Assisted suicide or a show of love? SAN MARCOS, Calif. - When paramedics arrived at the Purdy home March 20, Margaret was seated in her favorite chair in the living room. The morning sunshine streamed in through a picture window that overlooked a valley. A plastic bag was over her head, tied securely at the neck. A suicide note in her handwriting was in a folder on her desk, beneath a shelf with books about death and dying. She had written that the pain from her various medical conditions had become unbearable. Alan Purdy met the paramedics at the door. He said that his 84-year-old wife had taken 30 sleeping pills mixed with applesauce and then suffocated herself. Please hurry, he recalled telling them. She had donated her body to UC San Diego Medical Center, he said, and they need to harvest her organs for transplant as soon as possible. Sheriff's deputies showed up and took him to the backyard patio, away from his wife's body. Purdy, 88, shivered in the cold, still urging them to hurry. The deputies started questioning Purdy. He repeated what he had told the medics: He was present as his wife committed suicide. He insisted he did not help her but admitted he did not try to stop her. Homicide detectives then led him in handcuffs to the patrol car and drove him to the nearby sheriff's station. His shoes were taken away. He accepted a blanket and threw it over his shoulders. He said he could not stop shaking and grew increasingly upset. After several hours, he was taken to the San Diego County jail in Vista and booked on suspicion of assisting in a suicide. At Purdy's arraignment March 28, prosecutors told the judge that the case was under review. San Diego County Dist. Bonnie Dumanis has not yet decided whether to file a criminal charge against Purdy. "Yes, I sat beside her as she died," said Purdy in the bedroom he and Margaret shared for almost 15 years. I didn't want her to feel abandoned. I wanted her to know that I loved her. In his two-story home on a winding tree-shaded street, Purdy is surrounded by the books and keepsakes of his and Margaret's melded lives: pictures of each other's children, grandchildren and shared vacations; her paintings; mementos from his time as a World War II pilot. The Purdys married in 1997. His wife had died several years earlier of breast cancer. Her husband had died of a heart attack. Margaret had worked as the chief financial officer in a company founded by her first husband. She spent a lot of her free time painting landscapes. Alan, who had semi-retired as a biomedical engineer, continued to do consulting work. He designed their dream home in San Marcos. The couple frequently traveled to Baja California and enjoyed reading and gardening. Though her health was fragile, Margaret seemed to be coping reasonably well with Sjogren's syndrome, an autoimmune disease that strikes mainly women and can damage the teeth, the eyes, and other organs. More recently, though, she had suffered from pancreatitis and three fractured vertebrae that didn't properly heal. She was in constant pain and couldn't get out of bed without her husband's help. She stopped painting. Last December, Alan was away on business when Margaret tried to take her life by carbon monoxide poisoning. She was semiconscious when he returned home and found her in the garage, sitting in their Honda with the engine running. He pulled her out of the car and into the house and revived her. In February, she gathered her five children and told them she couldn't bear the pain, despite numerous medications prescribed by her doctors. A daughter flew in from England, aware that it was a farewell gathering. Purdy said his wife was strong-willed. "She was her own person," he said. She decided she was going to die by her own hand.