Sue Papa is a high school teacher, AFSP board member, and suicide loss survivor who lost her husband Dominick in July 2019. What began as an unimaginable shock — Dominick had no prior mental health diagnosis and his death came completely out of nowhere — became the catalyst for a life of purpose. In this powerful conversation, Sue walks us through the grief, the self-blame, the unexpected coincidences she calls “God winks,” and the slow, hard-won healing that followed.

Through her work with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), Sue has become a walk chair, a trained Healing Conversations facilitator, and the faculty advisor behind her high school’s first-ever NAMI on Campus mental health club. She’s also an entrepreneur — making embroidered “butterfly moment” patches, and now car air fresheners featuring a QR code linked to a mental health awareness song, “Love Set You Free.”

This episode covers risk factors, safe messaging around suicide loss, how to truly support a grieving person, what AFSP offers to survivors nationwide — and why Sue showed up to an Out of the Darkness Walk with a homemade piñata. If you’ve ever lost someone, loved someone who was struggling, or simply wanted to understand more — this one is for you.

Key Topics Covered

•        The warning signs Sue now recognizes: OCD, temper, alcohol, and access to firearms

•        Why self-blame is almost universal in suicide loss — and how Sue found peace without answers

•        The Alice phone call: a 27-year coincidence that lit a fire inside her

•        The Nashville “God wink” and connection to the song “If You’re Going Through Hell” by Rodney Atkins

•        How a homemade piñata helped a grieving young woman release what she couldn’t speak

•        Two years of fighting to bring a mental health club to her high school — and what finally worked

•        AFSP programs: Out of the Darkness Walks, Talk Saves Lives, Finding Hope, and Healing Conversations

•        The “butterfly moments” project and new car air fresheners linked to “Love Set You Free”

•        Rapid Fire Round: “Love louder,” hiking with her sister, and why she doesn’t own a TV

Guest Bio

Sue Papa is a high school math teacher in the Hudson Valley, a board member of the AFSP Hudson Valley/Westchester chapter, and the chair of the Out of the Darkness Walks in Orange and Rockland Counties. She is a certified AFSP Healing Conversations facilitator, a Talk Saves Lives educator, and the faculty advisor for a NAMI on Campus mental health club at Minisink Valley High School. After losing her husband Dominick to suicide in 2019, Sue turned her grief into a life of service, advocacy, and creativity. She makes embroidered “butterfly moment” patches and car air fresheners featuring a QR code linked to a mental health awareness song. She is working on a Shopify store and will be tabling at the Act Through Music event in May 2026.

Resources & Links Mentioned

•        988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text

•        American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) — afsp.org

•        AFSP Out of the Darkness Walks — afsp.org/walk

•        AFSP Talk Saves Lives training — afsp.org/talk-saves-lives

•        AFSP Finding Hope program — afsp.org/find-support/programs-and-support-groups

•        AFSP Healing Conversations program — afsp.org/healing-conversations

•        NAMI on Campus — nami.org/Support-Education/NAMI-on-Campus-Clubs

•        “If You’re Going Through Hell” by Rodney Atkins — Youtube link

•        YouVersion Bible App — youversion.com

•        Act Through Music — https://www.actthroughmusic.com/

•        Sue’s Out of the Darkness Walk info — Sunday October 4th 2026 at the Town of Greenville Park on Route 6, Port Jervis, NY.  www.afsp.org/roc

•        Team Up for Hope — teamupforhope.org

Chapter Markers

•        00:00:00 — Welcome & Introduction

•        00:01:11 — Losing Dominick — the day no one saw coming

•        00:05:11 — The walk, the “whoosh,” and coming home

•        00:07:40 — Navigating grief and the urge to blame yourself

•        00:11:08 — The epiphany: acceptance and redirecting energy

•        00:12:21 — Identifying risk factors (OCD, temper, alcohol, firearms)

•        00:17:00 — Multiple losses and faith

•        00:19:17 — The Alice call — “Okay, I hear you”

•        00:23:05 — Finding AFSP and jumping on the board

•        00:25:27 — “Your shoulders will get stronger to carry”

•        00:29:33 — The Nashville God wink

•        00:38:04 — The songwriter of “If You’re Going Through Hell”

•        00:40:02 — The piñata: literally breaking the stigma

•        00:49:49 — Two years fighting to bring mental health to school

•        00:53:15 — NAMI on Campus

•        00:56:26 — AFSP programs overview

•        00:58:34 — Healing Conversations: survivor to survivor

•        01:01:41 — Embroidery, butterfly moments & creative healing

•        01:05:03 — Car air fresheners & “Love Set You Free”

•        01:09:47 — Rapid Fire Round

Episode Summary (2–3 Paragraphs)

Sue Papa is a high school teacher, AFSP board member, and suicide loss survivor who lost her husband Dominick in July 2019. What began as an unimaginable shock — Dominick had no prior mental health diagnosis and his death came completely out of nowhere — became the catalyst for a life of purpose. In this powerful conversation, Sue walks us through the grief, the self-blame, the unexpected coincidences she calls “God winks,” and the slow, hard-won healing that followed.

Through her work with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), Sue has become a walk chair, a trained Healing Conversations facilitator, and the faculty advisor behind her high school’s first-ever NAMI on Campus mental health club. She’s also an entrepreneur — making embroidered “butterfly moment” patches, and now car air fresheners featuring a QR code linked to a mental health awareness song, “Love Set You Free.”

This episode covers risk factors, safe messaging around suicide loss, how to truly support a grieving person, what AFSP offers to survivors nationwide — and why Sue showed up to an Out of the Darkness Walk with a homemade piñata. If you’ve ever lost someone, loved someone who was struggling, or simply wanted to understand more — this one is for you.

