“‘This is Diana—our family dropout,’ my mother said for the fifteenth Thanksgiving in a row, but when my sister’s new husband reached across the table to shake my hand, his grip locked, his face went still, and the room forgot how to laugh before he said the two words nobody there was prepared to hear”
I promoted to commander in 2023. I was 33 years old.
My sister Cassidy married Ethan Marsh in March of 2024. I was deployed and could not attend the wedding. I sent a card and a gift and a handwritten note that I spent three drafts getting right, telling her I was sorry to miss it and that I hoped he was everything she deserved.
