The Other Victim: No Pictures, Please

I'm grateful that now that since Cpl. Lauterbach's tragic and horrible death has been confirmed, CNN has quit publishing the unpleasant comments of her mother (or is it step-mother?). I couldn't imagine why the woman said the things she did to the press, or why the heck the press didn't employ an editor to delete them. They do have editors, don't they?

It's not just about horror, hype, and shock value; there is also the element of loss. A family mourns a lovely young woman. A Marine office grieves a colleague, a coworker. A roommate is saddened and friends lament Maria's passing.

There is another victim in this case. Another person suffering terrible loss. We don't have a picture (for once, it seems, the media is demonstrating some taste; although since I don't watch much television, for all I know there may be reporters jamming microphones in her face) of her. I'm speaking of young Mrs. Laurean, the woman who has learned her husband is a philanderer, a liar, a possible rapist, a murderer, a destroyer of evidence, a coward, and so much more. May God sustain and comfort her as she tries to make sense of the shreds of her life.