Remembering always

In 1997, Pat and Bob Matthews received a phone call that shattered their world — their youngest son Tom had been a victim of a homicide.
    Tom Matthews, 33, was assaulted on the night of March 12, 1997 in a parking lot in Agana, Guam. His ship had just returned to port after a tour at sea. The previous day, he had received word of the death of his grandmother back in Maine.
The assailant, a casual acquaintance and a trained Thai kick boxer, kneed Matthews in the chest and head causing blunt trauma. Matthews was revived, and then hospitalized. He was medivaced to Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he died on March 15, 1997.
The assailant plea bargained to first degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
A 10-year veteran and Lieutenant of the United States Navy, Matthews had come home for a short time, but naturally turning back to the sea for employment with Military Sealift Command sailing out of Guam. He was a 1981 graduate of Houlton High School and a 1985 Maine Maritime graduate.
“When Tom died, I had started to make a family quilt, which has a block for each of our children,” said Pat Matthews. “Tom’s block has these words inscribed in it, ‘He didn’t know it couldn’t be done, but went ahead and did it.’ We all miss him so.”
Matthews’ mother started knitting again, this time an afghan to help raise money to engrave his name, along with other homicide victims, into a granite monument erected in their honor in the new Maine Memorial Garden in Augusta.
The Collette Monument Company designed the Maine Memorial for Murder Victims monument. Family and friends by Legislative approval will have until 2010 to complete the fund-raising for the monument.
“It is a remarkable testament to the victims of murder with connections to Maine families,” said Art Jette, Maine chapter leader, Parents of Murdered Children. “Names of victims will be inscribed in black granite, with a red granite centerpiece to complete with the POMC logo and a message of remembrance.,” he added.
The engraved name panels are $150 each.
Matthews will be selling tickets on a 44-inch by 68-inch white crocheted/cross-stitched afghan in the Houlton Arts and Crafts Fair on Friday, July 3 in Monument Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. If it rains, the fair will be moved to the Houlton Recreational Center.
The drawing of the winner will be July 26 at the Parents Of Murdered Children meeting.
It took Matthews three months to finish the afghan, which has a crocheted border, with each cross-stitched panel depicting a characteristic of northern Maine.
Tickets are $1 for one or $6 for five. For anyone who would like to donate to the Maine Memorial for Murder Victims can do so by sending their contribution to: Maine Chapter, Parents of Murdered Children and note in the memo “Memorial Monument” in care of Diane Gagnon, treasurer Maine POMC, 6 Ballard Rd., Augusta, Maine 04330.