CONFIDENTIAL FILE

Girls’ Love Calls to Bernie Bedrock

Sometime last November, death made a date with Mrs. Reva Bedrock.

Seven days ago the appointment was kept.

Mrs. Bedrock died of cancer.

I knew her. She called me at the time the doctors told her she was going to die.

Mrs.
Bedrock wanted my help in finding her husband Bernie. She wanted him
home to care for the couple’s two children, Bonnie, 9, and Linda, 11.

Last June 29, Bernie stepped into oblivion.

He was last seen in Las Vegas, in a Fremont Street gambling casino.

He was wearing coveralls with the legend "Bedrock’s TV Service" stitched across the back.

Until
that time, Mrs. Bedrock thought his mind, tortured by memories of a
Nazi prisoner-of-war camp, had gone blank, that he was a victim of
amnesia.

But the friend who saw him in Las Vegas found his
mind uncluttered by any psychological problems. Bernie Bedrock had
apparently run away from responsibility.

When she called, Reva
Bedrock asked me to remind him of that responsibility, asked me to
recall for him how much he loved his kids. I directed an appeal to
Bernie, but he either missed it or ignored it.

Now, a North Hollywood neighbor of the Bedrocks, Mrs. Lydia Snitkoff, has asked me to make the appeal once more.

She telephoned me yesterday.

"I wish you could print something again," she said. "Now that the girls’ mother is gone, they need their father more than ever.

"They still love him," she continued. "They still drag out the family photo album and talk about him.

"I feel so helpless," she told me.

The sentiment was similar to that expressed by Mrs. Bedrock.

"Bernie’s got to come home," Mrs. Bedrock said. "He’s part of us.

"And when I’m gone, who’s going to take care of the kids?"

Too Many Drifters

I asked her at that time if there were any words she would speak if she knew her husband could hear.

"Yes, I want him to come back for our daughters’ sake. There are already too many drifters in the world." 

And
she might have added that there are too many fatherless kids in the
world. Mrs. Snitkoff did. And she asked me to tell Bernie that in the
last days, Bonnie and Linda worked hard to make their mother
comfortable.

"They’ve sort of become self-sufficient," Mrs. Snitkoff told me. "You know, they do things for themselves."

Which is OK, but every kid needs a father.

That’s you, Bernie.

Reva was buried Saturday at Sholom Memorial Park Cemetery.

Bonnie and Linda are still alive.