TRAGIC PRIDE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11249, 29 June 1922, Page 6

TRAGIC PRIDE

WIPE’S DEVOTION TO DUTY. WASHING TWO DAYS BEFORE DEATH. LONDON, May 10. A pathetic story of a young married woman whose devotion to household duties undoubtedly hastened her end was related at the inquest on Mrs Isabella Swain, aged 33, of Council Cottages, Skellingthorpe. Her husband, Thomas Swain, a boilermaker’s assistant, employed by Messrs Ruston, Hornsby, Ltd., told the coroner that his wife was never really ill, but used to worry about trifles, and was occasionally attended by a doctor. Two days before her death, although by no means well, she insisted on completing her washing, and later he had to send for a district nurse- He himself sat up all one night with his. wife, and left her at 3.30 a.m. apparently quite comfortable. Ho went downstairs, where he slept until five o’clock. 'On going upstairs again he found she was dead. -The night before her death she was only dissuaded with difficulty by the nurse from getting up, and she said she should certainly get up in the morning. - A post-mortem examination showed that the right lung was quite solid. Death was due to acute pneumouia- and heart failure. In recording a verdict of death from natural causes the coroner, commenting upon the spotless appearance of the house, remarked that Mrs Swain appeared to have been what was known as an exceptionally 1 ‘house proud woman.”