One of the very first places I ever published written work was Friday Night Wives. I am grateful to continue to write with them today. I don’t include every article I write for them here, but this one I wanted to share. See below for a preview or link here for the full article.
We’ve been living the coach’s wife life a while, twenty years in fact if you count dating and marriage. So, I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me when we were lying in bed a few weeks ago and I heard those familiar, quiet sniffles.
It’s always him who starts first and, it’s always over something small. The kids have come in for another hug. We’re talking about a memory from the summer. Or, there’s a silence when we would be talking. It’s at this point that I know what I’m going to find when I look over.
His eyes filled with tears—and then, of course, mine do too.
Him: “It’s going to be hard.”
Me: “I know.”
Him: “Tell me it’s going to be okay.”
Me: “It always is.”
Him: “I’m going to miss you guys.”
Me: “I know. I hope we always miss each other.”
Shoot. It’s hard to even type that, such an intimate moment that marks each football season in our marriage. But, even though there are so many coaching families who are pumped and ready for the season when it starts, there are also marriages like ours. Coaching marriages who know-that-they-know-that-they-know that this is their calling. And yet, it hurts every time you make the transition.
Anne Rulo 