Ritters have performed valuable service

Since 1993, Dr. C. John Ritter and his wife, Marcia Southard-Ritter, have given up their comfortable lives in Cape Girardeau to carry out medical missions in which they have helped the sick in Third World countries.

Ritter, 64, says they carried out the work because it needed to be done, and it has given a different meaning to his life.

Ritter no longer can provide those services. Treating the sick in the countries he and his wife have visited has left him too ill from malaria to undertake further missions abroad. After two bouts with malaria contracted in Africa, his liver has deteriorated so much that he may need a transplant.

It is a sad note that Ritter's dedication to helping others in countries that have little or no medical care has left him ill.

In Liberia, he said, he visited a leper colony at which the lepers were just "happy that someone would come in and touch them." He said, "We have given our hearts to the people of that country" and would be back in Liberia now if they could.

You can be sure that he and his wife feel the same way about every country in which they have helped those so badly in need of medical services.