A collection of first-person accounts by daughters and sons affected by parental suicide, Before Their Time is the first work to present adult children survivors' accounts of their loss, grief, and resolution. Examining the common difficulties associated with losing a loved one by suicide, this book looks at the difficulties specific to the survivor's status as both adult and child.

From having experienced the tragedy of parental suicide within the past few years to having dealt with it for nearly twenty-five years, the contributors to this volume range in age from nineteen to thirty-six. Their essays speak openly about fears, stresses, and methods of coping. Topics explored include coping with such loss through humor and the effects of parental suicide on adult children's personal and professional choices, marriages and parenting, and sibling and surviving parent relationships.

With a foreword by the Founder and Director of Loving Outreach to Survivors of Suicide, Rev. Charles Rubey, Before Their Time also includes a resource section that offers a national listing of suicide survivor support groups; an overview of existing research on survivors of suicide by John L. McIntosh, former President of the American Association of Suicidology; and an essay on elderly suicide by Secretary-General of International Association for Suicide and Crisis Editor-in-Chief David C. Clark.