In memory of

Natalie "Star" Joy Hunt

Marietta, GA

April 21, 2004 - October 28, 2025

Apr 21, 2004 - Oct 28, 2025

In lieu of flowers

Please consider a donation to Help with funeral expenses.

Learn more & give
Who else knew Natalie?

Help keep everyone in the know by sharing this memorial website.

Share

In memory of

Natalie "Star" Joy Hunt

Passed

October 28, 2025
Born

April 21, 2004
Resided

Marietta, GA

Photo

Please consider a donation to Help with funeral expenses.

$18,565.00

of $15,000 goal

123 %

Learn more & give

We tend to think that if a death is self-inflicted it is voluntary in a way that death through physical illness or accident is not. For most suicides, this isn’t true.

A person who falls victim to suicide dies, as the does the victim of a terminal illness or fatal accident, not by his or her own choice.

When people die from heart attacks, strokes, cancer, AIDS, and accidents, they die against their will. The same is true suicide, except that in the case of suicide the breakdown is emotional rather than physical –

an emotional stroke
an emotional cancer
a breakdown of the emotional immune-system
an emotional fatality.

This is not an analogy.

The two kinds of heart attacks, strokes, cancers, breakdowns of the immune-system, and fatal accidents, are identical in that, in neither case, is the person leaving this world on the basis of a voluntary decision of his or her own will.

In both cases, he or she is taken out of life against his or her own will.

That’s why we speak of someone as a “victim” of suicide.

Given this fact, we should not worry unduly about the eternal salvation of a suicide victim, believing (as we used to) that suicide is always an act of ultimate despair.

God is infinitely more understanding than we are and God’s hands are infinitely safer and more gentle than our own. Imagine a loving mother having just given birth, welcoming her child onto her breast for the first time. That, I believe, is the best image we have available to understand how a suicide victim (most often an overly sensitive soul) is received into the next life.

Again, this isn’t an analogy. God is infinitely more understanding, loving, and motherly than any mother on earth. We need not worry about the fate of anyone, no matter the cause of death, who exits this world honest, over-sensitive, gentle, over-wrought, and emotionally- crushed. God’s understanding and compassion exceed our own.

Knowing all of this however, doesn’t necessarily take away our pain (and anger) at losing someone to suicide. Faith and understanding aren’t meant to take our pain away but to give us hope, vision, and support as we walk within it.

Finally, we should not unduly second-guess when we lose a loved one to suicide:

“What might I have done?
Where did I let this person down?
If only I had been there?
What if …?”

It can be too easy to be haunted with the thought:

“If only I’d been there at the right time.”

Rarely would this have made a difference. Indeed, most of the time, we weren’t there for the exact reason that the person who fell victim to this disease did not want us to be there. He or she picked the moment, the spot, and the means precisely so that we wouldn’t be there.

Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that suicide is a disease that picks its victim precisely in such a way so as to exclude others and their attentiveness. This should not be an excuse for insensitivity, especially towards those suffering from dangerous depression, but it should be a healthy check against false guilt and fruitless second-guessing.

We’re human beings, not God. People die of illness and accidents all the time and all the love and attentiveness in the world often cannot prevent a loved one from dying. Suicide is an sickness there are some sicknesses that all the care and love in the world cannot cure.

A proper human and faith response to suicide should not be horror, fear for the victim’s eternal salvation, or guilty second-guessing about how we failed this person.

Suicide is indeed a horrible way to die, but we must understand it (at least in most cases) as a sickness, a disease, an illness, a tragic breakdown within the emotional immune-system.

And then we must trust, in God’s goodness, God’s understanding, God’s power to descend into hell, and God’s power to redeem all things, even death, even death by suicide.

Read More Read Less

Updates

Update from Nov. 5, 2025

Thank you for your gifts

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to every single person who has given financially toward Natalie’s final expenses. Together, your gifts now exceed $16,000—enough to cover every cost. Some were small, some large, but every dollar was sacrificial, every gift a quiet act of love.

