OH HAPPY DAY!

Jordan came to visit me in Chattanooga on Friday and stayed until Monday. We both knew our time was running thin, so we made the best of our weekend and had a blast! He met me for lunch on Monday and proceeded to head back to Spartanburg to visit with his family one more time before his deployment. During our lunch, I asked him when he thought he had to report back to Charleston. He said he thought he had Tuesday off and was planning on spending the night in Spartanburg. While he was on his way to Spartanburg, he called me and said, “I just got a call from my staff sergeant, and he said I have to be back in Charleston at 5:30 Tuesday morning to have breakfast with a General.” I said, “Maybe you’re having breakfast with the General so he can tell you that you don’t have to deploy anymore.” We laughed at the ridiculous comment, said our good byes, and hung up the phone. I went back to work and he headed down the mountain towards home.

I always call Jordan as soon as I leave work. This day was no different than the others. I was just expecting to have our normal after work conversation where I get to tell him all about my day in the plant. When Jordan answered the phone on this particular afternoon, his tone was a little different. I hadn’t heard this voice since he was told he was deploying and he would be forced to be worlds apart from his family and friends for a whole nine months. I thought to myself, “He’s a little chipper than normal. What happened on his drive home?” He asked how my day at work was. I said it was fine. I asked him how his drive from Chattanooga to Spartanburg was. He said it was fine. Then something was said that was COMPLETELY and UTTERLY unexpected. He told me that he had some news about his deployment. I silently hung on every word as he said, “MY DEPLOYMENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.” The first words out of my mouth were, “I’m going to cry.” And that’s what I did. That’s all I could do. Never in my life had I felt the way that I did in that moment. It felt better than having 100 tons worth of bricks lifted off of my chest. I took a deep breath and as I exhaled I could feel all of my worries and fears flee from my body. All of these insuppressible, horrific thoughts and doubts that had haunted me for months were instantaneously gone! He wasn’t going to deploy.

The amazing thing about this glorious news is that Jordan received this phone call seconds before pulling into his Nanny’s house to eat dinner with his family for what they all thought would be the last time in nine months. Now that is really something! OH HAPPY DAY!

-published by Lindsay