Last Dance, Last Chance

The Judge.
    I know she would accept your call & it will surely help me (& the sooner the better.)
    Please, Please, Please reconsider.
    Thanks, Anthony
    P.S., I know it will kill you. But please try.
    That’s all I want for Christmas.
    It was too late. Whatever Anthony had told his mother about his wife to turn Lena totally against Debbie and to make her give up any relationship with her grandchildren, he had done a remarkably effective job. He wasn’t able to undo his own handiwork. Even to save him years in prison, Lena could not lower herself to be nice to Debbie.
    It is extremely doubtful that it would have made a difference. Debbie did write a letter to Judge Rossetti, but it wasn’t what Anthony had in mind. It was seven pages long, typed single-space.
    “For the last 20 years,” Debbie began, “I have loved this man, Anthony Pignataro, unconditionally. No matter what has come our way, stood by him and supported him 100%.”
    Debbie didn’t have to exaggerate as she simply recalled the events in her life and in her marriage since Anthony’s release from his first prison term. Judge Rossetti already knew the details of her mysterious illness and her steady progression toward entering the Mercy Hospital ER.
    “I am completely convinced my husband was waiting for me to die and I didn’t. He probably couldn’t understand why I was still living with the amount of arsenic I ingested. He knew exactly what he was doing. His only explanation to me so far as to why he did this is that he was terribly confused. He was in so much pain emotionally and he didn’t know which way to turn.
    “My response to him was then, ‘Why didn’t you take your own life?’ His response was, ‘I did [try]—but it didn’t work.’”
    Debbie’s letter to the judge didn’t leave one horrific incident out. In a sense, this was her first time to speak. She recalled Anthony’s infidelities:
    “He always told me how lucky I was to have him. He degraded me in front of people. He often said to me, ‘Look at yourself, who would want you?’ He made me cry all the time…I thought, as he got older and matured, he would come to his senses and realize how lucky he was to have a wife that adored him unconditionally and two beautiful children…How could he ever take a chance of losing that forever? He didn’t care. He knew I would keep forgiving him. He would promise it would never happen again. Say how sorry he was, and buy me a piece of expensive jewelry and life would go on again until the next time.”
    For Debbie, the fact that her life had gone on was almost a miracle. She tried to put into her written statement the extent of her physical handicap.
    “I have come a long way this past year, but my fight isn’t over yet. I am now able to walk without braces on my legs or any other means of assistance. I can feed myself, bathe myself, and dress myself. Once again, taking care of my kids is a pleasure. I can also drive.
    “My legs, from the knees down, are constantly numb and painful. I can only wear sneakers because I have severe foot drop as a result of the arsenic. I can no longer walk a mall with my children or do many things that we did.
    “My hands are numb and painful. I have lost all the fine motor skill such as taking money out of my wallet…My hands still look like they are in a palsy state…ButIam here. I am still alive. I can watch my beautiful children grow up into fine adults. I can enjoy their teen years with them…my job will never be done with them. Even when they are married with families of their own, they will always need their mother. Thank God, I am still here for them.”
    She told Judge Rossetti that she didn’t want revenge; she wanted only to protect Ralph and Lauren. “When [Anthony] finally did the right thing and confessed this heinous crime, he said to our son, Ralph, ‘I stood up like a man and told the truth—and look what they’re doing to me now.’
    “Once again, ‘poor Anthony,’” Debbie wrote, “I don’t think so. The kids and I are the victims here, not you.”
    Debbie had put a block on her phone because there were too many wheedling calls from Anthony, and then she removed it because Ralph thought he might want to speak to his father once in a while.
    “I do not seek revenge. Someday he will have to answer to God why he did this unspeakable act…I ask you to determine, however, please let the punishment fit the crime. I do not feel safe with this man on the streets,