By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Nancy Cunningham imagined a place where she could sit and remember her son, Daniel.

Alone, she could meditate or just recall the boy who grew up to be a soldier. Then she figured others might want to remember her son, one of two Lewiston men killed in Iraq.

She came up with a plan.

For just under $4,000, two stone monument benches could be erected at Veterans Memorial Park, one for Daniel and one for Shawn Dostie, who was also killed in Iraq.

“It would be a place to sit, think, picnic or whatever,” Cunningham said.

All she needed was the money – and that’s on its way.

Cunningham has joined with Shawn’s parents, Robert and Delaine Fugere, and Lewiston Rep. Elaine Makas to create the Danny and Shawn Memorial Fund.

The group is circulating fliers in the downtown area, promoting the fund and a benefit dinner scheduled for Aug. 11.

The dinner will feature spaghetti donated by Gov. John Baldacci’s family business, Mama Baldacci’s Restaurant, based in Bangor.

The goal is to raise enough money to cover the whole cost of both benches, said Bert Dutil, a leader of several Lewiston-area veterans groups.

They would join a growing number of monuments in the park, including 10 obelisks and a row of four other benches. They are engraved with the names of local soldiers whose sacrifices go back to the Spanish-American War.

By contrast, it has been only seven months since Dostie died.

The 32-year-old Army soldier was killed in December 2005 when a homemade bomb struck his Humvee. Dostie, who was married and had two small children, was buried in January at Arlington National Cemetery.

“It’s easier,” said his mom, Delaine. “We’re all still struggling, though.”

Cunningham was killed just days after the war started.

On April 4, 2003, he was one of three soldiers who were riding in a Humvee when it plunged into a ravine, drowning them.

Though it’s been more than three years, grief often strikes his mom.

“I go to the cemetery as often as I can,” Nancy Cunningham said. “But I don’t get there enough.”

She has no car and must wait for a family member to drive her. A stone bench would give her a closer place to remember Daniel, to meditate on how his life changed hers.

It would also be something permanent, she said.

Since Daniel’s death, his alma mater, Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, has offered a scholarship in his name.

But as time goes by, donations have dwindled.

“It’s getting harder and harder to gather the money,” she said. “People forget too soon.”

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