Desperately sad story of the assisted suicide of a grieving mother

I think we, as parents, are the best people to prepare our children for sad events like illness, depression, death and grieving. They should know that life isn't all sunshine and rainbows, and we have to prepare them for situations that may occur, with a gentle drip feed of life's ups and downs and let them be guided by how we deal with things in times of crisis. Letting them know that you are always available to listen is reassuring, bottling up feelings doesn't do anyone any good. It's good to talk.

(proposed in 2025, this article 2026, for next school year, it really does make for relevant reading for much discussed above)

Likewise. My parents had their own reasons for denying death and loss however. Which I now know and understand. It was because of what had happened to them.

I think young people do have a better knowledge and language to express their feelings: however there is limited support for doing so. Still more for boys/men, perhaps. (Given suicide levels of younger men).

Does faith help? For some.

Macaydia, if I am reading this correctly, it was introduced into schools in 2025. It makes very interesting reading, for of course it demands a lot of teachers who may not be at ease with it themselves.

www.thestillmethod.co.uk/news/september-2026-the-grief-education-requirement-most-teachers-dont-know-about-yet

Macaydia

Does anyone here think death, disease, depression and suicide should be mandatory curriculum in schools. If children were taught preparedness classes for depression the same way they are taught preparedness for fires and earthquakes, would that save any of them in the future? Could children be taught the subtle signs of dangerous depression and have a set of practiced plans to save a friend or sibling?

No. Teachers have a hard enough job already and in any case are not qualified (nobody is) to teach what is essentially unreachable.

Or not "save" if its an accident or fatal disease but just learn mor about grief in general? I think my first knowledge of grief came from losing a pet. Then a grandma. No one taught me what to do with those feelings. It was ignored and no matter your age, you were expected to deal with it alone.

Oldnproud

BlueBelle

Well she was fit and was able why go to Dignatas she could take tablets herself lay on her own bed and go herself

From what I have read previously - in several cases, here on Gransnet - DIY overdosing is a risky business, and it is not uncommon for people to misjudge the quantity of their chosen drug that is needed, resulting in them surviving but with dreadful lasting physical repercussions to add to their mental trauma!

This is to me one of the strangest arguments in support of assisted dying
Who are we to suggest this woman should have been denied her wish to die peacefully at a choice and manner of her choosing
Our five day vigil and witness with my loveky husband was supported by excellent medical abd ancillary staff. That didn’t help one of our adult children pleading for something to ease his passing, mum you wouldn’t let one of your dogs suffer like this 💙🙏🏽

Does anyone here think death, disease, depression and suicide should be mandatory curriculum in schools. If children were taught preparedness classes for depression the same way they are taught preparedness for fires and earthquakes, would that save any of them in the future? Could children be taught the subtle signs of dangerous depression and have a set of practiced plans to save a friend or sibling?

The good doctors who understood. To be fair, I doubt the police really wanted to intrude on the grief in latter days: the law changed in 1961, we are probably the last generation who would have known it.

Ironically, at that point in time, Mental Hospitals had the time and space for people to stay long enough to be cared for.

That poor lady, Shinamae: I'm guessing her son is struggling a great deal and finds it difficult to cope with Mum too. He's trying to find his way. The love and listening you do does count, a great deal.

I don't think the zeitgeist of our times, despite so many really caring and dealing with realities, doesn't deal well with death.

Luckygirl3

So sad .... and sending love to all who have lost a child. It is a pain like no other and I commend you for carrying on for the sake of others.

As a poster said, there is no word for a parent who has lost a child and sadly I imagine this is because words evolve over time and it is only in recent years that children survived. People had many children of whom many did not live beyond childhood. One can only imagine their pain, often after multiple losses. Maybe that is why no word evolved ... it was sadly a whole way of life.
I hope that those of you who have lost children do have some joyful memories that you are able to dredge up through the weight of sadness.
It is unimaginable to those of us who have not been through it.

This is a good post.

Before DD1 died, a walk through a Victorian graveyard would fill me with a feeling of "how did they (the mothers and fathers) bear it?" when a list of child after child died within their first few years of life. As Lucky said, it was a whole way of life, and it still is for many species though human survival has improved.

Wendy Duffy apparently was not surrounded by people who felt and made her feel as if her life still had value (I'm not blaming anyone here; she was unlucky). She was truly bereft as it was her only child who died and it does not appear that she had a partner with whom to share her grief.

Wyllow3

Some thing have changed for the better - when my grandfather died, the suicide, the police were round, just as they came for my first husband, who had to pull his mother out of a gas oven aged 6 and had the sense to run round to the neighbours.

Also nowadays the language of some sorts of suffering is available to most people - as a teenager if I had been able to name "depression" and understanding I wasn't in fact cursed by God, it happened to many, and had a shape and form, and there was the possibility of change not shame, and could have understood more.

Both times my mother attempted suicide our Dr covered it up as it was a crime.
The first time I phoned the police because I found her. I was 14.
The second time, because she had asked her friends son to take my baby brother for a walk ( he went straight to his mum)
She knew something was very wrong.
She phoned the Dr who covered it up again.

Oldnproud

BlueBelle

Well she was fit and was able why go to Dignatas she could take tablets herself lay on her own bed and go herself

From what I have read previously - in several cases, here on Gransnet - DIY overdosing is a risky business, and it is not uncommon for people to misjudge the quantity of their chosen drug that is needed, resulting in them surviving but with dreadful lasting physical repercussions to add to their mental trauma!

