A grandmother has shared her heartbreak after her grandson took his own life just days after his 12th birthday.
Samantha Legonidet, 47, says the family of Ethan Bourne have been left with ‘so many questions’ after the seemingly happy, Arsenal-mad youngster was found dead in his bedroom on the morning of January 8.
She described how he only turned 12 on January 3, and spent January 7 baking an Oreo cheesecake with his mum before heading to bed after being told to turn the PlayStation off at 9.30pm.
Ms Legonidet has spoken about Ethan’s tragic death after seeing a school notice which described it as a ‘sudden loss of life’.
She told MyLondon: ‘That’s all very good and well. But in the current climate, this is a pandemic, no doubt a lot of people will think that Ethan died of Covid.
‘But we want to put it out there that this child at just 12 years old has taken his own life.
‘Nobody talks about it, and if there’s one more young person out there that can maybe see this and actually talk up about anything that they’re heard or seen about anybody else.
‘Because Ethan had sent a little message to somebody that was quite depressing, a week before he’d passed, and nobody had thought anything of it.
‘So for the future we want it to be out there, for the kids to see this as well.
‘We never saw no signs and this little boy – his mind must have been in so much turmoil and nobody could see it.
‘In the long term I want there to be more awareness out there.’
Ethan was the second eldest of six children, but the eldest within his household.
He lived with his mum and siblings, who had recently moved from Redbridge to Waltham Forest, but would stay with his grandma every weekend.
The youngster had started secondary school in September, but this was largely affected by the pandemic.
Ms Legonidet said he had gone through a stage of having a bad temper and staying in his bedroom, but seemed to have ‘snapped out of it’ in the last couple of weeks.
She said: ‘The day before [his death] he had been cooking with his mum. [He] baked an Oreo cheesecake, which his mum still won’t let go of.
‘He had a really nice evening with his mum. He’d gone to bed at 9.30pm, when his mum had told him it was time to turn the PlayStation off. Ethan said, “Love you Mum, goodnight”.’
His mum found him dead the following morning.
Ms Legonidet said: ‘He was our little angel. He’s given us 12 years of his life.’
Ethan’s mum had suffered a lot of trauma and was in ‘a very bad place’ until Ethan was born, she added.
But he ‘changed her life and in all aspects saved her’ a family member said on a GoFundMe page set up in his memory.
Ethan’s mum recently said: ‘Ethan saved my life, so why couldn’t I save his? It’s just awful.’
Ms Legonidet said the boy’s mother would like a private burial and plot for her son.
She added: ‘It’s the final thing we can give to him, because we won’t see 13 or 16 or any other significant times.’
Speaking on the GoFundMe page, Ethan’s uncle said: ‘This having been such a shock to everybody has put us in a position as a family that we haven’t planned for such tragedies and ask with heavy hearts for help from those around us.
‘No matter how small, anything would be a great help toward us giving our precious boy the send-off he deserves.’
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