I'Ll Be Home for This One

Trent Southerland

Mrs. Howard

English 1A

9 February 2010

I’ll be home for this One

I was not home for my first child, Michael. I was halfway across the world deployed on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, 100,000 tons of American diplomacy, a floating airport, a United States Navy aircraft carrier. I had gone underway just over a month before my oldest son, Michael was born. This meant that I would be one of the first to disembark the ship, to finally get to hold my son. I was fortunate to be home for my second son’s birth.

It was about 4 o’clock in the morning when my wife assured me, it was time. I’m pretty inadequate at that hour, so I didn’t realize what she was conveying until a few moments later. We had a bag packed, and ready. Still it took longer, than expected to leave the house. We had been to Portsmouth Naval Hospital several times before, and it was quite a ride from our home in Hampton, VA. We drove through the 3.5 mile long Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, and the Downtown Tunnel, named after nearby Norfolk’s center. We had to stop half way to drop our older son off at a friend’s house. I told Michael to be good, and when we saw him again he would have a little brother. We kissed him goodbye, and got back on the road. I still was barely awake even after being on the highway for awhile. If it hadn’t been so early, I probably would have been excited already. My wife kept asking me, "What are you thinking?" Despite the fact she knew at that hour, not much goes through my head.

We arrived at the hospital a half-hour later. I sat with my wife holding her hand, looking at her gold ring with the little marquise diamond in the middle and the set of baguettes on the sides. I really know nothing about jewelry, and I knew even less 5 years ago when I proposed to her. However, I had a bit of luck, and she really loved her wedding set. As I looked down at that ring, I was reminded that it is a symbol of our love, the years past, and all the years to come. I...