~ Suffering ~ Poem by Aparna Chatterjee

If he had been
Suffering for
So long a time,
You, the Almighty
Could have had
Some mercy on
Him, and You could
Have made him die
A natural death,
Perhaps
Making him die
Peacefully
In his sleep.....

Why did You
Drive him to
Such desperation
That he had to
Kill himself and
His beloved wife,
Both dying a
Violent death,
Not needed,
That could have
Been avoided.



I wrote this after reading this news of an elderly couple who died of gunshot wounds.
It was a planned murder-suicide. The man (Eric) was 71 and his wife (Pauline) was 67.
Eric was not in good health and he thought that if he died, his devoted wife wouldn't be able to live without him.
So before shooting himself, he shot her. They had been married for 49 years since 1972.