Mary McHugh and James Regan
Mary McHugh, the fiancé of a James Regan, moved a thousand mourners to tears with her touching tribute at his funeral. “Jimmy was a hero to many, but he was always very humble,” she said of her beloved. “He always sought team success and not personal glory.”
Regan was to marry McHugh, a medical student at Emory University, when his Army service ended. He was killed in February 2007 by a roadside bomb in Iraq.
“Jimmy and I were so excited to stand up in front of God, our family and friends and declare our love for each other,” McHugh said. ”Only God knows why we were deprived of that opportunity, but it doesn’t change the sentiments I have.”
Regan, an All-American lacrosse player and All-State football scholar at Chaminade High School in Mineola, graduated from Duke University five years ago. He was deeply affected by the 9/11 terror attacks, which claimed many lives in Manhasset, and turned down a position at financial services firm UBS and deferred a scholarship to Southern Methodist University Law School to join the Army in 2004. He had earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.
After reading a love letter Regan wrote to her, McHugh said in a passionate whisper, “Jimmy, we never got to wake up next to each other every morning. Jimmy, I will wake up every morning and thank God for the opportunity to love and be loved by you.”
McHugh remembered Regan as someone who always wore a smile and “simply wanted to be happy and make others around him happy.”
Regan’s father, also named James, said his son did just that.
“Last week in Iraq the bell tolled for Jimbo and he gave the ultimate sacrifice,” the grieving father said. “You have done your duty, son, as you saw it. You are a wonderful son.”