Giving hope
A Vancouver Island woman wants to launch a nationwide conversation about suicide
Suzanne Sagmeister has been affected by suicide her entire life.
When she was just sixmonths-old, her father was driving an ambulance to a hospital in Alberta when a man intent on taking his own life pulled in front of the ambulance, killing everyone but her father.
He suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder from the incident. His family suffered, too. As Sagmeister grew up, she discovered the lives of so many other people she knew were affected by suicide — from school classmates to musicians she took pictures of in her career as a photographer.
Eventually, it led to a gallery presentation consisting of large portraits of suicide survivors. While working on it, her son turned out to be the 25th survivor she photographed.
On Aug. 25, 2014, she had to do the hardest thing in her entire life — tell her then 16-yearold son, Lawson Kons, that his father just took his own life.
“Most people thought I should just stay home and cocoon myself — and I wanted to — but it actually just added more fuel to my fire.”
Sagmeister decided she was going to go across the country and photograph survivors of loss and survivors of attempt in every province to help launch an important conversation and help end the stigma when talking about suicide.
“We erase the stigma when we talk about it.”
The Vancouver Island resident recently spoke with two survivors on the Island during a trip to the province.
Sagmeister said she found it difficult to find people who were willing to talk about their experience with suicide in P.E.I.
However, she hopes to see that change.
“Once they see these stories of people all across Canada, you realize it doesn’t have to be a secret.”
The stories she’s heard from coast-to-coast have been nothing short of inspiring.
She has spoken to more than 100 survivors and is compiling the stories and photographs for a book she hopes to launch in spring 2017. “What is really fascinating is the more people I meet with, the more I find out that the common thread is that every single last one of them had a huge heart.”
Sagmeister said her book will have the stories that gained international media attention and stories no one has heard about.
“Everybody has been affected by suicide. If you can take this book and create conversation, the conversation is what ultimately is going to save lives.” Suzanne Sagmeister
By sharing their personal stories, it has given people a chance to turn their pain into purpose, she said.
“The people in this book are going to save lives.”
Sagmeister said this is the biggest conversation Canadians want to have but haven’t been given a safe outlet to talk about it in.
“Everybody has been affected by suicide,” said Sagmeister.
“If you can take this book and create conversation, the conversation is what ultimately is going to save lives.”
Sagmeister also hopes that in sharing these stories, people will know they are not alone, that many have suffered and create a connection across the country.
“This has been a journey of love and a journey of hope.”