Here's a story that is a case in point: Vermont held its annual youth
hunting weekend last Saturday, November 6 and 7. One 10-year-old went
out with his father on Saturday, hoping for a deer.
His best friend was unable to go on Saturday because his father is
serving in Afghanistan right now. The 10-year-old's dad stepped up to
take his son's best friend out on Sunday, while the 10-year-old's uncle
took him back out.
When a service person leaves to serve their country it creates a ripple
effect throughout their immediate family, outward to extended family and
friends and outward further into the local community and beyond.
Mothers and fathers miss their children's birthdays, first days of
school, Viking Halloween costume, first steps, first adventure with the
tooth fairy and much, much more. Children miss their parents' birthdays,
miss Christmas with their parents, miss Thanksgiving.
When one parent is gone, aunts and uncles, grandparents, in-laws,
siblings, cousins and friends step up to help and to fill in to make
sure that lives run as smoothly as possible while all involved worry
about their loved one in hostile territory under unknown circumstances.
Look what it takes to try to make life run smoothly whenever all
participants in a family are home. Imagine removing one-half of the work
team when a parent is deployed. Imagine how it weighs on the parents of
those deployed -whether they are young or old, healthy or infirm.
Someone else can and does step in to take up the slack.
Beyond the most obvious and mortal danger that service people face when
deployed, their absence creates an this enormous void that creates a
ripple effect that flows out from family to extended family to
community.
Thanks to all who have served and those who are serving and those who paddle into the ripples to help.
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