Just within the last few months I have lost 3 cousins to mental illness and addiction. A few weeks ago, my 39 year old cousin Max committed suicide. Leaving his homeland and his friends and family to pursue a lifestyle he wasn’t raised he lived he spent his adult life in Germany, spiraling into a world of addiction and mental illness. There is no obit for him that I’m aware of, his parents just got his ashes from Germany. I’m not even am certain there has been a memorial for him as his parents are dealing with this very privately at this time. Last Saturday my 34 year old cousin Samuel killed his 6 year old son and then himself after years of suffering from severe mental illness and addiction. I was not close to either cousin but this has had a profound effect on me anyway, especially the latter, who took his little son with him. The complexity of knowing that behind a monster is a person who was also greatly loved and who greatly loved others especially his son. To make matter