Plagued by the memories

In Tennessee on Monday, Sherry Sims drowned her 4-year-old daughter. Sims' mother said to reporters: "My daughter is a good mother. She takes real good care of her children. She loves her children. I know if she was still taking her medicine [for schizophrenia], nothing like this would've ever happened."

A news story from New York this week reports that Christine Wilhelm, like Andrea Yates, is "plagued by the memories." Wilhelm also drowned her 4-year-old child, and attempted to drown his brother. She is sentenced to spend the rest of her life in prison.

Will Sims and Wilhelm have more of a chance to get treatment instead of punishment considering the recent Andrea Yates verdict? Possibly. But their children suffered the same fate. And their mothers, once brought back to reality, must live with something unfathomable.