Those left behind after suicide gather for annual vigil tonight

WARREN

Every November, Mary Kopiak gets sunflowers painted on her fingernails with a complementary light-blue backdrop that she wears for the entire month.

“She was a fun-loving little prankster. She was my baby Smurf,” Kopiak remembered about her late daughter, Valerie Kopiak, who died Nov. 20, 1998, after having committed suicide. She was 19.

In a loving and symbolic gesture, Kopiak adorns her nails with the same color as the popular fictional blue cartoon characters, along with sunflowers, to honor her daughter, who died from an overdose after spending 11 days on life support.

Holding back tears at times, Kopiak shared part of her daughter’s story during the 20th annual Candlelight Vigil for National Survivors of Suicide Awareness Day gathering Saturday evening at Life Church of Warren’s Reach Center, 2609 Weir Road NE.

“It’s changed my life forever. I was mad at the world,” she told an audience of a few dozen, many of whom also lost loved ones to suicide. “There’s no such thing as closure.”

Other than having difficulties in her relationship with her boyfriend, Valerie showed no outward signs of depression or other factors that can lead to ending one’s life, her mother recalled. Instead, the teenager with a sense of humor who worked at a Wendy’s restaurant in Niles, had many friends and wanted to be a flight attendant, seemed content, Mary remembered.

Read more of her story and others in Sunday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.