Dear Friends in Christ -
Yesterday (Sunday) morning, one of my childhood friends received a knock on her door. When she opened it, three uniformed army officers were on her doorstep. "Ma'am, we regret to inform you . . ." Barbie says she can't remember anything after that except that they told her that her husband Mark had been blown up in Afghanistan.
I think it likely that the "regret to inform you" guys didn't actually say, at least as their opening line, that Mark was "blown up." But certainly "blown up" is how everything feels to Barbie and her two kids (one's college-age and one's graduating from high school in June).
Mark was an Army Ranger. He was proud of his work, of the string of grace and good luck and good teamwork that had kept him safe from harm in the midst of dangerous ops for roughly 20 years.
As if to soften the blow, everyone says that we knew that "this" could happen some day. But something inside me screams that surely we must not have really, really KNOWN, or we would have done something more to stop this war . . . and the others. For even this one life is too high a price to pay. One life so strong yet so fragile. Irreplaceable.
Sorrowing,
Janet+
So sorry for your loss. I'll keep his friends and family in my prayers.
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