WATERBURY -- Thousands of Americans were killed during the Vietnam War. Many families were broken by those lives lost. Nearly 50 years since her son’s death, Waterbury mom Mary Kight still feels the pain.
Kight’s son, Michael was deployed to Vietnam as a helicopter pilot in February of 1967. Three months later, the rotor blades on his Huey were accidentally hit by another American crew, sending the aircraft and later, Kight’s heart plunging.
Kight says she went into daze and remained that way, even through his funeral. Kight tells FOX 61, she kept picturing the moment Michael surprised her with a visit home a few days before he departed for Vietnam.
“In fact, it was my birthday,” said Kight. She says it took months to realize, Michael was really gone.
“I used to make packages to send over to him. His favorite thing was fortune cookies. I was walking through the grocery store and I saw fortune cookies and it hit me,” said Kight.
"That hurt me because it was like Michael lost his life for nothing,” said Kight.
So Kight kept quiet about Michael for decades, until recently, when she joined the Gold Star Mothers, a group of moms who have lost children in war. She finds comfort in talking to other moms who share her pain.
“Sometimes we just need to talk.”
Other times, it’s simply about the company. Kight was with other Gold Star Moms when she went on an uplifting trip. She’s afraid of heights, but Michael was so excited when he earned his wings and now, she wants to make him proud by going up in a Huey like the one he flew.
Holding on to Michael is what Kight said she’ll do forever, along with the newest picture for the next page in her photo album with all of Michael’s pictures from childhood to adulthood.
Coincidentally, the Huey Kight flew in, had the same, rare warrior logo on the front like this one in Michael’s picture hanging in her home.
“Michael. He’s proud of me. Yeah, he’s proud. I knew you could do it mom. Yes, Mike, I did,” said Kight.
Kight isn’t just carrying on Michael’s legacy. As a Gold Star Mother, she’s helping other moms who have lost children in recent wars do the same for their sons and daughters.
