Just going to say this is really disrespectful on a level that we expect from extremists from the other side. The woman was in her 70s and fell down the stairs, it's a terrible way to go for anyone, even a woman once married to a terrible man.
This particular story when married to this particular family just sets off what Americans describe as my "spidey sense".
Now, yes, absolutely, if true, then, it is, most certainly, indeed incontrovertibly, "a terrible way to go."
However, the stock character of "the woman who fell down the stairs" is such a painfully predictable, and tired, cliché in the world of domestic violence, strangely similar to the "woman who walked into doors", or the "woman who stumbled into cupboards", that, whenever I read about it, I confess to a sharply drawn breath and, if not quite a suspension of disbelief, then, at the very least, a suspension of credulity, and, in the case of this family, a suspension of an automatic assumption of - or presumption of - innocence.
Women are so clumsy, and appear to be unusually prone to injury, the old "covered in bruises" look, (and I note that in the coverage reporting the death of the late Ivana Trump, a truly surprising number referred to "bruises on her torso") a tendency which seems especially prounouced in domestic settings.
Okay: Two facts, and a query - or two - occur.
The first fact is that the late Ivana Trump actually accused Donald Trump of domestic violence, and of rape, - if memory serves - during their divorce hearings.
The second fact is that Mr Trump - during his election campaign - proudly boasted - bragged, in fact - that he could kill someone openly on one of those numbered streets of New York and not expect to suffer any ill effects as a consequence (a boast all too unfortunately borne out by subsequent events).
And my first query is - for those who live in such elevated circles: Are there not staff - almost permanently present - to cater to needs, security, laundry, cleaning, cooking, etc? Would they not be present when someone falls down the stairs?
I can instance the case of my mother, in the early to mid stages of her dementia, a time when she was still mobile and prone to wandering after sundown; the carer, and either I or my brothers, were present at all times, ready to leap into action if we thought she looked likely to try to tackle the stairs (for, we feared accicdental falls) at night, on her prowls. And, when she did tackle the stairs, on nightly prowls, we were fast to follow, hot on her heels, down the stairs.
In other words, my point is that while we were not remotely wealthy, but were comfortably middle class, yet we were in a position to ensure that there were always people around - carers and family - to ensure that my mother was safe and sound, and that we kept an especially close eye on her encounters with the stairs.
Now, I cannot imagine that Ivana Trump lived entirely alone, devoid of staff to care for her needs, whatever they were, or lacked the means to pay for this. So, who else was around at the time?
Moreover, re "falls down the stairs", especially, when a woman misses a step or two, a thought or two occur to me.
Yes, they happen; people can be drunk, or on drugs, or unsteady, or can miss a step, or can lose their balance, or can simply trip, or are over-loaded with laundry, or are carrying trays.....
But, whenever a woman falls down a flight of stairs, I do wonder whether she actually really fell, or whether she leapt, or whether she was pushed.
Was this a genuine accident, or a convenient accident? If her health was failing, (and impaired balance was a feature of this) it is inconceivable that someone who moved in such social (and economic) circles did not have staff around who could monitor - and keep a concerned (and trained) eye on such things.
And, of course, that her funeral (and burial) should take such a graceless, shameless, tasteless form, entirely lacking in decency, decorum, dignity - let alone respect (or, dare one say, even affection) for the deceased, should come as no surprise, but no, it is actually shocking.
This is a family that can deprive death of dignity.
