Sunday, November 22, 2009

Mom aims to transform her grief with wreaths


"By SHAWNE K. WICKHAM
New Hampshire Sunday News Staff


MANCHESTER – As a military funeral coordinator, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class James Dixon's mission was to honor those who serve and comfort those who grieve.
Now Dixon's mother wants to honor her son in similar fashion.
Anne Chouinard of Manchester is hoping to raise enough money to place at least 650 Christmas wreaths on graves at the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen. That's where Dixon conducted military honors at funerals.
It's also his final resting place. Dixon was killed in a car crash on May 9...
She was inspired after seeing a 2007 photo of wreath-covered graves at the
cemetery on the Web site of the Blue Star Mothers of New Hampshire


...On Saturday, Dec. 5, volunteers from the Blue Star Mothers of New Hampshire and from veterans' groups will place the wreaths on as many graves as possible.
Chouinard especially wants to decorate Section 4 of the cemetery, where so many service members who died in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried, including her son's classmate, Michael Ouellette. James Dixon is buried beside Ouellette.
But she wants to decorate other veterans' graves too -- "the ones that have no families and there's no one to remember them.""

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