What does one say in this situation?

Mountains

A good friend's sister just committed suicide. I didn't know her, but her sister (who is my friend) is devastated. There are just no adequate words...

LesC

There is not. If it were me, I would say that, and add that you are there for them if they need to talk or need support.

Raven

Tell the truth: you're sorry for her loss, words are inadequate, but you're thinking of her and are there for her. (Definitely better than blurting out something awkward!)

Dakini

Tell the truth: you're sorry for her loss, words are inadequate, but you're thinking of her and are there for her. (Definitely better than blurting out something awkward!)

This is exactly what I was going to say. Those stock words and gestures that make up what used to be called "manners", are there to help make awkward times easier to deal with. You can start with "I'm so sorry for your loss" and add whatever you want.

I_AM_THAT

Sometime words are not needed, but just your love, support and compassion can bring of comfort.

Iktomi

Sorry to hear that. Just be there...

federica

A very very good friend of mine lost her mother very suddenly, to a massive fatal heart attack. They were very close, and the loss was a dreadful shock to everyone, but to my friend, who had developed and closer relationship with her than many, the death of her mother was a tragedy of devastating proportions.
I met her outside the school where both our children attended, one afternoon, and I merely approached her and hugged her warmly.
I only let go when she did.

She told me a long while later, that of all the things anyone had said to her, or done for her, my gesture of kindness and compassion had touched her most deeply, in a way she would never forget.

If there are no words, then use actions.
They speak louder, and they speak volumes.

LittleMighty

If there are no words, then use actions.
They speak louder, and they speak volumes.

Very True.

aura

As a Buddhist, you may reassure your friend that there are no cosmic judgments made on suicide, that life is about learning, and that her sister will have the opportunity to start over, to start fresh, to resolve her karmic issues that she could not manage to resolve in this life. It is the truth of how the world works, irregardless of anyone's personal belief or disbelief.

How would I know? Because I was one of those kids who remembered a past life as a child. In my present life, I met someone who also claimed to remember having lived in that same particular time and place in his own past life, so (strange as it may sound to anyone else) we reminisced/compared memories with one another about having lived in that time and place... that hell.
It turned out that I had met his boss's boss's boss in that life...
whom he had never personally met...
but who had personally signed my own torture/death warrant.
As they say, it's a small world after all. Shrug.

He himself had apparently personally been in charge of killing most of my former neighbors. He had tortured and killed a lot of people back then, such that he could not bear to face the consequences of that at the war's end, and so he had died as a suicide at the end of the war in that life.

In this life, he has made remarkable progress healing the karmic issues of his past; it's amazing. I would not have thought that possible if I hadn't seen it for myself, that anyone could make that much progress that fast by trying again in another life.
Karma isn't about punishment, about vengeance, about endless suffering;
karma is all about seeing the other side of things...
and learning better.

Mountains

Unfortunately we're widely geographically separated, so a silent hug doesn't do the trick...

Telly03

Then maybe deliver flowers with a note, letting her know that you wish you could be there for her?