Cross commits suicide -- Tales from the Quillpen

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Date Posted: 08:15:12 10/12/03 Sun
Author: Joan
Subject: Cross commits suicide

How sad that Amanda Cross committed suicide, reportedly. But, was there a suicide note? What percentage of suicides do leave a note of some sort? Did she? Or wasn't one necessary since Cross went public many years earlier about her consideration to commit suicide upon turning age 70. That age passed, and she went on to do what? Interesting to find out how she handled the 7 years in-between. Also interesting. What was the relationship between Cross and her husband? Was he aware of her recent plans? If so, why didn't he seek help for her?

Columbia Prof, Author Commits Suicide

By Sean Gardiner
Staff Writer

October 10, 2003, 8:02 PM EDT

Carolyn G. Heilbrun, a preeminent feminist and professor and a writer of both detective novels and biographies under the name Amanda Cross, was found dead in her Upper West Side apartment after an apparent suicide, police said Friday.

Heilbrun, who earlier in her life vowed to commit suicide by the age of 70 to avoid the pain and despair of growing old, had placed a plastic bag over her head, authorities said. She was 77.

Heilbrun was married to John Heilbrun, an economics professor, and the couple had two daughters and a son. Family members could not be located Friday.

More... http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-suic1011,0,186361.story?coll=nyc-manheadlines-manhattan

What is revealed about her thinking in her book?

The Last Gift of Time: Life beyond Sixty

Years ago Carolyn Heilbrun, a long-time feminist (Writing a Woman's Life) who also writes mysteries as Amanda Cross (The James Joyce Murder), decided to leave before age dragged her down by committing suicide at 70. Fortunately, she reneged, and chose instead to chronicle moments from her 60s.

http://www.radiodirectory.com/bookdetails/0345422953.html

In this thoughtful collection of essays, The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty, Heilbrun describes her life in its final decades. For her, these years have been a time of quiet revelation: she buys a house of her own in order to have complete solitude, only to discover the pleasures of sharing that solitude with her husband of nearly 50 years; she finds her horizons--and her friendships--expanding through email; she offers a surprising argument against memory, suggesting that elderly people who dwell too much in the past miss out on "new ideas and pleasures we might, if firmly in the present, encounter and enjoy."

http://www.oxfordcoach.com/help/heilbrun.html

panel discussion

http://www.theinfinitemind.com/mind249.htm

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