I Understand

Pain, Love, and Healing After Suicide

By: Vonnie Woodrick

Narrated by: Vonnie Woodrick

Length: 3 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Time doesn’t heal - love heals.

When Vonnie Woodrick lost her husband, Rob, to suicide in 2003, she was faced with a series of decisions. How would she move on? How would she support and raise her three children as a young widow? How would she talk about Rob and honor his memory? These questions had no easy answers, but Vonnie found herself longing for one thing in particular: understanding. The stigma of mental illness loomed large over Rob’s death and made healing difficult. But Vonnie found the common assumptions surrounding suicide to be false. Rob was not “crazy”. He did not choose to take his own life. He was in agony and only wanted the pain to end. His death was a direct result of his mental illness. Why didn’t more people understand this?

More than a decade later, Vonnie and her children created the nonprofit organization i understand to help others enduring this same grief and loneliness. Since its founding in 2014, i understand has become a haven of compassionate comfort in the West Michigan region and a powerful voice in the movement to change the way we talk about suicide so that it can be seen for what it truly is: a terminal effect of mental illness rather than a deliberate choice.

This is the story of how love transformed Vonnie’s brokenness into hope - not only for herself and her family, but for anyone struggling to emerge from the darkness of suicide.

©2020 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (P)2020 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Story of Change! Story of Hope!

Vonnie lost her husband Rob to suicide. She tells the story of finding love and then losing Rob to suicide. I came away thinking about suicide differently. Thank you, Vonnie.

All the Emotions! Powerful Story.

I cried, I laughed, and I cried some more. Vonnie, the author, tells her own story of love and loss to suicide. Her little book changed the way I think about suicide. I am recommending this to all my friends.

I UNDERSTAND.

This was a real, very powerful story lived by the author and told for all. The pace allowed the words to sink in and evoked somewhat of a self-examination as I listened. If I had the means I would buy enough copies to distribute to every family I know and every high school, university, church and business within reach. The i understand organization is changing individuals and communities in a way that can change the entire mental health and suicide narrative in our lifetime. Buy this book and most importantly choose to “be the one” today. We each have the power to save lives with basic love, compassion and kindness.

A message that needs to be heard!

When I started to listen to this book, I was a little hesitant, ready for the stereotypical self help of dealing with loss and grief. What I found is so much more. Vonnie Woodrick takes us through the life of her husband, his death and how she began her healing. She takes the stigma out of suicide and gives us insight to finding a way to come back to the living. Her message is clear, concise and matter of fact. It makes you stop, think and recognize that life is not always as it appears, people deal with things differently and it takes time. This is a book that will stick with me, and I will be recommending it. . Narrated by Woodrick and her three children, you can feel their grief and how they each dealt with it differently. With a forward by Mariel Hemingway, it's touching and informative. It's a book that is a must listen.

Hard Truths

Vonnie's message is not easy to hear... but necessary. We must talk about the shame and stigma surrounding suicide. Thank you, Vonnie (and kids), for your bravery and sharing your heart.