22 days ago
FRONT ROYAL, Va. (WUSA) - Three-year-old Logan Balsley loves playing soldier. His father, Specialist Michael Balsley, was deployed to Iraq when Logan was just ten-months-old.
"That's Logan and Mike. Logan was just a little bitty guy. He wasn't even able to walk yet," remembers Samantha Balsley, Michael's wife, as she flips through a scrapbook.
The young couple married just seven months before he was deployed. But on January 25, 2007, Balsley learned her new husband would not be coming home.
"He was out on a nighttime mission when they were hit by an IED," said Balsley. "It was just like he was gone and the world stopped caring. It didn't seem like it mattered at all that you know he lost his life serving the country. So I felt very alone and I have for almost three years. I've felt like nobody cares. It's just another number."
"The widow is kind of forgotten," agrees Parthenia Warford Richardson.
Richardson was a single mom herself and she's a veteran. So she started The Warford Foundation this past spring, and Samantha is her first project.
"The Warford Foundation is a non-profit in Maryland and we help single mothers and military widows go through the process of becoming a registered nurse through a 2-year community college program," said Richardson.
"I actually love nursing and so to actually be able to go to school for nursing, it's really, really amazing," said Balsley. "Time goes by and that part of your life gets pushed further away. So with this opportunity, I would like to make him proud and show him that I did do something."
As of now, Richardson is paying for Balsley to go back to school out of her own pocket. However, she would ultimately like to help many more single mothers and military widows go back to school. If you would like to learn how you can help, go to the Warford Foundation's website.
9NEWS NOW & wusa9.com
