With Kevin on front lines, husband Brian speaks up

Krypto wrote a column. Bandit wrote a column. Buddyboy wrote a column, although Bandit insists that it was ghostwritten. So, it was only a matter of time before my husband got his two cents in:

I promise this will not be a regular thing. It’s just that there are times when you can’t keep your mouth shut. My name is Brian. I’m the husband.

I’ve just said good night to my husband and my two teenage boys. I’m faced with the dilemma of what to watch after they’ve gone to bed. Almost every channel is airing news about COVID19, which I hear about and watch all the time. Tonight, I cannot face it and I turn on Hallmark. Don’t judge. Sometimes you need to know that people will fall in love and be happy and it will all work out in the end.

In the 1970s my mother, Nana, was raising two young boys (Craig and me) by herself. She could not do this on a nurse’s salary, so she attended night classes to get a master’s degree. She joined the Maine State Air National Guard. She worked and studied, and became the first female colonel in Maine’s Air National Guard. And yet she never missed any of either of her sons’ school events. The only time she did was when I had a gymnastics meet the same evening my brother had a basketball game. She came to me and asked me to understand that, at that moment, Craig needed her more than I did and she needed to be there for him. She was right and I told her that. Then, she cried.

Several years later, after I had met Kevin, my mother’s unit was activated in Operation Desert Shield. I was terrified. She was not. She calmly told me that people who had volunteered to serve this country needed to do the job when the job called. Nana told me that she was not going to be stupid or take chances but, if the whole country was counting on people like her to do their job, then she was darn well going to do it to the best of her ability. I was humbled, inspired and still terrified.

While in the middle of a worldwide health crisis, we’ve been asked to practice social distancing and better hygiene, and argue about toilet paper and tonic water. I’m currently a fulltime stayathome parent helping two teenage boys with special needs navigate “distance learning.” I’m overwhelmed and convinced that every decision I make is wrong and the one that will ruin their lives.

Then I look to my left at 4:30 every morning as my husband gets out of bed. He’s heading out for yet another 12 to 15hour day working with law enforcement, emergency responders, public health officials and politicians to manage this crisis. I am ashamed that I ever began to feel overwhelmed. I am taking care of the people that I love more than my own life. He is doing that also, as well as taking care of as much of our city, county and society as he can.

I’m humbled, inspired and still terrified.

People like him make our nation the free and imperfectbuttrying society that we are. The sheriffs, police officers, ambulance workers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, National Guard members, grocery and drugstore workers, restaurant delivery people, garbage collectors and so many more. They are our heroes. I am lucky enough to be married to one of them, but we are all lucky, and hopefully thankful, that they are in our lives during this crisis.

I’ve known many heroes. Grandpa Harold during World War II. Nurse Vivian caring for all those children in Queens. Nana answering the country’s call in her 40s. My husband.

Every time he leaves our house, we both know it could be the day that he himself contracts the virus. And yet he goes and does the job to the best of his ability. I’m terrified. And awestruck. And humbled. And proud.

If you happen to meet one of these people, during or after this crisis, please take a moment to say thank you. Or that you understand and appreciate how hard what they are doing must be for them and their families. Until then, please donate blood, as many of our fellow citizens, who are not as lucky as we have been, will need it.

We will get through this. We have hope. We have faith. We have heroes.

If you happen to meet one of these people, please take a moment to say thank you.