A Small Kindness

There's a rumor making its way on the Net that President Bush paid for the funeral of a Samuel Kettler, a first grader who died near the President's ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Some parts of the story are true. A 911 call reached a local sheriff who was at the president's ranch, and he and a number of secret service agents responded, but were was too late to save Samuel.

It turns out that there was no need for the president to pay for the funeral. The local funeral home would not accept payment.

Here's a statement from them:

As with every family that we serve, all financial arrangements and conditions are held in strict confidence. However, with the overwhelming amount of conversation and questions in regard to this tragedy, the privacy of the Kettler family has been violated. I spoke with Shawn this morning and he asked me to try and put a stop to these rumors.

Since the day Gatesville Funeral Home opened and a family has experienced the death of a child, we have not burdened the family with any charges from the funeral home.

If there's some good that comes out of this, it's that a small kindness, which would have otherwise been hidden, has been revealed. And a little boy's life and death has been remembered.