A vigil for Tracy Latimer
On October 24, 1993, Tracy Latimer’s mother and siblings got bundled up, and went to Church. 12-year-old Tracy, stayed behind, with her father Robert. After the family left, Tracy was placed alone, in the front seat of the farm truck, with the doors and windows shut. Her father used a hose from the exhaust pipe, to fill the cab of the truck with fumes, that eventually killed her. He sat in the truck bed and waited for her death.
Mercy me.
Her death was considered by most Canadians, a mercy killing, not murder, because Tracy was disabled and in pain. Pain that could have been eased, by medical treatment her parents denied her. Her death awoke in many disabled people, a very real understanding of the value others place, on our lives.
Mercy me.
This October 27th, on Sunday morning, wherever you are, I invite you join together in a moment of communion and commemoration. You can sit in your car, or a chair, a park bench, your bed, or wherever feels good. Then, you can turn on your virtual Sunday morning radio, to collectively listen to this vigil for Tracy Latimer, written for us, by Catherine Frazee.
Let us take pause.
and hold a space for Tracy, and all disabled people who have been killed,or invited to die, in the name of someone else’s mercy.