it's a small world after all....

i was out and about tonight, and after hitting target, i had about 20 minutes to kill. i wandered over to tj maxx...i was just wandering around, casually perusing christmas decorations, and out of the corner of my eye i saw a guy dressed in ACUs (ACUs are the digital military uniforms- as opposed to the traditional camouflage- not the whole army has them yet, but jon's brigade does)...and at the same time, i heard the word "georgia." i turned around and said, "excuse me, are you in the 48th brigade?" he was rather taken aback, and said, "well...yeah.." i smiled and said, "my husband is too." ... "oh really? who's your husband?" i answered (though i had to think about it a moment...i've never introduced myself to anyone who knows him as this) "chaplain fisher." his eyes got really big, and his friend exclaimed "dude, you KNOW fisher!" through conversation, we realized that he and i graduated from the same high school- him 4 years before me! he is home for his 2 week leave right now. especially considering they're with the GEORGIA army national guard, this truly proves the smallness of our world!

his eyes got all watery as soon as he heard i was jon's wife. he went on to tell me how much he means to all the guys... "he's done more for us than you could ever know" he said. he spoke of how jon is with them before missions, and how he was there through the fatalities. he told me about an article in the brigade newspaper that was a bit anti-chaplain, and how after that some of them made sure to talk to jon to tell him how much they like him! ... it made me feel so good to stand there, the wife of someone who is thought of so highly and means so much to these soldiers. he didn't have to say those things. he could have said, "yeah, i know him" and it would have sufficed. but through his red and watery eyes he looked right into mine and told me of all these things that jonathan has done.

i'm still kinda recovering from the absurdity of this encounter... the number of coincidences that aligned our meeting (one of which was that the airline left his bag in chicago...so he had to stop at the store on his way home from the airport to buy clothes!) is amazing! wow... i think i'll be humming that hated yet familiar disney tune for days...