OXFORD – A local woman whose father committed suicide is reaching out to others in the area who have suffered a similar loss.

Danielle Marshman Williamson lost her father, Dan Marshman, in 2001. The healing process has been a long and arduous one, made even more painful by the stigma attached to suicide deaths.

By starting a local support group, sharing her story and participating in a national broadcast in honor of National Survivors of Suicide Day, Williamson said she hopes that she can assist others who have lost family members to suicide.

When her father killed himself eight years ago, Williamson was devastated. She was living in Massachusetts at the time of his death, hundreds of miles from her mother and brother. She said she felt all alone in dealing with the loss. “I had no one,” she said.

Williamson took it upon herself to search for information and support in her area. She said it was more than a year before she attended her first support group.

Her true breakthrough came, she said, when she stumbled across information on the internet about the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

“They had the best information for survivors,” Williamson explained.

Three years after her father’s death, she attended a conference hosted by AFSP.

“It was the first place that I ever felt comfortable enough to say my father killed himself,” she said.

Since that time, the Oxford native has attended a number of other conferences, workshops and events sponsored by the organization. There is always that same comfort level, she said, which helps provide a safe place to share and heal.

“From the minute you walk in, you know there are other people there that know what you’re going through,” she said. “That stigma is not there.” It is this atmosphere that she hopes to create in a monthly support group she plans to start this December at the United Methodist Church in Oxford.

This is Williamson’s second attempt at starting a local support network. Her first effort, made a couple of years ago, was unsuccessful. After attending an AFSP sponsored Suicide Survivor Support Group Facilitator Training, she now understands why.

“I was doing it all wrong,” she explained. “You’re supposed to be strong enough to not have to be there for yourself.” She admits that at the time, she wasn’t.