Report on Discrimination Against Singles

I agree with many of the people quoted in the article that single people in this country suffer discrimination that is widespread. Last October a friend of mine died in Chicago. He was an only child, and his mother and stepfather had died the previous year. He had no close relatives, except for two cousins, one who lives somewhere in California, and the other who lives somewhere in the Chicago area. No one knew for sure where.

My friend’s best friend was with him when he died. He attempted to claim the body, knowing that the cousins would be unaware of the death. He stated he was my friend’s lover, to no avail. The hospital stated that only a relative could claim the body. Of course, there were no relatives available. The hospital staff said that, come Christmas (only three months away) perhaps the cousins would send a card, and they could be traced; and then they could dispose of the body. Fortunately, that happened. The cousin in the Chicago area was contacted in late January, and my friend was finally cremated in early February of this year. He laid in the morgue for four months, simply because the hospital would not recognize a non-married relationship. His friends around the country were deeply saddened by this turn of events.

Elsewhere in the article, Beverly Sheldon makes several mean-spirited and self-righteous comments about, among other things, single people having more diseases. I’m single, and I don’t have any diseases. Surely Mrs. Sheldon wasn’t born married; did her marriage miraculously cure her of the diseases she had been carrying? I think the Centers for Disease Control should be informed about this wondrous cure.

SAM A. LOLLAR

Pomona