Eivind Ertesvag 
When 80-year-old Kathleen Dehmlow passed away, not everyone mourned her loss. Her two children, Gina and Jay, chose to place an obituary in the newspaper stating that the world was a better place without her.
To understand the unusual obituary, we have to go back to 1962. Kathleen Dehmlow had two children, Gina and Jay, with her husband. However, she later became pregnant by her husband’s brother. She divorced her husband and married his brother, but before that, she left her two children with their grandparents in California—then disappeared with her new husband. This was reported by the New York Post.
A Life of Struggles
Gina and Jay had a tough childhood, growing up with the knowledge that their mother had abandoned them. When she died, they decided to tell the unfiltered truth in her obituary:
«Kathleen Dehmlow (Schunk) was born on March 19, 1938, to Joseph and Gertrude Schunk of Wabasso. She married Dennis Dehmlow at St. Anne’s in Wabasso in 1957 and had two children, Gina and Jay. In 1962, she became pregnant by her husband’s brother, Lyle Dehmlow, and moved to California. She left her children, Gina and Jay, to be raised by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Schunk, in Clements. She passed away on May 31, 2018, in Springfield and will now receive her sentence. She will not be missed by Gina and Jay, who know the world is a better place without her.»
Completely ignored the children
Gina and Jay were later interviewed by local media after the obituary was published. They said their mother only visited them twice during their entire childhood, but that she never showed them any love.
Once, she sat on the couch and showed her parents pictures of her new children while talking about all the great things they did together. She completely ignored her two children from her first marriage, who stood in the room and took in everything she said.
The obituary got a lot of attention, and Kathleen’s relatives defended her by saying that everyone can make mistakes. But Gina and Jay wouldn’t listen. They had been so hurt by their mother’s actions that they couldn’t forgive her. Not even after her death.
The obituary printed in the local newspaper, the Redwood Falls Gazette, was later removed due to complaints from readers who felt it was inappropriate.
Daily Mail contacted his son Jay, who was one of the authors of the obituary. He has no regrets about writing it.
– We wanted to have the last word. A book could have been written or a movie made about this, and no one would have believed that we actually went through these things,» he says and continues:
– We knew it would backfire on us, but it has helped.
