TALLMADGE: Edie Deyarmin admitted surprise at her reaction as she heard news on television Thursday morning about the formal ending of the war in Iraq.When she tried to explain it later, there was long pause. Deyarmin, 49, was momentarily overcome with emotion as she put her feelings into words more than six years after her only son’s death — in combat in Iraq.“There is a lot of emptiness,” Deyarmin said. “Although he is not here, I still talk to him every day.”Lance Cpl. Daniel Nathan Deyarmin Jr., 22, a 2002 graduate of Tallmadge High School and a Marine sniper, was killed with four other Reservists on Aug. 1, 2005.Deyarmin, a Tallmadge school bus driver, said she did not cry when she listened to Thursday’s news report, but “it affected me differently than I thought it would.”Following her son’s death, Deyarmin’s family started a charity in his name. It has raised more than $130,000 for U.S. veterans and helping others has helped “with our grief and by honoring” her son, she said.“Emotionally, it is hard, but when you help somebody else out of honor for someone else, it helped us a great deal.”Her work in preparation of the Lance Cpl. Daniel Nathan Deyarmin Jr. Memorial Benefit Run, to be held June 10 at Tallmadge Middle School, has brought her and her family in touch with many veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.“Some guys might have come home, but they aren’t the same,” she said.She said some of the members of Akron’s Weapons Company, who served with her son, have “bared their souls” when she has met with them. “They start crying,” she said.Daniel Deyarmin served with the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Division — a Reserve unit from which 48 Marines and sailors were killed in action.This fall, Deyarmin spoke to Marine veterans from her son’s unit at a reunion at the Summit County Fairgrounds.“A lot of them are struggling now,” she said.But life moves on, and there is healing, Deyarmin said.Her daughter and son-in-law, Erica and Jason Lara, now have two children: Jocelyn, 4, and Nathan, named after Erica’s brother.“The birth of the kids and having new life in the family after you lose someone opens your eyes that there is life after,” Deyarmin said.She said her son did not die in vain.“He was under orders and doing the job he was ordered to do,” Deyarmin said.“Yes, I wish we didn’t have so many losses and injured, but my eyes have been widened by the scope of loss and veterans in need,” she said.She hopes the veterans her organization helps can come to live life fully in the years ahead.“They need to live the best life they can for the ones who aren’t here, who were killed,” she said.For more on the Deyarmin charitable organization, go to www.dndfund.org or email jeffrey@dndfund.org or go to the group’s Facebook page, LCPL Daniel “Nate” Deyarmin Memorial Benefit Poker Run/Car Show.Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or at jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.