HEALING AFTER HER DAUGHTER'S SUICIDE- I'm So Thankful for the Time We Had❜

Simpkins understood the depths of her daughter's long struggle with depression.

- EILEEN FINAN

"I saw that side of her," 'says Simpkins. "Others didn't. It's hard to see someone so full of life and wrap your head around the fact they could be suffering. But people choose what they want to share."

When Kryst was growing up in North Carolina, the "high-achieving part was always there," Simpkins says of her daughter, the second of four children from her first marriage to Rodney Kryst. (Simpkins also has two sons with her husband, David.) "Everything had to be just so, and that was self-imposed," says Simpkins. A guidance counselor in middle school cautioned that Kryst's drive had the potential to burn her out. In high school Kryst was captain of the cheer squad and track team. After graduating with honors from the University of South Carolina, she went to law school and got her MBA at the same time. "She didn't slow down," says Simpkins. "If you tried to talk to her, she'd say, 'Don't you think I can handle it?""