Frank D’Angelo

The Interim

If I had not gone, I would’ve regreted it for the rest of my life. When Terri’s mother, Mary Schindler, said on TV, “Governor Bush, please don’t let my daughter die of thirst,” my heart broke and I was compelled to go. My wife, Maggie, said, “You’re doing the right thing.” What she said to me meant a huge amount.

The people I encountered were a blessing for me. They said they felt compelled as well. The people who came to be witnesses for Terri and to pray for her and her family came from all across the U.S.

Leslie Hanks, vice-president of Colorado Right to Life in Denver, drank only water and diluted Gatorade for eight days and ate nothing – a beautiful person. Sabra, the emergency room nurse from Kansas City, Mo., dined on bread and water for one week – a beautiful person. Lisa from Topeka, Ks. made fresh, poignant signs every day that sent the message clearly that what was happening to Terri Schindler-Schiavo was nothing short of murder. Jennifer Haun, the Muslim girl originally from Morocco, but now living in St. Petersburg, had a sign that read, “Allah Save Terri.” The elderly couple who were atheists, but were pro-life, were there to witness and protest for Terri. The “We Ain’t Dead Yet” quadriplegic and paraplegic convoy of beautiful people in motorized wheelchairs came to defend Terri. They came slowly rolling down the sidewalk like a cavalry charge, proclaiming their wholeness and saying: “We love our tubes.” Beautiful people. Janet, the middle-aged flower child from Birmingham, Ala., who beat on a drum steadily for days to represent Terri’s heartbeat. Steven Sakic and his brain-damaged and physically handicapped 31-year-old son Tony. They came from Fairfax, Va. Steven would hold Tony in his arms upright for hours in front of the Woodside Hospice. Beautiful people.

The very pretty, young blonde model-looking local office girl who came by after work daily and held a sign that had a picture of O.J. Simpson, Scott Peterson and Michael Schiavo and a headline of “Three of a Kind.” Tim Leahy, the former Tampa police officer and now a mental health counsellor, pastor and current resident of Altavista, Va., brought his two kids, who are homeschooled, to be part of the praying and witnessing. What a school lesson for them. There were retired people, entire families, lots of young people and children, as well.

There was Mike from San Antonio, Tx., who threw his Bible into his back pack, jumped onto his motorcycle and rode to St. Petersburg. Mike had been sleeping on someone’s floor for six nights when I met him. He said he would sleep on a hard floor for 60 nights for Terri if he had to. Mike said when he returned to San Antonio, he was going to write a love letter to his mattress and say that he was never going to take the mattress for granted again. Mike urged Jesse Jackson for two days to bring water to Terri, but Jesse said he could not. This must have compelled Mike even more, for he insisted to the police that he had to bring Terri water. They arrested him. When Mike was released several hours later at 1:30 in the morning, his hosts in St. Petersburg gave him a mattress to sleep on.

Four days after I arrived, I saw a man wearing a Canadian baseball cap coming towards me. He had flown in from St. John’s, Nfld. He, Eric Alcock, like so many others including myself, had brought down a bottle of water for Terri.

I met Candi from St. Pete’s, who had lost a teenaged son. She knew what it would mean to Mary Schindler if Mary’s daughter Terri died. Sue and Steve Buchko from Long Island, very devout Byzantine Catholics, prayed hard and befriended me. The Rabbi I saw outside the hospice the day innocence died. Beautiful people all of them.

The media, the very large assembly of reporters and cameramen from all over the U.S., (CNN, Fox, etc.), from Canada, (CBC, CTV, The Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail), from Italy, Germany, England, Poland, China, Brazil, Argentina, Australia. They came from all over the world. I never missed an opportunity to thank the media. It was vital for them to be there. The Terri Schindler-Schiavo story was told to hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people. Terri’s story. It was nothing short of another blow in the killing of innocence itself.

I saw the courageous but tired parents and brother and sister of Terri go in and visit Terri at the allotted times that Michael Schiavo would allow. Terri’s mother could not even wet her daughter’s parched lips with a few drops of water or swab her dry mouth with a small wet sponge. Michael Schiavo did not even permit Terri’s family, not even her mother, to be with her when she died. What kind of a sorry excuse of a husband and son-in-law does something like this? Let alone the fact that he and his accomplices murdered Terri.

But Terri Schindler-Schiavo will not be forgotten. I think we should coin a new word in her memory. “Schiavo,” in Italian, means slave. Terri was enslaved to her husband’s evil desire to have her die a terrible death. She was an innocent, not terminal, defenceless, voiceless victim who was murdered because of someone else’s definition of quality of life. The new word should have a negative connotation, because Michael was a bad guy, not a good guy.

“Schiavo-ist.”

Therefore a “Schiavo-ist” pronounced, “skee-a-vo-ist,” is someone who causes the death of an innocent person who is helpless and not in agreement with the person in control, who believes the innocent person should die, because it is deemed the innocent person’s quality of life is not of apparent value.

“Schiavo-ism” is the belief that a person in control can kill, or cause to be killed, an innocent, helpless person, because the person in control deems the innocent person’s life is not worth living.

Terri Schindler was “Schiavo-ized.”