When U.S. Specialist Alex Jimenez was a little boy, he, like most kids, loved Christmas. Every year when his family put up their Christmas tree, Jimenez was always the first one to tell his mother that he wanted to decorate the tree.
Now, whenever Jimenez’s mother, Maria del Rosario Duran, sees a Christmas tree, she feels sad because it reminds her of Alex, who has been missing in action in Iraq since May of 2007.
“When I see a [Christmas] tree, I cry,” Duran said recently, while fighting back tears talking about her son.
This Christmas, Duran and her family will spend the holidays in their Corona home hoping for a Christmas miracle - the safe return of Jimenez.
“We pray all the time,” said Duran, who earlier this year formed a support group for families of military personnel serving overseas.
That group, which started with family and friends of Duran coming to her house to pray each night, has grown throughout the past year. Although the group started small, it is gaining notoriety as evidenced by five mothers of soldiers who died while serving overseas joining Duran at a recent youth cadet graduation in Jackson Heights.
While Duran still holds out some hope for her son’s safe return, some of the other families do not have that hope this year.
Raymond and Roselle Calero, the Queens Village parents of Major Jeffrey Calero who died on October 29 when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated in Afghanistan, will spend their first Christmas without their son.
“It’s going to be extremely difficult,” said Raymond Calero. “The holidays were a time we were always together.”
Roselle said she has many memories of Jeffrey during Christmas including, the Mongoose bike he received as a kid, his favorite dessert - homemade bread pudding - and going to Mass on Christmas morning before they opened presents.
Although the Caleros said they still plan to have their children and grandchildren to their house for Christmas Eve and go to their daughter Joyce’s house for Christmas Day, they both said this year’s festivities would be more somber.
Meanwhile, Maria Alcántara, whose son Corporal Juan Alcántara was killed in Iraq on August 6 after his tour was extended for three months, said her son always looked forward to spending Christmas and New Year’s with his friends and two sisters.
“He liked sharing moments with his friends, and also eating traditional Dominican food, like rice and beans, chicken with potatoes or ribs,” said Maria Alcántara, who lives in Washington Heights, but has become close with Duran, Calero and other Queens mothers who have lost sons fighting overseas.
This Christmas would also have been the first one that Juan Alcántara would have spent with his daughter Jaylani Marie, who was born on June 29 of this year. Alcántara had asked to return home to be with his fiancé:, Sayanora Lopez, for the birth of their daughter in June, but his request was denied, and he never saw his daughter.
“Since my son passed away, everything changed for me,” Maria Alcántara said. “After he left for Iraq, I wrote often to him. In fact, I have the last letter I wrote, which I plan to tear apart soon, because he never got a chance to read it. Every time I read that letter, I end up crying.”
Although many families of Queens’ military personnel will have difficult holiday seasons, some are on the other end of the spectrum.
Mildred Lanham, the mother of Jamaica Corporal Samuel Williams Jr., got an early Christmas gift when her 29-year-old son recently returned to New York after completing his third tour of duty in Iraq.
“It’s such a blessing to have him home for the holidays,” Lanham said. “You feel more at ease and finally at peace that he is okay and that nothing bad will happen to him.”
Before Williams returned to the United States, he sent an e-mail from Iraq saying that he was looking forward to coming back to Queens and seeing his family and friends.
“I plan to see my family and stop by as many homes of my family and friends as I can to say thank you, face-to-face, for all the love and understanding they have given me over the years and while I was deployed,” Williams wrote.
- With Monica Bastidas
