From Family Gram to Satellite

"I love you and am missing you terribly.
XXOO,Whitty  "

   I am back to that place......the place where excitement of receiving an email in my inbox from sea means you are loved, you are thought of .......and I haven't even opened it yet!  I see it there and am so desperate to open it, hoping for an "I love you", "I miss you" and/or "I thought of you today".  Should I open it now?  Or do I wait and save it for just before bed...something to look forward to?   Oh, the joys of mail from sea!!

      In this day in age, military families are extremely fortunate.  It wasn't always this way.  Just 10 to 15 years ago when we first joined this crazy lifestyle,  Brian and his ship mates would be given an opportunity once a week to send a message back home to us.  The email was sent from the ship after it was viewed by proper authority, to our local Military Family Resource Centre.  The staff there would get in touch with us and we would march down to their office to read our one page email (roughly 25 words).   We, the wives left behind, were each given a designated time slot to arrive at the MFRC and read the email from sea ( called a family gram) there in the busy office.  Time would be given  to reply to our Sailor's email, and that would be sent back to him.  The catch was, your email was always scanned and read by MFRC Staff prior to sending, to ensure safety and security of the ship's crew and movements.  If the email made mention of port visits, ships' movements etc, the message was not deliverable.  You were very limited to what you could say of course, so that really restricted what I felt comfortable writing.  There was absolutely no privacy in this method!!.  I remember wanting to tell Brian about my bad days alone without him, but was never able to, in fear that I would be seen as "incapable" or "weak".  But when the Family Gram service is all you have for means of communication, you better believe I was there every Wednesday morning to send and receive mine! Only hearing from sea once a week, that message from Brian confirming that I was missed and loved, was very crucial to my morale.   Boy how times have changed in the last 10 years!  Now there is daily email, access to facebook, skype for Sailors while in port, and even a 30 minute phone card to call home every week,  via sattelite.  Sure beats the once a week Family Gram!! 

     Although this technology is available today, nothing beats the instant flutter in the tummy like seeing an email from Brian in my inbox first thing in the morning!  It provides not only a confirmation that he is okay out there battling Lord knows what, it grounds me.  It gives me motivation to face the day.....another day without him.  It is a daily reminder that although we must continue to face our days apart, for that one moment in time, we are connected through our words.  

~M