Wednesday, November 7, 2007

HOME SAFE AND SOUND

My brother-in-law came home safe and sound from Iraq a couple of weeks ago. My sister and her family live in Maryland so we finally got down to see him this past weekend. A relaxing and happy weekend was had by all. It was so nice to see my sister so content. It had been a long time since I had seen that.

My brother in law Brian left for his tour of duty in July of 2006. There had been talk about it for months, probably since December 2005, before he actually found out his guard unit was being called up. Around March he got the official word and my sister hadn’t slept since.

I would call her at least once a week to see how she was doing; “surviving” was all she could muster up. Taking care of her two girls, getting through each holiday, birthday and any other event that came up by her self was hard to watch. We made extra trips down there and she came up a couple of extra times but it was still difficult.

The thing with my sister and brother in law is that they are one of those rare couples that get along so well and love each other so much you can feel it when you are near them. You can walk around a corner and they are still sneaking kisses like teenagers, even after being together 16 years. So to say it was a difficult time for my sister is a true understatement. Next time, cut off her right arm, I'm sure that would be easier for her.

Luckily my brother in law wasn’t in direct combat, his specialty is black hawk helicopters and making sure they work properly and overseeing the mechanics. So thankfully he came home in one piece and didn’t have to deal with too much debriefing.

I got a call from her the day after Brian came home as they were having lunch at Hooters, (apparently they have delicious hot wings there, um…, yeah that’s what I would say if I was him!!). She had not sounded so happy and relaxed like that in so long.

Politically correct or not, all I have to say is Thank You God for bringing him home safe.

No comments: