The family of a tragically lost teen has rallied behind a message of kindness.

“To the bullies out there who succeeded in making Dan feel worthless – he wasn’t,” are the printed words in Dan James Richards’ obituary. Richards was a 16-year-old from Creston, Iowa who took his life last week. He was just a few days away from his 17th birthday and involved in choir, chess and football.

According to his mother, Laura Dowda, “he was always smiling and he had this quick wit.”

But while he seemed okay on the surface, what came next shocked everybody.

Richards’ grandfather Tim Haynie said, “I’m around so many who are feeling so much guilt right now because they didn’t see the signs. There were no signs to see.”

While the family is left with a lot of questions, they are certain bullying played a role in Richards’ untimely death.

“We would ask him, ‘are you being bullied?'” said Dowda. “He would say, ‘don’t worry about it. I’ve got it taken care of’ or he just shrugged. We knew he was being bullied, but he did not want to make a big issue of it.”

That’s why the whole family decided to collaborate and write an obituary with a strong message to raise awareness about bullying.

“The whole point of us gathering here and doing this is to possibly prevent just one other person – one other teenager – from doing this, and one other family from having to go through this pain,” said Richards’ sister, Mary.

The family wrote directly to the bullies in the obituary, stating: “The family has no hard feelings towards you and you are forgiven.”

They hope sharing their sorrow will bring change in the community and across the country.

Richards’ father Danny said, “I raised my kids that way – to not be better than anybody else. Just to respect other people as they wanted to be respect.”

The family ultimately asked one for one thing. In lieu of flowers, they ask that everyone be kind to one another.