Because of her unique experience, Wauwatosa author Deborah Chamberlain will serve as a panelist during an upcoming national conference about suicide.
Chamberlain is scheduled to participate in the Chicago National Survivor of Suicide Day conference at the Marriott Renaissance Chicago O'Hare Suites Hotel, 8500 West Bryn Mawr Ave., Chicago, at 11 a.m. Nov. 21.
Appearing with her on the panel will be Elizabeth Howard, Chamberlain's childhood friend. While they were teenagers in the late 1960s, both women lost boyfriends to suicide within a 5-month time period.
"I am honored to be a part of the ongoing efforts to remove the stigma that surrounds the topic of suicide," Chamberlain said in a news release. "To suffer through the suicide of someone so dear to me at age 17 was devastating enough, then to watch my best friend go through the same thing was hideous."
Chamberlain documented her experiences in a book called "Orange Picnic," which she self-published earlier this year. The memoir tells of the first time she fell in love, at the age of 16. Chamberlain's boyfriend was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War the next year, and, despite a plan to flee to Canada, he was lost forever.
"To have two couples torn apart is an experience no one can explain. So I wrote a book to try to make sense of it all," Chamberlain said.
"Volunteering has helped me learn more about ongoing efforts to understand the causes and possible preventions for suicide, but on a personal level I have yet to find a satisfactory answer to the question of, 'Why?' How can someone fight against the basic human instinct to survive, to be completely without hope for the future?"
The Milwaukee National Survivors of Suicide Day also takes place Nov. 21, and is hosted by Mental Health America of Wisconsin and Aurora Health Care.
- Isral DeBruin
AT A GLANCE
WHAT: Milwaukee National Survivors of Suicide Day
WHERE: Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center, 2900 W. Oklahoma Ave., Milwaukee
WHEN: 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Nov. 21.
MORE INFO: Visit www.afsp.org, e-mail martina@mhawisconsin.org or call (414) 336-7972.
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