Agent Orange

The widow of a secret agent took her own life with potassium cyanide her husband may have had around since World War Two conducting intelligence work for the Allies (particularly the Soviets).  Noreen Orange, 85, of Budleigh Salterton, Devon was battling skin cancer and severe back pain and was found dead in her bed last February by her horrified niece (Noreen and her husband were childless).  This case has arisen in the last day as a consequence of the inquest.  The coroner was unable to conduct a post-mortem because of the hazardous threat posed by the chemical which Noreen had left in a brown bottle next to her goodbye note.
According to the family, she feared becoming a burden on the family and going into a care home was equally abhorrent to her.  Her husband, John, had once hid in a loft in Vienna for half a year while doing espionage during the Second World War.  After the war, the 'possessive' former spy would often wait at the gate of their home, constantly looking at his watch, if his wife went out alone.  It was almost as if he needed to make a move away at very short notice.  They were an intensely private couple so it seems appropriate that the entire house had to be sealed off for weeks thereafter because of the highly toxic chemical, though her family say they don't think she intended this.