Episode 481: Gretchen Evans. Lost Brother to Suicide, Lost Sister & Her Twin Children in Accident

Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Richard Ostler

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 839 Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2021

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My friend Gretchen Norman Evans (married mother of one, active LDS) shares the story losing her dear brother Jacob Norman to suicide while he attended BYU in May of 2019. She continues by sharing the story of losing her dear sister Alanna Norman Koons and her twin 18-month old daughters Ruby and June in a car crash in July of 2019. Gretchen and her family (a strong, open and very close family) are living with immense pain of the reality of losing so many family members. Gretchen shares thoughts on why someone becomes suicidal and what we can do to help them—along with insights to help family members when a someone completes suicide. Gretchen also has important and helpful ideas on how to grieve, how to allow others to grieve, and how to improve our Church culture to allow people to grieve, be real and help them heal. Gretchen bravely shares how she is feeling, what she is learning, what she is doing to be in a safe and sustainable place and how she is finding hope for the future. If you have lost of family member and are dealing with immense pain, Gretchen’s insights will help you. If you want to help others dealing with loss, Gretchen’s perspectives will help you. I felt we were on sacred ground as we recorded this podcast. Thank you Gretchen for having the courage to share your story. It honors all your family and helps us do better. You are helping so many.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome listeners to another episode of Listen, Learn, and Love hosted by Richard Osler.
0:10.0	I think we have a really important episode for you from my friend Gretchen Evans, who's
0:16.0	joining us via Zoom from Tucson, Arizona. Welcome to the podcast, Gretchen.
0:25.8	Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
0:34.1	And I'm seeing Gretchen on my screen. She's bright and full of life, but we'll be talking about a very difficult subject.
0:40.8	Gretchen has sort of had an immense, unimaginable tragedy come into her life.
0:47.9	She lost her younger brother, Jake Norman. Gretchen is Gretchen Evans married, but her maiden name is Norman. So her younger brother, Jake Norman, while at BYU, a return missionary from Quebec,
0:55.0	Canada died by suicide in May of 2019 at the age of 23.
1:01.1	And then how much longer until the next tragedy happened?
1:06.0	You told me before we went live.
1:08.1	Yeah, two months, exactly.
1:10.0	So two months later, her older sister, Elena,
1:14.9	was driving with her twin girls, 18-month-old. So imagine these three in a car in Indianapolis,
1:21.9	Indiana, driving home from church, and were hit by a semi, and all three of them were killed. And so
1:30.7	Gretchen's, you know, have lost four dear people in her life and I'm already emotional, her
1:35.2	younger brother, older sister, she has her surviving brother and these two nieces, Ruby and June.
1:42.6	And the purpose of doing this podcast is just, Gretchen's been on this road for a couple
1:49.4	years now.
1:50.2	And if you've kind of had an unimaginable loss, our hope is the things Gretchen shares with
1:56.9	you will be helpful for you.
2:00.5	And just the journey that she's making her way forward is a active Latter-day Saint and
2:05.9	also creating boundaries for herself of what she can or can't do.
	...

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