Area family and friends of people who have died by suicide are invited to join together Saturday for International Survivors of Suicide Day.

Bonnerup Funeral Service is hosting a Survivor Day beginning at 4:30 p.m. with a showing of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s new documentary, “The Journey.” Following the film, there will be an opportunity for people in attendance to share their experiences and ideas of how to cope with a suicide loss, along with a light meal. Organizers will give out resources about dealing with loss.

Judy Popp-Anderson, one of the organizers, said people often don’t want others to know there was a suicide in their family, but she said it can be healing for people to talk about it with others who have experienced the same thing.

“It’s grief like other grief, but it has an extra-complicating factor,” she said. “People think they should have been able to do something.”

Popp-Anderson said in most cases the loved ones are not to blame. People who commit suicide are often suffering from some type of mental illness.

She hopes people find comfort and gain understanding by attending the event.

Congress created National Survivors of Suicide Day in 1999. It has since been sponsored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and has expanded to be the International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day.

There are more than 250 locally organized events throughout the United States, Canada and around the world.

This is the first time for an event to be held on the day in Albert Lea.

Popp-Anderson said she assisted another organizer in planning a survivor event in Iowa last year and thought she would try it out in Albert Lea.

As the after care coordinator at Bonnerup Funeral Services, she said she receives calls once in a while from people dealing with a suicide loss who question how they could have prevented it.

“It is so difficult and so painful,” Popp-Anderson said.

For people unable to attend a Survivor Day in person, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention offers a Survivor Day program online at survivorday.org.

To register for the local event, call 373-2461 or email judy@bonnerupfuneralservice.com. It is free to the public.