Daughter reveals how she stood in silence as her ailing mother and father killed themselves in suicide pact. After 58 years of marriage, they decided they could not bear to face life apart.
And so as they both battled increasingly debilitating illnesses, retired GP David Arnold and his wife Elizabeth made a pact to die side by side.
For this final act, having failed one previous suicide attempt, they enlisted the help of the person closest to them – their loving daughter Georgina Roberts. The 59-year-old daughter yesterday told an inquest how on the eve of her father’s 82nd birthday, her parents decided ‘today was the day’.
She was instructed by her father to prepare a toxic drug, which he and his wife drank before slipping quickly into unconsciousness.She mixed the drug her father had instructed her to buy over the internet and another that would speed up its effect.
‘I put it in a cup on dad’s bedside table and another cup next to mum.
'I said it would be bitter so they should have a chocolate afterwards. I gave them a chocolate each.
'Dad then had a whisky and mum had a port, I think. They quickly slipped in to a deep sleep.
‘I stood there in stunned silence watching them. It was surreal. I went to the kitchen and came back after about 30 minutes.
'I checked dad’s pulse and he had gone. I checked mum and she was still there so I had to go back out to the kitchen.’
Mrs Roberts told how she then phoned her brother Stephen to break the news, before calling 999.
Her other brother Simon was informed an hour later.
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