On Dec. 15, a Celebration of Life for Ari D. Brown-Weeks was held in Greenfield, Mass. He grew up in Leyden, Mass., moved to Abingdon in 2005 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. At the service, Ari?s mother, Karyn Brown, paid tribute to her fallen son. Her words follow:

Thank you everyone for being here to celebrate the life of our beloved Ari. As the story of Ari?s death unfolds, and Ashley [his wife], Jon [his father] and I continue to get the details of the worst day of our lives, I look inside my fragile heart to focuson the memory of Ari as the happy, beautiful person, so full of life and potential, that he was. I wondered what to say about him at this event … and then it became clear that I wanted to focus on the happiest moments of my life with Ari, because they were the happiest moments of Ari?s life.