Don’t Let Driver Forget

August 1, 1995

Editor, Marshfield News-Herald: Why do Deidre Weeks’s family, friends and even strangers continue to display pink ribbons on their cars and mailboxes? Why do they wear pink ribbons, plant pink flowers or put up pink bumper stickers?

Because a little girl is dead and the person responsible lives on like nothing has happened.

That person apparently has no conscience or compassion. He has no concept of how he compounded their pain by running.

My heart breaks every time I think of an 11-year-old happily riding her bicycle home from play practice; a father finding his daughter lying in a ditch; a husband calling his wife to meet him at the Emergency Room; the medical workers desperately working to revive a little girl; a doctor telling the parents that he couldn’t save their child; a mother holding her daughter one last time in a dark hospital room; and a mother and father telling two boys that their sister is not coming home.

Imagine the pain of planning your child’s funeral, of going home and seeing all her favorite things, of longing for another chance to see her smile, hear her laughter, feel her arms around you, or watch her at play. The emptiness is overwhelming – the plea for answers continues.

Deidre’s family and friends can not forget what happened on March 24 and the person responsible must never be able to forget either.

TERI DASSOW

Vesper