Gwinnett Daily Post

Photo by Tori Boone

LOGANVILLE -- Brittany Giese can only imagine the party her husband would throw in heaven to celebrate the news that the most infamous terrorist in the world was killed.

But for the Loganville woman, the long-awaited justice to Osama bin Laden is bittersweet. After all, just five months since Lance Cpl. Ryan Giese was killed in Afghanistan, death is too much a part of her life.

"I don't like when people die. I don't care who they are," Brittany Giese said. "It doesn't make it any better."

Giese remembers watching coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 in her seventh-grade classroom. She never dreamed then that she would become a military wife or a young widow.

Later this month, she will attend Memorial Day events in Winder and Lawrenceville, where her husband's name will be added to the Gwinnett Fallen Heroes Memorial, the 20th soldier with Gwinnett ties to die as part of the Global War on Terrorism.

It's a season for grieving and remembering.

But at the same time, she knows Ryan's friends in the Marines are celebrating today.

"It's like there is a rainbow in the distance. Maybe we can win this war," she said. "It's definitely awesome. It gives everybody hope."