Kurt Kuenne's “Dear Zachary: a letter to a son about his father” starts with a montage of one word statements from friends of Zachary’s father describing him, so that Zachary would know the kind of man his father was. It is very important for to a child to know the kind of person his parent was, when the parent has died while the child is very young. I was so mesmerized by the content of the documentary, that I could not take notes. It was compelling, thought provoking and leaves you speechless.

I think that Andrew Bagby, Zachary’s father, did not know that he was dancing with the devil and that he had on his hands, a real live example of a "fatal attraction" when he met and started dating Shirley Turner. She was a person who wanted to have all that the world could offer. Once he finished medical school, she was not concerned with what her lifestyle would cost him emotionally, nor do I think that she cared. No one was able to stop her from grabbing his heart and crushing it. She was emotionally unavailable to anyone who came into her life, almost as if she had to have what she wanted and needed at all cost. Her thinking was so convoluted that she thought that she was the only one who could care for Zachary. It did not matter what it cost anyone else, as long as it did not cost her. I think that she spent time meticulously devising a plan to make sure that if she could not have what she wanted, then she would leave behind only havoc. Nothing would be left, if anyone wanted to pick up the physical and emotional pieces. She had already thrown her other children away. She did not want Zachary’s grandparents to have the opportunity to raise him.

My hope is that the laws in Canada can be changed soon, so that no one else will have to go through such agony. The production values of this film were very good. They gave the audience a progression of the events that surrounded the sights and sounds of the past, present and the future of a family. The family and friends may have never dreamed of such a diabolical person wrapped in flesh. Because he was naive, Andrew was not aware that his romance was emotional quicksand.

franc-i nicholson