I have been a funeral director in the Harrisburg area since 1973. On the morning of March 28, 1979, I went to work at our family funeral home in Penbrook, a bedroom community of about 3000 people east of Harrisburg.

the sky had a peculiar look a very odd hue and strange “feel” that morning

Our funeral home and my parent’s house sit on a two and quarter acre of land and that day I was working outside to collect tree limbs and debris on the property from the previous winter. My recollection is that about 9 AM my mother came out and said I had to immediately come into the house because of a serious accident at Three Mile Island that was just reported and they recommended that the general population stay indoors as a health precaution. From that moment on we were all transfixed with the television reports.

The most vivid reaction was before I knew of the accident when I was outside cleaning debris, it was that the sky had a peculiar look a very odd hue and strange “feel” that morning. This was not a post accident awareness recollection I vividly recall this as I worked that morning. The next days were filled with lots of rumors and misinformation.

When the precautionary evacuation of children was recommended, my mother took my two daughters, Joelle age 7 and Elizabeth age 5 to my brothers house in Oreland, PA. I did not evacuate with my family because we had scheduled a funeral for my neighbor’s son who was taken after a long battle with leukemia. And I wanted to be there for my friends, his parents.

Oh, another non sequitur remembrance was that a few weeks before the accident I had gone to see the popular movie” The China Syndrome” and remember making a joke that we ought to go check out TMI.

you could have heard a pin drop

I remember then Mayor Don Kinderman calling me and asking if we had to have a mass evacuation could I drive the funeral home hearse that would be used to evacuate bedridden people since there would not be enough ambulances to accommodate all the infirmed. He said plans were already in place for all lanes of all roads to be dedicated to vehicular traffic in a direction to exit the area. Tow trucks were going to be positioned to remove any vehicles that had breakdown on the exit routes. I said I would do that or at least leave the keys in the vehicle for their use. That plan was never necessary, thank God !

Part two of my story occurs 1 year later when I was on the “Board of Directors” ( that was NOT a traditional title anyone who had a position as a volunteer with the a fundraiser for the Dauphin County Unit of the ACS were considered part of an “honorary” membership on this board). Well it was my first year on the board since I was the chairman that year for the popular “Swim for Cancer” program. This event occurred at the annual “Daffodil Ball” which was the kick off event for the next year’s programs. I’m fairly sure it was held in Hershey . I am 29 and a neophyte to the just how things should be vetted at the DCU/ACS. Well at one point during the business point of the meeting and announcement was made that “if anyone had any additional items they wished to bring before the group, they could come to the podium.” I took advantage of that invite and stepped up to the mike. As best as I can recall this is what I said,

“It has been a year since the most the most serious nuclear accident in history occurred and it occurred in Dauphin County. The potential risk is not going to create more heart disease, nor more diabetes but has the potential to create more cancers. We are the Cancer Society located in the county where this accident occurred. I feel it is incumbent upon us to take the lead in doing something to address this potential issue. My suggestion is we create a form which all those who lived and worked in the area during the crisis, while they still remember to some degree of accuracy where they were and what they were doing during that time period, would be filled out and returned to us and they would be issued a health report ID card. At any time during their lifetime, if they had an unusual or cancerous occurrence, their doctor could and should report this to the “survivor database” who would then compare their profile to others with a similar profile and suggest that maybe those not showing symptoms could be checked out and treated, if necessary, at a very early stage where success in treatment is most effective. Participation would be voluntary and no results could be used for legal suits.”

if there was a problem it would start to occur after 20 years or so

Well my recollection is you could have heard a pin drop. Then Dr. Bowman (who was on the real board of directors ) started to chastise me saying he was personal friends with the head of the Department of Health and he assured him that there is no need for concern about future cancers from the accident (paraphrasing) . Yatta Yatta Yatta, with each word I could feel myself getting smaller and smaller and eventually left the podium a beaten man. I have no idea if that idea would have worked or borne any fruit but as far as Dr. Bowman was concerned it wasn’t going anywhere. My then friend, David G Bias was there as well as my then girlfriend Cindy Krohn and the Executive Director was a former girlfriend of Dave’s whose name I can’t recall. I have no idea if any minutes exist to corroborate my story. But I’m telling you it happened.

Years later in my capacity as vice president of the Penbrook Lions Club, I invited a Health Sciences Advisor that was an employee of TMI and was available for speaking engagements to come and be our featured speaker at the Lions club meeting. He again assured us that there was nothing to worry about but pointed out that if there was a problem it would start to occur after 20 years or so and would start by affecting the respiratory system and sensitive organs in the throat vicinity, such as the thyroid, hypothalamus etc. As a side note I now take levothyroxine for a underactive thyroid and my oldest daughter had to have a partial thyroidectomy for an overactive thyroid. Who’s to say these are not normal occurrences and with the passage of time and the relocation of people involved at the time I guess we will never know,

Tim