Michelle and Denise Brauer lost their mother to bipolar disorder in 1989 when she committed suicide. After 20 years, we started this site to offer support and encouragement to other people whose family members are suffering from mental illness.
We are not medical doctors, psychologists or social workers. We are simply two people who would like to prevent other people from suffering the loss we did. This site is intended as a resource for others.
Families of the Mentally Ill 
is there any good literature on the affects that a $$suicidal mother may have on her children?
Dear Brian,
We highly recommend Motherless Daughters by Hope Edelman: http://www.amazon.com/Motherless-Daughters-Legacy-Loss-Second/dp/0738210269/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266359422&sr=8-1
While it is not specifically about suicidal mothers, she does a great deal of background research with grown women and the effects of an early loss through abandonment and death of the maternal parent. Her interviews with women who lost their mother to suicide are particularly helpful, but the whole book is very good.
Literature on this subject is scant, to say the least. That’s part of the reason we started this blog.