As most of you know, in addition to being a new member of the Royal Family, Kate Middleton is now a military wife. Prince William is in the Royal Air Force. I read a headline this morning which made me laugh. The title read, "Kate Middleton & Prince William: Face Sad 10-Week Separation After Honeymoon!" With an exclamation point thrown in for good measure!!!!!!
It's not unusual, at least in America, to hear stories of military weddings happening only days before a lengthy combat deployment or separation. I've met milspouses who were engaged and opted to move their weddings up after their spouse received orders, or couples who simply chose to marry quickly in the first place, or couples who had a quickie wedding and later had a more formal ceremony. Military life has the ability to ruin the best laid plans, speed up decisions and even slow them down.
The headline had me laughing for many reasons, not the least of which was the fact that the couple would face their "sad" separation after a ten day honeymoon. I don't know about you, but thanks to Uncle Sam, my husband and I went three years before we had a honeymoon. My husband kept telling me it was silly to refer to our first real vacation as a honeymoon, but I was determined to brand it our honeymoon since we never had one. Many military spouses never have a "traditional" honeymoon.
When Kate Middleton and Prince William return from their 10-day honeymoon — rumored to be on a private island in the Indian Ocean, sometime in the next month — they will reportedly have to say goodbye to each other for a heartbreakingly long 10-weeks as William must report for duty in the Falkland Isles to finish his helicopter pilot training. William is a flight lieutenant in the RAF’s Search and Rescue squad and air force wives are not allowed to travel to this post, which is 250 miles off the east coast of Argentina.“It is a bitter blow for Kate,” a source told the UK’s The Sun. “They have known about the Falklands for several weeks, but Kate was very upset when she first heard.”
“It is an awful way to start married life, especially hard because it destroys the first magic of being together,” says the source.
"[D]estroys the first magic of being together?"
I have great respect for Prince William for choosing to serve his country in this capacity. And I'm pretty certain Kate Middleton will not only survive, but thrive, as a military spouse. I take these reports from unnamed sources with a grain of salt. There's no way to know if Kate was actually "upset (or what 'upset' even means)," but this couple has been together for ten years and by now, I'm pretty sure she understands the demands of the military and I find it hard to believe this poised young woman was bent out of shape over her husband fulfilling his duty.
From a milspouse perspective, I just found the article silly, and amusing.
