Back in July my step-father was knocked over by a car reversing off a drive, 9 days after the accident he died without ever fully regaining consciousness. The accident happened outside my Mother’s bungalow and the driver of the car lives in the house opposite Mum’s, all too close for the circumstances and the outcome to ever be away from the front of Mum’s mind for any length of time, in fact it acts as a permanent irritant. Mum has always been slightly batty but recently her mental health has been extremely volatile, manic would be a fair assessment. There has been extravagant spending, tantrums, suggestions about suicidal plans, fixating on people and then pestering them but throughout a refusal to accept help from health professionals. Her issues have placed huge strain on my sister and her family, with me caught in the wash. What has exacerbated the situation, and made it virtually impossible for any of us, but especially Mum, to start moving forward, has been the spectre of the final coroner’s inquest and all that would entail.
On Friday we had the inquest. The poor man who knocked my step-father over was there by himself. Yes, he had a solicitor there representing him but other than that he was alone going through the awful ordeal of reliving the accident, minute by minute, inch by inch and having every movement he made questioned. Mum was questioned, she didn’t always answer the question directly, in fact a 10 minute ramble around the answer was her style; the police; the home office pathologist and the accident investigator were all also questioned and just under 3 hours later the death certificate was produced, accidental death. I was happy, well perhaps not happy, content, yes content is good. Mum appeared accepting of the result, we had worried that she was seeking retribution and, if not the death penalty, then that causing death by dangerous driving would be her expectation, but it seems that the inquest has been a cathartic experience. I really hope so for Mum’s, my sister’s and my own sanity, it seems there may be light at the end of the tunnel.
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A Midwife's Muse 
I remember your posts on this from last year and the upset and pain that you described from seeing the perpetrator still driving, still reversing out of his drive. I was furious that the police were not even “having a quiet word with him”.
The tone of this post, now that things have run their course, is different. Whilst you are concerned about the effect all of this has had on your Mum and the family you are also showing compassion towards him, which is very generous of you.
I hope your Mum can begin to settle now, and that you can all find some peace.
honorarynewfie – Time is, if not a healer, a moderator. I suspect that if I had not been at the inquest and witnessed the driver’s obvious distress; confusion and sorrow I would still feel rather more anger and less compassion.
The coroner placed emphasis on the danger of reversing off drives, highlighting that when a driver is doing this s/he is likely to be checking for other vehicles rather than pedestrians.
At least that’s over now and I do hope you can all – especially your mum – can move on.
My expectation is that there will be a quiet period whilst Mum enters the new phase but I will not be surprised if there is a minor hiccup, or two.