WASHINGTON Denise Anderson lost her only son in the Iraq war. She's determined not to lose her fight to be buried with him in a national veterans cemetery.
Army Spc. Corey Shea died Nov. 12, 2008, in Mosul, with one about a month left on his tour of duty in Iraq. He was buried at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, about 50 miles from his hometown of Mansfield, Mass.
A grieving Anderson, 42, soon hit an obstacle in her quest to be buried in the same plot with her son. That chance is offered only to the spouses or children of dead veterans; Corey Shea was 21, single and childless.
The Veterans Affairs Department grants waivers and has approved four similar requests from dead soldiers' parents since 2005.
Anderson also sought a waiver. But under the VA's policy, she has to die first to get one, a limbo that Anderson finds tough to live with.
"It was the most devastating blow that I could ever get," Anderson said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I just miss him so much. Just being with him will give me some sort of peace."
"Every day I wake up and I look at his pictures and I cry," she said. "It doesn't get any easier. Maybe down the road I will be able to deal with it a little bit better, but right now it's not easy."
VA spokeswoman Laurie Tranter said Anderson's waiver request was not granted because it was made "in advance of her time of need, which is VA's policy for all such waiver requests." Tranter noted, however, that just in case, Corey Shea's remains "were placed at a sufficient depth to accommodate her future burial."
Anderson doesn't understand why her request can't be granted now. She is challenging the VA's burial policy with support from her congressman, Rep. Barney Frank, and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.
link
Threaded Mode
