the day the white bus drove away (the ship left dock)

the day will come when his bags will no longer sit by the front door. the day will come when you check his uniform one last time to make sure everything is just right. the day will come when he drives one last time through post with you sitting next to him. the day will come when he boards the white bus and heads for his plane or crosses the jetty and bunks on his ship. it will be a roller coaster day. you'll be filled with pride because your husband is about to do the most dutiful and honorable thing. at the same time on the inside you'll feel like you're falling apart and your world has faded away. but, you know you will survive these next few months because they are only a few months out of a lifetime.

the day he was suppose to leave was very surreal. i took him to the squadron hq, said our good byes, and dropped him off. two hours later i get a call saying, 'never mind, come pick me up. not leaving until tomorrow.' so needless to say, it was an emotionally exhausting two days having to say 'good bye' twice. by the time he really left, i was just ready for him to go so we could start counting down to his coming home.

the he really ended up leaving, i went straight to work afterwards which was really good because i wasn't at home moping around alone. i'm glad i did that. then i also had a happy hour date with my girlfriends planned for that evening. so, by the time i got home that night, i was exhausted and ready for bed. going home alone for the first time is the hardest part but it was no biggie for me.

one thing i would have done differently when he left was not stay around the squadron hq on the day of the deployment until the last possible minute. it thought i didn't want to miss even a second with him, but in reality, it just dragged things out longer than they needed to.
aggie ashley
army
1 deployment

i didn't actually get to see him off at the bus, i had flown down the weekend before he left. he wanted it that way because he still had so much packing and running around to do before he left. plus, he had volunteered to go early so that really made things hairy...

anyways, so i flew out the weekend before, we spent every waking moment together just enjoying being together. his family didn't come down to see him or his brother off. so, i felt it necessary to be there with him (we had only been dating three months at this point).

he dropped me off at the airport and i was fine all throughout the weekend, no tears, nothing. then as were saying our 'good byes' and he's hugging me the last time for the next seven months, it just all hit me at once. i started to cry and man i couldn't stop. i was crying as i was checking into security and even when i boarded the plane to leave. ugh i t was so hard to say 'good bye.'

the thing that helped at the time was knowing that the good bye was only temporary (you have to always stay positive, never think what if this or that because that will drive you crazy). another thing that helped was i have this thing that i do every time i say good bye to him before he leaves: i write him love note(s) and hide them in his things. that way, he is looking for them after i leave them and it's a nice surprise for him that can read over and over. well, he's started to do the same for me and it's always so nice to have that. i also had one of his sweatshirts that smelled like him that i wore home on the plane and slept in.
merritt
marines
1 deployment