On September 9, 2007 Hope gets the news that her eldest and only son was killed in combat defending his country in the war against terrorism. Initially, the news of her son’s death damaged her heart and temporarily crippled a loving tight knit family, until the day she accepted the reality of the situation and began to deal with it. Expressing and converting her pain into words and actions in the form of books, plays, and humanitarian efforts in honor of her son SSG. Courtney A. Hollingworth.