The sister of a woman who died by suicide has spoken out about her decision to release a candid obituary revealing details of her sister’s death.
Eleni Pinnow wrote a piece explaining her decision for The Washington Post. Eleni opens the piece reflecting on her sister’s suicide:
‘The most alone I have ever felt was standing on my front porch on a chilly February evening. My sister had taped a note to the front door that said “Eleni, if you’re the first one here don’t go in the basement. Just call 911. I don’t want you to see me like this. I love you! Love, Aletha.”
‘She put an identical sign on the back door. Even in the midst of consuming depression, Aletha tried to protect me from the full horror of her suicide.’
Eleni explains in the post that her sister ended her life after decades of depression. And when it came to releasing her death notice, Eleni chose not to shy away from the cause.
An obituary posted in the Duluth News Tribune reads:
Aletha Meyer Pinnow, 31, of Duluth, formerly of Oswego and Chicago, Ill., died from depression and suicide on Feb. 20, 2016.
The obituary describes the life of the young woman, before concluding with a request from the family.
It reads:
‘If the family were to have a big pie in the sky dream, we would ask for a community-wide discussion about mental health and to pull the suffocating demon of depression and suicide into the bright light of day. Please help us break the destructive silence and stigma surrounding mental illness and suicide.’
In The Washington Post piece, Eleni explains that her decision to be so open about the cause of death was a bid to encourage conversation around the illness that so gravely affected her sister.
‘I went on to share with everyone —friends, family, students, and work colleagues — the cause of my sister’s death: depression and suicide. I told them that my hilarious, kind, generous, helpful, silly, and loving sister couldn’t see any of that in herself and it killed her. I told them that her depression created an impenetrable fortress that blocked the light, preventing the love of her friends, her family, and any sense of comfort and confidence from reaching her,’ she writes.
‘My loneliness and terror on the front porch was nothing compared to the absolute isolation that depression had imposed on my sister. I had to tell the truth.’
image via Duluth News Tribune
