Particle gets destroyed, and gameObject can no longer referenced = no more particles spawning

In a beginners tutorial, I am making death particles appear on death, then a Destroy script cleans them up. They work well for as long as the lifetime that I give them- that is, when the lifetime of the first spawned emitter is over, the game can no longer find a gameObject to reference... so I get no more particles. I want to explode basically every time I run into the enemy, while still cleaning up particle systems after use.

Here's my script:

using UnityEngine;

public class PlayerMovement : MonoBehaviour { public float moveSpeed; public GameObject deathParticles; private float maxSpeed = 5f; private Vector3 input;

private Vector3 spawn;

 // Use this for initialization
 void Start () {
     spawn = transform.position; 

 }

 // Update is called once per frame
 void Update() {
     if (GetComponent<Rigidbody>().velocity.magnitude < maxSpeed)
     {


         input = new Vector3(Input.GetAxis("Horizontal"), 0, Input.GetAxis("Vertical"));

         GetComponent<Rigidbody>().AddForce(input * moveSpeed);


     }
 }
 void OnCollisionEnter(Collision other)
     {
         if (other.transform.tag == "Enemy")
         {

   
             Instantiate(deathParticles, transform.position, Quaternion.identity);  
             transform.position = spawn;
         print("You dead");
         }

     }

     //rigidbody.Addforce(input * moveSpeed);

 }

And my destroy script is:

using System.Collections; using System.Collections.Generic; using UnityEngine;

public class Destroy : MonoBehaviour { public float lifetime=0;

 // Use this for initialization
 void Start() {
  

         Destroy(gameObject, lifetime);

 }
 }
 
 // Update is called once per frame
 //void Update () {
     




 //}

,Hi there. I'm quite new at this, following a tutorial you've probably seen before. Right now I have a particle fab that is set to spawn sparks whenever the player dies. It works, spawning many clones, until the Destroy script I have removes the first emitter. Suddenly it's saying it can't reference 'GameObject' anymore (no duh)- the original particle emitter, and therefore appears not to be able to Instantiate anymore.

I can set my lifetime to very long, and spawn clones only during the lifetime of that initial emitter.

What am I doin' wrong?

using UnityEngine;

public class PlayerMovement : MonoBehaviour { public float moveSpeed; public GameObject deathParticles; private float maxSpeed = 5f; private Vector3 input;

private Vector3 spawn;

 // Use this for initialization
 void Start () {
     spawn = transform.position; 

 }

 // Update is called once per frame
 void Update() {
     if (GetComponent<Rigidbody>().velocity.magnitude < maxSpeed)
     {


         input = new Vector3(Input.GetAxis("Horizontal"), 0, Input.GetAxis("Vertical"));

         GetComponent<Rigidbody>().AddForce(input * moveSpeed);


     }
 }
 void OnCollisionEnter(Collision other)
     {
         if (other.transform.tag == "Enemy")
         {
         Instantiate(deathParticles, transform.position, Quaternion.identity);  
             transform.position = spawn;
         print("You dead");
         }

     }

     //rigidbody.Addforce(input * moveSpeed);

 }

And my Destroy script is:

using System.Collections; using System.Collections.Generic; using UnityEngine;

public class Destroy : MonoBehaviour { public float lifetime=0;

 // Use this for initialization
 void Start() {
     Destroy(gameObject, lifetime);

 }
 }
 
 // Update is called once per frame
 //void Update () {
     




 //}