What If Grief Begins Before Goodbye? Suicide Loss, Mental Illness & Healing with Suzanne Sherman

What happens when you begin grieving someone you love long before they’re gone?In this deeply personal episode of Notes From the Edge, host Lisa Lacy sits down with Suzanne Sherman, author, memoir editor, and writing coach, to explore childhood trauma, schizophrenia, suicide loss, complicated grief, and the healing power of storytelling.Suzanne was just four years old when her mother developed schizophrenia. At eighteen, she lost her mother to suicide. Decades later, she found the courage to tell their story in her memoir, Living in the Long Shadow: Surviving a Legacy of Mental Illness.But this conversation reveals something profound: sometimes we grieve not only the person we’ve lost, but the life mental illness prevented them from living.Through memories of her mother, decades of unanswered questions, and the decision to finally write her story, Suzanne explores how love, grief, and healing can coexist.In This Episode:Growing Up with a Parent with Schizophrenia: How Suzanne’s childhood changed when her mother’s mental illness emerged, and what happens when children are left to make sense of experiences nobody explains.Suicide Loss & Complicated Grief: The emotional complexity of losing her mother at eighteen, including the grief Suzanne experienced long before her mother’s death.Mental Illness, Family Silence & Childhood Survival: How unspoken struggles, family dynamics, and the need to remain observant can shape a child’s understanding of safety and belonging.Memoir Writing & Healing Through Storytelling: Why Suzanne waited decades to write Living in the Long Shadow, how she found the courage to revisit painful memories, and what writing taught her about her own life.Love Beyond Loss & Finding Meaning: An extraordinary personal experience that changed Suzanne’s understanding of her connection with her mother, the importance of honest communication, and the simple words that helped her persevere: “I can do this.”From the lasting effects of parental mental illness to the courage it takes to tell a deeply personal story, this conversation reminds us that grief doesn’t always begin with death, healing doesn’t require forgetting, and some of the most important conversations are the ones families never learned how to have.Connect with Suzanne ShermanExplore Suzanne’s memoir, writing workshops, coaching services, and weekly memoir classes.Website: https://suzannesherman.comConnect with Lisa | INSIDE THE EDGEJoin INSIDE THE EDGE, a membership co