Rest in peace?
More like… peace out, you no good/horrible/terrible/irresponsible mother!
This is the basic message that has been sent by the children of Kathleen Dehmlow on the occasion of her death, as they sent an obituary to the Redwood Falls Gazette that is unlike any other obituary you have read.
(Okay, maybe it’s a little bit like this obituary.)
The obituary opens by stating a few simple facts:
Kathleen was born on March 19, 1938 and resided in Springfield, Minnesota. She married Dennis Dehmlow in 1957 and had two kids with him, Gina and Jay.
So far, so normal, right?
But then the tone quickly changes…
In 1962 she became pregnant by her husband’s brother Lyle Dehmlow and moved to California.
She abandoned her children, Gina and Jay who were raised by her parents in Clements, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Schunk.
Oh… well, ouch. Okay then!
This is how the pieces concludes:
She passed away on May 31, 2018, in Springfield and will now face judgment.
She will not be missed by Gina and Jay, and they understand that this world is a better place without her
The newspaper removed the obituary from its pages/archives amidst reader outcry that it was in poor taste, which actually raises an interesting question:
Was it in poor taste?
Why must we honor the dead if the dead inflicted such pain on those close to them when they were alive?
Kathleen’s son, Jay Dehmalo, actually spoke to The Daily Mail and explained why he and his sibling wanted to out their late mother in this sort of fashion:
“We wanted to finally get the last word,” he said. “You could write it all down in a book or turn it into a movie and people wouldn’t believe what we went through.”
Jay Dehmalo, pictured here, has written the mother of all obituaries. Do you think it should have been removed from the newspaper?
Does he have any regrets about doing so? Nope.
“We knew there would be backlash but it really has helped us to finally get the last word,” Jay told The Daily Mail of himself and his sister, Gina.