I got married 12 days before my husband went to Vietnam. During that year, he spent a month at home on emergency leave when I had our daughter. He went back to war and I went back to high school. The only communication we had was by letter, and those letters ( which I still have) meant the world to me. I know the letters I wrote to him kept him going too. It was a long year for both of us but much longer for him, I know.
When he came home, he was very sick with malaria and dysentery, and spent 2 weeks in Valley Forge Military Hospital. We are still married-48 years this past June- and it hasn’t been easy sometimes but I consider myself very lucky that he came home, when so many never did.
It was a very turbulent time in our country’s history, and left its’ scars on us both but we’re still standing. We just decided that it was a part of our lives that couldn’t be undone and moved on as best we could.