A Summer’s Midnight Meeting

            A few weeks ago, I began a series of stories called “Sergeant Murphy.”  These stories are true-life events that have happened during separations we have endured throughout my husband’s military career.  Each of these stories owes its existence to Murphy’s Law…that rule that says “If it can go wrong, it will.” 
            Dear Reader, you may be appalled by the next “Sgt. Murphy” story.  You will think me a terribly irresponsible mother, and I am quite certain that if we ever meet in person, you will hesitate before allowing your children to spend the night with mine.  That being said, here goes…
           
            The afternoon had been delightful.  The girls had played all day with their friend Emma, and they were not ready to stop, but Emma’s mother had walked across the street to retrieve her for dinner.  It was, after all, the last day of summer, and school was to start the next day.  While Emma’s mother and I chatted at the front door, the girls whispered and giggled and said their good-byes.  Emma and her mother retreated to their house, and I sent my then-seven-year-old twins upstairs for their baths.  The evening was uneventful and everyone went to bed ready to begin school the next morning.
            One of the common occurrences during deployments is “light sleeping.”  Not having one’s husband next to her in bed can cause a woman to be more “on her guard.”  So, there was many a night when I would wake to the sounds of passing cars or barking dogs.
            On this particular night, I woke to the sound of shouting.  I sat up and listened again.  What was that sound?  The moon shone through the sliding glass doors that led to a balcony off my bedroom, so I got out of bed and donned the multi-colored bathrobe that I loved dearly, but only wore during deployments because Mac hated it so much. 
            The shouting started again, and it seemed closer this time.  And it sounded like a child.  Or maybe more than one.  “What kind of parents would have their children outside shouting at two-o’clock in the morning the night before the first day of school?”   I thought with judgmental disbelief. 
            Again the shouting.  So I ran downstairs and looked out the front and back windows, only to see my precious twin daughters’ tear-streaked faces pressed against the panes of the downstairs sliding glass doors as the begged to be let in the house.  “Oh no!” I thought “What has happened to my little girls?”
            I promptly opened the back door, whisked the girls inside, and knelt down to hug them and ensure them they were safe…right before I demanded to know what in the world they were doing outside at 2:00 a.m.  The sobbing, blubbering little girls described the plan they had hatched with Emma that afternoon while Emma’s mother and I visited at the front door.  Because they had not been ready to cease playing dress-up rock-star, they decided to “synchronize their watches” and meet at Emma’s house at midnight.  But when Emma’s mother got up to get a drink of water in the middle of the night, the girls thought they were caught. 
            They decided to return home.  But when they got back across the street, they realized they had locked themselves out of the house.  “Try the back door” they thought.  But it, too, was locked.  They must have been so scared!  So they began banging on the window, yelling and crying for Mom to let them come back inside the safety of the house. 
            I didn’t know whether to erupt with anger at the danger of their actions, laugh at the innocence of it, cry out of fear of what could have happened had I discovered them missing or had a stranger found two little girls alone outside in the middle of the night, or even smile with pride at the ingenuity of my daughters.  I did all of the above and more.              When all was calm and the girls were safely tucked in their beds, I called my mother back in the States.  I relayed the story of the preceding hour to her and got reassurance that I was indeed not the worst mother to ever walk the face of the earth.  She then proceeded to entertain me with stories of my own “ingenious” ideas as a little girl, such as trying to turn my grandparents’ bed into a swimming pool by pouring water into the mattress. 
            The next day Emma’s mother and I met and each had stern, but loving discussions with each other’s daughters.  We also decided not to let the girls play together for a while, as we knew that would be severe enough punishment for them…these girls had been inseparable before this escapade.  But we failed to discuss how we would break the news to our husbands, who were both in Iraq.  We felt that this news would only worry them, and that there was little they could do from their remote locations to help the situation, so we didn’t even approach the subject.  This is a necessity in deployments.  We spouses don’t “hide” information, but we do filter it so the soldiers can keep their minds focused on the mission at hand and not be distracted by worries at home when they should be focusing on flying helicopters or helping injured comrades.
            A few weeks later, Mac told me he had run into Emma’s father at a meeting.  “What did he say?”  I asked, a bit too eagerly.
“Nothing,” Mac returned.  “What were you expecting him to say?”
“Oh bother!”  I sighed, just before filling him in on his daughters’ recent midnight antics. 
             My girls are older now.  They are approaching adolescence, and I just pray that the fear they felt outside the safety of their house on that night in August in Germany will stay with them enough to keep them from “sneaking out” again.  Well, a mother can hope, can’t she?
            Now pardon me, my Dear Reader.  It is getting late, and although I trust my daughters…I really do…I need to go peek in at them, as I do every night now, and make sure they are sleeping safely in their beds!           

 

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If you would like to help deployed military members and their families, there are a number of resources available.  The following excerpt is from http://www.military.com/Resources/ResourceFileView?file=Holiday_Help.htm

What can you do to show support for servicemembers, especially those serving overseas? Below are Websites for several organizations that are sponsoring programs for members of the Armed Forces overseas. Servicemembers do value and appreciate any expressions of support you can send them.

Donate a calling card to help keep servicemembers in touch with their families at Operation Uplink at http://www.operationuplink.org/

Send a greeting via e-mail through Operation Dear Abby at http://anyservicemember.navy.mil/ or http://www.OperationDearAbby.net

Sign a virtual thank you card at the Defend America Web site at http://www.defendamerica.mil/nmam.html

Send messages to soldiers through the new forum "Messages for Soldiers" at http://www.mfsusa.org/main.html

Make a donation to one of the military relief societies:

Army Emergency Relief at http://www.aerhq.org/

Navy/Marine Relief Society at http://www.nmcrs.org/

Air Force Aid Society at http://www.afas.org/

Coast Guard Mutual Assistance at http://www.cgmahq.org/

Donate to "Operation USO Care Package" at http://www.usometrodc.org/care.html

Support the American Red Cross Armed Forces Emergency Services at http://www.redcross.org/services/afes/

Donate Blood to the Armed Services Blood Program; for more information, visit http://www.tricare.osd.mil/asbpo/

Volunteer at a VA Hospital to honor veterans who bore the lamp of freedom in past conflicts. Find the VA health facility nearest you.

Support families whose loved ones are being treated at military and VA hospitals through a donation to the Fisher House at http://www.fisherhouse.org.

Reach out to military families in your community, especially those with a loved one overseas.

Please do not flood the military mail system with letters, cards, and gifts. Due to security concerns and transportation constraints, the Department of Defense cannot accept items to be mailed to "Any Servicemember." Some people have tried to avoid this prohibition by sending large numbers of packages to an individual servicemember's address, which however well intentioned, clogs the mail and causes unneccessary delays.

The support and generosity of the American people has touched the lives of many servicemembers, over 300,000 of whom are deployed overseas.

 

Sadie McCurry is a Catholic military wife and mother of four.  She and her husband have been married for 13 years and have twin 10-year-old girls, a 7-year-old boy and a 4-month-old boy.  They are currently stationed at Ft. Wainwright, Alaska, near Fairbanks.  Sadie has her bachelor’s degree in Health Education with a Certificate in Nutrition.