TAMPA, FL -- Veterans Memorial Park will be getting bigger.
The expansion will have a bleacher area, for special ceremonies, and plenty of parking for the public. But it may be most valuable to those who lost family members in war.
Visitor Debbie Kirkpatrick bowed her head and wiped tears from her face during a rendition of God Bless the USA.
The song reminds her of her son, Staff Sgt. Michael Kirkpatrick, who died for our country in Afghanistan.
Kirkpatrick’s name will be included on a Hillsborough Veterans Memorial Expansion that Debbie can't wait for.
“I will be able to go and talk to my son.”
Debbie last visited with Mike just before sunset two and a half years ago.
“He said mom look at the moon. So I did, and he said I'm looking at it with you. A week later he was killed. So he is missed. He didn't want to be buried at Arlington, so we had him cremated and scattered in the water,” she recalls.
Which means there is no place to mourn, no coffin, no headstone.
“That's why this park will be important. It’s close to us,” Kirkpatrick said.
The $2.5 million marble-laden, brass-emblazoned expansion will have a grand entrance and special event center.
It’s Tom Fletcher's labor of love.
“Oh yeah, absolutely. Pride, patriotism, respect for the heroes that have served this country, lost their lives -- that's what this park is all about. That's what it’s memorializing,” Fletcher said.
It's memorializing people like Mike. Heroes, whose names will be etched in a shrine. It’s a place family and friends of fallen soldiers can be with loved ones. It’s a place Debbie can talk to Mike.
“I miss you my angel,” Debbie said.
