Grief Emerges
When the doctor returned to the examining room I was sitting on the table composed but stunned. The questions that bounced around in my brain still couldn’t be asked. My mouth wasn’t ready to engage. This had been my first pregnancy. At the time I didn’t know it would be my last. The [...]

Beginnings and Endings
Along came November and December 2000. If I recall the holidays correctly, I flew to Colorado Springs, Colorado, for Thanksgiving, and Steve arrived later for Christmas. He brought our sweet little beagle, Bridgette, to spend the holidays with my family. Through the coming trial, Bridgette would be much more to me than a [...]

Doctor! Doctor!
In July 2000 we packed our household goods, cleaned our apartment, moved into the Ray Barracks guest house, and eagerly anticipated our PCS to Fort Campbell, Kentucky. My “lupus” symptoms hadn’t changed. As far as I could tell, the condition remained isolated to my gum tissue, and I kept hoping it would go away.
By [...]