“At 72 and 73, my parents killed themselves on the same day and it changed me”

“They both left.”. This is how Sharon Nery learned, on December 18, 1994, of the death of her parents through a phone call from her brother. His parents, aged 72 and 73, killed themselves the same day. A disastrous event after which she was never the same. Twenty-nine years after this day marked forever in her memory, Sharon Nery took up her pen to recount the impact of her parents’ suicide on her life and more generally on her way of seeing things. After a period of mourning marked by very strong emotions of which she still has foggy memories today, very clear changes have taken place.

Starting with an omnipresent feeling of fear since the suicide of his parents. “Today’s fear. Fear of tomorrow. Fear of everything that could go wrong”she confides in the columns of Huffpost before specifying: “If my husband came home from work more than 10 minutes late, I imagined he had had an accident. If our cat coughed slightly, I was convinced it was heart failure. If my brother told me he was feeling blue, I feared he would take the same path as our parents.”

More committed to others

Strangely, she became the only person she didn’t worry about. “I actually wished something would go wrong with my health or my job – it sounds ridiculous, but I was convinced that a health or work problem on my part would contribute to my family’s quota of tragedies”, she explains. Having become an orphan overnight after the suicide of her parents, Sharon Nery thinks she has developed a form of guilt, feeling she could not have done anything to help her parents.

“I also thought it might make up for my inability to prevent my parents’ deaths,” she adds. A guilt that she confides having seen diminish over time and replaced “by an unshakeable awareness of the continued presence of his parents”. A tragedy which also initiated positive changes in the mind of Sharon Nery. “I reconnected with members of my family, some of whom I had lost sight of for 20 years or more. It is paradoxical that the loss of a family member can open the door to the welcoming arms of other family members”she explains.

In addition to being more concerned about the well-being of those around her family, Sharon Nery has seen her commitment to others increase over time, notably by becoming involved as a volunteer in an association. “A form of penance for an act I couldn’t prevent? Maybe, but regardless, every time I succeed in making a positive change for an elderly person, I imagine my parents applauding their 68-year-old daughter having a mitzvah from above. ”, she concludes. One thing is certain, that day of December 18, 1994 profoundly changed her.

A journalist passionate about social issues and current affairs, Hugo puts his pen at the service of information. Interested in all themes, from the impact of artificial intelligence on…