Let’s Talk: Bend mother grieves, but moves forward

September is Suicide Prevention Month, and at NewsChannel 21, we are tackling the difficult subject that is suicide. In our first special report, Samantha O’Connor spoke to a Bend mother who lost her daughter to suicide.

Through her loss, she has made steps toward recovery — and you can take part in those steps, too.

“I think I cried every day for a year. I still do,” Glenda Pinney said recently.

Pinney lost her daughter, Rachel, to suicide six years ago. Rachel battled depression and addiction for a few years.

“You do all the, ‘What ifs?’ How could we have changed that day?” Pinney said.

At the time of Rachel’s death, she had started to turn her life around.

“She was in a good space, she had just completed school, she was looking towards a career, she lived in Portland. It really hit us out of the blue. We weren’t expecting it. So yeah, we miss her every day,” Pinney said.

Rachel was 23 years old when she died by suicide.

“I want to remember her not how she died, but how she lived,” Pinney said, “Now I find comfort in sharing stories about my daughter and talking about her. She really was a wonderful person.”

To continue honoring that wonderful person, she works hard to make sure others know they aren’t alone.

“It’s complicated. It’s tragic,” Pinney said.

While walking down the road of grief, Pinney is taking steps toward helping other while creating more awareness around suicide.

Through her recovery, Pinney has been heavily involved with starting the Bend “Out of the Darkness” walk, which will be held this Saturday at Pilot Butte State Park. All walks of life are invited to come together and walk for a good cause.

Pinney said this event is important to her, so that another family doesn’t have to go through what she went through.