A POST-MORTEM to determine the cause of death of civil society and human rights activist and the 2014 winner of the U.S. Embassy Woman of Courage Award, Zenita Temall Nicholson, has revealed that she died of pesticide ingestion.Police are also in possession of several suicide notes which were reportedly written by the 37-year-old mother of two.
Nicholson, who worked with the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) and also partnered with other rights and social groups, died on Monday morning at the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, where she was rushed after complaining of feeling unwell and acknowledging that she had ingested several carbon tablets.
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum said the woman had asked her reputed husband to pass the letters out to her relatives, but for some reason this was not done. This publication is unclear as to when the letters were written, since there has been no immediate confirmation whether they were dated.
Police now will officially treat the case as a suicide, given the statement provided to them by the woman’s best friend, who said that moments before she passed away Nicholson had admitted to him that she had ingested the carbon tablets. Nicholson is the first Guyanese to be awarded an International Woman of Courage Award from the United States Embassy here last year, and was described as a leading rights activist.
According to the police, on Monday morning her husband telephoned a male friend of Nicholson asking him to come to their home to take her to the hospital, since she was not feeling well. The woman, however, had in the past informed the friend that anytime a call should come to his phone from hers, he should ask to speak with her.
When the male friend answered the call on Monday morning, the woman’s reputed husband was on the line, and the friend asked to speak with the woman, who came on the phone and confirmed that she indeed was not feeling well, and requested that he take her to the hospital.
Once at the woman’s residence, her reputed husband joined the vehicle and the woman confided in the friend that she had ingested 10 carbon tablets.
She had recently shared this post on Facebook regarding suicide: “Many people think that a suicide attempt is a selfish move because the person just does not care about the people left behind. I can tell you that when a person gets to that point, they truly believe that their loved ones will be much better off with them gone. This is mental illness, not selfishness.” Many of her friends and colleagues were shocked at the news of her demise, remembering her jovial personality and her ability to inspire them.

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Caption: Zenita Nicholson when she accepted the Woman of Courage Award last year.