ALUMNI
Nursing alum heals by helping others
Honors son with book scholarship fund
P
amela Finnie received a fateful phone call early one morning from her son serving in Afghanistan. Staff Sergeant Daniel D. Merriweather had a premonition and wanted to speak to his mother. “He said he did not think he was ever going to make it back home,” Finnie recalled of the son she tried to comfort that morning in 2010. “I encouraged him and we prayed, but I never expected to see a chaplain and military officer at my door that night.” Merriweather had joined the United States Army in 2002, right out of high school, and served three tours overseas honorably. The chaplain informed Finnie that a roadside bomb near Kandahar had killed her son. Daniel was 25 years old. Finnie channeled her ensuing grief the best way she knew how: honor Daniel by helping others.
Pamela Finnie
20 | SOUTHWEST NOW | SPRING 2020
