Robin's Eccentricities

The night the first news story came out about Injured Heroes, Broken Promises was the same night that a grand jury decided not to indite a cop for shooting someone. That was more important than the many lives that are lost to suicide from the neglect of the Army each year. Yes. I put the blame directly on the Army. When my husband had a gun to his head and it still took three months to get an appointment with a psychiatrist I can say that. Not to mention the 22 suicides a day by veterans.

Riots.

Then there's football.

Another Grand Jury didn't indict someone else.

Then there are more riots.

Army/Navy game.

The final Colbert Report.

I shouldn't be writing right now. I'm mad as hell at what our society finds so important. The fact that these soldiers and veterans volunteered to protect our freedoms is of little to no concern to most. It does not affect you. It is no longer interesting. You think someone else will take care of it. Guess what? They're not!

There are s…

Life moves pretty fast for me because I'm usually working on so many things at once right now. In the last interview I missed an important detail. One that was glaring at me after the segment aired on NBC5-Dallas and printed in the Dallas Morning News.

Col Toner ordered one day of training. ONE day. The points in the training are very important ones. I'm just not sure how much one day can do to actually make any changes.

I am trying to be positive. People are listening. But in the three years that I have been fighting it always seems to be too much listening and not enough action. I spoke to many officers and even more advocacy groups. They all appeared to care but would just send me on to the next person to talk to. Perhaps thinking I would eventually give up and shut up.

Honestly, there are days that I wonder why I keep pushing. Does anyone listen? Does anyone really care? Will anyone actually do anything about it?

In Col. Toner's order he the need for WTU leaders to res…

If there was just one thing that I could ask for, just one wish to come out of the investigations at Fort Hood, it would be to get my husband's rank restored. He has never asked for anything. This is the only thing I ask for him.

The day it was taken from him was probably the worst day of his life. Yes, even worse than being diagnosed with a terminal illness. His stripes were hard earned. He deserved them and surely NEVER deserved to have them taken from him. To be told by his leaders to, "suck it up and get over it." To be called a liar by the Colonel of the Brigade during his appeal. He got promoted twice in just a few months during his last deployment! Don't they think if he could have sucked it up he would have?

I have the medical evidence now to prove that his behavior was not in his control. Yet no one in a leadership position wants to admit their mistake. A mistake that stripped a deserving soldier of his rank. It wasn't just an emblem they took that day.…

From his Facebook posts December 8, 2014 FB keeps asking me what's on my mind. Saturday mornings getting up early voluntarily so I wouldn't miss any cartoons. Being on the swingset with a towel draped across my back because I was being Superman and fixin to fly with my cape. Mom sitting beside me in bed singing like an angel till I fell asleep. Dumping a box of cereal into a tupperware container to get the prize at the bottom and then replacing it feeling smug that I got to it before my sister did, and doing the same thing with Cracker Jacks. Dad taking me to Wendy's for a triple cheeseburger after karate. My sister crying when the news guy on TV announced the death of Elvis. Getting a birthday card from Grandma because it always had a $5 bill in it. 5 dollars! Saltwater taffee, tootsie-pops, jawbreakers, the time I was walking to church and I used the money Mom gave me for the collection plate to buy candy at the store that the devil put in between me and the church. The …

Michael (Mikey) Howard re-enlisted in the US Army after bugging Robin for a few years before she conceded, thinking he was too old for the Army to take him. He was tired of us watching the news and not doing anything beyond fundraisers, bumper stickers and charity gigs.  During the late 1980's he served as an Infantryman in the US Army and left the Army because at the time his color blindness kept him from being a medic. He was planning on Infantry again and was delighted to find he could be a Combat Medic this time. He left in April 2008 and retrained at both Fort Sill, OK and White Sands Missile Range, NM. From there he went to AIT (advanced individual training) where he got his training to be a Combat Medic. He was stationed at Fort Hood, TX as a part of TaskForce ODIN IV in March 2009. Robin left Minnesota to make their home together. Mikey got his orders to deploy to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom within a month of being stationed there. He would leave in July fo…

Something happens when a person gets sick. For those living with it, the person that is ill and their caregiver, it is a very noticeable change. People start to fade away. Maybe it's not them. It's probably not them. But it happens. Suddenly the ill person and their caregiver are all alone facing so much alone. They cling to each other as much as possible.


The caregivers life becomes consumed with the one they love, the one they care for. The entirety of their conversations with others are always about the one they take care of. It might stray off that path for a moment but it returns. It is not their fault. No more than a new mother talking constantly about her child and how special they are. It is what we know and thinking beyond that becomes difficult if not impossible.

We often don't reach out for help. Maybe we are afraid of being a burden to feeling like "I've got this." Suddenly we're experiencing something called caregiver stress. It is very real …