Remains of hero Rosario return to Lawrence
But a heartbreaking homecoming for fallen Marine sergeant’s family
This is not the way she was supposed to come home.
At 12:05 p.m. Saturday, Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo of Lawrence arrived in a flagdraped coffin on a charter plane at Logan International Airport.
She was only 25 and one of 13 service members who were killed along with as many as 170 Afghans by a suicide bomber at the Kabul Airport just days before she was supposed to leave Afghanistan.
On Saturday, awaiting her remains were her family, Gov. Charlie Baker and other officials, and close to 100 Marines, police and firefighters.
After her casket was taken off the plane, the Rev. Israel Rodriguez of the family’s church, Saint Mary of the Assumption in Lawrence, came forward and blessed Rosario’s remains with holy water.
Her mother ran her hand softly from one end of the flag covering the casket to the other and kissed it, her grandmother sobbed as she held it in both arms, and her three siblings and other family and friends gathered around it.
After they left, seven Marines walked in formation toward it and saluted. And as they lifted it to place it in a hearse, all of the police and firefighters saluted in turn, while the officials stood with their hands over their hearts.
Then the hearse drove away, followed by her family.
“It was a very powerful moment,” U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said afterward of Marcelina Ramos hugging the casket as she wept. “The family has paid the ultimate price to protect our country’s liberties. … All the rest of us have an obligation to not forget this moment, and to remember this family.”
As the motorcade made its way to Lawrence, people stood, holding flags or saluting, in the breakdown lane on Interstates 93 and 495. On bridges, people hung signs reading, “RIP Sgt. Rosario.” And when the motorcade arrived in Lawrence, people lined the streets and gathered outside Farrah Funeral Home long after the hearse and family arrived.
“It’s very sad,” said Linda Galland, 70, of Lawrence. “Here she is on the verge of coming home, and this happens.”
Although Rosario could have been buried at Arlington National Cemetery, her family chose to bring her back to Lawrence, the city where the Dominican native spent most of her life.
“She is a daughter of the city of Lawrence,” said Mayor Kendrys Vasquez, “and we are proud to have her home.”
On Monday, Rosario’s family will have a private Mass for her. A public wake will be held for her, beginning at 11 a.m. Tuesday, at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Lawrence.
The wake will conclude at 2 p.m., when clergy and officials will speak. And at 3:15 p.m., the hearse and family will leave for Bellevue Cemetery, where a horse-drawn caisson will bring her to the veterans’ section.
On her second tour of duty in Afghanistan, Rosario likely saved tens of thousands of women and children she was responsible for screening at the gates to the Kabul airport, said former Massachusetts Secretary of Veterans’ Services Francisco Urena.
She was 5 years old when the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened, 20 years ago Saturday.