By David J. Addis of Chesterfield
I have just finished reading the draft of my mother’s obituary. Over the past month as I have talked to patients, read the sympathy cards and gone through her things, I have realized what a truly good, sweet and kind person my mother was.
While others are feeling grief and sadness, I am feeling only anger…anger because my mother, who worked every day, was in good health, and still taught Sunday school every Sunday, died needlessly.
On Saturday night, July 26 at about 10:30, some children who were leaving Joseph Lawrence Park in Bossert Estates decided to knock on some bedroom windows. My mother was awakened and decided to see who “needed” her. When she was crossing her living room in the dark she fell, hurting her legs and “bumping her head” on the piano bench.
Over the next day, she told many the story of how she’d hurt her legs so badly that it took her two hours to get up and back to bed. Sadly, what she did not realize was that she was bleeding into her brain from the fall and that by Monday morning she would be comatose and later die.
I have been a child and I have children and grandchildren. I understand childish pranks. Now, I also understand what such simple thoughtless acts can do to a family and a community. It can deprive them of someone they loved, who loved them back. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned for both children and seniors from this event. Thanks so much for listening once more.

