Staff Sgt. Marc Small would return from Afghanistan, where he served with 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), and marry his fiancée, Amanda Charney. He’d hit the books and become a physician assistant. She’d run a home-based speech and language pathology practice for children — Small Steps in Speech would be a good name, he figured. They’d start a family outside of Philadelphia.

They would run at least one marathon. They would visit every continent.

Plans changed Feb. 12, 2009, three weeks into Small’s deployment, when the Special Forces medic died in Faramuz after insurgents attacked his unit with rocket-propelled grenades.

In a fog of grief so thick she still doesn’t remember many details, Charney set about preparing for Small’s funeral. That included creating a charity organization to accept donations in Small’s memory.

Small Steps in Speech would be a good name, she figured.

Friends offered comfort by designing logos and putting paperwork together.

“After I lost Marc … I think I was a walking zombie,” Charney said in a Nov. 7 interview. “I’m glad that my job even kept me. I don’t know how it happened so quickly — before we even had his funeral … within days, we already had fliers.

“We were thinking it would be […]