monique

Prayer Shawls

I finished Penny's prayer shawl and left it for her at the
church. She's getting married on Saturday and on Tuesday
she's having cancer surgery.

Aimee talked to Kyle and he confirmed that he had been
hearing rumors that he may be deployed to Iraq in September.
Aimee says she just doesn't want to think about it. She
knows they'll need more security people in Iraq and that's
what Kyle's trained for but she said she doesn't understand
why they would send the most inexperienced ones there. She
paused then said, Oh. Yes I do. I forgot. It's the
military. This has rattled her. We began talking about
Reagan and she said she didn't like him because of how he'd
handled Vietnam. Aimee, I told her, that was Nixon, not
Reagan. She was silent a moment. Oh, yeah, she said.
Never mind. But anyway, she went on, I still don't like
Reagan; that Watergate scandal was terrible. Aimee, I said
again, that was Nixon too. Oh, she said, that's right; I
don't know what's wrong with me today. I do. She's worried
about her son.

Then I got a call from Reta, another friend whose sons have
known my sons since they were preschoolers. Danny's in the
Army, stationed in Korea. Like Kyle, he's trained in
security work. She's heard they're going to reduce the force
there by a third and she's worried sick he'll end up in Iraq.

I ran into Glenda, another friend I've known for more than
20 years, at the local grocery store the other day. Her
oldest son is Special Forces. She doesn't know where he is,
exactly. The last time she spoke with him he jokingly said
if he told her, he'd have to kill her. She didn't laugh.
She's scared half to death.

Then there's Kolette whose son Andy is in Baghdad. She
heard on the late news last Friday that three Oregon
soldiers had died in Baghdad. Then the news filtered out
that it was his unit. They didn't release the names until
the next morning. She and her husband didn't sleep that
night.

I think I need to knit more prayer shawls.