Thank You

    I hate being alone. There was s time in Chris's career when he traveled once a month. Inevitably, some catastrophe would occur that I would be forced to handle. With him gone, I feel incomplete. We don't need to engage in chatter or deep, dark discussions. Just knowing he's close is enough. As I write this, he's in the office working on the message for his niece''s wedding. Next week he will be the officiant at that union, and has been putting his heart  into the message. That's okay with me. As long as he's around some place nearby, I'm fine. Chris completes me.

     I only have to deal with his absence occasionally. A friend of mine is having a party to celebrate the return of her husband from over a year long deployment. Sean, my friend's husband, is active duty  National Guard and spent the last fourteen months or so deployed  to our nation's capital. My friend was also a co-worker, so I would see firsthand the sacrifices she made too. She never complained, just accepted her role graciously. Periodically, I would put myself in her position. I know I would've moaned and groaned about Chris's deployment, not accepting it as a part  of the life of a soldier as cheerfully as she did.

    My friend always was upbeat, even though I knew it was difficult at times. She was the poster-child of deployed of spouses. And now I'm going to a party today to celebrate Sean's return home and the fact that the two are completed once again. 

    So the next time you see a service person and thank him or her for their service, thank the spouse too. That person sacrificed just as much as the soldier. That person kept their home in tact, paid the bills, parented kids, mowed the lawn. and a thousand other chores so the spouse could serve knowing things were taken care of on the home front.

    It's good for me Chris never became a soldier. Deployments are hard all around. So, today, let me thank both the soldier and the spouse for their sacrifice. Out of deference to them, I won't post their picture.