"The odd thing is that she was so together when shown speaking in a TV interview a day or so before. How can someone so close to deliberately ending their life appear so normal and sane?"
Seems so odd, doesn't it, Chrysalis. In fact it's quite common. I experienced the same phenomenon with my father who committed suicide 7 years ago.
He'd been very depressed after having to go to a nursing home following a fairly catastrophic medical event, talked about how he could end his life, asked me for help in doing this, over many months.
I took him out for lunch on his birthday and it was as though the last months had never been. He was relaxed, smiling, talking about the time when I was a child. I was so happy: thought that he'd finally adjusted to being in a nursing home and was making the best of it.
Two days later the police arrived to tell me he had been found dead and requesting me to provide the ID.
Talking about it later with a psychologist, she explained that the person has made a plan to die. They have worked out how they will do it and when. However, distorted such a decision might appear to others, to them it's a relief.
In the end it is what it is. We are all responsible for our own lives. Deciding to kill ourselves is the ultimate personal decision.
