The Loneliness of Deployment
With all the unexpected difficulties of deployment, the biggest surprise for Suzie was loneliness.
A weathered, six-foot long paper chain drags across the carpet, marking the days that Dave has been gone. Every day, Suzi, Drew, Kimmy, and Jeremy add another link to the chain, counting down the days until Dave returns from his deployment. For Suzi, though she expected the difficulties of deployment, she didn't expect her own loneliness.
This story is part of the collection The Call to Serve: Stories of Sacrifice, War and the Way Home, which was funded by the Fred C. and Katherine B. Andersen Foundation.
One Minnesota woman shares her firsthand perspective on juggling motherhood, household tasks, a brutal winter and the struggles of becoming a single parent during her husband's deployment.
People understand that deployment is hard. What people might not understand are the difficulties of coming home to a routine you don't know and feeling lost in your own family. For most Minnesota families, returning home from deployment is when the real work begins.
