keeping in contact with the family

I got married, I drove OTR: I was also in the guard and deployed twice.

I liked to call home and be included in the little things.

Unfortunately, my wife at that time told my mom when I was gone on a deployment that now that she was in complete control, she would never let go of it.

Seperations like this are harder than people think.

Things we would like to know come across and "demanding " or trying to take control.

It's not.....

It's an attempt to simply continue to be a part of the little things that happen daily. Like a child making a new discovery about life. Hours later, you have forgotten about it, but tomorrow when dad calls it's the not on the radar to even mention it. Days or weeks later when that person comes home and sees it happening for the first time and having to make a decision on stuff that they are now totally unaware of, catches them off-guard and feeling inadequate.

Those little successes get forgotten about like riding a bike for the first time around the block with friends. But the way a person was treated badly at school or the negative things that happen tend to come out rather easily.


These are observations in life. Talking with people who are friends. People who are still married after 25 years and some who have been divorced twice or more as well as my own personal experiences.

Coming home we are like strangers in our own house and have to be welcomed back all over again.

The guard finally got this message and started to put stuff together for bringing families back together again after separations.

OTR drivers and families could benefit from this information as well.