Beneficiaries

A silent scream echoes across this nation, every day, year in and year out, heard but by only a few:

"I had a good friend through junior high and high school whose family was Christian Science. In eighth grade, Bobby had a severe ear infection that went on for weeks. I would watch him in the yard after lunch huddled in a corner holding his ear and sobbing in pain. Eventually the infection cleared leaving Bobby deaf in that ear.

 

And then there was his sister Bonnie who was a class ahead of us. Bonnie was adorable, a cheerleader with pixie looks and a personality that just bubbled over. Everyone who knew Bonnie loved her, in particular her brother. 



In her freshman year in college, Bonnie contracted meningitis. It was not treated. She survived, but emerged brain damaged. The following year, she was in a bad automobile accident resulting in numerous broken bones that were not set leaving her deformed. In less than two years, Bonnie went from a bright, beautiful, full-of-life young woman to an approximation of Quasimoto. When I visited her after the accident, I just went home and cried.

 

When I last had any contact with Bobby, he told me he felt nothing for his parents beyond bitterness and hatred."

Multiply that. Figure out the odds. How many kids? The only number my dumb-ass knows is "zero" because that's what it's been worth. A big fat nothin'.

Bitterness and hatred are a gift in the face of life's horrors,,...