Sharing grief, honoring sacrifice
Ceremony pays tribute to those killed in war – and those who mourn their loss
It was a simple ceremony, yet it meant so much.
At the start of a luncheon Thursday – part of the Governor’s Industrial Safety and Health Conference – a woman came to the podium and stood behind a chair and small table set with a single place setting.
Without speaking, she looked out at the crowd of about 500, leaned the chair against the table and placed a flower on the setting. Then she left the podium.
The woman was Kim Cole, whose son, Marine Cpl. Darrel J. Morris, was killed in al Anbar province, Iraq, in January 2007. His vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb.
The ceremony, commemorating fallen troops “who can no longer eat with us,” has been part of the annual conference each year since the Iraq war began in 2003, said Ray Clouatre, master of ceremonies. The conference is dedicated to preventing injury, illness and fatality in the workplace.
“But there are workers we have no effect over – men and women who are at work far away from home,” Clouatre said.
Attendees are used to seeing a uniformed member of the armed forces perform the ceremony, but this year the board took the opportunity to honor Cole, who attended the luncheon at the Spokane Convention Center with her husband, Mik.
She is the unofficial leader of a group of about a dozen area mothers bound by the sorrow of losing a child in Iraq or Afghanistan. The group is seeking to renew the charter of Gold Star Mothers in Spokane, which was dissolved several years ago.
Sharing their grief is difficult for some mothers, Cole said. “Some are not ready to deal with it even after many years.”
The Spokane Gold Star Mothers meet occasionally and are engaged in raising money to create a banner for each of the estimated 130 soldiers from Washington who have died in the current conflicts. About half of the banners have been completed and will be displayed at the Time of Remembrance event this weekend in Richland, said Cole, who has a daughter, Staff Sgt. Courtney Copeland, in the U.S. Air Force.
On Thursday, Brooke Thomsen, president of the Governor’s Industrial Safety and Health Advisory Board, presented the Coles with a quilt she made using the design requirements for Gold Star presentations.
The quilt incorporated two blue stars, one for each of the Coles’ children who entered the armed services. A gold star in the middle of one of the blue stars signifies the death of Morris. The quilt’s border is red.
Cole, who wears her son’s military dog tags around her neck, said “it is very tough” going to ceremonies like the one on Thursday, but at the same time it fills her with pride for the sacrifice her son was willing to make for his country.