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Suicide Awareness Service Set for May 20.

Altavista Journal - 5/17/2017

As four broken-hearted but determined individuals sit at a picnic table in Shreve Park, raw emotion seems to be carried in by the small stream beside the gazebo. Each has lost someone close to them. Each continues to grieve in their own way. But, most importantly, now they are determined to share their stories and shed light of a subject that many shy away from.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2015, suicide was the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, claiming the lives of 44,193 people. In comparison, 17,793 died as a result of homicide.

"It has been heavy on my heart," said Kim Cox as she shares her story with Marisal Marcano, Logan Anthony and Jody Pugh. "You see awareness for everything?heart, cancer, other causes, but nothing has been placed out there for suicide," she said. "This has affected so many families, all of us personally, in such a traumatic way."

For more on this story, see this week's Altavista Journal.