No time to mourn, it's time to help

Manama

A sailor stationed at Mayport Naval Station in the US, Emily Griffin, was deeply hurt to hear about the demise of 21-year-old 3rd Class Officer Devon Doyle, who fell from the balcony of a hotel in Manama.

He was not a relative or close friend to her; rather she remembers he had served as the best man at her friend’s wedding. 

And instead of silently mourning over his death, she decided to help his family, stationed aboard the Mayport-based destroyer USS Farragut.

The mishap occurred on May 16 at around 10pm when Doyle fell from seventh floor of an apartment in Juffair and was pronounced dead on the spot. The ship was docked there as part of a routine port visit.

To raise funds, Griffin and her friend, Misty Valverde, brought together a group of friends and organised a sale and silent auction at the American Legion post in Atlantic Beach last Saturday.

Service members and their families were the biggest donors at the event. All the proceeds will be handed over to Doyle’s parents in Alamosa, Colorado.

According to Griffin, military is a big family. “With me being so far from home, the people I work with really have become like another family and, at times like this, it really comes out,” jacksonville.com quoted Emily Griffin as saying.  

The family of the deceased would get $400,000 from military life insurance. But that would take a long time to get processed.

Griffin has also opened a page ‘GoFundMe’ to receive donation for Doyle’s family at gofundme.com/vvfm4g.