~~~Bolded by me
Rebecca's sister stated that when she spoke with Rebecca the night before Adam found Rebecca hanging in the courtyard, Rebecca was "fine."
There was (1) no mention of her being upset about what happened to Maxie, (2) no mention of Rebecca feeling guilty for not ensuring Maxie's safety as his caregiver, (3) no mention of Rebecca lamenting that she was not able to "fix" Maxie after his tragic accident, (4) no mention of Rebecca being devastated that such a tragic accident had occurred on her watch, (5) no mention of Rebecca being concerned about what Jonah must be going through while holding vigil at his son's hospital bedside. Rebecca's sister simply stated that Rebecca was "fine." Huh?
There is a lot of denial when it comes to suicide. This is especially true when you are raised in a culture where suicide is considered somewhat "taboo."
In our culture, suicide happens and it is often referred to as being related to depression or some other form of mental unbalance, thereby rendering that final act as somewhat more "acceptable" in society's view.
In other cultures, suicide is considered something that one does out of some (misplaced) sense of honor, to accept responsibility for some perceived wrongdoing on the part of the person choosing suicide as their final act of contrition.
Still other cultures find suicide to be something so wrong that entire families can be made to feel as outcasts for the "shame" that a family member's suicide has brought upon them.
As I have related here previously, both my father and my sister committed suicide. Their choices to end their lives were most certainly attributable to mental illness, according to the mental health experts familiar with them have stated. There was no shame felt by any of my family members, at least not that I am aware. There were plenty of guilt feelings, especially for myself, but that is neither here nor there.
I say all of this to make the point that I feel that Rebecca's family may not ever accept suicide as having been Rebecca's choice because it could bring an ill-conceived perception of shame upon the family. Her family may always feel a need to believe that someone else either forced Rebecca to end her own life, or that someone else took her life. As stated earlier in this post, many cultures simply do not, cannot or will not accept suicide as a manner of death because of that public perception of shame.
I hope that all parties involved are able at some point to find peace with these tragic and traumatic deaths, no matter what the causes.
Little Maxie was so young to have lost his life. He didn't have a chance to grow up and experience all that life has to offer such a handsome young man. I am sure that his family is feeling his loss each moment of every day. Unfortunately, accidents happen every day, and sadly they sometimes end in an untimely death.
Rebecca was certainly quite a good looking young woman with a lot of life ahead of her. She was in a relationship with someone who, from all outward appearances, seemed to care quite deeply for her. If Rebecca was as close to Jonah's children as has been stated by those who knew her, then her feeling guilty over little Maxie's accident would not be an unusual emotion. If she was so overcome with grief that she felt she could not face up to Jonah and verbally take responsibility for Maxie's death, then she may have taken her steps at accepting responsibility by ending her own life, to show Jonah that she was indeed remorseful and willing to accept the "final punishment," but by her own hand.
I have not touched upon the idea of this being a murder in relation to Rebecca's death. I do not know if she was murdered or if she committed suicide. I am not sure how exactly I feel about the little information that we have been provided. I will try to set aside some time to think about whether or not this could have been murder and, if so, at whose hands.
At this point in time, I am rather impatiently awaiting word from authorities as to what their investigation has gleaned, and as to how they intend to classify the sad passing of Ms. Rebecca Zahau-Nalepa.
