DEAR ABBY: My husband passed away a year ago. Four days after his funeral I received my copy of the church pictorial directory. My husband and I had posed together for our picture. Abby, they used the same photo with his image cropped out.
I don't have words to describe how shocked and hurt I felt when I saw it. While I am healing well, knowing that my husband is happy in heaven, that cropped photo still hurts. It is also being displayed on a bulletin board with members' pictures, along with two new widows' cropped photos.
Am I being overly sensitive? I'm certain nobody meant any harm. Still, I can't imagine anyone would have done this to a family photo if a child had died. Should I address the problem? I'd love to know what other widows and widowers think about this. -- SLASHED APART IN FLORIDA
DEAR SLASHED APART: Handle this by telling whoever is in charge of that pictorial directory, and the bulletin board, how you felt when you saw the photo. Then tell the person -- and if necessary the clergyman -- that you would like a replacement photograph taken and displayed. I am 100 percent sure the other widows will appreciate it because what happened was extremely insensitive.