An Inverness prayer group is one of many that have formed nationwide to help people cope while relatives serve in Iraq.
By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published June 12, 2004
INVERNESS - For his wife and mother's sake, Cabot McBride tried to stay emotionally strong when he learned his 23-year-old son, Josh, was being deployed to Iraq.
But in his mind, he saw two divergent pictures: one of Josh as a newborn in the hospital and another of him as a man in desert fatigues. McBride's voice cracked involuntarily at the thoughts.
"It was a really difficult time," McBride said.
The small group of people gathered around him Thursday night understood. They, too, had come to this intimate room to seek comfort and offer support for the military men and women serving in Iraq.
Thanks to the new group started by McBride and his wife, Judi, local families of those in the service now have such a place to turn to twice a month.
The prayer and support group is open to anyone who is interested. It meets at the First Baptist Church of Inverness from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month.
Judi McBride's ground rules are simple:
1. No talking politics.
2. Lots of sharing.
Thursday marked the third meeting of the still-growing group. Nine people with past and present ties to the military squeezed into a cozy room, sitting in a circle beneath a picture of Jesus and an American flag.
Among them was Ron Corriveau, who served in the Air Force and whose nephew, Marine Sgt. Jonathan Corriveau, might be headed to Iraq for another tour of duty. Lorraine Wilcox was there to pray for her grandson, Logan Wilcox, an active Marine who is disappointed he hasn't been called to fight yet.
Also there was Bo Samargya, a local prosecutor who spent two years in the Army and has watched as members of his former National Guard units have been sent overseas.
Together, they filled the hour with encouraging words, tears and prayers.
"We pray that you would be with them, care for them, (and) protect them, Lord," Corriveau said, his head bowed.
Similar support groups have popped up across the country since the outset of the war in Iraq, though just how many there are is hard to pin down.
That's because new groups constantly are forming, said Tracy Della Vecchia, founder of www.marineparents.com From her home in Columbia, Mo., she started the Web site to offer a base where families of deployed Marines could support, share and connect with one another.
She also participates in small support group meetings, an element that is critical for those in towns where the sentiment is increasingly antiwar, she said.
"It's really hard to see that all the time," she said. "It's our sons over there."
Della Vecchia said her groups steer away from politics, as do many. The focus, she said, should be on dealing with the stress military life brings and learning how to cope.
"There's just feelings and emotions that make a big difference when other people get it," she said.
Back in Inverness, group members sometimes have a hard time avoiding touchy political topics. The media present only the bad side of the war in Iraq, they complained. But from their sons, grandsons and nephews, they have heard stories of how soldiers have improved hospitals, schools and public infrastructure for the Iraqi people.
People shouldn't forget that the armed forces helped rid Iraq of the evil brought by Saddam Hussein and his sons, Cabot McBride said.
"They are gone," he said. "That is something we don't want to lose sight of."
"But, as I said, we're not a political group," teased Judi McBride.
She warned the others at the outset of the meeting that she often got emotional talking about her son, who is in the Army. He wants to be in Iraq, she said. He believes that the work is important, and she admires him for that.
Yet thinking about the daily dangers he faces - like the mortar that recently landed 50 yards from his tent but didn't explode - brings out the worrying mother in McBride.
"You know him as a child, a little boy, not as a grown man in armor with a gun," she said.
To cope, she will pray, read her new soldier's Bible and lean on the shoulders of the people who gather on Thursdays to honor their country's fighters.
- Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this story. Colleen Jenkins can be reached at 860-7303 or cjenkins@sptimes.com
