. I cry because its been 6 years and I try so hard to hold onto the memories I have of you. I think about how proud you would be of me. Of hanging out with you today if you were still here. Watching a movie, playing video games, fighting with you. All I have are your sneakers, a painting you did, and your deodorant I used to love the smell of. I’m finally going to counseling for everything. It hurts me so bad that suicide is something that no one talks about. How can I finally be at peace with it? I love you so much and I made you a cake. 🙂
-Love you lots
Your little sis

Grief has the tendency of kicking me when I’m down
It has a knack for taking me by surprise, creeping up on me when I least expect it
Sometimes it’s with me all day, washing over me like waves, back and forth
At other times it’s like a hit and run, there one second and gone the next
It grips my heart and squeezes it, drenching out the sadness like juice
Loss weighs on my chest like a stone carved from my memories
Those moments, smiles and wishes haunting my mind
Grief is a welcome friend
I embrace it willingly, tenderly, like a comrade absent for too long
It cleanses my soul, washing it with tears
It lifts the pressure from my aching bones
Maybe for just a minute, maybe for days
It’s with me always
Sometimes lurching in the shadows, sometimes holding my hand
Leading me into the darkness, or showing me the light

Hey bub,

It’s been 3 months (11-12-15) since you left us here. So much has changed for example I got to meet Melinda’s girlfriend and daughter Grace. Crystal says you are still going to prom with her, she’s getting a dress in your favorite color (blue) and she’s going to hold your picture up at the photo booth I think. They are giving you a page in the yearbook in your memory and I handed in a sinking picture for the senior sibling page. They took those pictures the week I came back to school. I still can’t believe your not here to help keep the boys away from me or see me grow up in person. I miss you a ton Johnny…I love you and I always will bub.

It’s 20 years ago today…. you took your own life.. you were only 13 years old.. I can remember everything from that day. Everything. I miss you baby sister…

I miss you Timmy. My soul is shattered.

My brother took his life. We don’t know what day he died because his body wasn’t found in time for the medical examiner to determine date of death. They put they day he was found (November 10th, 2015) as his day of death. I would do anything to have my brother back. I will miss him for the rest of my life. I will cry every day for the rest of my life. I miss you Timmy.

I am sibling Survivor of two very special pieces of my heart. My baby brother Michael Phelps on July 3,2005 and my protector, my oldest sister Mareesa on March 1, 2011 . There’s nothing that will ever take that pain away and I’m going to grieve for them but that’s ok – they’re on my mind and in my heart 24/7. We had that sibling bond .❤