Part 20… Settling into life

# 20…Molly arrives. Life goes on. 

Boyd returned home with a desire to put Vietnam and the horrors of war behind him. He didn’t talk about any of it except for an occasional off hand comment. The memories and residual traumas stayed buried. Like many of the returning veterans of the era, he was an outsider. The political tension over the United States involvement made the war a taboo discussion topic.

I too felt different than my friends. I carried a lot of trauma and no one wanted to acknowledge that a few years earlier we were like everyone else starting our adult lives, having children, buying homes, establishing careers. Two years later I no longer had a son, my husband was now disabled, trying to adjust to his physical limitations and establish a secure, well-paying job.

A year after our return, we had a beautiful baby girl, we named Molly. We bought a house. Yet, we struggled feeling like we fit in. War and the death of our son had forever changed us. We were not light hearted kids. We carried a sense of deep joy and an appreciation for Boyd’s life being spared. We looked forward to building a life with meaning. There was a sense of needing to feel more useful, almost like a calling. Once again we were going to make a big shift.

#VietnamVeteranLife

#Keepgoingbysarah