Kerry meets grieving family

CHICAGO – The family of Anne Smedinghoff, the young diplomat killed earlier this month in Afghanistan, met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for about an hour Monday at O’Hare International Airport.

The family returned to their River Forest, Ill., home after the closed-door meeting and said they found Kerry’s words “comforting.”

“It really reinforces for us that Anne was part of a very close-knit family of very dedicated people who are serving our country in so many different ways,” said Tom Smedinghoff, Anne’s father, as he read from a piece of paper outside his home.

Anne Smedinghoff, 25, was killed along with four other Americans – three soldiers and an interpreter contracted with the government – in a bomb blast on April 6 in the southern province of Zabul.

Kerry was returning from a 10-day trip to the Middle East, Europe and Asia. He descended from his Air Force plane at O’Hare and walked to a building off the tarmac to meet Smedinghoff’s parents and three siblings for a private, roughly one-hour meeting.

Kerry had met Smedinghoff in late March in Kabul, where she was one of the embassy staff helping to organize his visit.

Tom Smedinghoff carried a glass vase filled with white roses when he returned with his family to River Forest. The family came out of the home briefly to meet with reporters on the front lawn. Along their street white ribbons hung on trees and small American flags waved in the grass.

Kerry is one of a number of State Department employees who have reached out to the family, Tom Smedinghoff said.

During Monday’s visit, Kerry expressed his condolences and talked about Smedinghoff’s work as well as his personal memories of her during his trip to Kabul, her father said. In return, the family told Kerry more about Anne, Tom Smedinghoff said.

“Everybody understands and feels that kind of a loss,” Kerry told employees earlier at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.