Eleanor Wimbish dutifully writes her eldest son four times a year. But she never mails the letters.
She leaves them beneath panel No. 32 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where her son's name is permanently engraved in black granite.Wimbish, a 63-year-old great grandmother from Glen Burnie, Md., began writing the unmailed letters to her son, William Reed "Spanky" Stocks, after he was killed in a helicopter crash in Vietnam on Feb. 13, 1969. For years, she told no one of the letters she wrote in the wee hours of the morning to comfort herself.
But in recent years her letters have been published in numerous books and magazines. Next week, one of the letters will be read during public television's live Memorial Day evening broadcast of a National Symphony concert on the U.S. Capitol grounds.
In the letters, Wimbish often discusses childhood memories of her son and the kindnesses his fellow military buddies have shown her through the years.
"This (writing) is my way of coping with the pain," Wimbish said after leaving a letter at the Memorial earlier this month, on what would have been Stocks' 43rd birthday. "My son warmed his way into everyone's heart. He was very special."
Stocks, nicknamed "Spanky" by his comrades in Vietnam, died at age 21. The blades of his helicopter cut into the aircraft, leaving Stocks severely injured. He died about half an hour later.
His body was returned to the United States in a glass-covered casket. Wimbish explained that all bodies deemed viewable were placed in such caskets.
"I didn't have to wonder like others who only got pieces back," Wimbish said, clutching her handbag and fighting back tears during a recent interview. "I hope you know I'm going to go home and bawl like crazy. But that's OK. It's worth it. It's worth it for people to know."
"When my son died, I wrote my pledge," Wimbish said. "I said I will not now or ever let people forget."
An estimated 200,000 people are expected to gather on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol on May 27.