Do They Have Bad Days in Heaven? Surviving the Suicide Loss of a Sibling is the first comprehensive resource for sibling suicide survivors. Michelle Linn-Gust takes the reader through the personal experience of losing her younger sister Denise Linn and weaves in the available research for sibling survivors. Michelle also journeys sibling loss through the life span. No matter how old you are, you ll find valuable help in Do They Have Bad Days in Heaven?
Michelle explains suicide, the grief process, and how sibling death impacts the brothers and sisters left behind. She adds practical advice for how sibling suicide survivors can help themselves.
This book is also wonderful for those who want to reach out to sibling survivors including parents, teacher, counselors, and friends. Reading Do They Have Bad Days in Heaven? assists them in understanding the grief process that the sibling survivor endures.
Included are resource pages filled with helpful places for sibling survivors to search for specific information.
Most significant, however, is that Do They Have Bad Days in Heaven? delivers a message of hope that one can survive a sibling suicide death.
In 1993, Chicago native Michelle Linn-Gust was a junior at Ball State University majoring in journalism when her sister Denise died by suicide. The death completely altered her life. Michelle had no idea that losing her sister would force her to reevaluate everything she believed in and was important to her. Upon graduating from Ball State in 1994, Michelle moved to Albuquerque, N. M., where she pursued a master's degree in health education at the University of New Mexico. Do They Have Bad Days in Heaven? was born out of a research paper Michelle wrote about suicide bereavement for a graduate class on health issues in death and dying. Michelle's own grief journey and the research paper proved how little information was available for sibling suicide survivors.
In 1995, HEARTBEAT support group founder LaRita Archibald reminded Michelle that there was no comprehensive resource for sibling suicide survivors and urged Michelle to write the book. She began work on Do They Have Bad Days in Heaven? after finishing her graduate degree in 1996. She juggled teaching high school health and working on the book for three years before leaving to devote her energy to completing a project she knew was essential for sibling suicide survivors. Michelle had dreamed of writing a book since first grade but never could have imagined it would be about surviving her sister’s suicide.
In this time period, Michelle also started to give talks to schools and other organizations about Denise's death and how the loss affected her life. In 2000, she spoke at the American Association of Suicidology conference in Los Angeles on sibling suicide grief and, in May 2001, she gave a speech at the Suicide Prevention Advocacy Network’s Awareness Event in Washington, D.C.
Today, Michelle, who still lives in Albuquerque, continues to speak and educate people about sibling suicide loss and suicide awareness. "I can't bring Denise back but maybe I can help someone else," she often says at the end of her talks.
