Image by Foundry Co from Pixabay
While the Ludlow little ones were having lunch, the mail came, and Col. H.F. Lee, guardian to them with his wife Maggie while their cousins the Ludlows were away, got the mail, examined it, and then made sure the seven Ludlow grandchildren were settled in eating before going to run Mrs. Thalia Ludlow her mail … one particular piece of mail.
Mrs. Ludlow's profession was that of administrative travel nurse, and her last assignment had been to handle some things involving a “heavy flu” that may or may not have been coming to New York in the early winter of 2020. Little did she or anyone know what Covid-19 would do in New York City in the next four months. She and Capt. R.E. Ludlow had made the decision in March to get the little ones out, and the captain had used his veteran status and home base in Lofton County, VA to get the family into the Veteran's Lodge's new large family housing.
Mrs. Ludlow had stayed behind and completed her contract before joining her family in Virginia, and had been glad to have a husband who understood battle fatigue and PTSD … the 33-year Army veteran knew how to support her while she was on assignment, and when she came to their new home in Virginia, he gave her the kind of hero's welcome she would have given him had he gotten back from a long, dangerous deployment.
Col. Lee always thought of this when he saw his captain cousin and his lovely wife together … they were also having lunch together between Capt. Ludlow's sessions in inpatient PTSD therapy … they could hardly sit closer together without being in the other's lap, and the way they spoke with each other, even when not in earshot, shouted deep, loving connection through their body language.
Capt. Ludlow looked tired … he was going through it, unearthing and resolving his most dangerous memories and traumas … he was visibly thinner … but he was glowing with calm joy in his wife's presence, and she looked happy and glowy also. She was staying in supportive housing adjunct to the facility where he was receiving his treatment, and catching up on rest, so all of this was a blessing to her as well.
The mail Col. Lee had to present to her was her last check for writing about the deadly situation she had lived and worked through in New York in the spring of 2020. The instant she and the captain read the return address, she shivered. The captain forgot his need for her comfort and wrapped his arms around her in support.
“I've got you, my dear American heroine,” he said. “This is your reward for all your labor as much as Earth can provide it … but know that God knows every life you have helped to save with your work!”
She burst into tears, and he wrapped her all the way up … Col. Lee quietly withdrew from the scene, but looked back from a long way off and saw Mrs. Ludlow recovering, glowing in the words of affirmation coming from her husband as he kissed away every tear … in calm peace, in his arms, before picking up the check and putting it in her purse.
Mrs. Ludlow called just as Col. Lee was stepping up on the porch to the Ludlow home, up the road and around the corner.
“Hey, Harry – thank you for bringing this down – I meant to thank you when you brought it, but I had a big flashback.”
“Any time, Thalia. You know I understand. I'll see y'all before Sunday, most likely – Melvin Trent says that Capt. Ludlow's check from his voiceover work on 'Hashtag: Side Hustle' should be coming in Friday or Saturday..”
“I'm not going on a bank run until Monday, though, so you can tell Melvin to hold that until Sunday,” Mrs. Ludlow said.
“Tell R.E. to get ready, though,” Col. Lee said. “Melvin said that's going to be some kind of check, and he also is including offers for your husband to do corporate voiceover work that are interesting to say the least!”
“Thanks for the heads up – he's right here!”
“I hear you, H.F. – looking forward to being pleasantly surprised,” Capt. Ludlow said.
In his mind, Col. Lee saw Mrs. Ludlow wrapping her arms around her husband and holding him through that surprise … because that was how they were … and how he and Maggie Lee were becoming. The elder Ludlow cousins were an inspiration, and even their seven-year-old grandchild understood why.
“Sometimes, everybody needs someone in their life who is snuggly,” little Amanda Ludlow said as she was being hugged and snuggled by Mrs. Lee. “I'm one of those, and I love you because you understand!”
“I'm also one of those, quiet as a colonel must keep that,” Col. Lee said at a private moment later, “and I also love you because you understand, Maggie!”
“Oh, you and Big Robert are hilarious about this,” she said, “because he has the snuggliest grandchildren ever – quite a comeback when you consider their foster care experiences – and you're the Angel of Death to hear the Army tell it. And yet both of you at home are just big teddy bears – he's a teddy polar bear, granted, but I can't even find the grizzly side of you!”
“Well, we've only been married seven months,” he said as she cracked up laughing, “and even a grizzly bear, should he have his angel attributes enabled, might get just a bit more cuddly.”