“He was very like rapid fire in his communication, like he was very anxious,” Mitchell said. “I thought it was separation anxiety because he was getting ready to go to school. Lack of appetite, lack of sleep. He was giving away things to his friends.”
At the time, Mitchell says the family was going through homelessness, living at hotels and out of their car.
“I knew that there was something wrong with him,” the mother said. “I just never thought it would lead to suicide.”
It’s pain that Mitchell has turned into purpose.
She started the Bryce Gowdy Foundation and now tours Division 1 schools and historically Black colleges and universities, raising awareness about mental illness.