Thursday, 4:30 PM
Malden mourns the loss of a Marine
(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)
A Marine salutes after presenting the American Flag to Melissa Garvin (center), the wife Marine Lance Corporal Edward Garvin, after a graveside service at Woodlawn Cemetery. Melissa's mother, Anna Rabideau, comforts her.
By Megan Tench, Globe Staff
MALDEN -- Dozens of uniformed police, military serviceman, and veterans on motorcycles lined up, shoulder to shoulder, today in a scene all too familiar to families who have lost loved ones to the war in Iraq. They saluted as a flag draped coffin was carried into Sacred Hearts Church. The wail of bagpipes echoed inside the sanctuary where hundreds came to say good-bye to a kid named Eddy.
Not a word was spoken about how Marine Lance Corporal Edward Marcell Garvin, 19, died. Nor was it permissible for mourners, mostly teenagers and their parents, to agonize about the loss of the young newlywed.
"He wouldn't want you to cry," said his wife Melissa Garvin.
She insisted that the crowd instead think about her husband's smile, his silly jokes, and sense of humor. For most, the smiles didn't come easy.
Garvin was killed on Oct. 4 while conducting combat operations in Anbar Province, Iraq. He had been in Iraq for only four weeks.
