GILROY
– Two years to the day that a tragedy that would forever change
life in America, the Arevalo family – currently split up with a
father away at war – now has a reason to smile each Sept. 11.
That’s because 8 pound, 1 ounce Dionicio Francisco Arevalo III
was born in the wee hours of the day Thursday morning to mother
Rosse Arevalo, of Hollister.
And Dionicio’s birth date, two days earlier than expected, seems
to be a fitting reminder for Rosse, who can vividly remember the
morning of Sept. 11, 2001. It was a day that changed her family’s
life forever.
GILROY – Two years to the day that a tragedy that would forever change life in America, the Arevalo family – currently split up with a father away at war – now has a reason to smile each Sept. 11.
That’s because 8 pound, 1 ounce Dionicio Francisco Arevalo III was born in the wee hours of the day Thursday morning to mother Rosse Arevalo, of Hollister.
And Dionicio’s birth date, two days earlier than expected, seems to be a fitting reminder for Rosse, who can vividly remember the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. It was a day that changed her family’s life forever.
“They called him into action on Sept. 11,” she said.
She’s talking about her husband, then boyfriend, Dionicio Arevalo, 31, who had just returned home from a night shift working for First Alarm Security that morning and was asleep when the World Trade Center Towers were hit by terrorists. Rosse also was asleep that morning, but was awoken by a phone call.
“I remember one of my friends called and told me to watch the news and that my boyfriend would probably be called into action,” she said.
When she saw what was happening on the other side of the country, Rosse quickly got on the phone and called Dionicio, but he had already received a call from the National Guard. He was packing his bags.
Dionicio left that day for Camp Roberts, near Paso Robles, but returned 10 days later. Two weeks afterward, he was sent to Fort Lewis in Washington, D.C. He was stationed there for nine months and again returned home. But this time he returned to marry his wife, which he did Feb. 8 of this year.
Soon after finding out the couple was going to have its first child together, Dionicio was sent back to Fort Lewis, and in May he was sent to Afghanistan. Once the war began in Iraq, he was moved there.
“It’s hurting him a lot,” Rosse said. “He said, ‘Two or three months, that’s not a lot.’ But, now he will be eight or nine months by the time he gets back. He’s real upset about that.”
Dionicio entered the Army in 1991 and served a two-year term. After returning to his home in Hollister, where he was born and raised, he joined the Army reserve before entering the National Guard. He is now a private first-class with the National Guard 870th Division, B Company and is a gunner for the military police stationed in Kabul, Iraq.
While Dionicio has been away, Rosse has kept him updated on her pregnancy through letters and the few phone calls he is able to make. All Rosse can do is pray for his safe return.
“I get really nervous every time they talk on the news about another soldier that gets killed,” she said. “Sometimes, I get scared when the phone rings late at night. I’m afraid it’s the military calling, telling me he’s been hurt or killed.”
Meanwhile, Dionicio will have to wait to meet his baby, who his grandmother, Petra Arevalo, says was born on Sept. 11 for a reason.
“I told them it was a little angel that was brought to replace someone that was lost,” she said.
