CASEY'S GIFT (Cindy Returns to Cuba) by Cindy Sheehan

CINDY SHEEHAN WITH CASEY'S GIFT IN HOLGUIN, CUBA When my son Casey was a newly formed solider, fresh out of boot camp, he was stationed at Ft. Hood, Texas. The first time he came home to visit, he gifted me with a golden necklace which looked like a shamrock and had a small diamond in the center. On the back it said, "For Mom, With Love." I loved it immediately and loved the gesture, but I said, "Casey, you can't afford to spend this much money on me," and I sent it back to the jewelry store in Killeen, Tx and told them to return his money. Casey came home that Christmas and re-gave me that necklace and said, "Mom, you have to take it, it's paid for now." After that dear, dear boy was killed in Iraq on April 04, 2004, and I became a noted antiwar activist, I wore the piece all over the world, and found myself fingering it for comfort more than once. In fact, once during a protest in Washington, DC, my sister was holding it for me