About Two Years Earlier

Sandra Lewis pulled off her fatigues and stepped into the shower.  Five minutes later she stepped out, put on civilian clothes, packed her things, signed a mountain of paper and left the base.  After eight years in the military she decided to leave to marry and start a family.  The shower was somewhat symbolic of washing off the military life in preparation for her new role.

She was in Senior High during the Gulf War, her hero was an army Captain, a female helicopter pilot who was shot down and captured by the Iraqi’s.  Sandra saw the newscast of her being released.   She watched the Captain Doris Merris walk with dignity as she was released.  The Iraqi’s had destroyed her aircraft, killed nearly all of her crew and captured her but they had been totally unable to break her spirit.  In spite of having both arms broken and the indignities that had been heaped upon her she still walked from the point of release to report to and salute her liberators.  Only after reporting did she allow them to place her on a stretcher for transport for medical treatment.  With this scene still in her mind Sandra enlisted.   The military tapped her for duty as an M.P., a position she had asked for because it was as close to a real combat role as a woman could have.

When she finished training she was assigned to New Mexico.  Her first several years were spent in various roles but her conduct was such that she continually earned high ratings and fast promotions.  Each time her hitch came up she looked at leaving.  It never looked attractive so she stayed.  Early in her sixth year she was assigned to North Carolina.  While home on leave one weekend in Pennsylvania Sandra met a high school friend, they had several dates and a romance flourished in spite of the four hundred miles that separated them.   A wedding date was set.   She decided to it would be a small chapel wedding.  They would leave the wedding for a weekend away and end the trip in Reading Pennsylvania where they would live and start a family.  

The honeymoon lasted ten months and eleven days.  Both Sandra and Jeff were past twenty-five at the time they were married.  They both wanted children and knew that as time passed she was getting older making pregnancy riskier, the sooner they got started, the better.  Neither of them had been sexually active, the wedding night was a first time for both of them.  She decided get a job and work till they had a baby on the way.  Three days after they moved in she found a job as a dispatcher in the Cumru County 911 center, a twenty-five hour a week position.  Most days she was home when Jeff left for work and she was there when he returned.  It was ideal.  With just a few days till their first month anniversary Jeff returned home one evening to find her sitting on the sofa crying.