Posted on 07/23/2014 7:41:06 AM PDT by marthemaria
Glenys and Royston Smith, 88 and 91, fell to their deaths in December Both suffered from an array of medical conditions, including osteoporosis They had said days before they were afraid of burdening their family Investigators found the note written in pen on their kitchen whiteboard An inquest today in Bournemouth, Dorset, ruled the deaths were suicides
The great-grandparents who had been married 67 years, had said just days before they felt unable to go on, and were afraid of burdening their family.
Cindy Hoyle, the building's caretaker who found the couple, said Mr Smith had told her days before of his concerns.
She told the inquest: 'I told him they had a wonderful family and I was sure they didn’t mind,' she told the court.
'They were very much in love and didn’t want to be without each other.'
He had previously told one of his sons that if he couldn’t go into the same care home as his beloved wife he would ‘throw himself off the balcony’.
Michael Smith, one of the couple's sons, said his parents lived in the seafront flat for 20 years and enjoyed walks along the beach until ill health forced them to stop.
He siad the family were deciding whether to find a care home for them, though nothing had been decided.
He said: 'We considered home and residential care for my mum and she didn’t raise any objection.
'My father said if he couldn’t go with her he would throw himself off the balcony. I took it as a flippant remark.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Isn’t the UK (or England) about to vote on assisted suicide? Watch: this story will be used to argue in FAVOR of assisted suicide: “Wouldn’t it be more compassionate to have helped this couple die peacefully together, exactly when they wanted to die?”
Notice that their name is Smith....not Gomez or Gonzalez.
Wouldn’t happen here.
I wouldn’t want to be a burden on my family either
Do you think your kids would want you to kill yourself rather than become a "burden" to them? My family,like many,has a multi-generational history of taking care of out elderly members.My Dad was the most recent case...we took care of him to the very end.He died a few weeks before his 89th birthday.
My family is like this too. We’ve had several suicides when someone’s health declined to this point. It’s just how we are. “Time to go—” (gunshot). And we’re of English descent. Maybe it’s that Rudyard Kipling “Roll to your gun, and go to your God like a soldier” instinct. Grandpa always said he’d die with his boots on, and he did.
I used to think that nothing would be worse than burdening my kids in old age, but now I think that’s an insult to the kids. My wife and I took care of her mother through three years of Alzheimer’s, and she died in our home - not an institution. Two of our kids were still living with us during that time. I think we set an example for our kids, and I don’t think they’d want us to off ourselves just to keep them from having to do the same. The whole idea is just grotesque and sad.
Falling 30 feet doesn’t sound like a good suicide plan. Unless they landed on the top of their heads, death could be far from instant.
“I wouldn’t want to be a burden on my family either”
A suicide in the family is a greater burden, believe me. Been there, seen that.
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