LAYTON, Utah — “Last Tuesday was, by far, the worst day of our lives,” Robert Mancini said Tuesday in front of an overflowing memorial for his daughter inside their Layton home. “You just think, 'It’s never going to be us, we’re not that family, we’re not going to have those issues,' but it was us.”
15-year-old Aislynn Mancini died by suicide on Oct. 18. Her parents said she and her sister were both having a tough day at school. Their mom picked them up and brought them home before going back to work.
“Then we got the call from our Kailynn that she did it, and we came rushing home,” said Li Mancini, Aislynn’s mother.
Since last week, Li and Robert have welcomed Aislynn’s classmates, friends, neighbors and family to write messages and share their feelings on a notepad placed on the memorial in their home. They want people to feel like they have an outlet and someone to talk to. This upcoming Saturday, they’ll burn those messages at a ceremony.
“We’re trying to get out word that you can be broken but you can be fixed... but you’ve got to talk,” Li said.
She stressed that parents need to find a way to speak with their children and that children, in turn, need to find someone they trust to speak to.
“I think the word suicide still scares a lot of people, and I think it needs to be addressed and I think people need to openly talk about it,” Robert added.
Both parents feel that social media also played an unfortunate role in Aislynn’s death.
“As soon as you hold that phone, people can still reach out to you and say not nice things to you, bully you, whatever might be causing that problem," Robert said.
The Mancinis are hoping that by speaking out and sharing, other families will begin to have those tough conversations.
“Don’t let your kids go to bed mad if you know they’re angry. Try whatever you can do to get information out of them,” said Robert. “The choices they make that evening might not be the right choices, and if you can’t get them to talk, you’re just going to regret and feel terrible about it.”
Aislynn attended a high school in the Davis School District. Many of her friends and classmates have been stopping by the Mancinis' home to mourn and pay their respects.
“If we’re not talking about it, then it doesn’t go away, right? We need to have conversations about hard things, we need to address what we’re all seeing and dealing with on a daily basis,” said Brad Christensen, the director of student and family resources for the Davis School District. "The more we talk about it, the more we talk about the importance of it and getting resources in front of our students and awareness to our families and parents, we feel like we can make a difference.”
__________
For those struggling with thoughts of suicide, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline can now be reached by simply dialing 988 any time for free support. Resources are also available online at utahsuicideprevention.org.
The Davis School District also offers resources, which can be found on the district's website.
