Alex Jimenez's mom: 'A lot of things pass through my mind'

May 25, 2007 -- A Queens family desperately prayed and clung to the hope yesterday that their son, who has been missing in Iraq for two weeks, is still alive, despite word that a soldier who disappeared with him was found dead.

"I ask God to give me the strength because it is a very difficult time," said Spc. Alex Jimenez's mother, Maria Duran. "It's hard to imagine what I am going through. I'm wondering if my son is captured, if he is injured or if he is hungry - a lot of things pass through my mind."

Duran, 55, said she was praying day and night with Jimenez's large extended family and was buoyed by the outpouring of support from her neighbors in Corona - many of whom have tied yellow ribbons to their trees and fences.

"My mind is set on finding him alive. I can't say what I will do if he isn't," she said between sobs.

That prompted Jimenez's 15-year-old brother, Brian, to wrap his arms around his mother and say, "Mom, stop crying, he is alive. Everything is going to be all right."

Read the rest at the NY Post

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