I have noticed there are a lot of military spouses of retirees who comment on this blog. I think it's great to have the connections between generations. On my way home from Ft. Hood the other weekend I had an incredible conversation with a spouse of a retired Naval Officer. We were sitting on the plane just chit-chatting for a while, then we started talking about where each of us lived. Of course I said that "currently" I live in PA, but my husband is in the Army and we move about every 3 years or so. Then this wonderful spouse told me her husband spent 27 years in the Navy - and I knew this flight (2 1/2 hours) was going to be a memory that I would never forget.
I will refer to the spouse I talked to as "Dee." (I do know her real name, but I have no clue how to spell it and I will be horrified if I mis-spell it)!
I told Dee a little about my husband being wounded and some of the hardships we experienced - and I also shared some of the great things that evolved from my husband being wounded (i.e. I would most likely not be an author of SpouseBUZZ if my husband had not been wounded and Project Valour-IT would probably not exist either). Dee shared her experiences about raising her kids alone while her husband was gone and the fact that she usually wasn't near her family. Sound familiar to anyone??? We talked about the (emotional) build-ups before our spouses deployed and the stress of what to expect when they came home. Still sounding familiar??? We talked about moving, leaving our friends and families, raising our children, living on or off post/base, and the list goes on. There were so many thing we talked about and we connected AS MILITARY SPOUSES on what our lives are/were like.
Dee's husband actually retired around 1980 and died a few years later from cancer. Even though she was a military spouse long before I was, we had this great connection and this feeling of "I understand" when we were talking. It was great... something I'll cherish forever. I gave Dee a big hug before we parted ways. I hope all of you have the chance to connect with other military spouses from other generations as I did.
