Re: [Paddlewise] Teenager drowns on Chatooga, retrieval effortsd angerous

From: Kellerin <kellerin_at_ionsys.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 04:45:12 -0400
Chris & Ellen Kohut wrote:

The priority here should be reclaiming the girl's body for burial, .........

>

I disagree. When my mother died (in hospital, not by drowning) it became very
obvious to me that the body lying in the bed was no longer my mother, just an empty
shell. My mother was gone. Where? I don't know, people have been debating that for
ever. This girl is gone, the body in the river (or what is left of it by now) is
not that girl. From the girl's perspective, what is the difference whether the
empty shell decomposes at the bottom of the river or in an expensive cemetery
plot.  This whole campaign of the father to retrieve the body is a way to avoid the
reality that the body in the river is no longer his daughter. I have three
children, and if it was my child I would be devastated yes, but definitely
unwilling to risk damaging the fragile ecology of the area or putting other lives
at risk.
Irene McGarvie:


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Received on Fri Jul 16 1999 - 01:43:27 PDT

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