Our beloved granddaughter, Pauline Goncalves Ferreira Swatridge, has taken her own life at the age of 15. In her early adolescence, what at first had seemed to be typical teenage girl problems developed into more serious symptoms of what was eventually diagnosed as schizophrenia. Pauline's parents, Géraldine and Kerry, and younger sister, Alice, supported her with great energy, patience and perseverance, with all the assistance they could find. Pauline received every treatment possible from NHS psychiatric services, and throughout was grateful for the understanding of her school friends and fellow patients.
She was determined that others should be made aware of and sensitive to the burden of mental illness, that it should not be treated as a taboo to be hidden, but as an affliction like any other illness, deserving of sympathy and support.
Pauline was born in Nancy, France, of a French mother, Géraldine Franoux, and a Portuguese father, José Goncalves Ferreira. Our English son, Kerry Swatridge, bass player in the Nancy-based band June Frost, met Géraldine when she was pregnant. They moved in together soon afterwards and Kerry embraced Pauline as his own daughter from the moment of her birth.
Pauline was always bound to feel and to be different, growing up first in Surrey and then in Waunfawr, Gwynedd. She showed herself to be bright, articulate, artistic and sensitive, and we marvelled at her maturity, celebrating her difference. She was bilingual in French and English, and added a third language at primary school, Ysgol Waunfawr, where she received all her education in Welsh, before going on to secondary school at Ysgol Friars in Bangor.
Pauline knew her own mind in all things, and was unwilling to fit into any mould, steadfastly pursuing her very original ideas, without ever seeking to impose them on others; rather, her friends admired her for leading fashions or activities but then discarding them once others followed. She was particularly musical, and talented in art, and was picked for Gwynedd council's Art Crew (Criw Celf) programme. Despite this creativity of thought and deed, Pauline found it difficult to appreciate or even acknowledge her own gifts.
She is survived by Kerry, Géraldine and Alice, by her grandmother, Chantal, and ourselves.