Coming home ...alive

The day dad came home stands out in my mind forever. All of us were standing at the school bus stop early that morning.  All the kids at the stop were distracted by a cat that had just been hit by a car. I didn't want to see and turned my head. At that exact moment I saw our car driving by slowly and dad was driving!!!  The smile on my mothers' face lit up the inside of the car. I still see that smile as if today was that very day. They were, however, only smiling and waving at us, they didn't stop! 

That was THE longest day I had ever spent at school! I remember the butterflies all day long, every time I remembered that dad was home. I could hardly think of anything else. He had been gone for so long!

When we finally got home, there he was! All of our things were packed and sent ahead with movers ( he was stationed at Shepherd AFB ) and there were crates of HUGE oranges and apples, but best of all was " DADDY"!

We hadn't seen our mother smile and laugh so much in very long time. Life was beautiful in that moment.