A GRIEVING wife who had been married for 62 years could not cope with the death of her husband and took her own life just days later.

Mrs Priscilla Caygill, 87, was found on Boxing Day by a care assistant in her room at Dercliffe Rest Home, Nelson, where the couple had lived for the past four years.

Her husband, Sidney, 86, died in Burnley General Hospital on December 21 after a long illness.

At the inquest, one of the couple's daughters, June Brown, said: "At my father's funeral my mother looked into his grave and said, 'I won't be long.'

"At first I was angry when she died, but now I realise it was a courageous act. They were a very close couple and they had been very happy at Dercliffe. They couldn't have done more for them."

Care assistant Miss Patricia Wilkinson told how she took Mrs Caygill to her room on Boxing Day evening and she had said Christmas had been hard without Sidney. Miss Wilkinson instructed another care assistant to take some supper to Mrs Caygill which is when she was discovered. She had been lying on her bed and had placed a polythene bag over her head. Miss Wilkinson removed the bag, checked for a pulse and called for an ambulance.

Pathologist Dr Zafar Qureshi, said Mrs Caygill, who suffered from diabetes and was partially sighted, would have gone unconscious very quickly. He said she was in good physical health for her age and gave the cause of death as asphyxia.

David Alexander Caygill, of Barkerhouse Road, Nelson, one of the couple's sons, said: "I saw my mother on Christmas Day and she was very quiet. She took my father's death very badly.

"She said she would like to have a word with me later, but as my brother Gordon was going in Boxing Day, I decided to leave seeing her until Sunday. My brother said she had been very quiet and not her usual talkative self when he saw her.

"It was obvious my mother did not want to go on without my father. She kept saying: 'Why has he left me.'"

The East Lancashire Coroner David Smith recorded a verdict that Mrs Caygill killed herself while depressed and told the family: "She obviously wanted to be with your father desperately. You can understand it after being married for 62 years. They were very close and this is something she could not accept."

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