
Content warning: this article discusses suicide.
One year ago, Nina's* mother was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme, an aggressive, inoperable brain cancer. Just six, short weeks later, she passed away.
Less than a year after losing her mother, Nina's father disappeared. A note would reveal he’d taken his own life. Three months later, his body has still not been recovered.
"I always thought it would be a worst-case scenario for my parents if something happened to mum first," says Nina.
In the last five years of his life, Nina's father experienced a range of mental health challenges, and relied heavily on his wife for support.
Her death sent him into a tailspin.
"She moved straight from diagnosis into palliative care. It was a very quick descent from there to death," Nina says.
"It was an extremely confronting and emotional period of my life in that there was no time to wrap my head around what was going on.
"The palliative care she was provided was incredible, so it did offer me some comfort knowing that her final weeks were comfortable.
"But that whole time I had this tension around the impact that this was having on my dad. He just didn't want to let go."
Nina says her dad held himself together mentally while his wife was unwell, but after she passed away, his mental health declined rapidly.
"We have no choice but to keep moving. That was kind of my mantra to my dad, because I just didn't see any other way through."
With her father living an hour away, and having three children to take care of, Nina felt pulled in every direction.