SEQUIM ––With a little help from her community, Army National Guard veteran and war widow Faye Quinn now has a safer place for her 6-year-old son to play.
“It’s really something,” Quinn said. “I know this is something I couldn’t have done myself.
“This might have gotten done, but it would have gotten done five years from now.”
Volunteers from American Legion Post 62, Home Depot and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints banded together Friday to fix up Quinn’s house at 403 W. Alder St.
They posted new fencing around the yard, which they re-seeded in new soil; fixed up raised flower beds; and created a stone pathway.
“It’s something we like to do to make sure our veterans and their families get the support they need,” said Carl Bradshaw of the American Legion.
Husband killed abroad
Quinn moved to Sequim with her son, Ronan, after her husband, Adam, was killed when a car bomb blew up near his transport vehicle near Kabul, Afghanistan, on Oct. 6, 2007.
Adam, 22, was serving as a paratrooper and computer systems specialist with the rank of sergeant in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.
“His vehicle got hit first,” Quinn said. “So he got the brunt of it.”
Quinn was enlisted in the Army National Guard at the time.
She was scheduled to deploy to the war zone when Adam returned, though he was determined not to let that happen.
“He was like, ‘No, you’re not deploying. I’m going to get you pregnant so you can’t go,’” she said.
While Adam was home on two weeks’ leave, the couple spent time trying to make that happen.
“And here’s Ronan,” she said.
Faye Quinn was 17 weeks pregnant when her husband was killed.
Looking for a new future after her son was born, Quinn spoke with a friend who was stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord at Tacoma who suggested the Pacific Northwest.
“He said, ‘Faye, I think you would love it here,’” she said. “And I do. I just love it here. It feels like home.”
Maybe a little more so now.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
