“Well,” a soldier said to me yesterday, “I miss my wife.” Then he smiled, looking pleased and surprised. “Did you tell her that” I asked? “Yes I did”, he replied with a wider smile and a little chuckle.
Although this rotation can be hard on marriages and relationships, it can also work the other way, as it has with this soldier. He and his wife have had rocky patches over 10 years of marriage, including one short period when he moved out of the house. But now being apart from her, he has come to realize how important to him she is.
Soldiers here need, and usually get, support from folks back home, and especially from the significant other. It’s difficult here to get many of the things we are used to having, even simple things like batteries or coffee. Our environment is not austere, but it is not particularly comfortable, so little comforts really make a difference.
When someone at home thinks of you, and helps by sending needs and comfort items, it feels good. I think it is often easy to take your partner and the things he or she does for you for granted. Being so far from home gives a distance that illustrates how much a person relies on a partner.
Stressing a relationship as this deployment does may cause weak ones to fall apart, but it can also show how strong a relationship is, even if one or both partners didn’t realize it.
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