TRUE NEWS: MY PMS MELTDOWN FOR TODAY

For today's PMS meltdown, I would like to introduce you to the following story from yesterday. From my hometown. Ouch.



www.sfgate.com Return to regular view

Husband, 81, shoots wife, and then himself, at East Bay Kaiser facility - Chuck Squatriglia, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, July 7, 2005


12:11 PDT, Walnut Creek -- An 81-year-old Danville man shot his wife in the head as she lay on a bed at Kaiser Hospital in Walnut Creek, then turned the gun on himself, police said this morning.

Donald Edward George was pronounced dead a little more than an hour after the 8:43 p.m. shooting. Betty George was pronounced dead at 5:26 a.m. this morning at the hospital, said the Contra Costa County coroner's office.

The shooting occurred on the hospital's third floor when Donald George visited his wife, who suffered from several major illnesses and recently had been transferred to the hospital from an assisted living care facility in Danville, police said.

Dean Taylor, 43, of Antioch said the shooting occurred in a patient room next door to the room where his wife, Lynda, was staying, and that police told him that a possible murder-suicide had occurred with an elderly couple.

Kaiser spokeswoman Alix Sabin said that no staffers from the medical center were hurt.
"It's a really regrettable situation. People come to a hospital to get healed, not this," Taylor said.

E-mail Chuck Squatriglia at csquatriglia@sfchronicle.com.


MY COMMENTARY: I realized a few days ago that "Million Dollar Baby" will soon be released on DVD. I would like to watch the movie again - the scenes with Eastwood and my girl Swank are really tender. However, I gotta tell you, the end really pissed me off. Somehow my cynical self couldn't handle that take on the story.

Swank's character was stubborn, fiery and determined. What would make you think she would choose that route?

The Danville senior citizens above are the real life story. I wish I could write. I would love to visit this. Was it love? Was it pain - watching your life partner start to slowly disintegrate from illness? He loved her - I betcha a million. But he hurt too badly after... I am sure he knew that he had to end it for her, but his life was meaningless when she was gone.