Robin Williams’ final words before his tragic death "echo" in widow Susan Schneider Williams’ heart.
The wife of the late ‘Mrs Doubtfire’ actor has admitted she still recalls the last thing he said to her, which was "’Goodnight, my love’", before he committed suicide at his home in Paradise Cay, California, in 2014 aged 63 years old.
Speaking about the events prior to the death in an essay penned by Susan for the medical journal Neurology titled ‘The Terrorist Inside My Husband’s Brain’, which has also been reported on PEOPLE, she wrote: "We did all the things we love on Saturday day and into the evening, it was perfect – like one long date.
"By the end of Sunday, I was feeling that he was getting better. When we retired for sleep, in our customary way, my husband said to me, ‘Goodnight, my love,’ and waited for my familiar reply: ‘Goodnight, my love.’ His words still echo through my heart today."
Susan – who married the star in 2011 – has revealed Robin has "struggled" throughout his later years with "a variety of symptoms", which didn’t correspond to one specific disease.
She explained: "Constipation, urinary difficulty, heartburn, sleeplessness and insomnia, and a poor sense of smell – and lots of stress.
"By wintertime, problems with paranoia, delusions and looping, insomnia, memory, and high cortisol levels – just to name a few – were settling in hard. Psychotherapy and other medical help was becoming a constant in trying to manage and solve these seemingly disparate conditions.
"This loss of memory and inability to control his anxiety was devastating to him."
However, Robin was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease before his death and "hated" not being able to converse with people the way he used to.
Susan added: "His left hand tremor was continuous now and he had a slow, shuffling gait.
"He hated that he could not find the words he wanted in conversations. He would thrash at night and still had terrible insomnia.
"At times, he would find himself stuck in a frozen stance, unable to move, and frustrated when he came out of it. He was beginning to have trouble with visual and spatial abilities in the way of judging distance and depth. His loss of basic reasoning just added to his growing confusion."
And Robin – who was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor over five times – was desperate for his brain to "reboot".
Susan added: "He kept saying ‘I just want to reboot my brain.’"
Robin Williams’ final words ‘echo’ in widow Susan Schneider Williams’ heart
