JACKSON, Miss. – Thousands of worried mothers of soldiers in Iraq will be remembered on Mother's Day (search), with a little help from a stateside greeting-card company.
Paramount Cards Incorporated (search) sent about 39-hundred holiday cards to members of the 155th Brigade Combat Team (search). Those troops hail from Vermont, Arkansas and Mississippi.
The print manager for the Rhode Island-based card company is a Navy veteran. He said he made the donation after a request by a family support group.
A soldier in Iraq told The Associated Press the gift was "truly a blessing" out of the blue. He said troops had been sending money out with comrades on missions to Baghdad in unsuccessful attempts to get cards. The donation changed that.
One Mississippi mother of a 21-year-old was especially touched by the gesture. Due to time constraints, she said it's usually "the wives and girlfriends who hear from the soldiers."
But, as she put it: "We're the ones who birthed them" and "no matter how old they get, they are still our babies."
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