"Police in London, Ont., allege the woman gave her 83-year-old husband medication on Sunday, and then took the medication herself in an attempted murder-suicide.
Both the woman and her husband became ill as a result of the drugs, and were transported to hospital. Her husband has since been released."
I don't know how this woman reached this point, but I do know that we don't do enough to support people better at the end of life. This is just so sad.
Investigators say the woman's husband has dementia and lives in a long-term care facility, but the incident took place at the woman's home.
They say two animals also were given the medication, and neither was harmed.
I'm sorry people if some of you are offended by my comments, but I'm not making light of something so understandably sad. If I were a juror in her case, I'd acquit on the grounds her actions were out of love. Watching a loved one succumb to mental illness and unravel physically a day at a time is something I hope I never have to go through. She wanted to spare her husband that misery. The cats were probably too old to adopt, and she didn't want them to suffer either. If there's anything she's guilty of is trying to be humane.
She was that way with most things. She lived to be 92 but hardly ever complained even when I know she was suffering. I now feel guilty if I ever start to whine about anything cause of the example set by my Mom.
OTOH....my personal experience w/elderly parents/people has been that they are very matter-of-fact about life and death. Perhaps this is off-topic (in which case, I apologise) but my 94 YO Mom has for at least 15 years (way before her MCI and now moderate dementia diagnosis) just seemed to accept horrendous diagnoses, lingering diseases, sudden death....and talked about it openly w/out hesitation....used to kind of creep me out initially (and I am no stranger to death having been widowed suddenly in my 20's and lost many good friends since then)....I know in Mom's case, her very best friend's husband had AD for years.....HA (Mom's BFF) spent every day, all day, even when he had to be put in NH, at his side, until he passed. Both of them, to this day, speak very matter-of-factly about this....both of them carried on their very busy, active lives w/out a hitch when their spouses had passed. Don't know....are they the exception? Is it generational?.....
If course the newspaper articles don't give the back story. Maybe the couple refused any type of outside help and things just got to overwhelming. I know for some elder women their "job" was to be the housewife and keep her husband happy and healthy.... and when the husband becomes quite ill, the wife blames herself for her husband's condition.
I saw that with my Mom back when Dad had a heart attack, you could not convince her this had happened, she would deny it big time. She wanted me not to tell the relatives or the neighbors [heavens, I don't even know her neighbors] because they would think she wasn't a good wife. That sounded so strange to me.
And on the other side of the coin, if the wife becomes seriously ill, the husband has no idea on how to do any type of caregiving or even cooking or cleaning because that was always his wife's duty.
Of course I am just imagining that she acted out of love and despair for her husband's condition and herself without him, police say they aren't releasing details to protect her husband.