A garden of hope blooms in Livesey Park. Here's why a family planted hundreds of tulips.

The 450 tulips planted at Livesey Park in Fairhaven last November near the skatepark where Trevor Viera liked to skate are a reminder of his family’s love.

The Yellow Tulip Project, a youth-driven movement dedicated to smashing the stigma surrounding mental illness, brings hope and support to those with mental illness and their loved ones, according to its website.

Trevor’s mother, Christine Peirce, and his grandmother, Donna Peirce, say that his decision to take his own life in 2022 at 23 was unexpected. He hadn't let either of them in on what he was feeling.

“We both had no idea Trevor was upset or anything,” Donna said. “If you know that someone isn't right, reach out to help them get the help that they need.”

Yellow tulips are a sign of hope

Donna approached the town of Fairhaven with her vision to plant a hope garden and it was approved. A bench in Trevor’s honor also sits in Livesey Park.

When she learned of The Yellow Tulip Project, Christine said she felt that it was a suitable tribute to her son. Donna’s friends Bea and Lynne helped plant the yellow tulips.

“I thought it was a great idea,” Christine said. “It's not a super in your face thing but having that there will draw more attention from people so they will go ahead and look it up and see what's it's about.”

Donna said she loved the idea of the flowers. The project’s website says "the yellow tulips are a sign of hope. When communities come together, plant a garden, get their hands dirty, and talk about mental illness, hope blooms."

To carry this message, the garden has a sign marked 'Hope Garden' with a QR code that brings visitors to the Yellow Tulip Project website.

“It's just all about awareness,” she said. “This can happen unexpectedly to anybody.”

While she was at the Seekonk Speedway four months after Trevor’s death, Christine learned about another young person who had taken his life the same way.

She said it was tough for her to learn of this so soon after losing Trevor and a reminder that they hope they are helping others by getting the word out.

Life after loss

Donna and her friend Susan participate in an online suicide bereavement group cofounded by therapists Clyde Godfrey and his daughter, Sera Godfrey-Kaplan.

Godfrey said putting a spotlight on suicide can let people know there are support services that are available that can help families and other loved ones.

According to Godfrey, in the last several years about 48,000 people have taken their lives in the United States alone and over 700,000 worldwide, so any effort that can bring this to the public’s attention to better understand how serious this is can be very helpful.

He said putting a spotlight on suicide can let people know there are support services that are available that can help families and other loved ones.

“People don’t necessarily understand that suicide is so much different than a normal death because it’s often very abrupt, without warning and sometimes can be very violent and the impact on families is usually pretty significant,” he said. “There are so many feelings that are generated by this - guilt, anger, sadness, embarrassment, astonishment, and there’s a stigma.”

He said it’s important that family members who are impacted by the loss of loved ones are able to share information and learn how to move forward with their lives.

Godfrey-Kaplan said participating in The Yellow Tulip Project and other advocacy projects can be so healing for families who have experienced this kind of loss, and with a standout project like the planting of 450 tulips, hopefully prevent something from happening to another family.

“It’s just the greatest thing you can do after such a devastating loss so I think that’s a big part of this project, too,” she said.

Kaplan said it’s not easy to get over your grief from such a loss, but this is a way to hold onto the loved one that they lost in a healthy way, and in a group setting they feel like they are being heard.

He said the loss of a loved one will impact the rest of your life, and it’s important to allow people to have the time to grieve the way they need to grieve.

Godfrey-Kaplan said in their group they talk about creating relationships with the people they lost in a way that is healthy and in a way that they can feel close to them looking back on their whole lives together and not just move on.

Standard-Times staff writer Kathryn Gallerani can be reached at kgallerani@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @kgallreporter. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Standard-Times today.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Yellow tulips at Livesey Park bring hope, awareness to mental illness