A Sister and a Soldier

    A lot of families across the world have family members who have either been or are in the Army. For Emily she had both, her grandpa was in the Army and now she’s saying goodbye to her brother as he is about to leave to join the National Guard. Emily is standing in the airport as her brother David is hugging his mom.

“I love you Mom and I promise to call when I get a chance,” David said, letting go of his mom. David hugged his girlfriend and turned to Emily who was on the edge of tears. “Don’t cry, Christmas will be here before you know it and I will be here for it,” David said, trying to calm her down. Emily and David hugged each other tight and they all watched David walk to the boarding ramp and head onto the airplane.

The ride home was full of tears but not sad ones because they were so proud of David. The first week went by and Emily spent the time going to school, watching “The Masked Singer” with David’s girlfriend Katelynn, and patiently waiting to hear from her brother.

It was now Saturday and Emily decided to go get the mail for her mom. When she opened the mailbox, she saw a letter addressed to her. She ran back inside and straight to her mom. “MOM! David wrote me a letter,” she yelled.

“Open it, honey,” her mom answered back.

Emily ran to the couch and tore open the envelope. “Hope you are doing well in school, can’t wait to come home. How are you doing?” Emily read out loud.

Emily finished reading the letter where David told her what he’d done that day. Then she ran to grab paper and got right to writing.

After a couple of weeks passed it was finally October which meant it was her birthday. Emily was sitting on the couch with her mom watching TV when her phone rang.

“IT’S DAVID!” Emily grabbed her phone and answered it.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!” David yelled through the phone.

“Thank you, how’s it going up there?” Emily asked, wanting the phone call to last.

“It’s going good, can’t wait to be home,” David said with a sigh. After about ten minutes of talking on the phone, David had to go because the phone time was up.

After a couple of months passed of Emily and David sending letters and him calling when he could. It was now a week before Christmas and Emily, Katelynn and their mom were in the car at 5 a.m. on their way to pick up David from the airport.

When they arrived, they grabbed their handmade signs that said, “Welcome home David” and walked to stand with the other families waiting.

“Last night David sent me a picture from the plane. It was a beautiful sunset,” Emily said as she showed Katelynn the picture.

“Oh my gosh, that is beautiful,” Katelynn said, looking back at the phone.

When they were standing waiting for them to arrive, they saw another soldier exit the plane and walking towards the families. “They are here,” their mom said, holding up her sign.

Emily and Katelynn held up their sign as they looked for David.

“He shaved his hair, right?” Emily asked.

“Yes, so it’s gonna be kinda hard to spot him,” her mom said as she held up her phone to take a video.

Five minutes passed when a five-foot man in army green and shaved dark brown hair and black square glasses turned the corner.

“Wait, those glasses look familiar,” Emily said, trying to examine the man walking towards them.

“IT’S DAVID!” they shouted, held up their signs and ran towards him.

When they got closer they hugged him so tightly that they could barely breathe. When they finished saying their hellos they decided to take a picture and send it to the rest of their family. They got in the car and David told them everything he did in basic training.

They spent the next two weeks spending time with family until it was time to say goodbye again. It was now January which meant Emily had to go back to school the next day after saying goodbye. She continued writing letters back and forth with David. When David would call their mom, she would always pass the phone to Emily so they could talk. They sent letters and called for five months until it was the day to pick him up so he would be home for good.

It has now been four years since he joined the National Guard. David is about to graduate college in Duluth, he has a baby boy and is getting married in June. Since Emily lives a couple hours away from her brother, they don’t write letters anymore but they do text each other almost every day and they visit each other when they can.