When Kathleen Dehmlow died at 80, her obituary in the small-town Redwood Falls Gazette began like any other: birthplace, marriage, children. Then it detonated. Her son Jay and daughter Gina wrote how she became pregnant by her husband’s brother, moved away, and simply left them behind to be raised by their grandparents. They described a woman who returned only briefly, proudly showing photos of her “new” children while ignoring the two she’d abandoned, standing silently in the same room.

As the obituary went viral, many were horrified that children would condemn their own mother in death. The newspaper eventually removed it, but by then the words had spread across social media and news outlets worldwide. Jay and Gina refused to apologize, saying they needed the truth recorded somewhere permanent. For them, that harsh obituary was not revenge, but the only gravestone their childhood was ever going to receive.