Lynch’s Town Becomes Giddy and Grateful

At the post office, Berylann Lewis hardly puts the phone down before it rings again. “Just send it here,” she says to strangers calling from across the nation. “We’ll make sure she gets it.”

At the county courthouse, Debbie Hennen too is taking call after call. A Toyota dealer promises a free car. A university president pledges a full scholarship.

“Hey,” a clerk shouts, peering out the door, “a helicopter just landed on the football field.”

“The governor’s here, that’s all,” Hennen says, dashing outside to supervise a crew hoisting a new flag above the village green.

And so it went across Wirt County on Wednesday as residents, giddy with elation, celebrated news that their hometown hero, 19-year-old Pfc. Jessica Lynch, had been plucked from Saddam Hospital in Iraq -- wounded, but alive, and smiling over the U.S. flag her rescuers had folded across her stretcher.

“She looked beautiful,” said her mother, Deadra.

“My heart, it came up from the bottom of my legs back to where it’s supposed to be,” her brother, Greg, added.

“I haven’t quit smiling yet,” said Lewis, the postmaster for this rural community.

Suffering from broken legs and other injuries, Lynch arrived at a U.S. military hospital in Germany on Wednesday evening, just as 130 of her neighbors back home in Appalachia gathered in a Methodist church to give thanks for her survival.

“I saw a sign in Wirt County this afternoon that said, ‘God is still in the miracles business.’ He sure is,” Gov. Bob Wise told the crowd.

Late Wednesday -- a full 24 hours after they learned of their daughter’s rescue -- Lynch’s parents were able to talk to Jessica by phone. “She’s real spirited,” her father, Gregory Lynch Sr., told the Associated Press. “She hasn’t eaten in eight days, and she’s hungry.”

He said his daughter would be transferred to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington as soon as possible.

It is unclear when Lynch will be well enough to return to the foothills where she grew up. But folks here are planning quite a welcoming party. “One heck of a big shindig,” her father promised.

From the looks of it, the celebration already has started.

The yellow ribbons that dotted this community last week were joined Wednesday by posters proclaiming “We love you, Jessica!” Civic leaders in the county seat of Elizabeth (pop. 900) held hurried meetings to design T-shirts and plan a party this weekend to raise money for the Lynch family.

All the while, the calls kept coming. Donors from across the country pledged more than $3,000 to a fund set up in Lynch’s name. They offered to compose songs for her, to design lamps in her honor, to bake pies for a benefit auction.

The Lynches had to set a spare refrigerator on their porch to store all the pizzas and casseroles sent their way.

“This is phenomenal,” said Hennen, the county assessor.

“I’ve never been so happy in my life,” she said. “I’m even happier than when I had my kids.”

On a makeshift altar in the courthouse -- next to a candle, a crucifix and a framed photo of Lynch -- Hennen had set out a spiral notebook last week. The first few pages were filled with scribbled prayers. Wednesday’s entries were pure jubilation.

Through the day, county employees kept running to the book to jot down messages that callers begged them to pass on to Lynch. Thanks and best wishes came in from Texas, Georgia, Ohio, Florida, from veterans, from mayors, from friends and from strangers, from ordinary Americans who said they were moved to tears by the teenage soldier’s courage.

“I appreciate the sacrifices she has made on our behalf,” one caller said.

Across the street, in the Satin Swirl hair salon, stylist Kelly Tanner said she had heard similar comments all day: “It’s the talk of the town,” she said.

“I’m not surprised our county could come together like this,” said customer Janet Barr, 63. “But to have so much support from the outside.... “

As the late-afternoon sun cast shadows on Mayberry Run hollow, florist Regina Ray approached the Lynch family’s clapboard house with the sixth or seventh bouquet of the day -- this one a basket of red, white and blue carnations sent to Jessica Lynch by a stranger in Nebraska.

“Be strong,” the card said, “and know that the American people are right behind you.”

Angel Joy, one of Lynch’s closest cousins, came out of the house to pick up the flowers.

She seemed hardly able to process the scene. Her front yard, across the narrow dirt road, was crammed with television satellite trucks -- at least half a dozen, parked right up against the small corral where her horse grazed. Joy’s husband had quit work early to help sheriff’s deputies direct traffic.

Joy shook her head. “This is wonderful,” she said. “We owe so much to so many people. Jessica couldn’t have done it without their prayers and their thoughts.”

At the church service later in the evening, Lynch’s friends continued to send out their prayers: Prayers for her swift recovery and her safe return. Prayers for all the other soldiers who are missing, or captive, or on the front lines.

They also received some good news from the governor. As all who have followed her story know, Lynch joined the Army to get a free college education; she dreamed of teaching kindergarten.

On Wednesday, Wise pledged to help her reach that goal.

“She has a scholarship from the people of West Virginia,” he said, “whenever she wants it.”