My heart is absolutely broken at the news of Ellen Loo’s death, which happened at around 9:50am this morning, according to Insider. She was seen falling from a building and her body was found by police shortly after.

The Cantopop singer was one half of the electrofolk duo at17 along with singer Eman Lam, and had continued as a solo singer after they called it quits in 2010. She was born in Canada but moved to Hong Kong when she was four and went to a Chinese-speaking school despite her brother and cousins being placed in international schools, which forced her to pick up the Chinese language.

From an early age, she was enthralled with music, eventually taking notice of a guitar that belonged to her mother. And from then on? HISTORY. She went on to form the successful duo at17 which performed together for almost 10 years. The group was named after the 1975 Janis Ian classic At Seventeen, which was one of Eman Lam’s favorite singers. And while it simply began simply as a fun thing, it eventually grew into something bigger and they really took off!

Loo was diagnosed with bipolar disorder back in 2013 and was open about her struggles with it. She had spent time in counseling for a year and was on medication and even began painting as a sort of art therapy. While she had come out of the closet recently, thanking her wife publicly at an awards ceremony, she actually stated that,

“Some people think I’m really brave for coming out; I think the bravest thing I did was overcome being bipolar.”

Probably the most heartbreaking thing I read was a statement from her in a previous interview article:

“When I was suicidal, I could think of a million reasons to give up on life. A friend asked me, ‘What cause would you die for?’ And I couldn’t answer. I would have done anything to make the pain stop; I would want to kill myself to make the pain stop. But what would I have died for? I’m not sure. It was a tough question, which kind of saved me.”

And while one can’t understand exactly what she was going through, one can still be burdened and heartbroken by such a loss.

My heart is heavy.

I wish her family and loved ones peace during their time of grief.