The G.I. Gap

One thing I deal with now that I did not in Canada is family and church members away serving our country.

As I have only been an American Citizen for four years, all the questions and answers I had to know are pretty much still in my head.

I have two living room shelves with Americana; T-shirts, jewelry and even a crocheted American flag purse.

Jesse has less than a year to go in the Marines and has just left for his third tour of Iraq. He joined right out of high school and every time he is home, it is amazing to see how muscular and fit he is! He is even quieter than he used to seem and a little more serious. His Dad told me one time that even when Jesse was a young boy visiting Jamaica, he wanted to help people. So he is doing the ultimate helping by serving his country. I feel his family – especially his Mother - are serving their country too. There is a tremendous gap without Jesse. Our entire church feels it!

Our granddaughter, Meghan, signed up almost two years ago for Army duty and she is currently in South Korea.

Hopefully, Meghan is not so much in harm’s way, but she sure is a long way from home. We miss her a lot. We wonder what she is doing. She is fifteen hours ahead of us and we keep a watch by the phone set to “her time” to remind us. We pray every day that she is well and wonder what her military service life is like.

The phone calls are few but we enjoy the e-mails. The e-mail that did make me laugh went something like,

“No, no, no, I cannot receive a text message – that is a regular phone that has to be hooked up to a computer.“ Uh, oh!

We miss Meghan a lot! She loves macaroni and I e-mail her that we are eating some tonight in her honor. I try to tease her about things like that, but I also let her know how much we really miss her and pray for her and look forward to her being home.

I think a lot about what she is missing. The biggest thing, of course, is her niece, Ava.

Then I think about all the fathers – and some mothers – who are missing all the little things that children do at different stages. I think about the wives who are trying to cope without husbands and some husbands who are also coping back home. I think about all the little things children do at different stages that these Patriots are missing.

We do write letters every month to be placed in the packages the Legion auxiliary sends to our hometown military. I put comic strips in with them and remind them how much we appreciate what they are doing to keep America free. The men and women look forward to opening these packages but mostly, I know they look forward to coming home!