I would like to express my appreciation to the Freehold Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4374 for enabling me to finally mail the big hug that I’ve needed to give our 6,000 families who lost loved ones in the attack on the United States on Sept. 11.
Our veterans are working to comfort and console these devastated families by allowing all of us who wept with them for days to finally express our unity, love and compassion to them directly.
It is a small gesture of a great love for those who have been so cataclysmically harmed, but it is a gesture that will endure. Children can read these letters years from now and know they are greatly loved. Parents will know we pray with them daily. A spouse alone in the night will not be alone.
I believe these vets are not only helping the victims’ families, but all of us who continue to feel their pain so intensely. I still can’t eat, sleep or watch sitcoms, but it is only since I’ve written my letter that I am able to really laugh with my children again.
Cards and letters of support, compassion and love for the families are being accepted at Caring Enough to Make a Difference, c/o VFW Post 4374, P.O. Box 484, Freehold 07728 (no money will be accepted at this address). Cards will be screened and forwarded to the comfort center.
The motto of the New Jersey State VFW is "Caring Enough to Make a Difference." In this moment of crisis and darkness across our great land, our local veterans again serve our country and, indeed, make a difference in this, our generation’s most difficult time. I commend them for having the strength of character and dignity to carry our sorrow, love and prayers to these, our families.
Jane F. Gavaghen
Freehold