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Sunday, December 21, 2003
Celebrating holidays from afar
By MELANIE STAWICKI AZAM | News-Journal Staff Writer
NEW SMYRNA BEACH — It may feel like Christmas in April when Edgewater firefighter Shellie Lewis returns from the Middle East.
“Our (Christmas) tree will remain up until she comes home,” said her mother, Sue Burry of Edgewater.
Her daughter won’t be here for the upcoming holidays and, even if she were able to come home, it would have been hard to say goodbye again in a few days.
“We’ll miss her a great deal. She’s just a neat kid,” Burry said. Many families in Volusia County will be going through similar situations this holiday season, with loved ones away at war or serving in the military. For many, though, sending a Christmas package of traditions — like a stocking, tree ornament or baked goodies — is a way to share a piece of home with their loved ones during the separation.
Lewis left in January after her National Guard unit was called to active duty.
She has been stationed with the 161st Army Support Medical Battalion at Camp Virginia in Kuwait since April.
“We can’t call her but she calls us every now and then,” Burry said.
She said the family regularly sends packages to Lewis.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s Christmas or not,” she said.
Lewis recently e-mailed her family a picture of herself posing with a tree in Kuwait, which a firefighter from Kennedy Space Center sent to her.
It was decorated with all kinds of touristy Florida ornaments that the firefighter’s children collected and sent over.
“People are just so great,” Burry said.
Burry was sent an ornament from Kuwait, with writing in English and Arabic, from Shellie’s captain. And Burry’s husband received a cookbook, also in both languages, from an X-ray technician working with his daughter.
“Shellie just makes families everywhere she goes,” Burry said.
Catherine Couture, Samsula, said this will be the first Christmas without her only child, Matthew Bochiardy. The 20-year-old Army private has been stationed in Iraq since August and isn’t expected home until March.
Couture is holding steadfastly to family traditions, like sending him a stocking.
“I’ve been doing a stocking for him since he’s been 2 years old,” she said. “Every year, I buy him a Lego toy. That’s our tradition and he always looks for a Lego toy, no matter how old he is.”
Lots of relatives have sent him goodies with plenty to share with the other guys in his unit, she said.
“It’s very hard,” Couture said. “We all miss him so much.”
She said the family just prays for his safe return and looks forward to him being home next year.
FAMILY TIES
Many area soldiers have young children who especially miss them around the holidays and struggle to understand why their parents can’t be home with them.
John Cory said his son, Sgt. Brad Cory, 27, got out of the Army and went into the Reserves to spend more time with his son, who is in kindergarten but the Edgewater man was sent to Iraq recently with the 124th Infantry of the Florida National Guard.
“He was in Alaska and we didn’t see him for a couple of years,” John Cory said, “but we could always pick up the phone and call him. We can’t do that now.”
So, John said he and his wife, Cindy, are sending Brad packages of CDs, DVDs, candy and cookies while he’s away.
Cindy Cory said she racked her brain, trying to find a way to send her son his favorite holiday dish — pecan pie.
“That’s his all-time favorite,” she said. “His grandma always makes him one.”
She finally settled on shipping him a bunch of the tiny, individually wrapped ones.
And this year, they decorated their Christmas tree differently in honor of their son, all red, white and blue.
It’s hard on the family, including his young son, having him gone, she said. Cindy Cory explains Brad’s absence to her grandson by telling him his dad is at work.
Karen Moore, of New Smyrna Beach, said the absence of her husband, Zeke, this year has been hard on their daughter, Cece, 11. He left in September and isn’t expected home for several months.
But, she said, “According to my daughter, he needs to be here tomorrow.”
The 42-year-old Army Reservist was deployed to Qatar.
In addition to field artillery, the 24-year veteran also has special training in chemical and biological warfare as well as transportation. Before entering the Army Reserve, he spent 4 1/2 years in the Army.
“She’s missing him real bad,” Karen Moore said of her daughter. “They usually hang out together a lot.”
She recently received an emailed picture of her husband and Cece wanted a print out of it, she said.
“She took it to school with her,” Karen Moore said. Fortunately, she can reach her husband by e-mail and the family already has sent him cards and packages of goodies.
A campus adviser and coach at New Smyrna Beach High School, Zeke Moore also has received holiday treats collected by students and faculty. And his wife said he misses being there.
“He does miss being home and he does miss being at the school,” Karen Moore said.
Vida Jones of Oak Hill said it’s hard for her son, Brett, to be away from his daughter, Cheyenne, who is 18 months old, this Christmas.
“He was in Afghanistan when she was born, he missed her 1st birthday (when he was) in Iraq and now he’s missing Christmas,” she said. “That’s the hardest thing for him.”
Sgt. Brett Jones, 25, is a mortar man with the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell, Ky., and fought in Afghanistan. Now he is in Iraq, along with his cousin, Sgt. Matt Sowash, a member of the Florida National Guard’s 124th Infantry unit.
“He and Brett are so close,” Vida Jones said.
The two men are in different parts of Iraq but it helps that her brother and sister-in-law, who also live in Oak Hill, understand.
“We share the comfort and we share the worry and it does help to have family that is going through the same thing,” she said.
Brett’s wife, Jill Jones, said she deals with the distance by e-mailing her husband lots of pictures. She talks to him whenever he gets a chance to call, but she is unable to call him.
Vida Jones said the family will be waiting for Brett’s phone call Christmas Day, but he has already warned her that he may not be able to reach her.
“They do have a long line for the phone,” she said.
Jill Jones said since her daughter is so small, she won’t mind getting her gifts later and celebrating when her father returns home, possibly in January. She plans to keep the tree and the lights up until then.
“I’m going to be waiting until he gets here to have the real Christmas,” she said.