Be Strong and Courageous: Teen Suicide and a Father’s Heart

Wade Brown

While there are plenty of opportunities to be angry, we don't want to be angry. We don't. Joshua was a beautiful, beautiful young man. And Joshua is not suicide. Joshua is a 14-year-old who did an adult thing in a moment of weakness and we'll never know why. He's a kid that did an adult thing. He's not suicide. And so, you know, it's important for us to demonstrate to our kids. And I try to do it at work as well. We choose love and grace. We do.

INTRO This is the second Handle with Care episode where a father talks about the death of his teen by suicide. If you didn’t get a chance to listen the first conversation, I would encourage you, after listening to this episode, to also listen to our last episode where Jason Seiden talks about his daughter Elle.

My guest today is Wade Brown. His full name is Edmund Wade Brown the 4th. His parents were convinced that he was going to be a girl and went to the hospital expecting a Jennifer. When a little boy arrived, they waited two days before naming him after his father.

Wade is the Vice President of Field Operations for GE, covering the Central United States.

Wade Brown

So diagnostic imaging, patient care you've covered has put ventilators and anesthesia machines on the front page. Well. And so, so all of the products that G.E. Healthcare makes and sells into our health care customers, my team supports.

Wade manages a large team and they have been especially busy and vital in the fight against COVID-19.

Wade Brown

I've always compared it to my big family. I've led large teams for the better part of 20 years now and there's so many similarities to that.

- Liesel Mertes

I could I can only read them. I only have four children, which is more than many, but less than you. And it is like it's like field marshalling. Sometimes it's just the logistics. I totalizing, let alone everybody's like emotional moment and the particular care that they need. And so, I hear you. But I'm sure that I only hear part of what you're lived experience has been like.

- Wade Brown

It's I always liken it to controlled chaos. You know, there's somebody ready to break loose at any given moment, and I've got it.

You heard the reference above to a large family. Wade is the father of nine children.

- Wade Brown

So, I have book-end girls. I have.

- Wade Brown

Jordan is is 30 and Josephine is nine. And so, seven boys in the middle. And so, we had Jordan and then and then Jacob. They came very quickly in our marriage. And and then Jonathan, our third child. So, we were boom, boom, boom. You know, still, you know, young, married, three kids and the J. Alliteration kicked in. So, we were Jordan and Jonathan. And then. And then, when Cynthia became pregnant for the fourth time, Jared was an eight.

- Wade Brown

So we. So we stayed on the J's. And so my kids are infamously known as the J kids.

And Wade is joining us today to talk about his son, Joshua, who took his own life a year and a half ago at the age of 14. Wade shares about the ripple effects of the loss, how his community came around him, and how he carries Joshua into his life in 2020.

- Wade Brown

I've I've got on my board here at home from Ernest, Ernest Hemingway. Right. Hard clear about what hurts. And so listen to these discussions. And I've been on stage in front of hundreds of people multiple times. I've been on Zoom call, you know, Skype and Zoom calls with literally thousands of people. So. It's good to talk about it. It's a story that needs to be shared and talked about. It's just a mission that I'll have the rest of my life in this club area.

- Wade Brown

Well, and, you know, kind of the heart of the centerpiece for our chat today is it's Joshua. And so, you know, we've got, you know, Joshua 1:9, you know, be strong and courageous as big as has been and will forever be, you know, an important passage for us and the people around us. And I've even got a I've got an adult kid now that's wearing it on his chest.

For those of you that are not familiar with Joshua 1:9, it is a verse from the Bible where God tells His people to be strong and courageous as they prepare to face a host of challenges and conflict moving into a new land.

Wade also loves the rainbow as a symbol of promise and a reminder to talk to kids about the impact of suicide. So much so that his wife has banned him.

- Wade Brown

I've been banned from Etsy, actually severe. I had to get permission before I can go on Etsy because I just I, I just couldn't get enough stained glass in. We've just got some beautiful stained glass pieces here. And one of them actually commissioned a lady in St. Louis. She's a retired mathematical engineer, just a brilliant, lovely person. And we connected through Etsy and then and they kind of became friends. And so she made a custom piece that I have here at my and my home office.

- Wade Brown

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