I had a friend who grew up with father who could be very abusive at times. He was always pretty controlling over her and her sister, and honestly intimidated the shit out of me growing up. We never saw much of him, but when we did we always kind of diverted into another room and kept to ourselves. I never saw anything out right bad happen, but from what she told me, he was verbally abusive toward, her and her sister and her mom. My friend ended up dropping out of high school only a few months before our graduation--which was shocking to our small friend group because she was incredibly smart and always pretty studious. She ended up living with a guy who lived in a trailer for a while--it was a weird situation with her family. A year after high school ended, we found out her dad was dying of terminal illness (heart or lung disease, I can't remember which). My friend and her sister took it pretty hard.

Flash forward to a few years later, my friend slowly begins to get her life together, gets her GED and gets a pretty good paying job and works her way up. However, her sister's life begins to crumble. She started hanging around with a new group of people, started doing a lot of drugs and drinking. Her mom kicked her out of the house several times. Eventually, she ended up applying and being accepted to the same university I attended--I remember her reaching out to me on Facebook to ask me about dorms. She only lasted two semesters before she dropped out and retreated back to that crowd. I remember one evening my calling me and asking me to come over, she sounded upset so I rushed over. We sat on the couch and she told me that her sister was currently at a rehab center because she tried to kill herself earlier this evening. Apparently she took a bunch of pills without telling her friend who was with her. Her friend started to notice her drunk-like behavior and I guess her sister confessed that she had taken pills, immediately called 911.

For a while after that, I lost touch with my friend while I was in college. She would change her phone numbers frequently and I never really knew where she was living or what she was up to, and she never attempted to reach out much. A year and a half later, I get a text from one of my friends that was in our group growing up telling me that my friend's sister had died. Immediately my stomach sank and I knew she had killed herself. We all went to the funeral, it was an open casket. We later took her out to dinner and while it was a little uncomfortable, she started telling us about the series of events that kind of led to her suicide: She had been arrested a few times for left (of weapons and other misc things). She was kicked out of her house. My friend though the real last straw for her sister was when she was walking alone at night on a street (presumably home). Someone (who my friend thinks may have been someone she knew) picked her up, raped her and beat her and then dumped her on the side of the road to fend for herself. My friend said that her mom walked into her sister's room to found her hung from her closet. She also told us later that day, my friend was sitting at their family computer that her sister frequently used. In the bed of the printer she had printed our directions on how to make a noose. Makes me feel sick thinking about it.