The reactions to my inaugural blog post have been incredibly overwhelming. The positive feedback and touching personal outreach has exceeded more than anything I could have hoped or wished for. The question most asked is: “why Jeffry Stijn?”
The name Jeffry Stijn Foundation is a tribute to two of my cousins. Both intelligent, witty, social and empathic. Both seemingly successful and well adjusted. Interested in a wide range of subjects and experiences. Being an only child, and not having been raised in the same country consistently with family at all, these two were the first ones that FELT like family to me of my own generation. The first who asked questions beyond “what are your grades like” and “do you have a boyfriend yet”.
Conversing with them made me realize that perhaps what I was experiencing and feeling, how I dealt with it, and how my environment neglected it, was not as odd as I had been led to believe.
Both committed suicide.
Their loss, both at pivotal points in my own journey, is indescribable. Perhaps I will one day be able to write about it in a way that will do justice to them. For now I honor them in my own small way with the Jeffry Stijn Foundation.
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