Don't worry, I understand about that.
There are sometimes some tricks around it,like the neat trick I learned off someone awhile back.
Copy the reply to shortcut from a nearby post and swap the numbers out to those of the deleted post.
Like this:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1460787/reply?c=991
My post, close to Tx-indy..
Swap numbers, and you get this:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1460787/reply?c=990
Post is deleted but still viewable through the reply to link.
Caveat being that if the post is totally nuked from the system, it won't show even there and (Unknown) shows up in the reply to field.