Our Vets

Today I found myself at the VA Hospital ER in Prescott with my ex-husband, Scott.  While sitting there waiting I heard interesting conversation around me.  The man sitting in the picture below (I put my phone on silent and tried to look like I wasn't taking a picture while I was sitting down several chairs away from him) greeted every man that came in as brother.  He enjoyed talking, most of the men would listen and chat a little with him.  The man would repeat himself and share random stories about things he did and the men he killed and why.  He seemed very lonely.  He has been without his wife for a very long time ( he told me after he mentioned how pretty I was and that he had an amazingly beautiful and wonderful wife)  He talked about how he was waiting for his friend that he had driven there.  He said he would drive many of his friends to and from and that he has buried most of his friends.  He would get up before a man would leave and shake their hand and say thank you brother for doing his job for this country so long ago.

Everyone has a story.

One man looked over and saw me sitting there, while I was waiting for Scott.  The man in the chair had "announced" that the other man had dumped agent orange all over the place.  The man was not happy that the other man had said that so loudly, he seemed not proud of what he had done.  He told the man to be quite and that is what it was then and this is now and no one needs to know.  He sat down and looked back at me and said "especially to her, now she has heard and she will probably tell everyone she knows".  I wanted to tell him that wasn't going to happen and wanted to go shake his hand and tell him to have a good day but I sat quietly watching the men interact.

He was a mercenary.  He couldn't get into the Marines.

The man sitting like to talk.  He was saying good-bye to a man that had served our country long ago.

We were finally in the back waiting to see what all was going on with Scott.  Needless to say that we walked out hours later knowing nothing and told to go call his "medical team" to get permission to see a specialist.  The VA system is frustrating and sad.  I can't believe some of the attitudes I picked up on from the people working there to help the men that served our country.  The things they would say....they basically dismissed them and humored them on how they were feeling.  People these men served this country that we live in Hello!!  They have been through more than we could really understand or relate too.  The whole system is in no hurry to help them.

I'm worried about the father of my children....

We await the next step in discovering what is next to deal with.....