| When we come into this world we have no clue as | | | | couple had no children. He could often be seen |
| to how we will leave it. And we have no picture as | | | | through the big front window of his comfortably |
| to what kind of a hand life will deal us. Will life be kind | | | | furnished home of 50 or 60 years, watching TV or |
| to us? Will we be kind to life? Since we live in | | | | keeping an eye on his neighborhood. |
| America our chances of living the "good life" are | | | | On Jan. 13, a worker with the city-owned utility |
| seeming ly much better than if we lives in some third | | | | installed a "limiter" on Schur's electric meter after four |
| world nation. That didn't turn out to be the case of | | | | months of unpaid bills. The device restricts power and |
| Marvin Schur. | | | | blows like a fuse if usage rises past a set level. |
| I can't imagine what it's like to be on the front lines in | | | | Electricity is not restored until the device is flipped |
| a war wondering if you'll live one minute to the next. | | | | back on by the homeowner, who must walk outside |
| The sounds of war are beyond comprehension. But in | | | | to the meter. City Electric Light & Power did not |
| war, you fight along side many other men and you | | | | contact Schur face-to-face to notify him of the |
| don't feel you're fighting life alone. Additionally, you're | | | | device and explain how it works, instead following its |
| young and you can handle anything- or so the ego | | | | usual policy by leaving a note on the door. But |
| says. But war is one thing. The quiet, still, and alone | | | | neighbors said Schur rarely, if ever, left the house in |
| cold of day and night after another is an entirely | | | | the cold. |
| different kind of a fight- especially if you are 93. | | | | At some point, the device evidently tripped and was |
| Marvin Schur slowly and painfully froze to death in his | | | | not reset, authorities said. Schur's home was heated |
| home days after the electric company installed a | | | | by a gas furnace, not electricity, but some gas |
| power-limiting device because of more than $1,000 in | | | | furnaces do not work properly if the power is out. |
| unpaid bills. When neighbors went inside Marvin Schur's | | | | Neighbors discovered Schur's body on Jan. 17 in his |
| house, the windows were frosted over, icicles hung | | | | home, a yellow house with peeling paint. The outside |
| from a faucet, and the 93-year-old World War II | | | | temperature ranged from a high of 12 degrees to a |
| veteran lay dead on the bedroom floor in a winter | | | | low of minus 9 on Jan. 15, the day he was believed |
| jacket over four layers of clothing. | | | | to have died. A heating pad was on his favorite |
| How could this happen? | | | | armchair by the window. The oven door was open, |
| The old man's sad end two weeks ago has led to | | | | perhaps to heat the place. |
| outrage, soul-searching and a resolve never to let | | | | "The body has a tremendous fighting power for |
| something like this happen again. "There's got to be a | | | | survival. He died a slow, painful death," said Dr. Kanu |
| way in today's computer age they can find out if | | | | Virani, who found frostbite on Schur's foot when |
| someone's over a certain age," said Chad Sepos, 37, | | | | performing the autopsy. But in this case and at his |
| a copy machine installer who lives a block away in | | | | age, there simply was no more fight left in him and |
| this Lake Huron city of 34,000 people, about 90 miles | | | | he had no "buddies" next to him to help keep him |
| from Detroit. "It's just sad." | | | | alive. |
| Schur was a retired foundry worker who lived alone, | | | | A sad ending to life. One that too many people in the |
| his wife having died a couple of years ago. The | | | | world face. |