It looked like any other group outing on a warm Sunday. Picnic tables full of laughing people, kids screaming with energetic joy in a bounce house, couples walking around with hotdogs in hand, and hot dogs on leash. A DJ mixed Beatles and Beyonce with effortless musical segues.
It wasn’t hard to notice, though, the various groups walking about in matching vibrant colored t-shirts; some orange, others blue, some white – some a more somber black. Most were emblazoned with a large picture, a print of a snapshot of a beaming young man holding a large fish, a pretty teen angel smiling widely in a close-up, an artistic profile of handsome kid fading into a shadow. Silk-screened memories of happier times; cotton-blended mementos of potential and hope before the lightening bolt of suicide ripped through the tranquility of normalcy and left an ugly scar of grief, anger and confusion.
The recent Out of the Darkness Walk to Prevent Suicide held at Coffee Creek was really a celebration of life, much more than a time to grieve. Certainly there were tears, as sadness’ fragile trigger is so easily tripped by such things. But there was a lot of laughter, a lot of story telling and many hugs. Lots of hugs. There was a restoration of hope where for some there was none. Sometimes it takes months, years to emerge from the overwhelming grief and shock. Any glimpse of hope, of logic, is often as blinding as stark sunlight beaming through a crack in the pulled shades of a darkened room. Very often, people move on and go through the motions of life and work, and outwardly appear to have reconciled. But inside, there is still a fog, or a constant rumination of what-ifs and should-haves.
That Sunday, the sun shone warmly on green prairies of Coffee Creek. Basking in the comfort of understanding and empathy, friends, family and survivors mingled, chatted, laughed and hugged. It looked normal, but for most normalcy is forever lost; yet a new understanding was dawning. They weren’t alone in their darkness, that there is life in the sunlight. At least for that day, they were truly Out of the Darkness.