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Firsthand experience
Many members of the Grinnell community probably remember the letter Mark
Baechtel wrote in the final issue of the S&B last year. As the campus
was struggling to come to grips with the suicides of Jonathan Raxter and Lenko
Stefanov, Baechtel shared his own experiences as a survivor of suicide. Baechtel
wrote that his mother took her own life while he was a 19-year-old in college,
and he addressed the pain and difficulty he experienced. Since writing that
letter last spring, Baechtel has survived the suicide of another family member,
that of his brother last summer. Here, Baechtel discusses his experiences with
grief and shares as a faculty member his perspective on the mental health of
the campus. In no way does Baechtel claim to be an expert on the issues of suicide
or depression; rather, he feels that perhaps some people will find it useful
to read the perspective of someone who has experienced them firsthand. [more]
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