Posted on 05/26/2005 6:36:15 AM PDT by Barney Gumble
When her brother, Aaron, was serving in Iraq, 20-year-old Rachel Seesan used to laugh with him about the castles he built there.
“When I last talked to him on the phone, he was joking to me about how he used his hard-earned engineering skills just to build sandcastles in the sand,” she said. “That’s just something we joked about.”
She was not alone in her fond memories of Army 1st Lt. Aaron N. Seesan, who died Sunday from injuries he received while fighting in Iraq. He died of burns he received Saturday after a roadside bomb exploded and set fire to the vehicle he was in.
Aaron’s father and mother, Tom and Chiquita Seesan, and his 11-year-old sister, Rebekah, also shared stories about him Wednesday.
Tom is superintendent of the Stark County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities and held a similar position in Tuscarawas County for eight years.
When his father worked as a principal in the area, Aaron enjoyed visiting him and hiking on the “mountain” behind the Starlight School where he worked, Tom said. The two of them used to peer over that mountain to the valley overlooking New Philadelphia and Dover.
Tom and Chiquita laughed as they retold how their son had an oral fixation when he was younger. The marks his teeth put into the family’s dining room chairs are still there, and earned him the nickname “Goat.”
Aaron left for Iraq in the beginning of February. He volunteered to go in the place of a man who had a family.
“I think our son was very service-oriented,” he said. “He just really believed in serving the community.”
According to his younger sisters, Aaron was also mischievous. Rebekah told of secret missions to their older brother Michael’s house, where Aaron and she would chalk monkeys on his driveway.
Service arrangements are being arranged through Heitger Funeral Service at Massillon. Calling hours are scheduled Monday from 4 to 8 in St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on 3rd St., Massillon. The funeral will be held Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the same church.
Monday is Memorial Day, a fitting time to remember Aaron, Tom said.
About 1,000 people may attend the services, said Pat Fehlman, director of public information and community education at Stark MRDD. Arrangements are being made to allow for live video feed from the church to a school across the street. Doing so will allow more people to view the services.
Many also have expressed a desire to donate money to a scholarship fund established Tuesday in Aaron’s name.
Fehlman said she has received about 150 phone calls and 30 visits from individuals interested in offering their condolences and donating to the Aaron Seesan Memorial Scholarship Fund.
The Wal-Mart store in Massillon recently made the decision to provide paper products and other items for Aaron’s memorial services and to also donate $1,000 per year to the scholarship fund. Doing so is a way for Wal-Mart to give back to the community, said Lori Wiggins, the company community coordinator.
“He was a hometown boy,” she said, noting that Aaron graduated from Massillon High. “The fact that a soldier that close to us lost his life, I can’t think of a more worthy cause to give some of our foundation money to.”
Others may make contributions to the fund in care of the Stark Community Foundation at Unizan Plaza, Suite 920, 220 Market Ave. S, Canton, 44702.
Tom Seesan said the community’s support is overwhelming, and the fund is an appropriate memorial to Aaron, who excelled academically and always took the toughest classes in school.
“Now that we look back, hindsight is always everything,” he said. “You never really realize everything about someone until they’re gone. He really lived a diverse life. In college, he traveled the world. He just shoved a lot of life and living into 24 short years.”
What a fine fine young man. Tears for his courage, and prayers for his family.
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