'Pain is still there': How James Madison is coping with Lauren Bernett's death one month later

Kate Gordon Short said the grief still comes in waves.

"You’re confused and then you’re angry and then you’re sad," the former James Madison University softball player said earlier this month. "Then you think you’re getting – not better, but used to the pain. And then it hits all again."

It's a mixture of emotions that many in the JMU community – and across the city of Harrisonburg, Virginia – have experienced since the death of Lauren Bernett.

One month has passed since Bernett, a sophomore catcher on the JMU softball team, died by suicide at 20. In college sports programs across the country, her death reignited conversations about mental health. And on softball fields at all levels, it prompted tributes, with athletes wearing purple ribbons in their hair or sporting decals with her number, 22.