rita had been a nurse and believed, while pregnant with tommy, her exposures to x-rays caused the illness that proved fatal. >> she could never move on from that pain. she was always suffering. she would go through weeks of couldn't get up, just a malaise. everything to dispel the depression that clouded her life. in 1966, she spent a year in a psychiatric hospital, underwent electroshock therapy and, later, even resorted to brain surgery, doctors performing an operation similar to a lobotomy. as a result, she lost some memory and had to relearn certain things. according to her family, her dark moods receded and there were many happy times. >> i can remember her coming to our little league baseball games and things like that, sitting in a chair and watching. probably had no idea what was going on in the game, just smiled and watched her kids play. one of the reasons we were so surprised she up and left us all of a sudden. it made no sense to us. >> as the only girl and youngest in the family, emily always wanted to know more about her mother, especially when she became a mother herself. >