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BY MEGHAN V. MALLOY
Staff Writer 05/16/2008

enlarge Staff photo by Andy Molloy

HUG OF SUPPORT: Rev. Kathryn Braestrup hugs Maine State Police Lt. Gary Wright following the annual service held for fallen police officers in Augusta Thursday morning. Braestrup addressed the crowed attending the event about surviving the loss of a loved one. Her husband, Maine State Trooper Drew Griffith, died in the line of duty.

enlarge Staff photo by Andy Molloy

CHANGING THE COLORS: Rev. Kate Braestrup, center, collects the American flag as Capitol Security Sgt. Robert Elliot, left, and Maine Warden Service Col. Joel Wilkinson help lower it Thursday before the annual service held for fallen police officers in Augusta. Braestrup replaced the colors with the flag that adorned the coffin of her late husband, Maine State Trooper, Drew Griffith, for the ceremony.

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"This really is a family," Douglas Bracy, chief of the York Police Department and President of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association said. "This is a profession where we take care of each other."

State Street, a typically busy street in the capital city, was quiet and somber as officers from all over Maine stood to remember and honor officers from police departments, sheriff offices, the state police and warden service who had died, particularly those who died in line of duty.

The Augusta Police Department closed State Street from the front of the Department of Health and Human Services Building to Union Street for the service.

Known throughout the nation as National Peace Officers Memorial Day, the morning service gave Maine's law enforcement branches and the men and women left behind time to reflect.

Kate Braestrup, chaplain of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, spoke of her role as not just a chaplain, but a survivor.

Braestrup's husband, State Trooper Drew Griffith, was killed in a car accident while on duty in 1996.

Her memoirs recounting her own spiritual journey after the loss of her husband, "Here If You Need Me," was on the New York Times Bestseller List last fall.

The pain of losing a family member in law enforcement never lessens, she said, but the generosity toward others tends to grow.

As she spoke, many eyes, including those of officers and survivors, welled up with tears.

Braestrup sent the American flag draped over her husband's coffin to the New York City Police Department after Sept. 11 to show her sympathy and support to officers who were still trying to recover the remains of their fallen brethren, at the suggestion of her eldest son.

"It was hard for me to let go of that," she said. "But my son said, 'This is what Dad would've done for those people.'"

The flag was respectfully returned to the family five years ago, neatly folded up. Braestrup unfolded it and let it wave in the wind on the flagpole above the memorial.

"This is Drew's flag," she said to the crowd, some of whom were quietly wiping their tears. "He's waving above us. They all are."

Cherrie Bonney, of Norway, particularly felt the loss Braestrup felt. Bonney's husband, Auburn police officer Rodney "Rocky" Bonney, died in 1981, when he was trying to rescue a teenager from an ice-filled river. The youth perished along with Bonney.

"You think every year that it'll get easier and the pain will finally go away," Cherrie Bonney said after the ceremony, as fresh tears came to her eyes. "But it never does."

Clutching a carnation given to the widows and mothers of fallen officers, Cherrie Bonney said, "It's been 27 years, but you know, just to see Rocky honored like this, it means so much."

Amid tears and sorrow of the memories, Gov. John Baldacci assured survivors the state of Maine "will not forget you. The sacrifices your families have had to make will also not be forgotten."

Eighty-two names, including Drew Griffith's and Rocky Bonney's, are engraved on the gray stone memorial adjacent to the Statehouse.

Two more will be added to honor two officers who died in the past year: Sgt. Robert Johnsey, 37, of the Portland Police Department, who died this month in an accidental shooting, and Deputy Mark Schade, 42, of the Waldo County Sheriff's Office, who died in April in a diving accident.

National Peace Officers Memorial Day and National Police Week, observed this past week, was signed into law by John F. Kennedy in 1962, and observances around the country started in the early 1980s.

Meghan V. Malloy -- 623-3811 Ext. 431

mmalloy@centralmaine.com

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