Still unsure about Jay's date for coming home, he says there is a 'fair' chance he will be home for our anniversary, but who knows what that means :-) It's not like we haven't been 'here' before. during his 23 years of active duty, we have been separated for a lot of special occasions. We can usually make up for them when he comes home. We have even been known to have Christmas in February, when the boys were little, it really didn't matter to them. During this deployment, we will have missed Valentines, my Birthday, his Birthday and possibly our Anniversary. We will have a lot of 'making up' to do :-)
While I am still here in Calgary staying with our wonderful friends Chris and Tina I will tell you a little of our history with them. I met Tina back home in England, I think it was around 1984, she came to work at Orbro, a retail warehouse, for the Christmas season. I was already working there full time. I really didn't take to Tina at first, but we are the kind of friends now that can go years without seeing each other, but when we do it's like almost no time has gone by. It's funny, we were talking the other day and neither of us can pin down the date we last saw each other! Tina persuaded me to go to W.Germany with her almost 26 yrs ago to the day, she had been there before and had worked for a US military family as a nanny to their children. I was a little hesitant about doing this, but I realised that this would probably be the last time I would get an opportunity to do something 'different'. I promised myself I would give it a year and then come home to England and 'grow up'!
I found a position with a great family, two children ages 7 and 4, I enjoyed the job, but it was hard work, I wasn't just a nanny, I was more like an Au-pair! I did everything! Washing, cooking, cleaning and taking care of the kids, all for $50 a week! But, that is where I met Jay, it was on June 14th 1986, he actually dated another British nanny (one of our friends) for a couple of days, then she decided he wasn't her type ( I still tease him about that!) so, I got him :-) We started out with one dance and have been together ever since! We got engaged the following Jan 6th and married May 23rd:-) We stayed in Germany until Jay's tour was over in 1990. We had our first Son Nathan there in April 1988. we also introduced Chris to Tina at dinner one night in 1988 at our home, they have been together ever since too, they now have two children, Jamie who is almost 20 and Katie who just turned 14. They just celebrated 22 years of happy marriage in February. They are now citizens of Canada and just love it here. It is a beautiful Country and full of open spaces, I doubt they will ever leave. We have plans to bring our home on wheels here for visits whenever we can. Jay calls Tina and I 'Sisters', not by birth, but because we chose to be! We like that!
After our oldest Son, Nathan. Tina was the first person I called when we got the call that our youngest Son Matthew, had passed away at college in Nov' last year. Immediately she wanted to be with us, but Jay persuaded her to delay her coming until the week he was leaving for deployment (Jan 2nd) She came and spent 10 days with me in Charleston and ended up bringing me back to Canada with her, I will always be grateful for her love and thoughtfulness and in taking care of me while Jay has been gone. Love you sis! xx
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