Hey, Jude

I have recently received email from a perfectly delightful new relative. My nephew, Eric, a 21 year-old marine, was married in 2004 to a bright and attractive young woman. Not long before his deployment, a beautiful baby girl was born.

I can imagine few things more stressful than separation from the one that makes your heart beat -- your new wife or your new husband – at this formulative time of life. Still, she seems to be doing well. Neither, her baby, obviously the light of her life, nor Eric’s deployment is holding her back. She recently received her Real Estate license and has set about building her career.

All of her activities as a professional and as a mom haven’t prevented her from maintaining a lively written and, for all I know, verbal communication with those of us lucky enough to tease it out of her. This Christmas she crafted one of those this-is-what-we’ve-been-doing letters and slipped it into her holiday cards, along with the latest pictures of her baby.

In truth, I don’t know her very well, but I’m guessing, my nephew is a very lucky young man, that is, if we can get him home safely.