The Military Wife

Inspired by and dedicated to my loving wife who has been by my side through thick and thin.

The Military wife is a special individual. When she was a girl, her dreams were bold, as bold as her fine, free gaze. The every gift of grace and mind was hers in her younger days. When she was a girl, a golden girl, with a soul as fine as fire. She could outshine the brightest jewel that a rich man's love might buy her. Yes, hers could have been the glittering path thought careless, carefree life. But she fell in love with a soldier, so she became a military wife.

Away from the home of her childhood she marched at her husband's side. For she chose a wide and winding road when she became a bride. Sometimes the road was a hard one, so different for what she had planned; and sometimes she wept for him to come home, as he lay in a foreign land. Sometimes her steps would grow weary as she followed the drum and the life, but she set about making the world her home because she was a military wife.

She learned to build a hearth for them wherever her man was sent. She knelt to plant a seed of love every time he pitched his tent. Yes she always planted a seed of love and stepped back to watch it grow, for she knew before the love was gone he would have to go again. As she watched the plane go away it cut her like a knife, but she would stand there to be the comfort to her children of the military life.

To the hardships in her married life she brought one simple truth, a promise that once was spoken in the ancient words of Ruth:" Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people and their God shall be my God" She shared his joys and sorrows as they made their way through life. For she was proud to love a soldier and to be a military wife.

She bore the weight of worrying what fate might hold in store; And the wordless fear of waiting when her soldier went off to war. The nights that she spent fearing that her soldier was in vain; And the pain of wanting someone she might never hold again. She raised their children gladly through uncertainty and strife. They never heard her crying for she was a military wife.

She raised a military family with the faith her love had to hold; And she gave the pride she had inside to her son and daughter to hold. She taught them to love and know what freedom is worth. They helped her plant the seed of love for many around had heard. She never wished for better but went down the long life road. She is as much a soldier as I, for she is a very special Military Wife.

Wayne S