On this day 25 years ago, my grandmother, Florence Kleinow, was shot and killed in a jewelery-store robbery in River Rouge, Michigan. Along with two teens, Cathy Prato and Carlos de la Pena, who worked there after school, and David Perreault, the son of the owners, she was forced into the rear storage room of the store and shot, execution-style, in the back of the head. My father was coming home from work when he heard the news of the robbery. He was on his way to the hospital when he heard that his mother was dead.
I just wanted to take a moment today to reflect on her death and take some time to remember her for the wonderful person that she was. To quote from a newspaper clipping and a close family friend, “She was a perfect friend - a beautiful person.” As I read through the newspaper clippings, I saw how the community of River Rouge was so outraged by this slaughter. They raised $10,000 in reward money, and the killers were caught and sentenced to multiple life sentences, without parole. They are still in prison today. I also wondered as I read: Would a community struck by the same crime today react in the same way? With the same level of shock and outrage? Murders happen every day in cities all around the world. Would we take as much time now as they did then to consider the full impact of this crime on the families of the victims and the sense of community?
Perhaps this is something we should consider when we see death daily in the news. Perhaps we should think of the impact events like this have all over the world.
Or perhaps we’d go insane trying.
Thanks, Sanibel, for sharing your memories of a wonderful woman. It’s tricky, second guessing hardships, but I’d wager that in the truest sense you’re a living legacy for her life. You remember, you pay honor, and you try to carry the lessons of her life, and death, forward.
It seems like insanity rules right now, but not unopposed as long as people speak out against it. She still has you to remember and speak for her, and now we know, too.
Since I’m roughly aware of your age, I realize that you did not get to know your grandmother. Your post makes me think of my father’s first wife, killed ten years before I was born. I, too, have some newspaper clippings and some photos (great one of her, in flight suit and leather jacket, leaning on a P-51) - she was a Women’s Air Service Pilot (I’m not sure I got that organization’s name right) and was killed ferrying a bomber that crashed during WW II - and was a little taken aback when I recently ran into the details of her service life and fatal crash on a website.
So, she was one I never knew, but I know she figured in my Dad’s life and, I have to respect what I know about her. Of course, post mortem writings tend toward the laudatory, but I know she was yet another regular good person that drew a short hand, and her life and death influenced someone significant to me.
As to your question about the change in society. No, I don’t think most communities can still muster the same reaction that your grandmother’s death stirred 25 years ago - I would like to be proved wrong. Another thought is that, if her killers are still in jail, the drew their meter under a system that has changed since.
That was a sad but lovely post, Sanibel. I’m sorry for your loss - not just the loss of your grandmother but also the loss of time you could have had with her.
As to the outrage of the community being a thing of the past? I don’t know. I can only speak for myself. I know that every time I hear of a senseless, tragic death under any circumstances, I stop and think for a bit; wishing in my heart for comfort and strength for the family members left behind and for justice. I’m glad your grandmother’s murderers are still in prison and are never going to get out.
Thanks for telling us about your grandmother, Sanibel, I’m sorry you didn’t get to know her, but it sounds like she has a pretty good grandson.
We are so mobile now, that ‘community’ is a difficult concept to muster anymore. But, I still think we are shocked and saddened by such atrocities when we grasp the humanity behind the story, rather than just the headline. I’m glad the creeps are still in jail, and I hope that is where they stay…what animals (though, that is not meant to disparage animals!)
That was a very touching post, thanks for sharing. I know as I grow older and less self-centered and more aware of my own mortality, I seem to feel more and more empathy for victims of crime, or illness. even appeals from the animal shelters can reduce me to tears. I have no doubt many people today would rally to post a reward, or attend a fundraiser for a sick child, or send in a few bucks for a family that lost everything in a fire.
