October 24, 2011

Army Wife: Professional Griever

As an army wife, the grieving process never ends.

You grieve for your friend's husband who is wounded.
For the father who wasn't there to see his daughter at her first ballet recital.
For the Anniversary that was celebrated thousands of miles away
For the missed holidays and Birthday parties
For your own loneliness
For every other wife.
You tear up every time you hear a child asks you where her daddy is,
if her daddy will come home if she is a good girl,
why other kids have their daddy's all the time and

...if her daddy loves her the same as the daddies who are home.


 You grieve every time your husband isn't next to you in the morning
 every time something else breaks,
every time he isn't there when something goes wrong,
every time you can't tell him about your life
because

 it will worry him..

Every time you hear that your hardship is normal
to be expected
for the rest of your service.


We get real good at grieving real fast. It's so fast, we skip right on down to acceptance after a good 30 seconds. Not every time, but most times. Maybe a single tear can escape, that is, if we have time for it. Chances are, we don't. We get paid for this. We are proud of this. We hate this.


...that's good and all, but what do YOU think?
when do you grieve? 
what is the hardest thing to cry about? 
do you think that other non-military families have some of these issues too?

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