After a suicide ...

When her husband took his own life, Phyllis MacNamara began to write to help her face the horrible truth. She kept a daily diary about Michael and how he died. Here, she explains how words helped her heal and offer hope to others.

ON April 19, 2008, my much-loved husband Michael took his own life. The lead up to this horrific moment was relatively short, I knew that Michael was suffering high levels of stress at work but I never thought, for one moment, that this would lead to his death.

I believed that my love and care would get him through this difficult patch. I could not have been more wrong. I did not understand that you can never measure another person’s pain. I shall never ever be able to forget the moment I found him: my first thought was “Now, now see how bad he is, he is in so much pain that he is actually dead.”