I am a military wife - a member of that sisterhood of
women
who have had the courage to watch their men go into battle,
and the
strength to survive until their return.
Our sorority knows no rank,
for
we earn our membership with a marriage license,
traveling over miles, or over
nations
to begin a new life with our military husbands.
Within days, we turn a barren,
echoing building into a
home,
and though our quarters are inevitably white-walled and unpapered,
we decorate with the treasures of our travels,
for we shop the markets
of the globe.
Using hammer and nail, we tack our pictures to the wall,
and
our roots to the floor as firmly as if we had lived there for a lifetime.
We
hold a family together by the bootstraps,
and raise the best of "brats,"
instilling in them the motto,
"Home is togetherness,"
whether motel, or
guest house, apartment or duplex.
As military wives we soon realize that the only good
in
"Good-bye" is the "Hello again."
For as salesmen for freedom,
our
husbands are often on the road, at sea, or in the sky,
leaving us behind for
a week, a month, an assignment.
During separations we guard the home
front,
existing until the homecoming.
Unlike our civilian counterparts, we measure time,
not by
years, but by tours -
married at Knox, a baby born at Portsmouth,
a
special anniversary at Yorktown, a promotion in McDill.
We plant trees, and
never see them grow tall,
work on projects completed long after our
departure,
and enhance our community for the betterment
of those who
come after us.
We leave a part of ourselves at every stop.
Through experience,
we have learned to pack a suitcase, a
car or hold baggage,
and live indefinitely from the contents within:
and though
our fingers are sore from the patches we have sewn,
and the silver we have
shined,
our hands are always ready to help those around us.
Women of peace, we pray for a world in harmony,
for the flag
that leads our men into battle,
will also blanket them in death.
Yet we
are an optimistic group, thinking of the good,
and forgetting the bad,
cherishing yesterday,
while anticipating tomorrow.
Never rich by monetary standards,
our hearts are overflowing
with a wealth of experiences
common only to those united by the special
tradition of military life.
We pass on this legacy to every military bride,
welcoming her with outstretched arms,
with love and friendship, from one
sister to another,
sharing in the bounty of our unique, fulfilling military
way of life.