It's no secret to anyone who knows me that I have loyally followed the kids from Riverdale's lives since I was a child. Yesterday I was at the grocery store and picked up the latest issue of Life with Archie: The Married Life.
The first story where Archie is living out his married life with Veronica followed the mayoral race between Marmaduke "Moose" Mason and three-term mayor of Riverdale Murray Ruskin (now you know that Moose's real name was Marmaduke if you didn't already). Moose wins after Ruskin inadvertently reveals his connections to fraud and corruption (which also has something to do with Mr. Lodge!!!!). The segment ended with Reggie being arrested.
The second story follows Archie and Betty's married life. And this issue was heartbreaking. Mr Weatherbee and Miss Grundy married near the end of the "Will you Marry Me" storyline. And the newlywed Mrs. Weatherbee finds out she has cancer. She keeps it a secret from everyone except her husband because she didn't want anyone worrying or feeling sorry for her. The segment has the entire gang sitting in the hospital waiting room reminiscing about tid bits of advice that Mrs. Weatherbee provided to each character through out the years. They are all passing time waiting for any (hopefully good) news about her condition as she lies in a hospital bed.
I teared up when Jughead and Midge (married now) receive a phone call at Jughead's Chocklit Shoppe and are asked to get to the hospital as soon as possible. I had full on tears streaming down my cheeks as Mr. Weatherbee informs the group that she has lost her battle with cancer and is gone. And I could barely read the words of the story during her funeral.
As always, Archie comic books have provided me with more life lessons and Mrs. Grundy-Weatherbee will be missed. She was hard on her students, but only because she believed in each and every one of them and the potential for greatness that each person is capable of.
Best piece of advise from this issue is when Veronica has a flashback and Archie is driving off with Betty which upsets her. Miss Grundy tells Veronica that she is an enabler of Archie's behavior and because Veronica "and Betty are so afraid Archie will choose the other girl, [they] let him get away with his childish behavior."
Thank you Miss Grundy. Your words always had an impact on me as well.
1 comment:
I literally had hundreds of Archie comics growing up. I have no idea what happened to them. I only have one now in my memory box and thats because its french and I could never read it. BF is from Quebec, maybe its time to dig it out.
I love this post but am disturbed by it as well. Cancer in comics? Things have changed. I appreciated the betty vs veronica comment though.
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