I’ve often heard it said that the most difficult thing a parent can do is bury a child.
A new federal law, signed last week by President Barack Obama, might ease that pain just a bit for parents forced to bury children who grew to be members of the U.S. military.
The law now allows parents to be interred next to military offspring in national cemeteries. It comes with a few provisos, however.
First, the military man or woman must have been killed by hostile fire or in a training accident. Second, the deceased military person must be unmarried and childless.
It’s all part of H.R. 3219, Sec. 502, Section 2402 as amended, also called the “Corey Shea Act.”
As one mother of a deceased military man buried at DFW National Cemetery said in an e-mail message, “I just want to cry. Before this I had thought of being cremated and spread over my son's grave, secretly because it's federal property. But now, I can actually be with him.”
A moment of silence, please.
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Bruce Felps owns and operates East Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. He respects and thanks all members of the U.S. Armed Forces.
