Sacrifice

On Sunday we celebrated our nation’s freedom, on Tuesday I was reminded just how high the price of freedom is. My friend called me last night with the terrible news that our friend’s fiancée had been killed in Afghanistan on Monday morning. He was killed alongside a few other soldiers by an I.E.D. He was to return home next month and they were getting married in the fall.

I cannot begin to imagine what she is going through now that her entire world has turned upside down. She was moving in with this same friend who told me the news in August until their wedding in the fall. After that she was moving with him to Ft. Bragg where he is stationed, and was going to complete school there. He was getting out of the Army in 2 years, when they would return to this area and he would start teaching. They have been together since high school and are so in love.

I became very emotional when I found out, which is unlike me, but this is perhaps the first time I have truly been faced with the gravity of the consequences of this war. Not only for my friend, but for all military spouses. With my husband in a guard unit 3 hours away I have never become involved in an FRG or gotten to know the other soldiers he works with or their spouses well. While K was deployed he told me when they lost a few guys, but as sad and tragic as their deaths were, they were still just a faceless name.

Now, I know him, and I know my friend and everything she had been planning, hoping, dreaming is shattered. Remembering how just a few days ago she was showing off her wedding gown and counting down the days until he returned and we were shopping for a dress for his homecoming and convincing her that she should make a welcome home sign to hang on the fence at his homecoming is heartbreaking.

Please send out a prayer for my friend and his family as they go through this trying time. “It is good that war is so terrible or we should grow too fond of it.” – I can’t remember who this is by