Yellow Ribbons.

As my husband was parallel parking today we noticed an elderly woman on her afternoon stroll.  Alex stopped to let her pass (she was walking on the street right up against the cars) and surprisingly, she stopped at the window and stuck her hand in to shake Alex's hand and said "Thank you for serving." Looked at me, stuck her hand in further and said, "Thank you, too. I know it's a family affair."

I was kinda confused as to why or how she even know Alex was a member of the Armed Forces, then I remembered he still had the decal on his car.

We thanked her, and she went on her way.

Even though Alex is out (officially on August 13, 2010), I couldn't help but feel extremely proud of him. It was definitely one of those moments that put my feet back on the ground.  I'll definitely miss that about San Diego.  With such a strong military presence, many San Diegans (in my opinion) are very grateful, respectful and polite to our troops.


This isn't the first time that I have been thanked or acknowledged for being the wife of a Marine, or troop.  When my husband was promoted, his shop (co-workers) and him gave me a bouquet of flowers and his co-worker said to me, "We wanted to give you a little something, too.  Because they say the hardest job in the Marines is being a Marine Wife." Everytime this has happened, I never fully understood why until recently.

I used to always think, "Why are you thanking me?  I didn't go overseas.  I didn't sacrifice my rights, my life and my self.  I don't suit-up and boot-up everyday."


Even though he and I have only been married for a year, dated for a very short time before that and I haven't gone through what most spouses have gone through to other people I am a Military Spouse, they don't know the details.  And with befriending many other "wives", fiances and girlfriends; I've come to understand why they are so frequently acknowledged and even thanked.

We have to deal with everything he has to deal with.  If they issue him duty three weekends in a row so he has no days off for weeks on end, we deal with his exhaustion and crankiness.  If they tell him he has to stay at work til midnight, we save a plate of dinner, eat alone and sleep alone.  If they tell him to be at work at 5:00am, you're there dropping him off.  If they say that next week he will be gone for nine weeks, we help him pack his things and wait patiently for his return.  If they tell him that he won't know when he's coming home until he is on the plane landing on the tarmac, we drop everything and go once we get that one phone call we've been waiting for since the beginning of time, at least thats what it feels like.  If they tell him his leave is cut short and we're attending my grandmothers funeral, we're there at the airport in the middle of the wake dropping him off.  If they tell him he has to come to work on Saturday morning, we cancel the reservation you made on a three-month wait-list. If they call and say, "pack your things you're deploying tomorrow.", we save our tears for when he's gone.

There's so many things I've seen spouses and significant others endure.  From my understanding now, they are thanked and acknowledged because when the higher-ups say what's going to happen, that's it.  Point. Blank. Period.  There's nothing we can say or do, so we just accept it and move on.

After tomorrow, I won't be a part of the "we" anymore... but I just wanted to say my piece whilst still applicable.

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