Description
Maxine the mother and John the 20 year old brother were interviewed some eight months after Neil’s death. Neil was a very intelligent, talented young man who taught himself to play the keyboard and the clarinet. He was very keen on acting and had appeared in soaps and in TV advertisements. He had been accepted by a college of music. His death was totally unexpected. Maxine (and indeed the whole family) are very angry with the police who kept them in the kitchen for four hours while they searched through the house and were escorted if they went to the toilet. They declined to allow anyone to be with or see the body nor allowed anyone to accompany Neil’s body to the mortuary. All this apparently, without any explanation given at the time. Maxine is also angry with the Coroner’s Officer and says that when he got to the house, he complained he should have been called first.
John arrived at his parents’ home just a few moments after his mother and his partner. His mother’s screaming had him rushing up the stairs, to find his brother hanging in a top floor room. He could not get him down and ran down for a knife from the kitchen in order to do so. His subsequent physical reaction was quite severe with trembling and difficulty in breathing. He attempted to return to work too early and at the time of the interview had been off for two months. Feeling the need to keep strong for his partner put a great strain on the relationship and he believes that but for their new baby they would have broken up – at least for a while. At least six months were a daze to him but he now is just starting to see glimmers of a life in the future.
Part of the series The Suicide of Young People and its Impact on the Family.
