MSNBC is
reporting that Sen. Byrd's wife Erma Ora James Byrd died of an illness. I just wanted to wish Sen. Byrd the best in what I'm sure is a very difficult time for him: my thoughts & prayers are with you & your family.
Erma Ora James Byrd, the wife of U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, has died after battling an illness for five years. She was 88.
Erma Byrd, who met her husband of nearly 69 years when they were in grade school, died Saturday at the couple's home in McLean, Va., according to Byrd's spokesman, Tom Gavin. He would not say what the illness was.
The senator and members of their family were with her when she died.
Edit: Yes, I realize that this is a political blog & that many of
us have political differences with Senator Byrd. But, please, let's show that we have a little class & leave politics out of this.
from John Donne's Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions:
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.
Thanks.