A Legacy for Caitlin
Caitlin could have done pretty well anything - she was exceptionally bright and had so many talents. But she had no interest in the limelight. As much as i encouraged her to use her talents and beauty to let me write and record with her and build a career for her, she declined. She found the thought of a career - whether modelling or popular music, vacuous. She knew she could easily do it, but she needed to work out the world, and a career played no part in that.
Soon after her death I knew I had to create a web site for Caitlin, something which would be all about her and the love so many felt for her.
But I knew as well that her story could not be separated from the debilitating disease that depression or in her case youth mental illness, as it is also known, is for so many. So in August 2014, I saw something coming out of this which could make her life even more worthwhile and meaningful for everyone, by creating a foundation which, though honouring her, would publicise youth mental illness. At the time I felt I could make this happen. It hasn't, yet, but it may. The following is letter I sent to a few friends in August 2014 as a means of raising the subject.
The Caitlin Whiticker Foundation
The death of our beloved Caitlin has hit us hard, as it has so many. She was widely loved and admired for her creativity, intellect and wise and loving nature - well beyond her meagre 18 years. We still don’t understand why a young lady with so much beauty and talent would have taken her own life. And it is this which has inspired us to take her life on the next part of its journey; we'd like to form a foundation which will honour her and through her story, publicise and educate on the issue of youth suicide.
Caitlin suffered from severe depression, and although by nature a happy and inquisitive person, she would often sink into deep despair. It was during these periods that she became difficult to communicate with and would shut herself away from people. We knew that Caitlin, already dealing with enough of life’s challenges at that age, was crying out for love and attention, and she was showered with that by family and friends, but there was things that she had to deal with that no one could help her with. We know that depression is a life long illness which some of the world’s greatest artists, intellectuals and leaders suffer from. Many, as we are aware, are driven to the point of suicide, and some sadly, succeed. And it is during their most vulnerable years of youth, 12 to 21, that they are most likely to be driven to this point of no return.
Our understanding of the illness is that if you can reach the young person at this critical period, help them to build their own methods to combat this demon sickness, then they can begin to accomodate it in their life, and go on to lead a reasonably normal and often wonderful, even brilliant life.
Some of the aims of the foundation would be to:
1. Bring together a body of people from a range of professions - medical, education, business and the arts who recognize the value of what the foundation is hoping to achieve and will assist in making it happen.
2. Build a website for the foundation which honours Caitlin’s life and though it publicise the illness of severe depression, and how it strikes even the most talented and beautiful of people, and can easily lead to youth suicide.
3. Develop an education program which could be taken into schools and country centres. It would be based around an entertaining multimedia presentation which first and foremost attracts interest through its entertaining qualities as much as the importance of the message it presents. This presentation or show will take Caitlin’s life as an example of this form of youth mental illness and puts it in front of the public: The presentation would be in 2 parts with a 45 minute solo show as the first part suitable for stand alone school's performances, and a second 55 minute part which, in combination with part 1, would enable it to fill an evening program. The second part would include a small ensemble of multi-talented actors, musicians and multi-media artists.
The schools and country centres the show visited would be left with DVDs, including interactive games which challenged peoples notions of what this illness is about and how we can work with it in our lives and help those who suffer from it. Again the emphasis of all these resources would be entertainment so people would be encouraged to come back to the material again and again.