BY now most of us will be familiar with the tragic tale of Bill Barbour and his wife, Alzheimers victim Ann. It appears Mr Barbour, who was Ann’s primary carer, suffocated his long-suffering wife before drowning himself. In this heartbreaking interview, the couple’s son tries to explain the family’s predicament and asks if “society should look at ways of relaxing controls on people choosing the time of the endings of their lives”.
If that was attended to, perhaps in the future somebody carrying out this wish wouldn’t find themselves in the position my father found himself in on Monday night of wading into a freezing cold lake in the dark, in bad weather, on his own.
Whether that’s something you agree with or not, surely it has to be one of the most difficult things in life to cope with – to watch a loved-one’s mental health deteriorate, with no prospect of recovery?
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