Happy Mother's Day---yeah, right.

What a happy Mother's Day this poor woman celebrated. Read Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation below to feel the full impact of this story.

Rebecca McGee of Cary got a Mother's Day card on Monday from her son, Sgt. John McGee, who was stationed with his Alabama National Guard unit in Iraq.

The next day, the 72-year-old mother was getting ready for work when an Army chaplain arrived at her front door.

"I knew why he was there," McGee said. "I was stunned for words."

Sgt. John McGee, 36, was one of 23 soldiers who died in an explosion earlier this week while riding in a vehicle, said his mother. She did not know the cause of the blast.

"I really didn't cry," McGee said. "I said, 'Lord, have mercy' as I was walking around."