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“
It’s really, really hard. Ev-
erybody says Marc is in a better
place now. Well, I’m not. The big
‘
why’ question has come into
play often. When Patrick died,
I was devastated. But we had
Marc for almost 60 years. I know
we’re not the first parents to
lose a child, but we have to deal
with the pain, the anger and the
depression and we have to deal
with it day by day. The family
support, especially our kids sup-
porting each other, has been the
best thing to help us through it,”
she said.
Added Vic, “Those children of
ours, they choose to be together
on a regular basis in good times.
Then when bad times come, that
same closeness applies. We’re
maintaining, all of us. Life does
go on.”
Vic and Pat chose to have a
large family and it wasn’t always
easy, Vic said. “But they came up
in a happy home. They always
had enough to eat and got the
necessities, even when things
were tough. I remember one time
when we could barely afford a
loaf of bread so Pat baked a loaf.
It was so good one of the kids
remarked that we should be
broke more often,” he said with a
chuckle.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 22
The Present
Vic and Pat Burnett as they prepared to leave on their honeymoon.
