Terry Skewes, Tracy Maaschalk & Brad Skewes

This is a photo of my children. It was taken around ten months before Terry took his life and in doing so changed our lives forever. My son was only just twenty one years old when he died. He was in the navy and had his whole life ahead of him. Yes there were problems in his life and how I wish he had been able to ask for help instead of believing there was no other way out. When Terry suicided I know he thought he was doing the best thing for everybody by taking his life. If only he had known the traumatic effect it had on all of us especially his brother and sister.

Brad was just eighteen and finishing an apprenticeship when he lost his brother to suicide and I still remember that first phone call I received from him after learning about the tragic news. I remember Brad crying and saying over and over again. “Why mum? Why did he do it?” My youngest son never got over Terry taking his life. There was no help at all around that time for those suffering from the loss of a loved one to suicide. Without help I had to watch my youngest son slowly destroy his own life until finally in so much pain he also suicided leaving behind a young son.

Tracy was my only daughter and the eldest of my three kids. These should have been happy years for her, finding the man she was totally in love with and knowing she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. At the time Terry died she and her partner had settled in Queensland and they had a young son. It was also around this time that my daughter found out that the love of her life was very ill. Robert died of motor neurone disease less than a year after Terry. I believe if there had been help in coping with all the trauma that my daughter had to cope with during her life, especially her only two brothers taking their lives, just, maybe she would have lived to see her four children grow into happy adults.