Facing Unspeakable Personal Loss

Now I really have to write after reading the Dec. 2 letters page in response to “After Your House Burns Down” (by Jane Marla Robbins, Nov. 4). I feel my face burning, my hands tingling. Two years ago, my daughter’s house burned down. It was awful. She lost everything, as did I. I lost her, my only child. She was born when I was 17; we shared 31 years as mother and daughter. She survived unspeakably horrible injuries to her face, arms, hands and lungs, only to die a month after the fire. “Nightmare” is an understatement. People don’t know what to say to me. So they don’t. The people who knew her and how she died could never bring themselves to acknowledge what had happened. It made them too uncomfortable. Things are just things.

Barbara L. Gundy

Summerland