Today’s Flashback Friday entry was originally posted on 9/4/07 at Exit 51.
You Are Here
Every story begins somewhere. I mean you wouldn’t open a book and start reading from the middle would you? So I guess it helps to know where this story began to take in the scenery here along Exit 51.
I got to thinking about the notion of when exactly I started down this road because I’ve got a trip coming up to go to the Toronto International Film Festival. Back in 2001 I had exactly the same plan – just watch movies, spend time with friends, and enjoy myself.
Only I never got there. I was supposed to get on a plane on September 13, 2001. As we all know, it took a while for flights to resume after the 11th. And as far removed as I was from any direct connection to the events in New York, DC, or Pennsylvania, I’m still feeling the effects of a chain reaction that was set in motion that day.
If it hadn’t been for that day, I would not have met my husband. He was in the middle of packing up, selling his house, and moving out of state in October 2001. Then he got word that his National Guard unit was being mobilized for a year. Bye-bye Austin, hello Aberdeen. It was during that mobilization that we met.
Fast forward to October 2004. On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, surrounded by family and friends, we became husband and wife. All through the process of planning our wedding, the idea of another deployment was in the back of our minds. We’d even gotten a second marriage license just in case orders came through before our planned date and we needed to visit the courthouse. But thankfully, the day went without interruption from the Global War on Terrorism.
Two weeks to the day after our wedding, I got the worst news possible. Orders were coming through for an extended deployment. In that moment, I was no longer the ‘newlywed’. I became the ‘war bride’. The next two months were spent in crisis management mode pulling together what usually takes a lifetime – wills, power of attorney, cemetery plots and burial plans. Have you ever tried to buy a life insurance policy for someone going into a war zone?
Eighteen months later we are reunited. We buy a house. We get on with the business of building our life together. And then eight months later it happens all over again. By the time we reach our 3rd wedding anniversary later this year, we will have only spent 15 months together in the same place. The Army, the Global War on Terror, has had him more than I have.
I think about that a lot with this trip coming up. That one day which so profoundly and utterly marked a country, changed lives, is still being felt in countless ways. For me, I see it every time I open the door to an empty house, with every piece of his mail that I have to open, in the face of people when they learn that he deployed again.
That’s how I got here and I can’t do a thing to change what’s happened. I can’t rewrite world history. Nor do I think I would even if I knew then what I know now. How could I, knowing that the same force that has taken him away from me twice now is what brought him into my life in the first place.
Bon Appetit Hon 
What an amazing course of events. I’m so glad he came home both times. Have fun in Toronto!
Oh, that Toronto trip was almost three years ago. This is from the old blog that I’m taking down one post at a time.
Wendi, I don’t know how you did the separation. I know it’s the hardest thing for military families and it almost breaks up many. I hope the GWOT doesn’t take him away again!
Beth, it was a surreal experience, both times. I’ve got my fingers crossed that the rest of his military career is GWOT Free.
“How could I, knowing that the same force that has taken him away from me twice now is what brought him into my life in the first place.”
Very honorable of you. It has to be completely horrible being alone, thinking of your love, praying he’s safe. My heart goes out to you girly. Let’s hope he doesn’t have to go any time soon.
The first time he had to go, I had no idea what I was in for. The second time, I was painfully aware of what it was like. Deciding to put my attention into a blog was one of the better coping mechanisms I came up with. Fortunately, only the cat and the fish saw the evidence of the less effective things I tried.
And the second time, I was lucky enough to meet an awesome NG wife who could completely understand what I was going through. Not only that, she was doing it with two small kids. To this day, she has my undying respect and admiration because I don’t know that I could have risen to that level of challenge.
Both eloquent and poignant! Thank you for sharing. It makes me misty. What a soldier YOU are!
Thanks Emily. That was certainly not a time I’d like to relive but it had a few good moments too.