Husband Tells His Side In New Book

By DAVID SOMMER dsommer@tampatrib.com

Published: Mar 29, 2006

CLEARWATER - A series of appearances on national television this week to promote his new book will cap off a year of change for Michael Schiavo.

In that book, Schiavo writes that he made a last-minute decision to give up on his fight to remove the feeding tube from his brain-damaged wife last year as he was hounded by protesters and getting death threats, but his attorney talked him out of it.

On March 16, 2005, the day before Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed for the last time, Schiavo's longtime fiancée, Jodi Centonze, persuaded him "to walk away from Terri," he said in the book released Monday and titled "Terri: The Truth."

She was worried about the safety of their two children. He called his attorney, George Felos, to deliver the news.

Felos "reminded me that we had to realize that it wasn't just about Terri anymore," Schiavo wrote. "It was about the rest of the people who didn't want the government telling us how we could die and when we were allowed to decide that we didn't want further medical treatment. And it was about who has the right to make decisions between a husband and wife."

Schiavo, who did not respond to a request for an interview, initially sought privacy after his wife's feeding tube was removed for the last time, his brother and his attorney said last week.

In June, Schiavo returned to the headlines when he surprised his estranged in-laws by burying their daughter's remains in a local cemetery, rather than a family plot outside Philadelphia where it would have been difficult for the Schindlers to visit.

At a waterside grave site beneath the oak trees at Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park, he had a gravestone engraved with an extra date the Schindlers say they believe is intended to gall them.

In addition to the dates of Terri Schiavo's birth and death, the stone includes the inscription "Departed This Earth, Feb. 25, 1990." That is the date she suffered unexplained heart failure that cut off oxygen to her brain.

Michael Schiavo contended his wife lost all cognition that day, and he stuck with the conviction throughout the years of court battle with the Schindlers over their desire to keep her alive. The Schindlers maintained their daughter continued to interact with them until her death.

In a TV interview Sunday, Schiavo said he did not intend to snub the Schindlers by including "I kept my promise" on the gravestone.

"It was from me to her. It had nothing to do with anybody else," Schiavo said. "She is up there praising me right now and saying, 'Thank you.'"

Also during the past year, Schiavo was promoted at his job as a nurse at Pinellas County Jail. He now makes $68,500 a year as a supervisor, sheriff's spokeswoman Marianne Pasha said.

In January, Schiavo married his longtime fiancée and the mother of his two children in a religious ceremony at Espiritu Santo Catholic Church in Safety Harbor.

To qualify for a church wedding, Schiavo, a Lutheran, and Centonze, a divorced Catholic, had to get approval through what is known as a tribunal, diocesan spokeswoman Vicki Wells Bedard said.

"They could have done a private ceremony in front of a judge," Schiavo's brother, Brian Schiavo, said last week. "But they decided to have a nice wedding and invite all their friends."

After the book tour, his brother again will attempt to lead a quiet life, Brian Schiavo said.

"They are going on with their lives. He works a lot; he works very hard. They are trying to do the American Dream."