When Savannah Meadows had lunch last October with her mother, Sharon Turcott, Meadows was "all smiles," the mother said.
"Maybe she's turned a corner," Turcott recalled thinking about her daughter, who had been struggling with serious mental illness.
The next morning, she received a scheduled email: "Mom, if you're reading this, I'm probably on my way to heaven," it said. Her daughter had taken her own life at the age of 44.
"She did not want to die by suicide. She did not want to die alone," Turcott said.
Instead, Meadows had been seeking a medically assisted death — something Canada legalized in 2016. It had been set to expand last year to patients who were suffering solely from mental illness, but that expansion was delayed, and Meadows ultimately died by suicide.
The delay has been welcomed by some, but condemned by others.
