What important personal event happened before Dickens' began writing Great Expectations in 1860?

1860 was an emotional and pivotal year for Dickens: he begins the serialization of the autobiographical Great Expectationsin All the Year Round; Dickens's daughter Kate gets married; his favorite brother Alfred dies. And finally he burns all his personal papers. Whether any of these events influence the last decision history will problably never know. But we today are the poorer because of those lost documents. I do belive that he had also turned gay