SILVANA — Jessica Hebert woke up 2,000 miles from home Thursday, ready to start a new job near Fort Campbell, Tenn.
She checked Facebook and there was the news that the mural in Silvana dedicated to the memory of her brother, who died in Iraq, had been painted over.
On Thursday morning, Kathie Pedersen of Marysville woke up and checked her e-mail. Dozens of notes, some from people she had never met, filled her inbox.
They called her a Nazi, a communist, a terrorist and names not fit for print. Others said she was inconsiderate, heartless and unpatriotic. A few e-mails threatened to harm her business.
Army Spc. Justin Hebert was just 20 years old in 2003 when he became the first Snohomish County soldier to be killed in combat in the current war in Iraq. Friends painted a giant U.S. flag that September on the outside wall of a shop in Silvana, the community where Justin and Jessica had grown up. Hundreds of people signed the flag mural in memory of the fallen paratrooper.
“I was blindsided by the news that it was gone. I was already feeling bad because I’m so far away and couldn’t visit on Veterans Day,” Jessica Hebert, 27, said. “Now, I’m angry and heartbroken. I wish we had known ahead of time. Whatever was left of what people wrote there six years ago is gone forever.”
Pedersen and her husband Don bought the old brick former bank building in Silvana in 2007, proud that it had a flag mural on its east side. Soon after they began remodeling for their day spa and hair salon business, the Pedersens found problems. The mortar was crumbling and rainwater was seeping in around the exposed bricks underneath the mural. They also got hit by flooding, with 8 inches of river water on the floor.
The memorial mural, falling apart along with the aging bricks, remained until early October. That’s when Don Pedersen, as part of an extensive effort to shore up his building, had the mural covered with a special paint designed to stretch and hold the bricks together.
There was nothing in the sale agreement with former owner Linda Carpenter, who had the flag painted on the building, that required the Pedersens to keep the mural untouched.
“I had to save my property. We were fighting terrible mold, the mortar was just sand and the bricks were falling out,” Don Pedersen said. “My wife loved telling people we owned the building with the American flag. She wanted to save it, but we had no choice.”
Their mistake, he said, was not making an effort to find out more about the mural and the people who loved it. When Pedersen finally decided the mural would have to be covered, the weather didn’t allow him much time to talk to people, he said.
“I feel like a jerk, just terrible, and I apologize to everyone,” Pedersen said. “My wife and I have veterans in our family. I was in the Marysville Fire Department color guard. I am not a vicious person.”
Willow and Jim Payne, who own the cafe in Silvana, said they were shocked by the anger of some people in the community.
The pain and sorrow are understandable, but many of the things said to the Pedersens were a disservice to the memory of anyone who has served in uniform, Jim Payne said.
“And nobody ever showed up to take care of the mural or the memorial bell along the sidewalk or the tree on our property that’s planted there in Justin’s honor,” Payne said. “Nobody said anything about the mural until Veterans Day. They drive by it every day to go to the post office. Why did they wait to say something?”
Encouraged by the Paynes, Don Pedersen talked with Mike DiSalvo of the Snohomish County chapter of Combat Veterans International.
DiSalvo attended Justin Hebert’s funeral and signed the mural. Each year on Aug. 1, the anniversary of the soldier’s death, DiSalvo and others gather at Hebert’s grave at the Little White Church on the Hill above Silvana.
“People have a right to be upset about the mural, but they need to know the full story,” DiSalvo said. “We told the Pedersens that if they want to get the wall back the way it was so people can honor Justin again, the chapter would be more than willing to help out. Then on Aug. 1, the Pedersens could invite everyone out for a community barbecue.”
So now that’s the plan, said Don Pedersen.
“I want to make this right with the community,” he said. “We will redo the flag or put up a nice plaque and make sure we have a place for people to write about Justin.”
Brett Rickard, who grew up with Justin Hebert and served in the Army with him, admits he is one of the people who got angry at Kathie Pedersen.
“Justin’s memory was washed away and I lost my cool and I regret that,” Rickard said. “If we just had known that the wall was crumbling, we could have pitched in to help save the mural. At least we should have had a chance to take pictures and look at it one more time. A new mural would be a good step toward healing this wound.”
Several families who Justin Hebert spent lots of time with growing up in Silvana have been especially hurt by the loss of the mural, Kelly Winterhalter Frazier said.
“Silvana is not the same as it was when we were growing up,” Frazier said. “Some of the business people here now just don’t know the history of our tight community.”
Meanwhile, in Tennessee, Jessica Hebert remembers the close friendships and the little things, such as waiting with her brother at the Silvana fire station for their bus to Arlington High School.
“The nostalgia is bittersweet. Looking back now, I am thankful to have grown up there,” Hebert said. “A new mural would not be the same, but something on that brick wall would be nice. I think people would eventually warm up to that. For now, though, anybody in my shoes would be just as angry.”
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427, gfiege@heraldnet.com.
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