RIP Olive Cooke

It feels kind of strange when one of your relatives is all over the news - even more so when it is the most tragic of circumstances.  Olive Cooke in most circumstances would have had her death gone unremarked by the national media had she not been the oldest living poppy seller, having sold at least 30,000 poppies in her lifetime since she started in 1938, remembering her dad's contribution in World War One and made more acute when she became a war widow in 1943 at the age of 17.
This national exposure was unwelcome though for a modest and humble lady.  She was inundated by charity letters pulling on the heartstrings, never failing to elicit a donation from her.  This contributed to the depression she suffered from and she threw herself off Clifton Suspension Bridge.  She was 93 (though the media has it she was 92, the family who were closest to her tell me otherwise).  Moreover, she would have to take two buses an then walk the final stretch to get to that point.  That's the thing about depression - it's still very much misunderstood, it's subtle nature preventing remedial action until it's too late.  When someone resolves to take their life, a perverse determination is induced in them and they won't tell even their closest what they are about to do.
A friend of mine who didn't get her name in all the newspapers and on the TV and radio but was no less dear to me and was greatly beloved by hundreds of people committed suicide last December.  You just think what you could have done but unlike a physical injury we are ill-equipped to know the signs, let alone try to help.  Her memorial tribute was on 30th April, several days before Olive passed away in similar circumstances.
Mental health is not neglected but has become the poor relation compared to cancer research and the science investigating Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.  Nick Clegg raised it on the campaign trail and, in the absence of a coalition, it remains to be seen if the new government increases its profile, but one thing is increasing for the better and that is society is becoming more tolerant of those who can't see a way out.  Hopefully, if we can get people in this position to talk about the problems they feel they face, that is half the battle won, but our society needs more education in how to be aware in the first place.