“The mementos of a childhood were laid out on two tables behind the yellow house with green shutters at 146 Warren Ave. A shoebox full of baseball cards sat next to a stuffed gorilla and a copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A worn basketball rested on the grass below with a remote-controlled car.

“At the center, a pair of military boots was propped up on a folding chair with a camouflage shirt draped over the back. U.S. MARINES was printed on the left breast. VALDEPENAS was on the right.”

The scene was in the backyard of the two-story Colonial where he grew up, his parents, five sisters and two brothers-in-law interrupted their grieving to talk about the 21-year-old soldier whom they called “our hero.” Two brothers were on the way home. Valdepenas is the latest in a growing list of area residents who have been killed in Iraq since 2003, including three who died in April of this year.

Valdepenas was single and the youngest of eight children in his Filipino-American family from Seekonk. He is survived by his father Jesus Bernal Valdepenas, his mother Anne-Marie Valdepenas, two brothers and five sisters.

The Journal continued:

“As they went up to a podium in front of a group of television cameras,  they walked past the display they had created in memory of the youngest  member of their close Filipino-American family. One sister, Edna-Anne  Valdepenas, held the arm of her 70-year-old father, Dr. Jesus B. Valdepenas, in support.

 “A doctor with a family practice in East Providence, he spoke through tears  as he told reporters, ‘I miss my son.’ The last time anyone in the family saw Valdepenas, a machine gunner, was last March before his reserve unit was deployed to Iraq. He was in his sophomore year at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst when his unit, the 1st Battalion, 25th Marines, weapons company, was called up in December 2005.

 “’He told me, ‘Dad, you’re going to be proud of me,’Jesus Valdepenas said in barely a whisper. He paused, then spoke again. ‘He’s not coming back anymore.’”

Edna-Anne Valdepenas made the only political statement during the news conference. She described herself as “a Quaker educator” and said that her younger brother died in an “unjust war.”

“I know that this loss tears at the fabric of my being,” she said.

Two other Marines, from Tulsa, Okla., and Overland, Kan., were killed with Valdepenas when their vehicle was struck by  the bomb, known as an improvised explosive device, in Falluja, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Defense. One of the men was in Valdepenas’ unit, which is based in Ayer, Mass.

The unit was scheduled to return late next month, and Valdepenas , who had received numerous military honors, including a Purple Heart, had planned to go back to school to finish his engineering degree, his family said.

Valdepennas’ sister Nora Lough said the members of the family felt a duty to talk to the media about Eric and what they described as his exemplary life. They are devout Catholics and several invoked God when they spoke.

“Live Jesus in our hearts forever,” Ann-Marie Valdepenas told reporters as she talked about her son.

The line is part of a prayer repeated at the beginning and end of each school day by students at Bishop Hendricken High School, the all-boys Catholic school in Warwick that Valdepe±as graduated from in 2003.

In a cracked voice, she tried to explain that they were words her son lived by. She called him a “loving, kind, loyal friend.”

Valdepenas followed his two older brothers to Bishop Hendricken after  going to middle school at St. Margaret’s School, in Rumford.

 He’s the second Bishop Hendricken graduate to die in the Iraq war. Army  Capt. Matthew August, of North Kingstown, was killed Jan. 27, 2004, and is one of 10 men and women from Rhode Island who have died in the war.

Bishop Hendricken set up a memorial yesterday for Valdepenas with pictures and a vase of flowers. An American flag outside the entrance to the school flew at half-staff.

Valdepenas was an honors student at Bishop Hendricken but his true love was lacrosse. His lacrosse stick leaned against a table in the yard beside a picture of Valdepenas in action wearing his green Hawks jersey with the number “25" emblazoned on the front.

Valdepenas’ family has set up a scholarship in his name that will likely be awarded to a member of the Hawks lacrosse team. Donations to the Eric P. Valdepenas Memorial Scholarshiop Fund can be made to Bishop Hendricken High School, 2615 Warwick Ave., Warwick, RI 02889.