Your mother committed suicide in 1982. How did this affect the story? How did this affect you?

My mother’s suicide is the catalyst for the plot of the story.  In 1982 my mother killed herself after learning that my brother & I were gay.  She did this final act on a Friday after learning that we were gay on a Wednesday.  She left a suicidal note in which she referred to my brother and I as “Gutter rats that could rot in hell.”  This act developed into the obligatory scene and plot for the story line.  I followed the mother’s character through the narrator’s voice, through the character’s pov, through her child’s pov and then through the child’s pov after growing into a young adult.  I showed the mother’s tragic life because of her…