Editor’s note: The Dart is a weekly feature in which a reporter and a photographer throw a dart at a map and find a story where it lands.

NATCHEZ — Henry A. Bacon Jr. accomplished a great deal in 40 years.

He served his country in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army. He graduated from Copiah-Lincoln Community College and the University of Phoenix.

But the Natchez native and veteran still had a long list of to-dos when he lost his battle with multiple sclerosis in October 2011.

“He always wanted to go to England,” Bacon’s mother, Connie, said. “I told him if he ever got up out of that bed, we would find some way to go.”

But Connie never got to take that trip with Henry.

“I wouldn’t want to go now, not without him,” she said.

When The Dart landed on Dale Court last week, it found Connie at her house making plans for a trip to the Natchez National Cemetery to lay flowers on Henry’s grave for Memorial Day. She visits his grave at least twice a month.

Henry was diagnosed when he was 38 with multiple sclerosis after several trips to the Veterans Affairs hospital in Jackson.

“Apparently he’d had it for some time,” Connie said. “I don’t know why they didn’t catch it before then.”

While he was in the hospital, Connie visited Henry and when she couldn’t, Connie’s aunt and uncle came to sit with Henry.

“If I hadn’t had them, I never would have been able to make it,” she said.

The doctors did not give Connie much hope for her son. So six months after he was diagnosed, she brought him home to Natchez to care for him to avoid monthly $2,000 hospital bills.

“It was like they had given up on him,” she said. “I’m glad they didn’t have the last say in that.”

Connie cared for Henry with the help of her other son, Charles, 33, and family members.

They had nearly two years with Henry before he died. He was bedridden, but Connie said she and Henry did a lot of talking during that time.

“He tried to prepare me for his death, because I was in denial,” she said. “He would tell me all the time, ‘Momma, I’m dying,’ but I didn’t want to hear that. I never expected him to die that young.”

Connie has spent the nearly three years since Henry’s death trying to heal her heart.

She finds solace in the memories she has of Henry and dwells on those happy times to keep her grief at bay.

“He was such a joy to be around,” Connie said. “He did not meet any strangers. He just enjoyed life.

“I miss him. I miss him a lot.”