Home at heart:

BLUEFIELD — The Lawrence family of Bluefield will have Thanksgiving dinner later than most families in the area.

“We usually eat supper at around 8 or 9 p.m., every day,” Cliff Lawrence said. When meal time comes, Cliff’s wife, Donnita, and their son’s fiancé, Krystal Cook, will light a deployment candle for Spec. Nicholas Lawrence, a mechanic serving with the Bluefield-based 1/150th Armored Reconnaissance Squadron, attached to the 230th West Virginia Army National Guard. Thursday evening will be early Friday morning for Spec. Lawrence. The time in Baghdad is eight hours ahead of time in the eastern U.S.

“We light the deployment candle at every meal since Nick was deployed,” Donnita Lawrence said. “We don’t sit down to any meal without thinking about Nicholas.”

The Lawrence family and Ms. Cook filled a jar with 437 polished glass decorative stones — one stone for each day Spec. Lawrence was to be activated as part of his present deployment to Iraq. Each day, Donnita and Cook remove one polished glass stone from the jar and place it in another jar that is identical in every way, except for the yellow ribbon tied around the lid.

“The number of stones remaining in the first jar is going down, while the other jar is filling fast,” Donnita Lawrence said. “We started it when the deployment was supposed to run until Feb. 15, 2010, but according to the command message we received from Col. (Robbie) Scarberry, they will be coming home in early, early, early January. We’re getting excited.”

“Our big family dinner is on Christmas Eve,” Cliff Lawrence said. “The most we ever had here in this dining room for one family dinner was 55 people. This year, we’re going to leave our Christmas tree, all the decorations up and have another Christmas Eve dinner on the day Nick returns home.”

“We’ll celebrate Nick’s birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve that day,” Donnita Lawrence said. Spec. Lawrence celebrated his 25th birthday (Nov. 9) on the job. “When they arrived, 80 percent of the vehicles were down,” Cliff Lawrence said. “The guys of the 230th have them all running again. They’ve been working hard every day — doing their jobs. Nick’s able to call us from over there, but they have all been working real hard since they’ve been there.”

Cliff Lawrence understands the meaning of working hard in the military. He served in the U.S. Army nine years, and while he served during the Vietnam War, he wasn’t in a combat zone. “My brother served three tours in ‘Nam, and back then, they had a sole survivor rule that if you were the last surviving male in the family, they wouldn’t send you into combat at the same time,” he said.

Spec. Lawrence got a “Magic Jack” for his phone before he left, and can stay in contact with his family through that equipment. However, with the time difference, he was concerned about talking on the telephone when his fellow soldiers were sleeping.

“We got him about 100-feet of cable so he can go outside and call us,” Cliff Lawrence said.

“He’s so busy that we only hear from him about every two weeks,” Donnita Lawrence said.

“We communicate through e-mails,” Krysta Lawrence, Spec. Lawrence’s sister said. “We send him cards and letters all the time. When we talk on the phone, we’ll talk for two to three hours at a time.”

Prior to the 150th/230th’s call to active status, Krysta Lawrence organized a “Prayer Bear” campaign at Bluefield’s Trinity United Methodist Church. The church is located in the Lawrence family’s neighborhood, and the family are members of Trinity. Cook is the church secretary.

Members of the church congregation made each of the hand-sewn Prayer Bears, all in khaki camouflage uniforms, with hand-knitted camo-shaws, to give to the 218 soldiers of the 150th Recon Squad that had been activated. Cliff Lawrence said another church member gave a Prayer Bear to her nephew who is also serving in Iraq, but not in the 150th/230th. “He kept it in his truck,” Cliff Lawrence said. “A female soldier riding with him said she liked it, and he gave the Prayer Bear to her. We’ve been trying to connect with the other church member to give her another Prayer Bear that she can send to her nephew.”

Krysta Lawrence was elected president of the 150th’s Family Readiness Group, a group in charge of organizing the homecoming celebration for the soldiers. She’ll have plenty of help at home with the planning since Krystal Cook is serving as vice president and Cliff Lawrence is secretary/treasurer of the FRG.

“We’re planning a Christmas party for the children of the soldiers at 2 p.m., on Dec. 5, at the National Guard Armory in Brushfork,” Krysta Lawrence said. “Sherry Scarberry, the wife of Col. Scarberry, is helping us with the party and will be helping with a workshop about how to send Christmas care packages to the soldiers.”

The family doesn’t know when they can expect the call that Spec. Lawrence is back home. “I told Krystal that it’s like having a baby. You have to be ready to go in the middle of the night when the call comes,” Donnita Lawrence said.

“It seems like every time the Army does anything, it’s always in the middle of the night,” Cliff Lawrence said.

– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

Local News

Search Results

Related Photos

Discussion

Site Map

Contact Us