To the Editor:
Re “Tatiana Schlossberg, Kennedy Daughter Who Wrote of Her Cancer, Dies at 35” (obituary, nytimes.com, Dec. 30):
Our world has been in upheaval for what sometimes feels like forever. The traumas of the first term of President Trump, the pandemic that brought us to our knees and now the frantic first year of Mr. Trump’s second term have garnered our undivided attention and forever shaped our perceptions.
But the stories that have moved me the most and remained indelibly within me were told by two women suffering unspeakable tragedy: Sarah Wildman, in The Times, taking us with her on the unbearable horror of losing a child, her daughter Orli. And in The New Yorker, Tatiana Schlossberg, at 35, her demise imminent, writing with grace, dignity and beauty as she told of her life and of a future for her two small children without their mother.
Both of these women stirred the heart and left one stunned by the capacity of some to handle, in extraordinary fashion, the cruelties that have befallen them.
The world can often make little sense. I am thankful for those like Sarah Wildman and Tatiana Schlossberg who remind us that even in the worst of moments there are those who have the strength to guide us through the troubled waters and teach us about the power of the human spirit.
Robert S. Nussbaum Fort Lee, N.J.
To the Editor:
My empathy for Caroline Kennedy began when I was in first grade, the day I and my classmates were sent home from school because someone had shot and killed our president. For days the world was transfixed on events unfolding on our black-and-white TV screen. Of all these images, none affected me more than this young girl, the same age as me, and her little brother who had lost their father.
Years later, I sympathized with her when she lost her mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, too soon and wondered how she could endure the tragic death of that little brother, John F. Kennedy Jr., her sole sibling, at 38. And now, the loss of her daughter — a young mother whose children may be too young to remember her.
At a time of such division in our country, let us come together as Americans to give a thought to Caroline Kennedy and keep her and her family in our prayers.
Julia Bey Washington, N.J.
To the Editor:
Tatiana Schlossberg’s death is inexpressibly sad. I lost my wife of 35 years to a sudden brain aneurysm almost three years ago at 63.
If you think life is fair, you haven’t been paying attention. Every family gets stricken with painful deaths, but this family keeps getting hit, generation after generation.
It teaches us one thing, though: We never know what burdens others carry. We should judge people less and more slowly, if at all. And the grief does not ever totally subside.
There’s a famous quote “When you’re going through hell, keep going.”
It’s true, we must, but we are no longer the same people.
Frank Daley Toronto
Planned Parenthood Is Irreplaceable
To the Editor:
“As Clinics Shut, Abortion Foes Seize Moment” (front page, Dec. 23) highlights an undeniable truth: Planned Parenthood is an irreplaceable pillar of our health care system. Crisis pregnancy centers (C.P.C.s) like Obria will never fill that gap.
Since President Trump has blocked Medicaid from paying for services at Planned Parenthood health centers — including essential health care like cancer screenings, birth control and testing for sexually transmitted infections — C.P.C.s are falsely asserting that they can replace that care, exploiting vulnerable communities along the way.
C.P.C.s, designed to resemble qualified medical facilities even when they are not provide few, if any, actual care services. In 2024, out of the nearly 9.5 million services delivered overall, Planned Parenthood health centers provided 5.1 million S.T.I. tests and treatments and 2.2 million contraceptive services. Obria clinics provided nearly 3,500 S.T.I. tests and zero birth control options. Planned Parenthood has 550 health centers. Obria has 17.
Despite being “defunded” by the Trump administration and its backers in Congress, Planned Parenthood health centers covered an estimated $45 million in care at no cost to patients who use Medicaid. Because that’s who we fight for — patients.
Patients deserve providers who offer real care and compassion, not coercion and guilt. And the American public deserves better use of their taxpayer dollars than for lawmakers to send it to C.P.C.s.
Alexis McGill Johnson New York The writer is the president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
The post Tatiana Schlossberg’s Death: ‘Inexpressibly Sad’ appeared first on New York Times.
