Comments After Our Family’s Talk

Comments We Received After Our New Directions Speaking Engagement

January 20, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Our family was invited to speak for the Drew Sopirak Memorial Presentation. I received this letter after our presentation.

Dear John and Trish:

On behalf of New Directions and the public, I want to thank you for the excellent interactive presentation that you provided on April 27. The audience reaction was excellent. The comments below are from the audience evaluations.

Very brave family. Their pain is serving a purpose and they will do much good.
Very impressed that they came out. Thank them for their story.
Good job and brave to tell their story.
Very interesting, true to life.
The program was excellent! The topic was very applicable, essential, and breached a previous void in discussing the impact of mental illness on a family.
Better than what I expected. Very enlightening!
Wonderful honest presentation.
Excellent!
Wonderful program! Lots of courage!
Thank you. Excellent presentation. Great honest presentation.
Thanks for helping to decrease the stigma. It is only by sharing that we can make progress with this.
Wow! Thank you.
Excellent.
Amazing courageous family. This was an excellent presentation.
It was a great presentation. Bring them back again.
Excellent program. So important to expose the family secrets.
The Gallagher family’s freshness added to the depth of the story and the pain…a brave family.
The family’s story was very inspiring, very real and very honest. I felt validated in my own experience.
Heartfelt answers. Ryan at age 18 was amazing.
Keep with the good work. This family should talk in many other events.
It was great having a family all speaking especially regarding mental illness.
The story touched me. The Gallagher family is amazing and proves that there is help for depression and anxiety.
It was wonderful that the children and parents are willing to open themselves up to help others.
Wonderful. Thank you.
Excellent. Great.
Excellent and very healing.
Very nice and interesting family. Very inspiring to bring things into the open.
Unresolved grief and trauma. I am struck by the fact that John’s suicide attempt occurred when his son was nine years old. John was 9 when his mother died and I think that is more significant than genetic predisposition. The Gallagher’s need to realize that Ryan was indeed affected by his father’s situation.
This presentation will /can become awesome with practice.
Thank you to the family for coming. This helps to reduce the stigma of depression and other mental illnesses.