Jaime and I just spoke with Oliva, who showed up to the Saints Rest Coffee Shop in Grinnell to meet with Barack.
She pointed to a small pin with a gold star on her shirt and told us that four years ago, just before Bush made his "Mission Accomplished" speech, her grandson was killed in Iraq.
"He graduated from West Point, he spoke five languages, he could have done so much," she says. "He got a free education but paid with his life."
"I'd never been to a military funeral," she remembers. "Coming out of that church were old veterans of various wars. They didn't know him but they were there. It was amazing."
The war has left a deeply personal imprint on her family. "The war, it mushrooms all over the place. Many many people were affected by his death. His parents and his grandparents, his friends, his siblings. His mother still puts fresh flowers on his grave every week. This is happening to so many families because we're still over there and they're still dying."She says her main priority in this election is, simply, "peace."
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