‘It was a wipeout’: how a family came back from a wife and mother’s murder

When Stuart Green’s wife, an environmental rights lawyer, was shot dead in a car in front of her children in the Philippines, he found books on grief little help. So he wrote his own

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he dreaded school run is a daily battle for most parents. Even once out of the door and at the school gates, feigned smiles and small talk with other haggard parents can be a mass performance. For Stuart Green, who spent years wrestling his young twins out of car seats and into coats, all the while keeping an eye on his eldest daughter, it was the small talk he dreaded.

“Is Mummy at work?” someone might ask. Green’s response would be a half truth: “I’m a single parent.” The full story could not be explained in a 15-second conversation on the street.

Green’s wife, Mia Mascariñas-Green, was murdered nearly a decade ago in the Philippines when two gunmen unloaded close to 30 bullets into her family car. Her three children were in the back seat. The Filipina human and environmental rights lawyer had no chance. Nine bullets hit her head and neck.