I am in need of some very heartfelt advice...

I have a close friend, whose younger sister committed suicide last night. The only thing he told me was that he was racing home to see her, 2 1/2 hours away. Despite being rushed to the hospital, she still passed away. I am not sure if he even got to say goodbye to her.

My friend and I are only 20 years old. It goes without saying that it is a horrible tragedy for him to lose his 17 year old sister. Right now, he is at home mourning her death. I've sent texts and left voicemails expressing my condolences, but i know they wont make him feel any better.

I've never had a friend lose a family member. Even worse, it was a suicide. I have no idea what to say to him. I know he is extremely depressed, and I dont want him to hurt himself either. If anybody has any ideas on what to do, what to say to him and his family, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you and God bless,

Tyler

I think you should just give him some room to settle down, and just try to be extremely nice to him, It will take a awhile, I don't know how "close" of a friend he is, but yeah just give him some room to settle down the incident and pray for him. That's really all I can tell ya bro, good luck.

God will answer all prayers ~

This post was edited by HighschoolTurd on Jan 18 2012 02:45pm

Give him some space to mourn, thats really important, and be helpful and understanding if he's not himself for a while. When he's ready, a good talk usually helps.

don't be pushy but let him know that you're there for him whatever he needs and will be ready to talk when he is

be strong for him, he will come to you eventually

Invite him to church.
Be there for him and show him that the family of God will always be there for him.

You don't always have to have "the right thing to say". Sometimes just letting him know that you are there AND are there if he needs someone to talk IS THE BIGGEST THING YOU CAN DO. It may not seem like much but knowing that someone cares about you and is there to listen to you if is needed is such a relief and help.

Just let him know you are there if he needs someone's shoulder to cry on or just listen to. They say that men deal with losses in life harder than women, simply because men generally don't have as close bonds with their friends as women do. So just be a friend and if he wants to open up, then just let him know you are there.

And if he isn't Christian?
He should be allowed to mourn her passing in the amount of time it takes him to.
Distracting him from that with little bits will be good, but don't try to push it off like it didn't happen.

is terrible. but what can you really do ? not much. but advice him and yourself that now she is gone, and you're still stuck with life.

This post was edited by the_rest on Jan 28 2012 04:36pm