LETTERS: TWO INDIVIDUALS TAKE TIME TO MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE

To the editor:

Several months ago, my 80-year-old mother suffered a stroke that left a personality change and, subsequently, a tendency to make unusual requests. She has been visiting this summer from Caruthers-ville, Mo., and last week suddenly remembered that a childhood friend, Ruth Vesterling Cunningham, had died in Cape Girardeau. Mom could not remember even the decade she died but was determined to visit her grave.

We began our three-day-long search from the archives in Jackson to the public library to funeral homes to cemeteries. Almost on the verge of giving up, we went to the Southeast Missourian, where your in-house historian (and news librarian), Sharon Sanders, graciously and miraculously tracked Mrs. Ruth through Social Security records. She then produced an original obituary from 1969, copied it in large print for my mom and sent us to the cemetery sexton, Terrell Weaver. He, like Sanders, took the time to locate our needed information in the books and drive us to our destination in Lorimier Cemetery.

These two compassionate and competent individuals are reminders of what's great about living in Cape Gir-ardeau: the people who take the time to make a difference.

GAIL LOWRANCE

Cape Girardeau