Listener Melanie Wood tells us how a play about her boyfriend's suicide affected her life....

Melanie and Pete

Melanie joined John to tell us the harrowing story of her relationship with boyfriend Pete. Pete suffered from depression for much of his life and eventually took his own life.

One friend Mandy, gave her constant and objective support in the days following Pete’s death and she wrote a play about their experiences.

She was wonderful after he died…she sent me continual cards and letters and was incredibly supportive. She decided to write a play about Pete called "After." In a way, it wasn’t about Pete so much, but more about me and Mandy. The scenario of the play was that we were packing up Pete’s flat and discussing him as we did so. That event never happened in real life with Mandy. That event actually happened with my friend Dominic.

The play was basically factual and about the fact that she never really had a connection with Pete and he always cut her out. At the end of the play I was deeply upset…this was still quite soon. Pete died in the February and it was the October when the play was staged, so it was still quite raw.

It was almost like I wanted to snatch my words back and not share them with people in that way. Though now, I’m very happy that it exists as a text. I’m a very open person. So I’m quite surprised at how freaked out I felt about sharing that with an audience.

It was strange as well because we went to see it with friends who were close friends of Pete’s; Dominic, Becky and Tris and I think it was very strange for them as well...because Dominic had actually been the person who helped me clear the flat…so it was an event from their lives being put on stage.

Melanie felt that Pete would probably have hated the play...he would have thought that it was none of anybody’s business.

Its one of those strange things when I say it was the worst thing and the best thing that ever happened to me..because a year on from Pete’s death Dominic and I finally got together, which was quite ironic really, because every time Pete used to break up with me in the summer holidays, he used to tell Dom to look after me. So Dom took that very literally after he died, but not in a romantic context and it inevitably grew. Now I’m in the relationship of my life really, I’m happier than I’ve ever been ... and we’re expecting our first child ... its a very cheesy happy ending.