I just read this article called “Military families often live alone, feel as if news news is imminent” on Stars and Stripes. It’s been a while since an article has offended me but this one really got to me for some reason. Here’s why:”Becky keeps her house a little cleaner when her husband is serving in Afghanistan, just in case.

She knows the odds of her husband dying or suffering a serious injury are small, yet the specter of a knock on the door haunts the edges of her consciousness.

So she clears the clutter from the kitchen table. She learns how to fix the lawn tractor. She handles the finances and takes out the garbage and lets her daughters kill their own spiders.

She wants her family to be able to run the household alone.

Just in case.”I have never met a military spouse that lives with a daily fear of their loved one not coming back. It would literally drive you insane. Yes, it’s always in the back of your mind but you learn to accept the fact that sometimes no news really IS good news.You learn to pick up the house, mow the lawn, care for the kids, tend to the finances, and everything else because you HAVE to. Who else is going to do it? You don’t do it because you’re afraid they won’t come home, you do it because it’s what you need to do to feel as normal as possible.You don’t do it incase someone shows up at your door unannounced with bad news, you do it for you and your family.

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