News stories that stay with you and upset you

[PurpleSky300]

I've been reading the updates around the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy tonight, and my God it's horrible. A comment I saw on Reddit described it as "Stephen King level of horrifying" and it really is, I can't stop thinking about it. Such a great actor, gets to a grand age of 95 and then... Alzheimer's takes his mind and he ends up living in the house with his wife's body for a week? and unable to feed/save their dog too? Unimaginable.

I've also been reading the court reports from the Kyle Clifford trial, the evil feral thing who murdered John Hunt's wife and daughters. That is evil beyond all belief.

These stories have rooted in my brain and I can't seem to distract myself. Has this happened to you, with news events? How do you cope with it?

I read a small story in the paper about a young school boy who jumped off one of the London bridges. A young woman screamed “why is nobody doing anything” and jumped in to rescue him. Sadly the lad drowned but she survived. What an amazing woman she must be.

Anything about children dying/suffering, I know it’s very ignorant as there are so many war torn countries with children dying everyday but my mind just can’t manage it. It’s awful and soul destroying.

All of these are awful but surely we have had months of seeing such horror from Gaza that would come first to mind? All those dead children and babies in incubators. The rubble and the displaced and damaged. I don’t think my heart will recover. I don’t see how the sheer numbers involved can’t make it where your head first leaps to.

The 10 year old girl that was hit by a car in Kendal a couple of days ago. How absolutely horrific for her and her parents. Their lives will never ever be the same again. It’s the utter tragedy. She was only 10 and her life has now been robbed.

TBH the Gene Hackman thing whilst sad for the family, he was 95 and he clearly enjoyed a well lived full life. He’s luckier than most people. It’s a privilege to live well in to your 80’s. It’s sad because his wife was only mid 60’s so she’s been robbed of 20 years really.

When I start feeling like this I take a break from the news tbh. It doesn't do me or anyone genuinely involved any good to dwell on irrational responses to stories about strangers. It's good to be informed and it's healthy to feel emotions but empathy spirals are damaging, I believe, or at least obfuscatory.

Usually, for me, there's a reason why I'm overly concerning myself with something - an unmet need that's been triggered, or to be honest a matter I'm avoiding so I concentrate on an external event like a story in the press and it feels like I'm "doing something". Even though, actually, I'm not.

I agree with this. The tragedy of children’s lives being lost, it’s so upsetting.

Sophie Hook. Little girl camping out in garden with her cousins and was abducted and murdered. Just awful.

Just after I had my dd there was a story of a little girl run over crossing the road with her grandma and killed. The grandma survived. The parents wrote such a lovely tribute to her. Really got to me.

I think I've got this right ...

There was a story years ago about a young mum who, soon after having a new born, fell asleep on the sofa during the day (she was shattered with sleepless nights etc).

Her toddler tried to help by washing the baby. She picked it up and put it in the washing machine and turned it ion.

The baby obviously died.

How will the mum and the toddler ever get over that?

The murder if Hannah Clarke in Brisbane Aus and her three kids. She was in a physical, emotional and sexually abusive marriage…. Managed to leave was starting a new life he jumped in the car set them all on fire killing them all. Hannah stayed awake and conscious long enough to tell what happened so that her ex the father died an evil man

I often think of her and her kids… she was finally free but he couldn’t let her be free and he took the kids in the most evil way

With all the horror going on in the world seems odd to be most affected by the death of an extremely elderly and wealthy man?

These are my thoughts too. He had an amazing career, wouldn’t have worried about money and lived to the grand old age of 95. Couldn’t think of a luckier person tbh.

The murders of Mason Rist and Max Dixon. Completely innocent, wrong place at the wrong time. Jumped on by a gang of thugs with machetes who subsequently didn’t give a shit throughout the trial and behaved appallingly. As the Mum of teenage boy of a similar age it just upset me so much. Truly evil.

The Bibas children- the lack of world wide outrage hurt me to my core and makes me terrified for where humanity is going.

Ofgs it’s the circumstances that make it horrendous. The poor man wouldn’t have understood a thing about what was happening let alone that his wife, who would have been his carer, was dead. He didn’t die a peaceful restful sleep being well cared for. Money counts for nothing with dementia.

Madeleine McCann.

Children are being unnecessarily killed in the Ukraine and Israel also

Palestine, I also will struggle forever with what I’ve seen and the feeling of being a bystander.

Palestinian children killed and this is a year out of date already, it was genocidal.

Holly and Jessica's murders will always stay with me - it was a warm summer and it was on the news every day until their bodies were found. The fact that they were together was unusual and everyone was just so hoping they had done something innocent like get lost etc and it turned out to be the most evil thing

Well yes and it’s all absolutely tragic and horrific

Gaza and Sudan.

@Darkmorningsarethepits re-reading that it looks like I'm trying to one-up you in a weird way, I'm not, I'm just agreeing.

advocate for returning hostages and let’s see real talks happen- oh wait no one can negotiate with terrorists whose sole purpose is to murder Jews!

One story I can't bear to think about is that little boy whose father died when they were alone in the house and no-one knew, with the results you'd expect, it upsets me too much to even type it.

That was the one that I was thinking about. Dad died of natural causes over the Christmas period and toddler was found next to him several days later by a social worker. Absolutely tragic.