"But it doesn't end with the funeral," says Tamara Robbins of Brandon. "Not by a long shot."

Robbins' husband, 36-year-old Chris Robinson, was killed during a 2006 attack in Afghanistan. She knows like few others what the Summers family is facing.

In a few weeks, a FedEx truck will pull up to the Summers' home in Natchez, where they had settled.

The driver will deliver two large black trunks and a smaller box. Inside will be Summers' personal belongings.

The wounds of losing a spouse will be ripped open again as the lids are lifted.

"I helped Chris pack his stuff, so I knew pretty much what would be in there," Robbins says. "His uniforms. His regular clothes - short and T-shirts. Sheets and blankets and shoes."

The smaller box contained valuables - his wallet and wedding ring.

It also included a silver bracelet he wore constantly in honor of a Mississippi soldier who is Missing In Action from the Vietnam war.

"Chris loved Hawaiian shirts," she says. "I remember taking one out of the trunk and holding it up to my face. I could smell him. His deodorant. His soap."

She unpacked the clothes and put them back into the closet the couple once shared.

They hung there for about a year.

"Losing a husband to war is not a normal death," she says. "It drags out for so long. You're dealing with the Army and getting things in order. The body has to be shipped home. It seems like it takes forever to have the funeral. And then his stuff comes in. It just seems like it will never end."

Summers was one of two members of the Jackson-based Mississippi National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 20th Special Forces unit killed in the Aug. 2 bombing. The other was 42-year-old Sgt. 1st Class Alejandro Granado of Longview, Texas.

Both trained monthly in Jackson before being deployed.

Also killed in the bombing was Capt. Ronald G. Luce Jr., 27, of Fayetteville, N.C., a member of the Alabama Army National Guard but attached to the 2nd Battalion, 20th Special Forces. Luce also trained in Mississippi on occasion.

Three members of one unit, traveling together in a vehicle, gone in a fraction of a second.

Forty-six U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan this month - the deadliest since the invasion following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists attacks.

"One loss takes a severe toll on a unit - the members, the loved ones," says Maj. Gen. William L. Freeman Jr., the adjutant general of Mississippi. "But when it's three precious lives lost ... the hurt is almost indescribable. It reminds us all once again that freedom is not free."

Nineteen days after that tragedy, 25-year-old Sgt. Matthew Ingram of Pearl died when an explosive device detonated near his vehicle in Afghanistan. Ingram had been assigned to the Colorado 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.

The grief doesn't trickle down to those with loved ones still in harm's way. It roars through them with hurricane force.

"When you hear of losing someone in the same unit as your child ... you get all sorts of emotions and feelings," says Myrick Winstead of Terry.

Myrick and Tina Winstead's 23-year-old son, Nick, served in the same unit with Summers, Granado and Luce and will be in Afghanistan through at least February 2010. About 3,700 Mississippians remain deployed by the National Guard alone.

"To cope with it, about all you can do is try not to dwell on it and pray that the phone doesn't ring in the middle of the night," Winstead says.

Winstead tries to take comfort in "the little things."

He explains: "It's about to be winter over there, and I just sent Nick some sweat clothes to work out in. Once the roads are covered in snow, a lot of the killing and dying slows down. You learn about things like that the hard way."

Winstead knew Summers.

"His death was the closest thing I can imagine to losing my own son," he says. "At Sev's memorial service, the only thing missing as far as me and my wife were concerned was Nick's name on the marquee of the funeral home. It hit that close to home.

"Nick and Sev hung together. Sev was something else. He was the real deal. The day before he died, he chased down an insurgent at over 800 meters. The guy was wearing an explosive device, but Sev got him."

Severin W. Summers' family respectfully declined to be interviewed for this story. The wounds are too raw, they explained.

Mary Robinson understands.

"They are in shock," Chris Robinson's mother says. "If they are like I was, they still don't believe it happened.

"It's been three years now, and some days I'm still like that. I just don't believe it's real. Chris can't be gone."

Three days before Chris went out on what proved to be his final mission, he phoned home.

"Don't worry, I'll be all right," he told his mother.

But the next evening, Mary Robinson couldn't sleep. She tossed and turned. Suddenly before her, in the darkness, she had a vision of Chris as a little boy. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Mischievous smile.

"He looked so happy," she recalls. "There was something like a fog behind him, and he just kept staring at me, smiling. I finally said, 'Chris, you're too big for me to hold now.' And then I saw the silhouette of a big man with long hair and broad shoulders walk up beside him. I remember saying 'God, you're going to have to take care of Chris now.'

"And then I fell into a deep sleep. Best sleep I'd had in several days."

Two days later, she and her husband, George, who spent 23 years in the Army, received the phone call that Chris was dead.

Tamara Robbins, 40, has done her best to honor Chris' request that she go on living, that she marry again and find a good father figure for their 8-year-old daughter, Savannah, and 4-year-old son, Patrick.

She wound up marrying one of Chris' best friends, Pelahatchie native Reese Robbins.

He was in the vehicle with Chris that day in Afghanistan. A rifle shot tore a hole in his right shoulder. He saw everything, and he has shared the details of Chris' death with Tamara.

Now, he is back in Afghanistan with the 2nd Battalion, 20th Special Forces.

She, again, is back home waiting and hoping and praying that everything turns out all right this time.

She has done her best to comfort Tammy Summers, at the memorial service and through e-mails. But Tamara knows that only goes so far.

In war, on the battlefield and back home, the path people are forced to walk is wide enough for only one.

An Army carry team carries a transfer case containing the remains of Mississippi National Guardsman Sgt. 1st Class Severin West Summers of Bentonia Aug. 4 at Dover Air Force Base, Del.

(The Associated Press)

A soldier stands near the remains of Army Sgt. Matthew Ingram of Pearl Aug. 22 at Dover Air Force Base, Del.

The remains of Army Sgt. 1st Class Alejandro Granado are carried at Dover Air Force Base, Del.