SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Saralee Trimble is up before dawn in a chilled, cramped hotel room at Fort Sam Houston, her son curled up in bed with a big stuffed bear and beginning to stir.
As he awakens, Pfc. Kevin Trimble pulls the stump of his left arm through an Army T-shirt, and a few minutes later lets out a long yawn.
At 19 he has also lost both legs above the knee, prompting a terrible thought to cross his mother's mind, a thought the two have shared and still think about six months after one bomb in Afghanistan transformed their lives.
Wouldn't he have been better off dead?
"It's very, very painful to see your child in pain. You think, 'Oh boy, it would have been easier on him, much easier,'" she said. "I feel bad, but I do think it. I guess when you feel like you're dealing with death there is a certain closure about it, because it is final. But when you're dealing with someone who has to live with no legs and only one arm for the rest of your life, it's a bitter pill."
Death might have been easier, but Saralee Trimble carries on, believing that God spared her son for a greater purpose. And faith, the cornerstone of her life, has been and still is needed.
Kevin was injured during a battle in a river valley west of Kandahar that left many Taliban dead, but the enemy didn't back off. Replacements came in from a Taliban cell trained and armed in Pakistan, and they probably were tougher than the insurgents Kevin's fellow soldiers killed.
"On (Sept.) 17th, that's when things went really bad. Those guys were a lot better-equipped," he said.
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/At-son-s-side-is-where-I-m-meant-to-be-3483019.php