Leda Cunningham

I help people rebuild after suicide loss through writing, sharing resources, and
creating community.

my Story

I am a nonprofit manager. For the past twenty years, I have served in leadership positions at multiple organizations from the small and scrappy to the large and well-resourced. I’ve always used a What? So What? Now What? approach to manage change. And curiosity as a way to embrace it.

In 2014 my husband died by suicide. Our family was devastated. Overnight my life became one big Now What?

Since then I’ve raised my two children while navigating complicated grief, helping them through theirs, and pursuing a career. My path to rebuilding, from death paperwork to sibling squabbles, meant facing difficulty head-on, adapting to new realities, and focusing on different priorities. It also meant being curious in new ways.

MY wRITING

I publish monthly essays through Substack. I hope you’ll read them and subscribe here.

I write about playing the hand we’re dealt, offering and accepting help (the truly helpful kind), joy, kids, nature, meaning, and connections between all of the above. It’s soulful, uplifting, probing, and sometimes funny.

I’m working on a book that blends memoir with practical guidance for people impacted by suicide and its long aftermath. Expected in 2027.

SUICIDE WIDOWS PROJECT

In researching my book, I discovered how little is known about the many parents who have lost a spouse or partner to suicide while raising kids. It’s at least 100,000, just in the U.S.¹

I also discovered an opportunity to help. Suicide creates massive ripple effects for families left behind, but I only know my experience. I’ve started a project to understand the wider needs of suicide-widowed parents and to build a community that provides practical, compassionate support.

More details coming soon — subscribe to receive them.

subscribe here

For now, for more information or to support the Suicide Widows Project, a tax-exempt charitable organization, please contact me.

Contact me

¹ Assuming children under 18 and multiplying by 7,000-30,000 estimated to lose a parent to suicide annually according to Cerel et al 2008 and Hung and Rabin 2009.