by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
(May 14, 2008) Like hearing her voice whispering from heaven, the family of Terri Schindler Schiavo found a note addressed to them by Terri and written in 1984 on the day she married her husband, Michael.
“Today I shall begin a life of my own just as you did some years ago,” Terri wrote. “With me shall go the values you taught, the caring you’ve shown, the love that has grown, and the meaning in a home. And if, when I have a child as you did, it will be given the same love and understanding that was given to me.”
“Our mother found this the other day when she was sorting through a box of old papers,” said Bobby Schindler about the handwritten note that appears on the family’s website.
“Our family cherishes every memory we have of Terri because there are so few tangible things left to remind us of her,” he said.
While it’s natural for children to leave home when they marry and take along pieces of their life that meant the most to them, those items were lost to the family because of the circumstances surrounding her death.
Terri Schiavo collapsed for unknown reasons during the early morning hours of Feb. 25, 1990 and was found unconscious on the floor of the Florida apartment she shared with her husband Michael when paramedics arrived. She remained in what was though to be a “permanent vegetative state” for the next 15 years. During this time her husband, who was living with another woman with whom he had two children, fought for the right to disconnect her feeding tube and end her life, claiming this what Terri would have wanted. The family fought back with the hopes of keeping her alive but their efforts failed when a court ordered her feeding tube removed in March, 2005. She died on March 31, 13 days later after her nutrition and hydration was stopped.
Finding the note was like receiving a brief but beloved touch from Terri.
“It comforts us to know that Terri embraced the values my parents taught us as children – the importance of faith, family and unconditional love,” Bobby said. “While we grieve her loss every day, it gives us joy to know that Terri was very aware of how much she was loved by her family.”
Since her death, the Schindler family began the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, which is dedicated to helping disabled patients like Terri receive appropriate medical care and rehabilitative treatment.
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