Surviving Ellen

Ellen Eichel committed suicide when she was twenty-nine. Surviving Ellen/Second Edition widens the scope of Greta’s search for her daughter and the meaning of Ellen’s life and death. We read Ellen’s own words in letters to her parents and her brother. We see her through the eyes of an exasperated, frightened, loving family who struggles to understand what more they could have done and when to let go. Greta writes the way she speaks, with an artist’s eye for detail. The previously unpublished photographs, some heartbreaking in their eloquence, bring the verbal snapshots into sharper focus. Each picture tells its own story. Together, they present a powerful image of courage and healing which will speak to anyone who has suffered loss.