A Veteran
A man came to the door of my office. As we sat down, he showed me his ID and said he was a vet. I could see he was unnerved. He told me that his wife had just used the police to order him out of his own car. The two of them had just been out to lunch. He was stationed in another state, but having just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan he had come to see his wife, to see if they would still make it together. It hadn’t gone well. After lunch she started beeping the car horn to get the attention of the police. It worked. A policeman came to the car and let the man know that it would be an instance of domestic violence if he didn’t exit the car immediately. He complied and got out. When he told me about it, he couldn’t hide how much he was hurting. All he wanted was to be able to collect his things, get back to the base and start dealing with the life that was ahead of him. I offered my sympathy and support. How much he had to deal with, first in war and now at home! Back at the base there would be resources to help him. I congratulated him on the strength it took to get out of the car and walk away.