When a soldier dies, his family gets his personal effects.
And so Sheryl Holland got her husband, Daniel’s cheap electronic wrist watch — which still worked after the May 18 Baghdad blast that took his life — and a Catholic medallion that was charred in the explosion.
The items arrived in a little cloth bag this past Thursday with the military casket her husband was transported home with that the family replaced with a sculpted and scalloped mahogany model maybe more befitting a military hero and a beloved son, father and husband.
Holland shared the scant mementos — including the Mother’s Day card she got from her husband an hour before the soldiers arrived at her Boerne home to tell her he’d died — with the hundreds, civilian and military, who nearly filled Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in honoring her husband, killed with three other soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter when their HMMWV was destroyed by a roadside bomb.
In the card, Daniel Holland promised his wife — just weeks after being deployed to Iraq — that he would try to make up for his absence when he returned.
“Then he wrote, ‘Don’t worry and be happy,’” she said. “This is the man I loved for 20 years.”
The Hollands are former members of Sts. Peter and Paul. Her brother-in-law, David Holland, remains in New Braunfels. The remainder of the 10 Holland siblings came from around the country to a funeral Mass presided over by the Rev. James Robertson, the Holland family pastor at Holy Family Catholic Church in Copperas Cove.
“We celebrate David E. Holland’s life today and not his death,” Robertson said. “It is important to remember that he had a beginning 43 years ago in this world. He is unique as God has created us all: Unique.”
Holland was youngest of 10 children — six boys and four girls — born in Munich, Germany, to Army Col. Herb and Elizabeth Holland. He moved to Oklahoma when his father retired from the military in 1974.
With help of an ROTC scholarship, Daniel Holland attended Oklahoma State University and was commissioned an army officer in 1984. In 1988, he became a veterinarian. In 1996, he earned a master’s degree in public health at Colorado State University.
He served in Europe, Honduras and Haiti and had been assigned to Fort Hood before his recent deployment to Iraq. Had he survived, Holland was headed back to Fort Sam Houston to train Veterinary Corps troops.
“It is important that we remember that his work and his family mattered to him,” Robertson said.
The minister talked of things he and the deceased shared in common — a love of animals, fishing, country music and sports among them. He talked of things they didn’t.
“I understand Daniel was a great dancer,” Robertson said. “I can’t dance.”
But it didn’t matter, he said. What they shared that was most important was their faith in God.
“Most of all, Dan was a devout Catholic,” Robertson said. “How many times did I give him Communion at Copperas Cove? He knew that when the priest stood in the place of Jesus, that that bread and wine was not bread and wine — it was the body of Christ. He knew. And this afternoon, the greatest miracle of mankind will take place before your very eyes. Simple bread and wine will turn into the body and blood of Christ. He knew that. Don’t let this day pass by and cripple your love. Don’t let Dan’s death shatter your hope. Don’t let it take away your faith. Death is nothing at all.”
In her remarks near the end of the service, Sheryl Holland thanked everyone for coming, and thanked them for more than that. “Thank you for your prayers. I don’t think I could have gotten through this without your prayers.”
A lot of people, she said, ask her what they could do for her.
“I ask you to love your wives; to love your children. What I’m asking today is please, make the effort to make your relationships work. Play with your children. I’m going to have to learn to be better at that because I pretty much let Dan do it.”
Her husband, she said, was a simple and faithful man.
“Daniel, I am honored to have been your wife. I had what many people dream of. I’ve been married to a wonderful man and father. I have been loved completely and my children have been loved completely. Please don’t feel sorry for me.”
