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Schiavo, Schindlers Will Hold Separate Services

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By CARLOS MONCADA | The Tampa Tribune
and STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 2, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG — Even after her death, Terri Schiavo's parents and her husband's family can find no common ground.

Two memorial services will be held next week: one in Gulfport, the other at an undisclosed location in Bucks County, Pa.

Michael Schiavo, who had his wife's feeding tube removed by court order 15 days ago, plans to have his wife cremated and her ashes interred where the couple grew up, near Philadelphia.

Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, said a judge already had approved the cremation plan.

"My client is scrupulously following the court order," he said. "Her ashes will be interred in the Schiavo family plot in Pennsylvania."

Scott Schiavo, one of Michael's brothers, said the Pennsylvania location is undisclosed so the Schindlers do not attend the service and turn the event into a media spectacle.

Terri Schiavo's autopsy was completed and her body released to Michael Schiavo's designated mortuary Friday. The normal procedure was supplemented by an X-ray of her head and body and an examination by a neuropathologist, a spokesman for the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner's Office said.

The autopsy may reveal new information about the causes of her heart failure in 1990 — likely the result of a chemical imbalance brought on by an eating disorder — that severely damaged her brain. It also could shed light on numerous allegations, all dismissed by the court, of spousal abuse.

Results are not expected for several weeks, the medical examiner's spokesman said.

The Schindlers, devout Catholics, opposed cremation and fought to have their daughter's remains buried near their Gulfport home.

They plan a funeral Mass at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Most Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church, 5800 15th Ave. S., in Gulfport. The Mass will be preceded by a gathering at 5:30 p.m. so people may express condolences to the Schindlers. A reception will follow the Mass, said the Rev. William J. Swengros, the church's pastor.

Schiavo, 41, died Thursday, nearly two weeks after her feeding tube was removed. Her husband and his family members were at her bedside during her final minutes; her parents were excluded.

Outside the hospice Friday, national television networks and local stations broke down their sets. Anti-abortion-rights advocate Randall Terry chatted with supporters for a few hours, then drove off in a sport utility vehicle.

The priests who had counseled the Schindlers left, too.

A sign attached to the orange netting used to cordon off the demonstrators read: "Terri Schindler Protest (Phase II)," but it wasn't expected to be there long: City workers down the street had begun to dismantle the orange netting.

It wasn't much of a protest, either. Roughly two dozen demonstrators milled about Friday afternoon, a fraction of the hundreds who had converged upon the site from across the United States in the past two weeks.

There was no juggler, no trumpeter, no bagpipe player.

Roberta and Ed Rhodes were among the holdouts.

"My husband and I don't have to be anywhere," said Roberta, 60, who winters in Bonita Springs. For her, the past several days have been a reunion of sorts, with many of the demonstrators who came in 2003, when Schiavo's feeding tube last was removed.

Rhodes had photo albums commemorating the 2003 event and film to develop to commemorate this one.

"We may not meet again," Rhodes said, "until we meet in heaven."

Inside the hospice, the tension that had gripped staff members for two weeks had ebbed measurably by Friday, said Hospice of the Florida Suncoast spokeswoman Louise Cleary.

Cleary said the chaos and circus atmosphere that swelled and ebbed outside for two weeks never intruded into the daily lives of patients or affected their care inside her agency's Hospice House Woodside inpatient facility on 102nd Avenue.

"Inside, our people worked very hard and pretty successfully at keeping things very tranquil," she said. "Some of our patients didn't even know what was going on outside."

"It was all unsettling, of course it was," Cleary said, and administrators fielded a daily stream of venomous telephone calls from across the country, but virtually none from the Tampa Bay area.

"We are the only hospice in Pinellas County, and people here know what we do, how we care for our community," she said. "Many of them called us to express their support."

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