The 'sensitive' message left by the elderly couple who died by suicide at Kirindiwela

Among many parents who dream of spending their twilight years peacefully and comfortably, a tragic story is reported from Kirindiwela where a husband, unable to bear physical pain and helplessness, slit his beloved wife's throat and then jumped in front of a train to end his own life.

Chandulatha Wijewardena, a seventy-five-year-old elderly woman residing in Magaloluwa, Kirindiwela, was found by the police on a bed in her home, her throat slit. A short while after that horrific incident, the body of her seventy-eight-year-old husband, Mr. E.A. Amarasena, was found on the railway track near the Veyangoda Heendeniya railway station, after he had jumped in front of a train traveling from Colombo Fort to Rambukkana, taking his own life.

They were well-known in the area as a couple who had lived a harmonious and loving family life for decades without any problems. With the discovery by the police of a highly sensitive letter written by Mr. Amarasena to his daughter and son at their home before this unfortunate incident, the true nature of this tragedy was revealed to society.

That letter, which contained the words, "Mother now finds it very difficult to walk. My legs are numb, and my knees hurt. Neither of us can see properly anymore. Because we cannot let our children suffer, and because we both have to suffer more, I am ending Mother's life and then ending my own," clearly reflects the physical and mental distress they endured in their old age.

Mr. Amarasena, who had worked as a substitute employee in the Railway Department and was retired, chose the very railway track he had worked on for his final journey, which is also an irony of fate. Based on information received by the 119 emergency call unit, when Kirindiwela police went to the house and investigated, they found the wife's motionless body in a pool of blood, by which time the husband had already ended his life in Veyangoda.

Asking their children not to grieve, to compose themselves, and to live well, the last few lines, which read, "Perform both our final rites at our home as best as you can," silently tell the tragic story of helpless parents who did not wish to be a burden to their children to the entire society.