Nothing prepares a mother for a child’s death
One week before Mother’s Day, Samantha “Sammi” Cundiff and her mother couldn’t have been happier.
It was Sunday afternoon and that meant softball practice in the Dream Catcher’s league at Goldman Park followed by a Coke, Sammi’s favorite beverage. Sammie and her mother, Mary Cundiff, ran the bases together though Mary admitted it was more like a walk.
Quality mother-daughter time. Then two days later, Sammi Girl, as her mother affectionately called her, was gone. Sammi, 21, a person diagnosed with non-verbal autism and epilepsy, had a massive seizure and died at home
May 3 despite her mother giving her mouth to mouth and Middletown paramedics’ best rescue efforts.
When Cundiff, 47, director of the food program at the Middletown Area Salvation Army, called me Thursday to talk about Sammi, I asked how she was doing. Before the words were out of my mouth, I realized that was an inappropriately worded question.
Still she answered: “I’m still in shock. Doesn’t feel real.”