Devoted gran and grandson die within weeks

AN Oldham family was rocked by a double tragedy after a Hathershaw woman died just weeks after her grandson took his own life.

Florence and Carl McQuaid had been close in life and their inquests were held on the same day at Oldham Magistrates Court yesterday.

Carl (39) a labourer and well-known local DJ, who regularly played sets at Oldham’s Tokyo Project nightclub, was found hanged at his Eldon Street flat on August 16, last year.

Just six weeks later, his grandmother, Florence McQuaid (78), of Dowry Street, Hathershaw, died in the Royal Oldham Hospital from respiratory failure.

The court heard that Carl, a father-of-one, took his own life after he became depressed following a split from his girlfriend of six years, Victoria Etherton.

In a statement read to the court, Ms Etherton described how Carl tended to move between jobs and became quite down when he wasn’t in work.

In 2005, he successfully completed a drug treatment course to tackle an addiction to sleeping pills and he later attended some psychotherapy sessions, but became uncomfortable talking about his past and pulled out of therapy.

Ms Etherton said that Mr McQuaid’s personality changed after his cousin died, aged 30, in May, 2007. Mr McQuaid struggled to come to terms with the loss and began to take drugs, leading to a breakdown in his relationship with Ms Etherton in June last year.

John Melia, a close friend of Mr McQuaid’s, told the court in a statement that Mr McQuaid had initially coped well with the break-up, but began to feel very down when he realised they were not going to get back together.

Coroner Simon Nelson said: “The break-up of that relationship would appear to have triggered the ultimate action taken by Mr McQuaid.

“He was someone who found it hard to open up about his feelings. On occasions in the past he had sought assistance from his GP to deal with this, but he sadly didn’t do this in the weeks and months leading up to his death.”

Moments later, the court was told how Carl’s grandmother, Florence, died following a fire, which broke out while she was on holiday, contributed to her death from respiratory failure.

Former bakery assistant Mrs McQuaid battled a catalogue of health problems, including diabetes and lung problems and she had been using an oxygen tank at home in the months leading up to her death.

On September 6 she was one of many guests who had to be evacuated from a Great Yarmouth hotel after a fire broke out in nearby building.

The family told coroner Simon Nelson that Mrs McQuaid’s health deteriorated on returning from that holiday and she died in the Royal Oldham Hospital on October 1.

A post mortem examination found that she had almost twice the normal level of carbon monoxide in her blood as a result of breathing in fumes from the fire.

Recording that Mrs McQuaid died of natural causes, with the inhalation of the products of a fire a contributory factor, Mr Nelson said: “Given the obvious bond between Florence and Carl, and knowing how devastated she was to hear of his death, our office thought it not inappropriate to hold their inquests on the same day.”

Speaking after the inquest, Carl’s father Harry, of John Booth Street, Springhead, said that as the first of many grandchildren, Mr McQuaid was very close to his grandmother.

He said: “This has been a year that you hope no one else will ever have to go through. We are a very close-knit family and have stuck together to get through it as best we can.”

Carl’s uncle, Alan McQuaid added: “Carl was a very bubbly personality who was very well-known and liked in Oldham.”