Terri’s parents told they need to pay for a police escort in order to visit their daughter

Clearwater (FBW) -- Days before Mother’s Day, Mary and Bob Schindler, the mother and father of Terri Schiavo, were told they could visit their disabled 40-year-old daughter only if they agreed to pay for an off duty police officer to be present during their visit to the hospice where she is cared for.

Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

The Schindlers received a letter from their estranged son-in-law’s attorney May 5, according to Schindler family attorney, Pat Anderson. The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, assigned to Terri on a 24-hour-a-day basis, already pays for one officer. "By recommending that the financially strapped Schindlers may only visit Terri if they pay yet another off-duty police person to accompany them, is an effort to inhibit them from freely seeing their own daughter," Anderson said.