Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 8, 1994 TAG: 9411080132
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WADESBORO, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Melinda Canter, 19, was killed last weekend when she threw herself in front of a car to save her 3-year-old son's life. As Canter pushed Bradley to the side of the road, she was hit and thrown into the air.
``Melinda lived and died for somebody else,'' the Rev. Steve Hill said during Canter's funeral Monday. ``She knew what it was like to have a love to fill her heart so much that her own well-being took second place.''
As friends and family gathered to mourn Canter, talk turned to another mother - Susan Smith, the Union, S.C., woman accused of sinking her car in a lake with her two children strapped in the back seat.
``It's amazing with all the headlines about one mother, very little will probably be said about another,'' Hill said as sobs echoed through Cathedral Baptist Church in Wadesboro. ``A lot of people may not remember this young mother's life. But very few will forget how she died for her child.''
The Rev. A.D. Martin, a neighbor of Canter, mentioned that the public has been bombarded recently with numbing statistics about mothers and fathers who kill their children.
``Who knows why she was taken at such a young age at such a sudden time?'' Martin said, as Melinda Canter's husband, Daniel, wept. ``Maybe God is showing the world that we need to have greater love in our hearts for our fellow man than we do right now.''
As the family spoke of Canter's altruistic actions, they also prayed for Bradley, who is in serious condition at Carolinas Medical Center. Family members say the child's spinal cord might be damaged, and they are not sure whether he'll regain full use of his legs.
Canter also left behind 1-year-old daughter Hali.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB