It turns out that Jacob had done this elaborate plan to coincide with a visit that he kept a secret from me. He had reached out to my parents to ask their permission, more so from tradition than actually asking, and they had given him the ring. I told him the story of the first woman in our family to wear it, and how she had escaped from an asylum she had been forced into to make a new life for her on her own. Her independence had affected all the woman in our family from then on to live life on our own terms. Smiling at me, he told me that the ring’s story fit my spirit perfectly. 

If I said yes to his proposal, he planned on marrying me before having to leave again. Of course, I said yes, and we were married that week down at the town hall with our parents to witness. We enjoyed a short amount of marital bliss before he left, but I still felt like one of the happiest people alive. I married my best friend and the love of my life. 

After he left, everything went pretty normal again. The only thing that changed was being married to the greatest man I had ever known. I was so happy. Because we were now married, I also received all the benefits from being a military wife. It made Jacob so happy to know I was being taken care of and didn’t have to worry about small things while working on my degree and starting my writing career. Just another way he was supporting me. I moved on to the military base to make a home for us, plus it was closer to my school making it easy for me to commute and not take on any more debt. 

Our letters kept each other up to date on the everyday for one another. The last letter I received told me about a super dangerous mission his troop was about to begin. A small village needed medical supplies and they were tasked with taking the supplies to help them. Sounds easy, but they had to go through a valley that had earned its nickname as Deadman’s desert. Of course Jacob told me not to worry. Everyone had each other’s backs, and they would be fine. He would reach back out to me after the mission was over, which was supposed to take a few weeks.

To be continued…