Please send encouragement to this sister in arms

So, I was in Beaufort, SC, this past weekend interviewing a young female Marine for my next book, When the Girls Come Marching Home. I want to tell you a little bit about her in the hopes that you will shoot off an e-mail to her with a word or two of encouragement. She's a good person who has had it rough. She has a beautiful smile and can light up a room with it. Amidst great sorrow, I saw that smile this past weekend. Incredible!

Stacy is a young black woman from Detroit. She joined the Army reserves. Served two one-year, back-to-back tours in Iraq. In other words, she was in Iraq for two years straight. She lost a couple of buddies over there. By the middle of her second tour, she didn't have much left to give. She came back to the States, got out of the Army, and spiraled into drugs and alcohol. When she hit bottom, she joined the Marine Corps to save her life. So far so good.

This past weekend, the night before I met her, her Marine boyfriend was at a party. Another male Marine, thinking his gun was empty, put it to Stacy's boyfriend's head and shot him. When I met Stacy, she had just come from the hospital. They had taken her boyfriend off life support. He died soon after.

You can reach Stacy at ---
litediamond21@yahoo.com

Please reach out to her. She needs your thoughts, prayers, and kind words.
She has a light within her. Help her keep it lit in these tough times!!

thank you!
kirsten