It’s 2019, the year is fast coming to a close and within hours 2020 will make a grand entrance. Through the years my New Year’s resolutions have included losing weight, eliminating debt, learning a foreign language and refining various skills. Every year I vow to finish a box of craft projects I’ve accumulated in various stages of completion. Generally, my resolve weakens as the weeks and months go by and I end up feeling defeated once again. However, in retrospect, it occurs to me that I eat healthier than I ever have, I know a smattering of Tagalog and Spanish, I can read music well enough to plunk out a tune on the piano and I have better spending habits than I practiced many years ago. My biggest failing keeps company in that box of unfinished craft projects. I certainly haven’t perfected any of my resolutions. I am a work in progress and I take a small measure of pride in that accomplishment.
One year ago, I got a phone call from my daughter. That wasn’t unusual. We talked or text weekly, at the very minimum. She got married at the age of 18 to a young man who joined the Air Force right out of high school. Her husband decided early on that armed services would be a career choice. They married September 26, 1992, and within days they were gone to a duty station in Las Vegas, Nevada, Nellis Air Force Base. That’s only a six-hour drive from our home and we visited a couple of times, but within a year, they got orders to transfer to Lakenheath Air Base in England. Five years later, they moved to Florida, Eglin Air Force Base, and then on to the McChord Air Base in Washington state.