My husband was on a year-long deployment overseas, and for each week that he was gone, we filled his empty seat at the dinner table with a new stranger. We hosted authors, musicians, school teachers, athletes, artists and even a zookeeper. We also hosted community and government leaders- - from both sides of the aisle.
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I had mostly grown used to Dustin’s here-this-week/deployed-the-next routine, but in 2011, he left for his longest deployment yet: 13 months. Our boys were 4, 9 and 11 years old, and by the time Dustin came back, he had missed seven family birthdays, two Thanksgivings, one Christmas, our anniversary, countless Little League games and our youngest son’s first day of kindergarten.
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At the end of the line was Frank, a small man permanently bent forward at his waist. He had wispy grey hairs combed over his bald, sun-spotted head. He stopped and touched my hand. “Will you have dinner with us?” he said quietly. “There’s room at our table.” Anita — the taller, straighter woman beside Frank, who was clutching his elbow for support — smiled at me and said, “We’ll do some sorting. Would you like that? We can sort things together.”
Before I could say anything, Owen shrugged his shoulders and said, “Sure, what’s for dinner?”
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