A terminally ill Wisconsin mother who successfully fought the military bureaucracy to bring her soldier son home from Iraq before she died succumbed to liver cancer last weekend.
Patrice Confer, 44, died a few hours before the wedding of her eldest son, Neal Dover, on Saturday. The family’s plight attracted national media attention in May after Confer pressured the Pentagon to bring her youngest son, Army Pvt. Joe Wagner, 20, back from Camp Danger just outside Tikrit, Iraq.
Wagner stayed home in Eau Claire, Wis., for much of the summer as Confer’s illness worsened. He returned to Iraq a few weeks ago knowing that he likely wouldn’t see his mother alive again, his family said.
On Monday, Wagner was heading home from Iraq for funeral services on Wednesday, the family said
“It was good for them to at least spend that time together,” said Bob Confer, Patrice’s husband. “It made them both happy.”
After being ill for months, Confer was told by her doctor April 7 that her pancreatic cancer was terminal and was spreading to her liver. The family turned to the media and Wisconsin legislators to pressure the Pentagon to hasten Wagner’s temporary leave after the Confers said their initial request was denied.
“If we didn’t do what we did, he would have been back for a funeral instead,” Connie St. Aubin, Confer’s sister, said in May.
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Confer’s last wish was to make it past the wedding of her oldest son, Neal. But she died six hours before the wedding. The family decided to go ahead with a brief and somber ceremony.