A Posthumous Christmas

It is especially at the holidays that the casualties of war, all wars, lean so heavily on our hearts. After my father died in Korea, I don’t think we ever had a genuinely happy Christmas again. Sure the tree was decorated, the gifts tumbled in heaps under it, cookies baked in the oven, the hustle and bustle of shopping and visiting, Christmas carols played on the old Victrola. But there was always that empty spot never to be filled again.

Days after bomb-squad sergeant died in husband’s arms in Iraq, her gifts to family arrive
CARLISLE, Pa., Dec. 20 — In the days since Staff Sgt. Kimberly A. Voelz died in the arms of her soldier husband in Iraq, mementoes from her life have been arriving almost daily at her parent’s home. First, an e-mail she wrote a day before she died reached her parents’ inbox. Then her green military uniform arrived, bearing the ribbons of the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with Valor medals. On Friday, her Christmas present to her brother and sister-in-law came in the mail. The set of six inscribed holiday ornaments bear comforting messages that now seem almost eerie: ”Throughout the storm you do not walk alone”……