LAWRENCE | Almost a month ago, Alex Jimenez called his mother and, as is customary with Hispanic children, he asked for her blessing. He told her he loved her and said he was doing fine.
The May 5 conversation lasted only a few minutes, but for Maria del Rosario Duran it is a conversation to be cherished.
It was the last time she spoke with her son, Army Spc. Alex Jimenez, who was captured by terrorists in Iraq a week later. Yesterday, those al-Qaida captors sent a videotaped message to the world saying Jimenez was dead and buried.
But for Duran, her vigil continues. The videotape showed her son's identification tag, but no proof her 25-year-old boy is dead.
"This is bitterly painful," said Duran during a telephone interview from her home in Queens, N.Y., yesterday. "My soul has been destroyed. I kept thinking, 'Why are they showing those items?' 'Where is my son?' 'What is happening with my son?'"
For Duran, it is prayer that has kept her going these past 24 days that Jimenez has been missing. It is her faith which will continue to keep her hopeful despite yesterday's news.
"I've placed him in God's hands because only he can watch over Alex," said Duran. "God willing, and with everyone's prayers, everything will turn out well."
As days turned into weeks for her missing son, Duran said life has been a living hell. The mother of three boys hardly sleeps, and the rare sleep she gets is interrupted by nightmarish thoughts in the middle of the night.
"I get up thinking, 'When will I be able to see my son? Where is he? What kind of situation is he in?'" Duran said.
Jimenez was born at Flushing Hospital in New York, April 4, 1982. His mother moved to Lawrence when he was 5, and they lived on Berkeley, Abbott and Kendrick streets. He attended Oliver School until eighth grade, when Duran moved back to the Dominican Republic. He completed high school there, concentrating in computer science.
But the lure of the military was always there, Duran said. She can remember him talking about joining the military when he was 7 years old. He would wear a T-shirt that looked like military fatigues and played with little green plastic Army men.
When he graduated from high school, Jimenez told his mom he wanted to enlist. She tried to persuade him to go to college, but he persisted.
"One day he was watching a film about the Army," Duran said. "He said, 'Mami, sit next to me and watch that it is not bad. It is very good.'"
Realizing he was adamant about his desire, Duran and her ex-husband, Ramon "Andy" Jimenez of Lawrence, gave their son their blessing.
"As you know, mothers cannot choose what their children are going to do," Duran said. "It never crossed my mind that something this horrible could happen. My worst fear is that he will not return."
Through sobs and tears, Duran talked about her boy who loves Dominican food, especially "Russian salad," a potato salad mixed with beets and fried yellow plantains, as well as "chofan," a stir-fried medley of cooked rice, vegetables, seafood and meats. She said he loves to dance the merengue and bachata and writes his own reggae songs.
She recalled a trip Jimenez took to his grandmother's funeral in Navarette in the Dominican Republic last December and how he made a point of personally visiting every neighbor.
"He was treated like a king by everyone in the family," Duran said.
While in Iraq, Jimenez has sent postcards to members of his family. The cards he sent to his brothers, Bryant, 15, and Andy, 19, always included the words "Be good to Mami" or "Take care of Mami."
Jimenez married his girlfriend about three years ago, but Duran and other relatives decline to talk about his wife.
To pass the time, Duran watches television and reads newspapers for the latest news on the war and any updates on her son. She has kept abreast of the support Lawrence and other Merrimack Valley residents have provided by reading The Eagle-Tribune, which her cousin mails to her.
"I'm very grateful to them for uniting with our family in our pain. It means a lot to me, especially what the schoolchildren are doing," Duran said. "I just ask to continue praying for Alex."
Staff writer Gail McCarthy contributed to this report.
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