BY KAREN E. BOWES
Staff Writer
KEYPORT – A 21-year-old homegrown Marine has been put up for “adoption” by his mother.
While he’s stationed in Iraq, James Finney, a 2003 graduate of Keyport High School, will have several moms to answer to, i.e., the nurses at Raritan Bay Medical Center, Old Bridge, who have adopted him.
The soldier’s real mother, Mary Ann Finney, is a nurse manager at the hospital. She was inspired to put her son up for “adoption” after the success of a similar venture organized by fellow nurse Kim Bell, of Old Bridge. Through Bell’s efforts, the nurses at Raritan Bay sent packages and letters to Jorrel Persaud, an Army infantry specialist.
To their surprise, the soldier decided to thank the nurses in person while visiting the area in April. Now stationed in Texas, he was in New Jersey to visit his wife’s relatives who happen to reside in the Garden State.
Finney described Persaud as “a very nice young man, very talkative and very appreciative. He explained that it was for people like us that he’s over there fighting.”
Now the nurse staff is concentrating on their newly adopted Marine. His tour of duty is in Iraq this March and is due home sometime in September or October, according to his mother. After a short stay, he will return to Iraq for a second tour.
Finney said she talked to her son recently on the phone and that he is doing well and adjusting to “a much different lifestyle.” But because of the area’s archaic sewer system, the smell is one thing Finney is having trouble adjusting to.
“The smell and the heat, he told me it’s already 100 or 110 degrees. The smell is terrible,” his mother said.
The soldier’s first package included DVDs, powdered drink mixes, beef jerky, candy and several pairs of white socks.
“Apparently, they don’t shower too often so they dispose of what they can’t wash,” Finney said.
Finney said her son cannot tell her exactly where he is stationed.
“But from the description, it sounds like he’s on the western border,” she said.
Like any mother, she worries but remains proud of her son.
“He always wanted to do it and I talked him out of it twice,” she said “He told me, I can’t not do it because you don’t want me to do it.”