Ted Demme

While it was interesting to read how Ted Demme’s wife, Amanda, has chosen to grieve for her husband, the most telling thing was what was not there (“In the Wink of an Eye,” Jan. 12). Reporter Gina Piccalo states that Amanda at first “asked that there be no sentimentality, no pitiful tales of life after Ted. And please, she said, no use of the word ‘widow.’ ” Apparently she also insisted on no use of the word “cocaine.”

Demme may have used cocaine rarely; the coroner found only a small amount in his system. He may have had his heart attack even had he not used the drug. And the coroner does not lay the blame squarely on the cocaine. But we are still left wondering whether he’d be alive but for that illicit drug in his system.

Deaths from cocaine exacerbating existing heart problems are common -- Bobby Hatfield and John Entwistle are two other recent examples. While we will always remember these people for the gifts they gave to us -- the music and movies they made, the lives they touched -- the circumstances of their deaths also stay with us. The sad fact is that Ted’s family may have lost him to his cocaine use.

Lee R. Tracy

West Covina