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Wednesday, June 22, 2005

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Brian Schiavo told The Associated Press that he and a handful of other people attended the burial of Terri Schiavo's remains on a rainy Monday afternoon at a Clearwater cemetery. Others present included her husband, Michael Schiavo, her other brother-in-law, Steve Schiavo, and a priest.

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  But the woman's parents criticized Michael Schiavo for not notifying them about the burial beforehand and by inscribing "I kept my promise" on the bronze marker. Michael Schiavo had said he promised his wife he would not keep her alive artificially - a critical element of the acrimonious legal battle over her end-of-life wishes.

"That was something he was feeling," Brian Schiavo said Tuesday. "It would have been very easy for him to walk away from this thing. But they had as promise to each other and he stuck by it."

Michael Schiavo, who received possession of his wife's remains after her death March 31, had said her ashes would be buried at a family plot in Pennsylvania. But she was instead buried at Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park in Clearwater, near Michael Schiavo's home.

"I guess maybe he wanted to be closer to her," Brian Schiavo said. "It's just his decision to do so."

On the grave marker, Michael Schiavo also listed Feb. 25, 1990, as the date his wife "Departed this Earth." On that date, Terri Schiavo collapsed and fell into what most doctors said was an irreversible vegetative state.

Schiavo actually died March 31, nearly two weeks after her feeding tube was removed by court order. The grave marker lists that date as when Schiavo was "at peace."

Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, had opposed her cremation. Services for Schiavo already had been conducted in nearby Gulfport, where her parents live, and in Pennsylvania, where she grew up.

David Gibbs, the Schindlers' attorney, said the family was notified by fax only after Monday's service, when the family had already started getting calls from reporters.

Gibbs on Monday decried the inscriptions on the marker. "Obviously, that's a real shot and another unkind act toward a grieving mom and dad," he said.

But Brian Schiavo said the Schindlers "shouldn't consider themselves that important."

"I know the Schindlers look at it as a slap in the face," Brian Schiavo said. "They had nothing to do with it. That was based from Michael to Terri."

Gibbs did not immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday.

Terri Schiavo collapsed in 1990 after a chemical imbalance caused her heart to stop. She left no written instructions in the event she became disabled, and her husband said she never would have wanted to be kept alive in what court-appointed doctors called a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery.

Her parents, however, doubted she had any such end-of-life wishes. They maintained she would benefit from rehabilitation, despite most doctors saying her condition was irreversible.

The seven-year battle engulfed the courts, Congress, the White House and divided the country.

The interment comes less than a week after an autopsy report was released revealing that Terri Schiavo was almost certainly in a persistent vegetative state and that her body showed no signs of abuse by her husband, which had been alleged by her family. The cause of the 1990 collapse that left her with severe brain damage was not determined.

The report prompted Gov. Jeb Bush to ask the Pinellas County chief prosecutor to investigate what happened the night Terri Schiavo collapsed. The governor cited an alleged gap in time between when her husband found her unconscious and called 911. The husband says there was no delay in making the call.

Editor's note:
Terri Schiavo - Mark Fuhrman Investigates ... Go Here Now

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