Cindee Pletke is the co-founder of Living On Incorporated. Cindee lost her twenty-eight-year-old son, Matthew Gullitti, to suicide in October of 2016. Cindee and her husband Al attended a local suicide survivor support group which introduced them to others suffering from the same type of loss. The dedicated individual running the support group was later unable to continue her work due to illness which left an unmet need in the community.

Cindee’s professional career was in public education as a speech pathologist; she eventually became both a building-level and division-wide administrator. Out of a tremendous desire to support anyone who had lost a loved one to suicide, she conducted months of research on suicide survivor groups and wrote the program which is used for Living On. She reached out to the suicide community and was fortunate to connect with her partner Barbara who was an experienced support group facilitator. Cindee and Barbara worked together to provide peer support groups and established Living On Incorporated.

Barbara moved to Lynchburg in June 2009, with her family for her husband’s job. Tragedy struck when her husband, Dr. Kenneth R. Gladieux (Ken) died by suicide. In a quest for help and relief from grief, fear and loneliness, Barb and her children began attending Kids Haven, a place for grieving kids. She met other parents that had lost spouses to illness, accident, and suicide. She also attended a suicide support group for those in grief over a suicide death. Barb now volunteers as a facilitator at Kids Haven in the adult group. She was thrilled to team up with Cindee Pletke to start Living On. The grief never ends, but learning to live around grief and finding solace by helping others with their grief journey has been fulfilling to Barbara.

When Barbara isn’t volunteering, she enjoys a career as a Title Examiner and a Title Insurance Underwriter, as a contractor and at Accupoint in Lynchburg, Va. She loves being outside-hiking, walking, gardening. She finds the greatest pleasure being with her children, who are now young adults, and other family members and friends. She loves to take road trips to visit new places.