A Mount Vernon mom spent another Christmas without her soldier son, who died in Iraq in 2002.

U.S. Marine Bernard Goodin, 22, was killed in Bagdad when a grenade struck the tank he was in. His mother Carmen Palmer says Christmas and the Fourth of July are the hardest holidays to cope with.

?He was a good kid, a kid every mother would love,? Palmer says. ?He was my only child.?

More than 4,000 U.S. servicemen and women have been killed since the war in Iraq began, so Palmer was not the only one with a missing seat at Christmas dinner.

Palmer says she understands how families with loved ones overseas feel during the holidays and knows the struggles they face everyday. ?It's very painful. I just want them to come home, stop the killing so everybody could be at ease,? Palmer says.