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A Walk Across America, Walking to Remember

November 26, 2009

Eric’s death affects me every day. Losing someone is one of the hardest things a person will ever have to face in this life. However, we must continue on with our lives and remember those who have past and keep their memories close to our hearts.

Eric was a very special person in my life. He was my best friend and more like a brother than anything else. Truth be told, had it not been for Eric, I may have not been here today to be with my family and friends if not for Eric. Eric talked me out of suicide; he made me see what I’d miss if I were gone. He made me comprehend what it was that my family would have to undergo without my being at holidays, and birthdays, and every day. He’s the reason I’m still alive.

I cannot describe the sensation I felt the day my mother rang me and told me Eric had killed himself. I was 800 miles away when I got the call. My knees buckled beneath me and I remember hitting the floor. How could it be that someone so strong and so full of life, someone who had talked me out of the act takes his own life? It wasn’t till some time after Eric’s death that I and the rest of his friends began to understand what our friend had been dealing with. Eric, who was always the life of every occasion had been dealing with a severe case of medical depression. It was one that he was never able to pull out of, something so abysmal that not even a person who had talked me out of suicide would ever overthrow.

On February 3rd 2005 we lost Eric Drake and 3 months later we had formed the Lee Eric Drake Foundation for Suicide and Depression Awareness. Now 5 years later on February 3, 2010 I’m setting out on a 2900+ mile Walk Across America. The walk will start in Los Angeles, California and will finish in Time Square, New York.

In Eric’s memory, we not only celebrate his memory through this walk but we will also work with other charities to help champion their causes as well. Eric was an amazing individual and would give the shirt off his back to help others and we hope to accomplish the same with Walk Across America. We will continue to dignify Eric’s memory by helping others circulate their message while at the same time elevating awareness about the 33,000 plus American’s that take their lives every year.

A life is too much to lose and suicide is everyone’s business.

Kelly Bush

Director – Lee Eric Drake Foundation

 

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