More than half of all suicides occur in adult men between the ages of 25-65.

Suicide is how she lost her brother.

The Band is about breaking apart stigmas and blasting the shame away from the dirty, dark secrets no one talks about. My family needs a band. Or, rather, we needed The Band.

I like to think I’m an intelligent adult and that I ultimately know it’s useless to play the “what-if” game. But after stumbling across The Band, I wonder: what if Ty had The Band? If we, as a family, had been raised to talk about our problems, our feelings, would he still be with us?

I don’t know.

I do know that for every waking moment I have, I’ll have another where I wish I could go back to that night and ask him to talk to me, made him talk instead of letting him hide away in his room.

Maybe then he wouldn’t have called his ex.

Maybe then he wouldn’t have written that note.

Maybe then he wouldn’t have wound the noose around his neck.

Maybe then we wouldn’t have lost my brother.