Tuesday, June 16, 2015

2015 Scholarship Presentation

Tomorrow is a hard anniversary, but tonight was a night to honor Emma's legacy and present scholarships to two talented and deserving students. Here is Peter's scholarship speech:

Good evening. My name is Peter von Euler and this is my wife, Nancy. When we established this scholarship 6 years ago we had 3 goals in mind. First, we wanted to celebrate our daughter's rich, if too short, life. Second, we wanted to provide a little help and encouragement to our award winners so that they might achieve their dreams. And, lastly, we wanted to use the award presentation as an opportunity to share some information that maybe, just maybe, would save a young person's life. 

Our daughter, Emma, was bright, beautiful, and talented. She LOVED music! She danced, sang, and played the flute, piccolo, saxophone, clarinet, and guitar.  She dreamed of a life as a professional musician. By the age of 16, she had performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, West Point, and Canterbury Cathedral. Emma was also kind and compassionate. She was a defender of underdogs everywhere and always had a shoulder for her friends to lean on.  

Emma never reached her 17th birthday.  An illness took her life.  It attacked her brain.  She had struggled with it for a long time.  Though formidable, it was mostly invisible.  Many of her friends didn’t even know she was ill.  No, it wasn’t cancer.  It was mental illness.  I wonder how many of you, as you heard that last sentence, scrambled to replay the lines that came before it.  I wonder how many of you think it’s odd to imply that those illnesses are comparable.  Emma’s life ended with suicide, just as someone with AIDS might eventually succumb to pneumonia, but the disease that took her life was mental illness.  I’m telling you this, because I feel that we treat ill people in this country differently, depending on the type of disease.  Let’s be clear, though, people with mental illness do not choose their affliction.  They are not weaker human beings,  and when they fight their disease they are no less heroic.  Unfortunately, many of those people are young, and many keep their struggle to themselves.

Suicide is now the third leading cause of death for people ages 15-34. Suicide claims nearly as many lives each year as breast cancer; and as of 2010, more people in the United States lost their lives to suicide than in car accidents. 

Many people think of suicide as being an extreme reaction to a failed relationship, lost job, or family crisis. The truth is, in 90% of deaths by suicide, the underlying cause is a diagnosable, although sometimes undiagnosed, mental illness.   The good news is mental illness is treatable. But to be treated, a person needs to seek help. Everybody knows that diseases are best be treated if detected early.   The same is true for mental illness. Don’t be afraid to seek help. Everybody knows that the struggle  goes better when the patient has supporters, champions who walk alongside. Don’t be afraid to walk alongside a friend who’s struggling.   We hope that you won’t consider it a cause for shame or a sign of weakness. We don’t look at other diseases that way.  We hope that your generation is the generation that brings mental illness and mental health issues out in the open.  Please, take care of each other.

Fairfield Warde – 

This year’s scholarship winner is an avid violinist who has played in Warde’s Concert, Chamber, and Symphonic orchestras and is also a member of the Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestra. She is a member of the Tri-M Music Honor Society, National Honor Society, and Math Honor Society. For all four years of high school she participated in a Music Enrichment program mentoring elementary school students, and she has been a mentor/translator at the Vasco de Gama Portuguese school.  In her essay, she described herself as, “Being someone who wants to mesh the studies of music, art and psychology together in order to make discoveries that lie in between all of the disciplines.”  Katie Reiss, we can’t wait to see what you discover!

Fairfield Ludlowe – 

This year’s scholarship winner is a talented flutist, who is a member of the Tri-M Music Honor Society, the National Honor Society and the English Honor Society. She loves children and has worked as both a tutor and a flute teacher outside of school. She will be attending Fordham University next year, where she plans on majoring in Psychology and continuing with the flute. We are thrilled to present the Emma Jane von Euler Memorial Scholarship to Abigail Price.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Postcard from a friend

I always appreciate it when someone gets in touch with me because they want to let me know that they have been thinking about Emma, or that they have visited her at the memorial Garden, or that they have a special memory they want to share. That has happened several times in the last couple of weeks. It does my heart good to know that others are carrying Emma with them just like we do. 

Here is a lovely story that was shared with me just last week. Thank you, Victoria!

Mrs. Von Euler,

I don’t know if you remember me, but I was in FCCC with both of your daughters. Sarah and I were friends through FCCC and then continued to be friends at Lauralton. 

I stumbled across your blog “Emma Times” today and read some stories about Emma and couldn’t help but smile and reminisce a bit myself. I wanted to write you and tell you about my fondest memory of Emma. 

I joined FCCC when I was in 8th grade. I was placed in Concert choir and became friends with Sarah because we were the same voice part. Halfway through the year I was moved to Chamber choir because they needed some more Soprano II’s. As I walked into my first Chamber rehearsal I was terrified. I didn’t know anyone and I didn’t know any of the music. I was seated next to Emma. Mr. Noyes asked her to be my mentor and help me adjust. She took it upon herself to take me into the next room before rehearsal started and teach me my part for the songs we were working on. She did this for a couple weeks until I felt comfortable. She was the first person who showed me kindness and made me feel comfortable. She taught me to sing “Goin’ Up Yonder” which I later sang at her funeral. That song will forever remind me of Emma. 

Emma had a beautiful heart and even though I only knew her for a short time, and that exchange was the most we talked, she changed my life. Because of Emma I look out for the newbies/nervous/lonely kids in a room and make sure to reach out to them, to make them feel comfortable. I seek to be Emma to others. Thank you for your beautiful daughter. 


Victoria Conaway

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Portrait of a teen lost to suicide - Madison Holleran

I'm sharing this heart wrenching story of the loss of gifted student, athlete and adored friend, sister, and daughter, Madison Holleran. I can relate to so many parts of this story. I was particularly struck by a line from the book, Reconstructing Amelia, that Madison left behind as a clue to the turmoil and pain she was feeling.  " Sometimes it's hard to tell how fast the current's moving until you're headed over a waterfall."

I have always felt that Emma got pulled over a cliff of despair by a strong and unexpected wind. 

I also was struck by this quote:

Bill Schmitz Jr., former president of the American Association of Suicidology, points out that depression does not have a one-size-fits-all prognosis. "The course varies," he says. "In a way, it's the same as cancer. For some, we might prolong life for months, for years. For others, it can be very sudden."


Click here for the story.