No guarantees...

The Marine who was Tim's driver in Iraq lost his wife and his baby boy (she was 5months pregnant when she died) last week.  She was 21, he is 23, and is now the single father of a 7 month old son, who won't remember his mother.   He was driving when they hit the IED I wrote about previously.  I am sure when he came through that, he never imagined he would come home and lose his wife less than a year later.  It's all so very sad.  She was a beautiful, vibrant girl.  She and their infant son flew to CA to see him while he was attending recruiting school a couple of weeks ago.  Shortly after their arrival, she started feeling very ill.  He took her to the hospital, where they diagnosed pneumonia, and within a couple of days, they had put her into a medically-induced coma because she wasn't getting enough oxygen and it was a tremendous struggle to breathe.  Her unborn son died a day or two later, and she passed after a week or so in the coma.  We went to the wake last night, and the baby's ashes were in an urn in her casket.  Her husband said to my husband and me, that their 7 month old is having a hard time because she rocked him to sleep every night, and he misses her.  Her parents live locally, but his are in Georgia.  His life has completely changed.  It was good to see his Marine friends rallying around him for support, but in the end, the responsibility of making a life for himself and his son rests on him alone.  No 23 year old should have to go through this.  I don't think you can ever prepare for something like this, nor can most of us imagine being in his position.  I pray that he will continue to be able to count on family and friends, and that the raw pain and the shock that he is feeling right now will lessen with time.