Forgot to Say Goodbye, the Cherelle Clarke Story

Forgot To Say Goodbye is a heart-felt story of a mother’s despair after she loses her 14 year old daughter to suicide.  Cherelle Clarke was a happy, talkative child.  She was popular with the kids at school, she was in the chorus and she was in the school play.  Things started to change, however, when her stepfather, with whom she was very close, hanged himself. This suicide, combined with a brutal beating by a local gang was the turning point for Cherelle.  She became depressed, isolating herself from friends and family.  She rarely smiled anymore, her grades dropped, and worse yet, she began cutting herself with broken glass.  As is the case with many child suicides, even Cherelle’s mother, Lisa Seymour, didn’t see the warning signs until it was too late.  What Cherelle left behind was a devastated family overwhelmed by grief.  Lisa, Cherelle’s mother, was in a perpetual state of disbelief, searching for answers to impossible questions.  This book is Lisa’s journey, a mother’s journey that took her from the brink of complete despair to an uneasy acceptance, leaving  her, in the end, the strength and courage to carry on.

Keywords – Suicide, Bullying, Cutting, Depression, Child, Cherelle Clarke, 4 Block Gang, Gang, Hill Bitches, Schenectady, New York, NY