Free Republic

*snip* Sometimes when Rhonda hugged Hero she would softly pet her face and coo, “Justin, are you in there?” It was Rhonda’s gentle way of remembering their son and his last living connection to Hero. At one point, Hero wandered off and took a stroll in the backyard. All of a sudden, the clouds broke and a light began to solidify in a beam directly down on Hero — a kind of vertical halo.

COCHRAN - The arduous journey home for Iraqi soldier Michael Newton finally ended Friday in the driveway of his parents' home. Newton, severely injured in a mortar attack May 7 in Iraq, stepped gingerly out of a car to the waiting arms of tearful family and friends. He spent the past three months at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, where for a time it appeared the homecoming may never happen. His own tears when he set foot in Cochran were not just about his happiness to be home, but his sadness over leaving what he called his second home and...