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April 3, 2003
Maria Molina’s son advances with troops
By LYDA LONGA | News-Journal Staff Writer
DELTONA — When Maria Molina moved here from New York City six years ago, she insisted on planting an oak tree in her front yard. She thought her only son would need it some day.
Sending a prayer |
On Wednesday, the young tree stood firm in front of Molina's home, a bright yellow ribbon tied around its trunk.
The symbol will be removed when 24-year-old Obet Couret, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, returns from the war in Iraq, now in its 14th day.
"I always knew he would be a soldier," Molina said Wednesday as she perused photographs of her son in uniform. "The first thing I wanted to do when we moved here was plant an oak tree because I knew my son would be going to war someday."
Today, Molina knows her son is close to the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, where the fiercest fighting yet is expected. She received an e-mail from him Tuesday night and he informed her that his unit, from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, had been moved.
He could not tell her where, but she suspected, after watching the news, that he might be headed into the thick of battle.
"He said he never wanted to be home more than now," Molina said with a nervous laugh. "But he is in God's hands."
Molina says her faith sustains her, but she is concerned for her 17-year-old daughter Erica, who will not talk about the war or her older brother.
"She will not even watch TV," says Molina, 42, a registered nurse who is disabled. "She and her brother are very close. He was like a father to her when they were little."
Molina, meanwhile, refuses to count how many days the war has been raging. She recently sent her son a care package that included Baby Wipes and his favorite cereal, Honey Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
"I haven't cried in 10 days," she said, her dark brown eyes drifting to the display of her son's photographs on the coffee table.
That changes suddenly as she describes her feelings when she wakes up in the morning. The tears come quickly. She covers her face and rocks back and forth gently on a sofa with a flowery print.
"I look up at the sky every day and I say 'My son, you are under the same sky as me.' "