Key Topics Covered

•        The warning signs Sue now recognizes: OCD, temper, alcohol, and access to firearms

•        Why self-blame is almost universal in suicide loss — and how Sue found peace without answers

•        The Alice phone call: a 27-year coincidence that lit a fire inside her

•        The Nashville “God wink” and connection to the song “If You’re Going Through Hell” by Rodney Atkins

•        How a homemade piñata helped a grieving young woman release what she couldn’t speak

•        Two years of fighting to bring a mental health club to her high school — and what finally worked

•        AFSP programs: Out of the Darkness Walks, Talk Saves Lives, Finding Hope, and Healing Conversations

•        The “butterfly moments” project and new car air fresheners linked to “Love Set You Free”

•        Rapid Fire Round: “Love louder,” hiking with her sister, and why she doesn’t own a TV

Guest Bio

Sue Papa is a high school math teacher in the Hudson Valley, a board member of the AFSP Hudson Valley/Westchester chapter, and the chair of the Out of the Darkness Walks in Orange and Rockland Counties. She is a certified AFSP Healing Conversations facilitator, a Talk Saves Lives educator, and the faculty advisor for a NAMI on Campus mental health club at Minisink Valley High School. After losing her husband Dominick to suicide in 2019, Sue turned her grief into a life of service, advocacy, and creativity. She makes embroidered “butterfly moment” patches and car air fresheners featuring a QR code linked to a mental health awareness song. She is working on a Shopify store and will be tabling at the Act Through Music event in May 2026.

Resources & Links Mentioned

•        988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text

•        American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) — afsp.org

•        AFSP Out of the Darkness Walks — afsp.org/walk

•        AFSP Talk Saves Lives training — afsp.org/talk-saves-lives

•        AFSP Finding Hope program — afsp.org/find-support/programs-and-support-groups

•        AFSP Healing Conversations program — afsp.org/healing-conversations

•        NAMI on Campus — nami.org/Support-Education/NAMI-on-Campus-Clubs

•        “If You’re Going Through Hell” by Rodney Atkins — Youtube link

•        YouVersion Bible App — youversion.com

•        Act Through Music — https://www.actthroughmusic.com/

•        Sue’s Out of the Darkness Walk info — Sunday October 4th 2026 at the Town of Greenville Park on Route 6, Port Jervis, NY.  www.afsp.org/roc

•        Team Up for Hope — teamupforhope.org

Chapter Markers

•        00:00:00 — Welcome & Introduction

•        00:01:11 — Losing Dominick — the day no one saw coming

•        00:05:11 — The walk, the “whoosh,” and coming home

•        00:07:40 — Navigating grief and the urge to blame yourself

•        00:11:08 — The epiphany: acceptance and redirecting energy

•        00:12:21 — Identifying risk factors (OCD, temper, alcohol, firearms)

•        00:17:00 — Multiple losses and faith

•        00:19:17 — The Alice call — “Okay, I hear you”

•        00:23:05 — Finding AFSP and jumping on the board

•        00:25:27 — “Your shoulders will get stronger to carry”

•        00:29:33 — The Nashville God wink

•        00:38:04 — The songwriter of “If You’re Going Through Hell”

•        00:40:02 — The piñata: literally breaking the stigma

•        00:49:49 — Two years fighting to bring mental health to school

•        00:53:15 — NAMI on Campus

•        00:56:26 — AFSP programs overview

•        00:58:34 — Healing Conversations: survivor to survivor

•        01:01:41 — Embroidery, butterfly moments & creative healing

•        01:05:03 — Car air fresheners & “Love Set You Free”

•        01:09:47 — Rapid Fire Round

Presenters:

Daniel McQuade, Artist, sculptor, photographer, advocate for mental health awareness.

Discussion: Daniel shares his recovery process, and his upcoming sculpture project, Under the Skin - A Raw Look at Mental Illness.

Daniel-McQuade.com. Katie Calvacca, Recovery Supports Coordinator, The Center for Prevention & Counseling, centerforprevention.org

Discussion: Katie shares her personal story and experiences in discussing recovery from addiction.

Mark Sasvary, LCSW, CBHS IPA, Chief Clinical Officer. Mr. Sasvary received his Master’s Degree in Social Work from SUNY Albany in 2007and is currently working on a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from SUNY Albany. His dissertation research is focused on evidence-based treatment in community mental health and he has advanced training in evidence-based clinical treatment from the Albert Ellis Institute, the Beck Institute, the Institute for Disaster Mental Health, the International OCD Foundation, and the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Sasvary worked at HVMH for almost 10 years where he worked as a clinician, Director of Quality Assurance, Director of Clinical Services, and Interim President.

Author - Bobi Conn was born in Morehead, Kentucky, and raised in a nearby holler, where she developed a deep connection with the land and her Appalachian roots. She obtained her bachelor’s degree at Berea College, the first school in the American South to integrate racially and to teach men and women in the same classrooms. After struggling as a single mother, she worked multiple part-time jobs at once to support her son and to attend graduate school, where she earned a master’s degree in English with an emphasis on creative writing. In addition to writing, Bobi loves playing pool, cooking, being in the woods, attempting to grow a garden, and spending time with her incredible children.

Link to Bob Conn's memoir: In the Shadow of the Valley: A Memoir: Conn, Bobi: 9781542004169: Amazon.com: Books- here

You can also learn more about Bobi on her website.

Team Up for Hope’s Wayne Patterson and Trish Valentino along with Francesca Bryson from the Warwick Valley Prevention Coalition and Beverly Braxton from We The People Warwick met with Vincent to learn more about what inspired him and the benefits this club has provided to its members.