Something that caught my eye yesterday was new report about a 70-year old pensioner who was facing charges of killing his wife of 40 years, four days before Christmas.
I am sure many people have thought about 'doing away' with the spouses at one time or the other – in fact had all those who thought about it actually carried out their desires, there would probably be literally NO married couples celebrating their 4th anniversary.
If looks could kill...
But I digress, as a rule most people who die in the hands of their partners probably do so in a fit of rage. Our man admitted in court that even though he was sad and despondent he was fully aware of what he was doing and could have stopped himself. A crime of passion this clearly was not.
The motivation of the pensioner was that of unmitigated devotion and utter helplessness at his inability to take care of his chronically ill wife, who had been bedridden for the better part of 14 years.
As things were, his wife had taken both chronically mentally and physically ill in 1994 and then in 1996 the man had taken early retirement from his job as the chief provincial traffic inspector to care for her full time.
Following is an excerpt from the Mercury newspaper that carried the story, on the fateful day that he took his wife's life:
“On December 21, 2008, he gave her breakfast in bed as usual, and then helped her up. She fell down and he could not get her to the chair in the lounge.
“Realising that she could not walk at all and that he was too weak to even drag her, he called for an ambulance.
“Several calls later - including calls to his adult children - when the ambulance had not arrived, he got out his gun and shot her.”
The man's police officer son testified that his father was fully dedicated to his mother but that he was under deep financial strains due to the high medical expenses associated with the treatment of pre-senile dementia. The financial strain was compounded further when his father lost his car and everything of value in a violent house robbery in 2000.
The courts sentenced the man to six years of imprisonment, suspended for five years, for the murder of his wife... and then set him free as a “victim of extreme circumstances,” stating that “imprisonment is not called for and would totally destroy the accused” because it was very unlikely that he would commit another crime.
Barely a day goes by the man admits that he is not shaken with remorse at what he had done. The day before his sentence was passed he was quoted in the Mercury that “this court cannot punish him anymore than he has punished himself. He has to live with what he did.”
It truly is a fine line between love and death. Circumstances as they were, perhaps the man's actions were justifiable but it could never have been easy.
Thankfully the majority of us will never have to be put to the test.
I am sure many people have thought about 'doing away' with the spouses at one time or the other – in fact had all those who thought about it actually carried out their desires, there would probably be literally NO married couples celebrating their 4th anniversary.
If looks could kill...
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| Photo by Jacques Naude; Image from Mercury website |
The motivation of the pensioner was that of unmitigated devotion and utter helplessness at his inability to take care of his chronically ill wife, who had been bedridden for the better part of 14 years.
As things were, his wife had taken both chronically mentally and physically ill in 1994 and then in 1996 the man had taken early retirement from his job as the chief provincial traffic inspector to care for her full time.
Following is an excerpt from the Mercury newspaper that carried the story, on the fateful day that he took his wife's life:
*
“On December 21, 2008, he gave her breakfast in bed as usual, and then helped her up. She fell down and he could not get her to the chair in the lounge.
“Realising that she could not walk at all and that he was too weak to even drag her, he called for an ambulance.
“Several calls later - including calls to his adult children - when the ambulance had not arrived, he got out his gun and shot her.”
*
The man's police officer son testified that his father was fully dedicated to his mother but that he was under deep financial strains due to the high medical expenses associated with the treatment of pre-senile dementia. The financial strain was compounded further when his father lost his car and everything of value in a violent house robbery in 2000.
The courts sentenced the man to six years of imprisonment, suspended for five years, for the murder of his wife... and then set him free as a “victim of extreme circumstances,” stating that “imprisonment is not called for and would totally destroy the accused” because it was very unlikely that he would commit another crime.
Barely a day goes by the man admits that he is not shaken with remorse at what he had done. The day before his sentence was passed he was quoted in the Mercury that “this court cannot punish him anymore than he has punished himself. He has to live with what he did.”
It truly is a fine line between love and death. Circumstances as they were, perhaps the man's actions were justifiable but it could never have been easy.
Thankfully the majority of us will never have to be put to the test.
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