MaryAnn
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MaryAnn Healy Wentz
Born Jan. 21, 1961
Died May 23, 1986
Today Paul took out his sister's photograph,
He wanted to try out the new scanner.
MaryAnn was murdered.
Murdered by her husband, Steven Wentz.
Small caliper weapons must be used at close range to kill with a single shot.
He shot her in the back of her head.
The occipital is a thick bone.
When a bullet enters through it,
It breaks up in pieces.
The pieces as they ricochet,
kill the victim.
Maryann had a small wound in the back of her head.
Her zygomatic had been expanded outwards,
A lacrimal by the side of her nose was gone.
There were no other marks.
The mortician used wax and makeup
to fill and mask the wounds.
Her mother exclaimed,
"She never looked like that!"
You see, we know absolute truth.
A dark, starkly poignant
Reality.
There is no relativity to it.
It is not opinion.
Steven Wentz shot her with a 9mm Berreta.
Then Steven Wentz sat on their bed,
and shot himself in the heart.
It took time to die.
His insane ideas of possession,
ego,
and the extension of his manhood in his hand,
brought him to that place,
on the bed that night.
And none of this is opinion.
It is truth.
So before MaryAnn died, on May 1, 1986
Paul and I were sittng at the kitchen table,
MaryAnn had come and told us she was leaving Steven.
She picked up some of her things she had left with us the last time she had left him.
I looked at Paul on that pagan holiday,
and told him I saw MaryAnn die,
die by another's hand.
I wrote it down,
"Suicide by another's hand"
"Sadomasochism."
The note is stashed behind the photograph.
Before she left with her things to start a new life without him,
She said to me,
"Don't worry everything is going to be alright."
It wasn't.
old religion
Labels: Thr Rising Feeling. Rock in the Gut. Breathless Grief
7 Comments:
Oh, Paul, I am so sorry this happened. Sad, really sad. Take care and Peace.
i feel....wow, very sober right now. what a horrible, horrible loss. both for you and for mary ann.
what a beautiful picture of your sister, in such chilling contrast to the tragedy that ended her life.
wish i could give you a big hug right now.
I think the hardest part is knowing how much we have changed by this experience. People tell you to get over it, even before the person is buried. People tell you to get over it, even as you personally realize that the pain of such things never heals. There is NO true empathy felt for those of us who have experienced this. Most people are simply arrogant.
"It would have been different had she had gun!" Yeah, right! Penney Hammerstead, coroner for the county said this to me when she informed MaryAnn was dead. I had a so called "friend" say this to me recently. How insensitive! How purely ignorant of the statistics on murder suicide. Absolutely stupid! LIES!!!!
This dumb inexcusable line of the NRA was repeated in the Virginia Tech shootings recently. If Cho had had a knife, he might killed a few people, put he would have never had a chance to kill the number he did. There were heroes in VT, they would have taken care of Cho.
It would have been better when she and her friend found that gun as they packed her things, that she SOLD THE GUN. She would have likely been alive today.
Most murder suicides are committed with guns! Those who were attacked by knives etc survive. That is truth too.
THESE ACTS OF MURDER SUICIDE AND DOMESTIC ABUSE ARE TERRORISM!
Passing through,
Feeling a great amount of empathy and horror at your loss.
I agree, no shorter than an act of terrorism.
I do not believe that we are supposed to "get over" tragedies such as this, I believe we are supposed to survive them, remember them and honor those that have passed.
With sincerity,
Peace and Blessings,
Shawn told me that her aunt died in a murder/suicide. She never told me the details, maybe she never new them. Sad. Who knows why things like that have to happen. Beautiful and touching memorial.
Justin (Shawn's husband)
I knew your sister, Maryann and I knew Steve Wentz. Maryann and I worked together at Bullocks Dept Store in Mission Valley. I can still hear her 'calm' voice in my head. She was a 'quirky' girl from New Jersey who talked often of her many brothers and sisters and I liked her.(I obviously still think of her 25 years later because I am 'googling' her name) Eventually, we started hanging out outside of work and my husband, John and her and Steve became a 'foursome'. We went camping in Mt. Palomar, 'partied' in PB, played Pictionary (drunk of course), and had a lot of fun times. I can't remember when, but at some point, we drifted apart as friends sometimes do. Later on, we heard that she and Steve married. Then we heard they were dead.
It is still hard for me to believe it happened. It was so surreal. We never heard about it in the press, a mutual friend told us. So damn sad. Such a waste.
Steve was a weird guy - no doubt about it. Always struggling to maintain some outward appearance of control when in reality he must have been on the verge of . . .what? I don't want to say insanity because that would give him an excuse. So would the fact that BOTH of his sisters committed suicide - that would fuck with anyone's head. But he does not deserve anyone's pity. He was a dick. I am sorry for my vulgarity, I'm afraid I am not so eloquent as you and your words "His insane ideas of possession,ego. . ." could not be more true.
Paul, I hope this post finds you somehow - I do not see a blog entry since 2009. If it does,just know that I haven't forgotten Maryann Healy - the serious girl who loved to laugh and and be goofy too ("Estelle"!) -
I am so sorry for your loss,
Michele Anderson
Michele, what a shocker to find your message. We still grieve for Maryann after all these years. it would have been so nice to grow old with her but that was not to be.
Are you still in the San Diego area?
Paul
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