Student gives up campus life for Army post overseas

Neatly stacked piles of T-shirts and other clothes completely covered the couch Saturday in Ed and Mary Lou Harris’ Nelsonville living room.

Mary Lou, 77, said she cried while folding them earlier in the week.

The clothes belong to Mary Lou’s 20-year-old grandson, Matthew Magistri, who departed for Fort Dix, New Jersey, on Thursday. An infantryman in the U.S. Army since last year, Magistri will soon be deployed to Iraq.

“In the beginning, I was very upset,” Mary Lou said. “I never thought he would go right away.”

Rob Magistri, Matthew’s father, had a different view.

“I really like him going over to defend our country,” he said. “He’s a go-getter, and I think he’ll turn out fine.”

Mary Lou’s response: “That’s the difference between a man and a grandmother.”

But Mary Lou acknowledged the grandson she raised since age 8 is a “go-getter.” When he came to Ohio University’s Precollege with hefty credit card debt and not enough money for school, he figured out a solution without the help of his grandparents.

“I said, ‘How’d you do it?’ and he said, ‘I joined the Army,’” said his grandfather, Ed Harris.

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