Donna's Stone

I went to the cemetery the other day. I was going to see my aunt's grave. She was buried beside her first husband and her daughter's grave. She passed away in January. 

My cousin was just twenty years old when she died mysteriously at home. They never did find a definite cause for her death. She was married to a guy who did some awful things after she died and I guess the family decided not to leave the gravestone like the original one with her husband's name on it.

When I went up there I saw Donna's new headstone. The old double stone had been removed. I say good riddance and good for Donna. Her life was cut too short for her and she wasn't married long enough time to endure his name for all eternity. I have little doubt that Donna would have divorced her husband if she had lived long enough. I will always hate the way she passed away.

Donna deserved someone to love her and honor her. When we pieced together the last events in her life we became aware of several puzzling and heartbreaking episodes she had to endure. Her husband spread rumors and lies around the family and had us all questioning his motives. 

We will never have all the answers we were searching for but I am thankful Donna won't be going through all eternity shrouded under that other name. She was too good for him. Her legacy shouldn't be entwined with him forevermore.

If Donna had of survived she would be fifty-five years old this year. It's hard to imagine her as an old woman but it's harder remembering her as a young girl on the brink of life before it was cut short. I wonder how she would have turned out if she had lived. It's a never ending cycle. I'm always thinking about 'what if'. It's an endless game.

AS ALWAYS

PIO

PBS 8-24-14 Sunday 4:19 A.M. EDT