Deaths Of Wife, Son Take A Toll On N.O. Mortician
Submitted by N.O.V.A. July 2005
Times Picayune 	03-31-1998


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As a mortician, Archie Wiley is used to dealing with death.

But since February, when his son died of cancer and his wife died from burns suffered
in a fire, it has never been more difficult to face.

Not a day has passed without a haunting reminder of the early morning fire that broke
out in the Wileys' Louisiana Avenue home Feb. 15.

Wiley, 86, said he was abruptly awakened about 5:30 a.m. by his wife's frantic screams.

He jumped out of bed as his wife, Annette, headed toward him. They met at the door
connecting their bedrooms.

"She was engulfed in flames," he said. "All of her clothes were on fire.

"I put her on the floor and turned her face down to keep the blaze from getting to her
face. I grabbed a quilt and tried to wrap her up."

He burned his hands smothering her burning clothes and the rug they had set ablaze.

"I screamed, 'What happened?' but she never said anything," Wiley said.

Fire investigators believe she was trying to light the space heater in her bedroom.
Wiley says that makes sense, but he still entertains a doubt: "I'm still trying to
figure out how she did that. She's been lighting that heater for the last 20 years."

Wiley agonizes over the possibility his wife did not call him for help right away.

"I don't understand, unless she tried to fight it herself before she called me. If she
had called me at the beginning, maybe just her legs would have burned."

Annette Wiley, 84, was rushed to Charity Hospital and then transferred to the burn unit
at Baton Rouge General Hospital with burns over nearly 60 percent of her body.

She lingered for 11 days. Once when visiting her, he tried to reach her by calling her
by a nickname. "She used to call me 'Fatso' and I would call her 'Shrimp' " because she
was so small, Wiley said.

He told her to squeeze his hand if she heard him. She did. It was their last
communication. She died Feb. 26.

Married 33 years ago, they were an unlikely couple: a lifelong Baptist and a former
Catholic nun. They met at a wake.

Her sister had died, and Wiley had offered condolences to her and her family at the
service.

"She was a very nice, calm, easygoing person. We got along. No problems. That's why it
hurts so much," Wiley said.

A week before the fire, Wiley's son from his first marriage, Archie Wiley III, died of
cancer.

"He called me one night and said, 'Dad, I'm suffering from my back,' " Wiley said.

He urged his son to seek immediate medical help.

"Three days later, my daughter-in-law called crying." She said he had cancer. "That
next evening he was dead," Wiley said.

His experience in consoling hundreds of others as a mortician has helped him cope,
Wiley said. He worked for 31 years at Good Citizens Funeral Home, and now works part
time at Estelle J. Wilson Mortuary.

To combat loneliness and pass the time, he said he watches TV and reads the Bible.
Psalm 23 is a favorite.

Praying, he said, is what gets him through.

"I pray all the time. It helps give you strength, it gives you something to look
forward to. I couldn't make it without prayer."