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LIFE AFTER DEATH
I strongly question your judgment in publishing the ”Life After Death”
article by Bonita Brodt (SUNDAY, May 12) in a family newspaper. But to publish such a grisly, appalling, heartbreaking story on Mother`s Day was in the poorest of taste.
I, a mother and grandmother, as well as other mothers and mothers-to-be in our family managed to read through half of the story before becoming totally sickened.
I`m sure, had we been able to complete reading the story, we would have grasped the author`s point: the child, as a survivor of this monumental tragedy.
I think that point could have been accomplished without detailed descriptions of the two senseless, brutal murders and equally senseless, brutal attack on a little boy.
Those of us who tried to read this article agreed that it cast a very depressing pall on an otherwise joyful Mother`s Day.
–Rita Conway Weyland, McHenry
I was enjoying a beautiful Mother`s Day–sunny, happy, surrounded by loving kids, husband and grandma until I began reading the story about Rick Pueschel, ”Life After Death.”
My first reaction was anger. Why had you chosen to print this story on Mother`s Day of all days? Here we were, all dressed to go out for brunch, and I was sitting at my kitchen table, crying.
Later in the day I realized something about Rick`s story and its effect on me. Maybe it was just that I was a little less impatient with my children, or a little more attentive to grandma. Maybe it didn`t matter so much that the dishes weren`t done or the lawn mowed or the kids weren`t dressed just the way I wanted them to be; after all, we had each other.
I don`t think there`s anyone who could read your story and not weep. But to me the message it conveyed had to do with the saving grace of Rick`s memories–the joyful feelings about his mom at his baseball game, or tucking him in at night; his knowledge that he was so deeply loved. This is, after all, the essence of our roles as mothers and as parents, and Rick`s wonderful if heartrending Mother`s Day gift to us all.
–Betsy Doud, Northbrook
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER
I thought Dave Barry`s article about women and sports (SUNDAY, May 12)
was his funniest. I actually had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.
I especially appreciate how sympathetic he can be to situations he could not have shared in, like his description of a girls` gym class.
–Sylvia M. Hecimovich, Chicago
Dave will go anywhere to research a good column. –Ed.
