pauses&clicks

Today is Veterans Day and so it’s most appropriate that this evening a group of ten woman will gather on a gorgeous autumn weekend in Pennsylvania for some much-needed fellowship and frivolity.  You see, we come from all walks of life and we live in cities scattered across this country, but our link to each other is that we were all military spouses.

Our common link is that our husbands were B-1 crew members at some point in their military careers.

Our enduring link is our love for each other.

Think what you may about social media but Facebook is what brought us all back in touch on a regular basis.  Emails and then smartphones gave us instant access to each other.  Long ago friendships forged through toddler rearing, military exercises and Bunco nights were rekindled and then one day the Sisterhood of the Traveling Tiaras was born.

We’ve been an “item” ever since.

This is a support group at it’s best.  We rejoice together over our children’s marriages and the births of our grandchildren, we cry for each other when our parents or a sibling is laid to rest.  We listen and hug and pray through cancer, we commiserate when an adult child is going through a difficult time.  We are listening ears for each other as we go through life’s changes…..retirements, new jobs, moves, aging parents, and yes, menopause. We completely understand when life is so overwhelming that someone drops off the radar for a while and we’re there when that Princess is ready to reengage.

We wear lots of pink.  We wear tiaras unabashedly out in public.  We refer to each other as Princesses.

Geographic distance separates many of us but our lives intersect in ones and twos and threes throughout the year and every now and then we gather en masse to celebrate and support each other.  This is one of those weekends.

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And a beautiful, chaotic weekend it will be.