• The widow of Alagu Periyakarrupan, whose death was ruled a suicide, urged migrant workers not to take their lives
• She told TODAY that she cannot understand why her husband decided to do so
• The family is mostly surviving on donations since Alagu’s death in April

SINGAPORE — The widow of a migrant worker whose death was ruled by the state coroner on Friday (Sept 25) to be suicide urged migrant workers in Singapore who are emotionally affected by the pandemic not to take their lives.

“Even if you are stressed, you must think of your family and your children,” said Ms A Panjali in a phone interview in Tamil with TODAY on Friday.

“No one should ever take a decision like this, whatever difficulties you face. All of you must come back safely and reunite with your children,” she added.

Her voice cracking with emotion, the 40-year-old homemaker, who lives in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are part of India, said that she could not wrap her head around her husband Alagu Periyakarrupan’s decision to commit suicide.

“In the 17 years that we’ve been married, he has never hurt me or had any bad habits. He is always very patient. I cannot understand how he came to this decision to leave these children behind,” she said, referring to their three daughters aged 16, 11 and six.

Alagu, who was 46, was found motionless at a staircase landing of Khoo Teck Puat Hospital on April 23, four days after he was diagnosed with Covid-19.

When TODAY spoke to Ms Panjali shortly after her husband’s death in April, she had said that she could not conceive of how he could have died. She had been unaware of his diagnosis before his death and had not noticed anything amiss in their recent phone calls.

The state coroner’s inquiry on Thursday heard evidence that Alagu had recorded two videos on his mobile phone expressing a wish to end his life, shortly before he fell from a seventh-floor window at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.

But while the conclusion of the inquiry on Friday sheds light on what happened, it has not brought any comfort to Ms Panjali, who said that it was painful for her to learn of the official finding that suicide was the cause of her husband’s death.

“To have someone who has treated me so well leave me suddenly is a huge loss that I cannot bear. No one should ever have to go through a loss like this,” said Ms Panjali.

She said she and her two older daughters have been inconsolable since Thursday after finding out about the recordings through news reports. The younger daughter is too young to grasp what has happened.

The family has been surviving on donations since Alagu, who was the family’s sole breadwinner, died, said Ms Panjali.

Migrant worker group ItsRainingRaincoats had raised funds to help the family shortly after Alagu’s death. A volunteer also continues to check in with the family.

While she tries to supplement her family’s income by working at plantations of areca, a kind of palm, where she can earn about 300 rupees (S$5.60) a day, such jobs are ad-hoc and not available regularly, said Ms Panjali.

When asked if she had any plans to support her daughters, who will be returning to school in the coming months, Ms Panjali said: “There are no plans. If there are jobs available, I will go and do them.”