Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

Aleteia January 1, 2016
Theresa Bonopartis

On the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, we remember those soldiers who died serving our country and the mothers they left behind

I don’t know why, but last night as I was searching through channels to watch something on TV and came across HBO’s documentary Baghdad ER. I had seen the show before; in fact, it is very personal to me. I felt drawn to watch it again, perhaps because I had been preparing a talk on Mary and her suffering as the Mother of God, who also lost her son.

You see, my son Michael was a recon Marine who served in Fallujah, Iraq. Needless to say it was a trying time, one full of fear that stretched the boundaries of faith.

During that time I belonged to a group called Semper Fi Parents of the Hudson Valley, founded by Paula Zwillinger, another Marine mom. It was a great support for those of us who had sons serving during the war in Iraq. I will forever be grateful to the friends I made during that time in which we shared our hearts with one another, as it seemed the rest of the world lived on.

I wish I could say the tragedy of war did not touch any of us personally, but it touched us very closely, and even continues to do so through those who came home injured or suffering from posttraumatic stress. In the past two years, two of my son’s friends committed suicide because they were unable to readjust.

A few moms I became friends with experienced the ultimate sacrifice. One of them was Paula’s son Bob Mininger. Bob died as a result of an IED while serving in Fallujah.

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