Remembering Garrett

For a time after Garrett died, Smith wanted to quit the Senate to be home more often with his other two children. During the days after Garrett's death, President James E. Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called Smith three times. He consoled Smith and counseled with him, and when, during the third call, Smith told him he wanted to leave his job, President Faust told him not to. As Smith recalls it, President Faust said the Smiths' other children needed to see their father's good example. They needed to see him grieving, fully, without giving up.

In the end, being in the Senate gave Smith a chance to do something that meant a lot to him. He sponsored a bill to fund screening tests for depression in children and to beef up the suicide-counseling programs at various colleges.

His fellow senators are compassionate people, according to Smith. Democrats as well as his fellow Republicans grieved with him. "Each found a way to put an emotional arm around me."

Hillary Clinton took him for a long walk to talk things over. Ted Kennedy approached him repeatedly, with tears in his eyes, unable to speak. Catholic senators lit candles in their parishes. Protestants included the Smiths in their prayer circles. Joe Lieberman had the Smiths remembered in his synagogue. Sens. Kennedy and Orrin Hatch wrote the introduction to "Remembering Garrett."

The retired chaplain of the U.S. Senate, Lloyd John Ogilvie, helped Smith find a way through the pain. Ogilvie counseled gratitude.

Smith still deals with his grief by praying to thank the Lord for the nearly 22 years he was able to spend with Garrett. It also helped when a psychologist told him that he could have been home with his family every night and his son still would have lacked sufficient levels of serotonin in his brain, still would have been chemically depressed.

Meanwhile, at Utah Valley State College, psychologist Jack Jensen, director of counseling and psychological services, said he was not aware of the federal grant that bears Garrett's name — and so the school did not apply for it. However, UVSC counselors are planning a new outreach program, Jensen explained.

Part of what they want to do is train staff and professors. Jensen and the other counselors believe depressed students will often drop hints, either in what they write for a class or in what they say to a teacher. One of the first things the counselors will teach the faculty is to never promise a student confidentiality, said Jensen.

The teacher needs to call the student's therapist, if there is one, or the counseling center. The teacher needs to call the student's parents, maybe even his religious leaders, Jensen said. "The thing is to get them some help."