About a year ago, Ruthellen Perry's oldest son Christopher was playing on his team in a soccer game. Perry got to talking to a woman at the games—a mom of another player—and learned that the woman's husband had been deployed to Afghanistan.
Sgt. Nick Adams, who is in the U.S. Army, was deployed to Afghanistan on Oct. 19 last year and returned to Northborough last Tuesday night.
"I asked her [Amy Adams, Nick's wife]," said Perry, "'Isn't he going to come home for Christmas or the kids birthdays"' She said he'd be home for none of that. That bothered me for a long time, even though I never saw that family again. One day, driving through Westborough, they had a town sign in the circle welcoming home a soldier. That got me thinking, 'Why can't Northborough do that? We are a small community—that is the least we could do for a soldier who leaves their family and life to keep us safe.'"
And since Wednesday, the town sign at the DPW across from Chet's Diner on Route 20 has said "Welcome Home Sgt. Adams."
"I'm so excited that we as a town can welcome home a soldier," said Perry, who says the job of getting this message on the sign wasn't as simple as she expected.
She began by talking with town selectmen, as well as Rep. Harold Naughton.
"They were all for it, but didn't know how to go about it," said Perry. "Meanwhile, the Adams family moved into our neighborhood, and shortly after, had to leave for Afganistan. I saw firsthand how the family deals with them being away and how much their life is disrupted. Then it was time for our neighbor to return home. The children were so excited. All of our neighbors were so excited. I wanted that sign up now that I knew someone who was returning home. I wanted them to know that everyone in our small town was excited for him to return safe to his family and that all of us appreciated his service."
Getting the OK from Dan Nason, DPW director, Perry got her message up.
"When I saw the sign. I was so excited that all our hard work trying to get this together finally came together," said Perry. "Now, if we can do that for every soldier who returns home, that would be great."
Perry welcomes anyone who has a family member returning from the service to call her so she can coordinate adding his or her name to the sign. Call 508-351-9598.