The woman had attempted suicide before and ended up on a ventilator.
I think she wanted to make sure she didn’t come round this time 😥

Motherduck, I will excuse your nasty reply to me as your grief talking. You do not know what heartache I have suffered. I will not go into depth because I do not wish to go there, it is too painful, but grief is not a competition, we have all been to hell and back with bereavement and we all learn to cope in our own way. I am terribly sorry for your loss, but please don't denigrate my own losses and tell me I speak from ignorance and that I have no idea, if only you knew.

💐 For my loved ones on the other side and for anyone who is grieving.

Safe journey Wendy to meet your son 💐

As some of you know I work in a high dementia care home
One of my ladies grandson‘s committed suicide about a year ago he was 18 just about to go to university
She asked me why why would he do it? I had no explanation. I just said that he got himself into a dark place and could find no way out.
Her son whose boy he was visits or used to visit, but not so much now and the lady has gone downhill in the last few weeks and I don’t think she’ll be with us much longer sometimes she used to say to me I think he did it it because my son wanted him to go to university and he didn’t want to go and I said to her you can’t know that and please don’t ever say that to your son because if that is the reason he will know himself and he will never get over that …. so much sadness on this thread, so thank you all for sharing…..🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

Franbern, thank you for being brave and sharing your personal experience of heartbreak. It is important to share and it's about time everyone acknowledges that these kind of thoughts are a normal part of life and not an anomaly. Maybe then society will be more welcoming to the discussion instead of it being so hush. My friend once described it as calmly holding the hand of a toddler who is tantruming. You just keep walking with them as they wring. Sometimes I feel that life is like a rollercoaster in slow motion. I've been at that edge many times. I am learning, still.

Some thing have changed for the better - when my grandfather died, the suicide, the police were round, just as they came for my first husband, who had to pull his mother out of a gas oven aged 6 and had the sense to run round to the neighbours.

Also nowadays the language of some sorts of suffering is available to most people - as a teenager if I had been able to name "depression" and understanding I wasn't in fact cursed by God, it happened to many, and had a shape and form, and there was the possibility of change not shame, and could have understood more.

I was "gifted" with the same kind of brain as Macaydia's, and years of "living with" and therapy, as well as having worked in the field have led me to understand its a mixture of genetic and circumstance.

I do agree with the awfulness of being told "look on the bright side" "you ought to try and do this or that". I have told helpers eventually with some success, "^stop suggesting/piling on this or that^ - please just "walk with me". It comes out of people's desperate desiring to stop your pain, or is it theirs?

(Although just sometimes "suggestions" do help, but it has to be got right - like someone who is not aware of a support group or whatever that they might chose to take advantage of or not).

Some things have sunk in over the years for example

its not just me

- which is that many many people at some time in their lives have experienced a moment where you "could" self harm, be it anger or helplessness or despair, or utter exhaustion - or you experience feelings that life is pointless, "what is the point". (Unless you are very v. robust as a personality)

Its just not talked about, and this thread is very valuable as it's owning "that which we are not supposed to say".

Please don't OD on paracetamol. Whilst working in hospital a young man came in after an overdose of this. He recovered initially only to die of liver failure weeks later. It is very dangerous stuff. It is not a good way to depart this life. It was truly awful. A good drug in correct dosage only.

Shelflife

Unimaginable pain , however am not sure it warrants what she did. Fortunately I have not been in such a dreadful place - I am grateful for that.
So sad, the poor woman .

...however am not sure it warrants what she did.

Well it clearly did to her. With respect, what you think is irrelevant.

No grieving person is under any obligation to make others feel comfortable about their grief, or their choices.

Macaydia

Everyone grieves differently because our brains are somewhat unique to our own development. Emotions begin in the brain. That's why some people get devastated and some do not. Some people lean on happiness. Some, lean on sadness. I'm not trying to lessen the experience. I'm just saying that everyone is different. It's because we are made humans. I sometimes wished I was doled the "cheery brain" but I was not. I am just me, for.now.

No one can tell anyone the proper way to feel.

Carry on being you.

BlueBelle

Wyllow I don’t agree, you can go to two or three different pharmacies and get enough paracetamol to take your own life enough people do it every day ! That’s why the rule of only being able to buy a couple of packets is a joke, in fact you could go to the same pharmacy half an hour later !!!

It happens every day unfortunately
I wouldn’t have the guts but many, many do unfortunately

The limits on amount of paracetemol don't stop people who are planning long in advance.
The impulsive ones - people in a bad place get drunk, or have a blazing row with family & take what they have in the cupboard - that's where limiting the amount we can routinely buy is a good idea.

Everyone grieves differently because our brains are somewhat unique to our own development. Emotions begin in the brain. That's why some people get devastated and some do not. Some people lean on happiness. Some, lean on sadness. I'm not trying to lessen the experience. I'm just saying that everyone is different. It's because we are made humans. I sometimes wished I was doled the "cheery brain" but I was not. I am just me, for.now.

No one can tell anyone the proper way to feel.

So sad .... and sending love to all who have lost a child. It is a pain like no other and I commend you for carrying on for the sake of others.

As a poster said, there is no word for a parent who has lost a child and sadly I imagine this is because words evolve over time and it is only in recent years that children survived. People had many children of whom many did not live beyond childhood. One can only imagine their pain, often after multiple losses. Maybe that is why no word evolved ... it was sadly a whole way of life.
I hope that those of you who have lost children do have some joyful memories that you are able to dredge up through the weight of sadness.
It is unimaginable to those of us who have not been through it.

Unimaginable pain , however am not sure it warrants what she did. Fortunately I have not been in such a dreadful place - I am grateful for that.
So sad, the poor woman .

I think we can all understand how she felt but there was one thing which wasn't mentioned. It said that she was perfectly healthy, so did she arrange to donate her organs?