A Minnesota mom who passed away at the age of 80 certainly won’t be remembered fondly by her adult children, who wrote a scathing obituary in a local newspaper in which they insisted Kathleen Dehmlow “will not be missed” by her son and daughter, Jay and Gina, and that they “understand the world is a better place without her.” Yikes!
- It was so harsh, the newspaper had to take the obituary down. A day after it was published, the Redwood Falls Gazette removed the online version of the obituary from its website due to the number of complaints it received. While there is no doubt that Dehmlow’s children did actually write and choose to publish this, there has to be more to the story, right?
- Yes, they really went there. While the obituary starts out as standard, listing Dehmlow’s date and city of birth as well as her parents’ names, things kinda go downhill from there. “She abandoned her children, Gina and Jay, who were then raised by her parents in Clements, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Schunk,” the obituary read. “She passed away on May 31, 2018 in Springfield and will now face judgment. She will not be missed by Gina and Jay, and they understand that this world is a better place without her.”
- One of Dehmlow’s relatives did come forward to attempt to clear her name. A family relative, Dwight Dehmlow, said that what Jay and Gina wrote in the obituary was technically true, it didn’t paint a complete picture. “The sad thing about this is there is no rebuttal. There is more to it than this. It’s not simple,” Dwight, who lives in Minneapolis, said. “She made a mistake 60 years ago, but who hasn’t? Has she regretted it over the years? Yes.” He also admonished Kathleen’s kids for the fact that they “decided to go out with hate,” adding, “This is going to hurt a lot of people.”
- However, Kathleen’s kids are sticking by their story. Following the backlash, 58-year-old Jay Dehmalo and 60-year-old sister Gina said no one has any right to judge because they will never understand what Kathleen’s children went through. According to Jay, he and his sister had no idea that his mother abandoned them for years and that she’d moved to California and had two further kids with her husband’s brother. “We didn’t have so much as a card from her. I remember she came home twice and on one occasion she was showing pictures of her and her kids playing cards, drinking beers,” he said. “Gina and I were standing in the room, just standing there and she didn’t even acknowledge us. It’s like we didn’t exist … How can you do that to your own children?” He adds that they would write the same obituary again if given the chance.
