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Posts by Ashley Sillay

Ashley Sillay is a criminal defense attorney and instructor of legal writing in Macon, Georgia. She enjoys the ocean, vodka, and family. She writes this article in honor of her dear friend, Russ Edwards, a beloved and gifted veterinarian, who passed away on April 30, 2016. She hopes to destigmatize grief and loss one person at a time.

To Be AND Not to Be: Honoring a Life Lost to Suicide

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“To be, or not to be—that is the question.” ~William Shakespeare

This Sunday marks one year since my friend took his own life. It both is and isn’t a big deal. It is in the sense that we like to commemorate things: one-year-old, one year at a new job, one year since 9-11, one year sober.

It isn’t in the sense that my to-do list that day includes “thaw and marinate chicken.”

When a person takes his own life, it creates a cosmic shift in the universe.

It also doesn’t.

The first few days after a person takes his own …