AN INQUEST has heard that a 85-year-old woman decided to commit suicide after four close family members died.

Kathleen Goldsmith, of Queens-field, Upper Stratton, died in hospital on November 3 last year after taking an overdose of paracetamol and co-codamol hours after the funeral of her eldest daughter, Janice, on October 28.

Mrs Goldsmith had lost her husband Horace Walter in 2002 as well as her sister and her sister-in-law shortly afterwards.

But it was the loss of Janice to leukaemia that pushed her to suicide.

Tina Banyard, Mrs Goldsmith's youngest daughter, said: "I think she wanted to die in bed the same way as my dad did.

"She could not cope with the loss of all the others and focus on life."

Wiltshire coroner Nigel Brookes recorded a verdict of suicide and said he was satisfied "that she knew what she was doing to try and be with her husband".