‘It was so hard to tell them that their dad had killed himself. I tried to avoid it, said he’d had an accident, but how long could I keep that up for? I thought they’d understand better when they were older, but how old? I can’t understand it and I’m an adult – why do I think there is a magic age at which it’ll be OK for them to know? Then I realised I was just trying to protect myself but, actually, more than ever they needed to be able to trust me. Turns out they’d guessed something wasn’t right all along and they just wanted me to be honest so we could talk about it together.’
Faye, whose husband died