H is for Home and Holidays

      Being a trucker’s wife, I have become accustomed to my husband not being at home.  It is part of life.  It doesn’t mean that after a while I don’t yearn for his presence, because I do.  There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss him.  I accept the fact he can’t be home and make money. 


       

       This last weekend was different.  It was a holiday, and there isn’t a holiday that goes by that he and I both don’t long for him to be home.  He isn’t always home for holidays.  I don’t like it, but it is what it is.  I can accept that he is gone most of the time because he has to be.  It is always a hard pill to swallow when he spends a holiday on the road.  We have small children, and lets face it, as hard as I try I will never be their Daddy.  Holidays don’t seem complete without him.

       Over the years there have been a good many holidays he has missed.  We have kept almost constant contact by cell phone, talking and sending pictures back and forth.  It is not the same.  He has no control over it.  The company he works for has stuff that needs delivered in the opposite direction, and someone has to take it.  I get that.  We need the money.  I get that too.  

        Lately my husband has been in a cycle of going out 3 weeks and coming home for 4 days, meaning he only sees home roughly 55 days a year including his vacation.   That isn’t a whole lot.  His scheduled time to be off is next weekend so I didn’t expect him to be home for Easter.  I steeled my resolve and planned an Easter for our kids filled with Je$u$, bunny baskets, egg hunts, and a baked ham for dinner.

        When Friday rolled around we discovered that he would be passing through for a delivery on Monday.  He could come home for Easter!!  He wouldn’t be here long and he would have to leave Easter morning to make his appointment on time, but he would be coming home!!  He arrived Friday night in time for supper and from that moment on the clock was ticking.  It was a whirlwind and I feel like I have jet lag, but we managed to celebrate Easter on Saturday.  The Easter bunny came on Saturday night to my kids delight.  Instead of preparing the ham I had bought, my husband insisted on barbequing chicken.  When you are a trucker’s wife, you learn to roll with it.  When he left at the butt crack of dawn Easter morning, I felt fulfilled, happy, and alive.  

        Couples that see each other every single night may never see how precious time spent together really is.  Every homecoming is a cause for celebration.  The kids and I are always out by the road to wave that big International into driveway.  I always fling open the truck door as soon as he gets stopped and the kids always climb into the truck in their eagerness to see him and be near him.  Holidays are always more spectacular when he is home.  Even after he left Easter morning, the glow of happiness still hung in the air and made each of our steps a little lighter and our smiles a little more exuberant.  Holidays just aren’t the same without him, and for him there just is no place like home for the holidays until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.