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Column Topics Cause Email Flood
By Patti Pfeiffer
I've been overwhelmed by reader responses recently. The Chick-fil-A column prompted a flood of emails, even from out-of-state, as far away as Idaho. Surprisingly, accolades far exceeded the attacks.
There were comments, too, on my piece about the editor's new topic-limiting column policy. Outpouring of support humbled me. Yet, I feel compelled to share my reply to a reader who strongly disagreed with our editor's decision.
"I'd like you to know, that although I do not agree with Mr. Mann's [editor] policy, he made the decision based on what he considers in the best interest of the newspapers he has worked for many decades. He is overworked and underpaid like most journalists and made sacrifices because of his profession. Therefore, I know how much he cares about Star Local News. I respect him immensely. As far as censorship, running my column (a column which publically criticized his policy) proved that he is not into censorship. On the contrary not many, if any, editors would have allowed that column to run..."
"Dear Patti, I am a visitor to your country and since coming to Frisco, I have been reading and enjoying your articles in Frisco Enterprise, Little Elm Journal. The one that you wrote this Friday was about your friend's emotional journey through his daughter's wedding. It was very poignant as you faithfully recorded his feelings. At the very end you mentioned about your own deprivation and I really felt your grief. Your friend is lucky that he got the chance to give off his daughter's hand in marriage. I would like to share my experience with you which is somewhat different. We are blessed with three sons and one daughter who is the youngest and the apple of our eye. She was to get married to a member of my family at our hometown, Peshawar in Pakistan. We live in Lahore while the groom and his family were coming from abroad for the wedding. Since they have a house in Peshawar, we thought it would be more convenient to arrange the wedding there. My husband and I made several trips before the wedding to Peshawar to make all the arrangements since she is our last-born and we wanted everything to be perfect for her.
Just a day before we were supposed to leave for the wedding, my husband who was feeling out of sorts, took a turn for the worse and had to be hospitalized. All our plans had gone awry and we had to make a lot of adjustments. The wedding could not be put off as all arrangements had been made and it would have been difficult for the groom's family to make another journey for this purpose. We finally decided that my daughter must leave with her brothers and aunts while I stayed back to nurse my husband. We thought that we would join later when he would feel better but his situation did not improve. It was a really difficult time for the whole family and emotionally drained all of us. On the one hand it was painful to see my husband in distress, on the other hand, the day that is so significant in a girl's life and is deeply associated with the blessings and prayers of parents was ruined for our baby-daughter.
She kept up a brave front and dammed up her tears throughout the ceremony as she said that if she had allowed her tears to fall, the whole gathering would have started to cry as my husband is deeply respected and well-loved by the whole family. Besides, she did not want to spoil things for her husband's family. Although my husband was going through a lot of suffering, he remained upbeat and when my cousin called to say that the marriage had been solemnized, he commented that how lucky we were to have heard this wonderful news.
My daughter returned the day after the reception and met her father briefly before he was put on a ventilator. He could not survive and passed away after eight days of being on the ventilator. For my daughter, her every wedding anniversary is strongly associated with her father's death. But life has its compensations, also. This time around, I have come for the birth of my second granddaughter, whose eyes uncannily resemble her grandfather's. So he lives on through her. I am sure that your life is also blessed in so many different ways. If we are deprived us of one thing God compensates us a hundred fold in other ways..."
Amen!
Patti Pfeiffer is a Star Local News columnist, freelance writer and author. She may be contacted at pattip913@msn.com
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In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
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