A Beautiful Smile

Dear Reader,

A few weeks ago, an article from The Straits Times titled ‘The day an 11-year-old did not come home from school’ beckoned to me. Beside the words was a photo of a boy with a beautiful, slightly cheeky smile. The Straits Times was running a feature on suicide, with a full-page article titled ‘Why it’s important to talk about suicide’.

11-year-old Goh Yong Le had gone to school happy that day, but he never came home. His father kindly and bravely shared his son’s story to raise awareness of the need for the community to watch out for highly sensitive children, to help save other kids.

Reading Yong Le’s story was heartbreaking. Suicide is the leading cause of death among young people aged 10–29. It is an issue we need to talk about urgently and more openly, just as we now talk more candidly about mental health. Not everyone who takes his/her own life has mental health issues, but what runs beneath suicides and mental illnesses are deep, unseen psychological and emotional undercurrents which have to be brought to light.

When I wrote The Sound of SCH more than 10 years ago, mental illness was a taboo topic. No one wanted to mention it, and no publisher wanted to publish the book, until Ethos Books did so in 2014. While mental health is discussed more honestly now, it is still a deep, complex issue for society and for those afflicted by it.

Like Yong Le’s father, I shared the story of my uncle in the hope that it could raise awareness and help others. Despite his illness, my uncle had what was to me a beautiful smile which I will always remember. Likewise, we need to remember the beautiful smile of 11-year-old Yong Le.

Sincerely,

Danielle Lim
Author of The Sound of SCH, Trafalgar Sunrise, And Softly Go the Crossings and All Our Brave, Earthly Scars

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