Happy Memorial Day.
Marcia Bonifas gives children of soldiers killed in action something to hold on to.
Who can imagine the pain and fear families go through when they hear that their loved one has been killed in action?
Only someone who has been through it.
Marcia Bonifas of Ocean View was a mother of three young children — 3, 6 and 8 — when her husband was killed at the end of a tour in Korea in 1976….
….“The outpouring has been incredible,” Bonifas said. One woman alone has made 70 bears; a third-grade class contributed, too.
“One child from the class who made a bear attached a note that said, ‘Please use this bear to wipe away your tears,’ ” Bonifas said.
And with her work at the Center for the Families of the Fallen, Bonifas could see firsthand that the bears brought some comfort to people in their time of sorrow.
“It’s amazing how many different types of grieving there are. Some are outgoing, others need to be left alone.”
But often, especially when it comes to children, Bonifas said: “They just need something to hold on to.”
