| It is possible to call the matter water under the bridge, but it is not possible, I think, to dismiss it as meaningless just because the offense is limited to a few mourners who didn't like it at the time. To belabor one's dislike in the immediate aftermath of an untimely and even shocking death is practically to say "good riddance to bad rubbish", and symbolically drive a stake into the heart of the person thus trashed. Remember, JLA went to the hospital to offer his help to the family, and saw Monica comatose and in the process of dying. He and I were on the phone ever day that he was there, so that I could inform the thread of the situation, so I was unusually intimate with the situation. Subsequently, he helped the executrix, Monica's cousin, with some legal matters, and I solicited for this memorial fund I mentioned. I had been in the process of arranging a get together on the 4th of July at Monica's apartment, with my family, and JLA had already given her some help on a legal problem earlier in the year. Many others, like Neenny, had longstanding relationships with Monica, and had sometimes telephoned or visited. Certainly to those people, moved to do something to express their esteem and grief, an expression of contempt and even hostility would be magnified at such a time, and hard to forget. I just happen to be unusually forgiving...... |
