Gaining Awareness
Me saying goodbye to my 7 year old daughter as I left for a 10 month deployment. I deployed fairly often in our marriage and when the kids were little; those were somewhat easy. The wife understood and the kids were so young they got through it fairly easy.
This deployment was right after our family spent 18 months living in an RV (while I was in grad school) and spending every moment together on the California coast hiking up and down miles and miles of trails. My daughter and I had grown particularly close; I taught her to read, I walked her to school each day, we spend evening on the beach, and rainy days coloring together or watching Dr Who.
The trip in question (that really hurt), was virtually a no notice trip. One moment we are back in North Carolina (on another camping trip) and two weeks later, I am leaving for 10+ months. This was the first time she understood (albeit in a limited way) some of the dangers associated with the trip and the length of time.
I will always remember her soul wrenching sobbing as I left…
As a follow up, I helped her over the trip by writing her (and her sister and her mother) daily. I even got access to several dozen children’s books and read them to her (on a DVD) and then sent them to her as a package weekly.
Even though she is now turning 16, I occasionally see her looking through them from time to time…
Story credit : Reddit / GreenSalsa96