These tangible offerings have lifted a heavy burden, yet they’ve done far more: they’ve become living reminders that God carries us. He meets our emotional, financial, and spiritual needs in ways we could never orchestrate alone. Watching Him provide through you has deepened our conviction—we need one another, and we need Him. His presence is real, woven into every gift. Thank you from Rodney, Ronda, and Haley.

Read More Read Less

Update from Nov. 4, 2025

Thank you all so much for your heartfelt words of love, care, and support. Your generosity to us—through your words, meals, and financial gifts—has greatly impacted us. Though we haven’t been able to reply to everyone, we’ve been deeply moved reading every tribute, every act of service and gift, and every message honoring Natalie and our family.
The outpouring of kindness from this community has been our lifeline—helping us carry a weight that feels impossible to bear alone. As my high school English teacher shared yesterday, “helping us endure the unendurable.”
We’d love to invite you to join us for her Celebration of Life this Friday at 1:00 PM at Sparkles in Kennesaw. The service will begin with tributes at 1:00, followed by skating, face painting, and balloon twisting by Chuckles the Clown (one of the clowns Natalie worked alongside), and other joyful activities to remember her spirit. Kids are absolutely welcome—Natalie adored them and would insist on it.
Natalie loved Pixar’s Inside Out and its message that joy and sadness can—and must—coexist. This celebration embodies that truth: we’ll honor her with tears and laughter in the same breath, just as she lived. A skating rink might seem like an unusual place for a memorial, and you’ve likely never attended one before. But that was Natalie—uniquely vibrant in every way. For us, it symbolizes life in motion, just as she would want us to keep living fully.
If you plan to attend, please RSVP on the site so we can ensure enough chairs for the service. With heavy and grateful hearts, we will celebrate the beauty of Natalie’s life together.

Read More Read Less

Update from Nov. 1, 2025

By Dr. Robert Cantu
CLF co-founder and medical director

https://concussionfoundation.…

Suicide is one of the leading public health problems impacting individuals, families and communities. According to the CDC, suicide was the tenth leading cause of death overall in 2019 and the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10 and 34. The brain injury community is disproportionately affected by suicide, and the Concussion Legacy Foundation is here to help you help those you love.

Studies show individuals who have experienced a concussion are at a higher risk of suicide. A 2018 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found those who were diagnosed with concussion or mild TBI were twice as likely to die by suicide compared to those who had not been diagnosed with a concussion or mild TBI. A 2021 study published in the Journal of Neurotrauma revealed young people under age 26 are especially vulnerable to novel psychiatric disorders after concussion. The study found the share of subjects reporting suicidal ideation jumped from 1.4 percent at the time of their concussion to 4.7 percent 180 days later.

It is important for parents, coaches, teachers, friends, and teammates of concussed individuals to be prepared to support a loved one’s mental health after a concussion. Symptoms of concussion can include anxiety, depression, and panic attacks. People suffering from long-term effects of concussion, especially children and adolescents, can also experience feelings of isolation when they are forced to be away from their athletic teams, activities, and school during their recovery.

If you are the parent, coach, teacher, friend, or teammate of someone who may have suffered a concussion, you can help keep them safe by making sure they are removed from activities that could further injure their brain. Your opportunity to help doesn’t stop there, though. You can also play a crucial role in their recovery by making sure they feel supported, cared for, and heard – even if they are away from you or your group. A check-in text can go a long way to help someone feel less isolated.

Read More Read Less

Natalie Joy Hunt, born April 21, 2004, is “Star” to close friends, and what a star she was. Light and ambition rippled in her so brightly, it could be seen from miles away.

By the time we see stars here on earth, they have already been collapsing in on themselves for years. By the time we see a star burn brightest, it is already gone. Only those closest saw the overwhelming, devastating, brilliant combustion take …

Go to full obituary

Get notified when new photos, stories and other important updates are shared.