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Although he was officially decompressing after his six weeks of intensive therapy, Capt. R.E. Ludlow answered the call of duty whenever he heard it within him. He was supposed to be in for eight weeks of therapy, but had finished early and was checking in with the soldier of his to whom he had given that last two weeks fully paid up.
Lieutenant Donald Wilson had reported for his healing on time, and was doing well in EMDR therapy so far. It meant the world to him that Capt. Ludlow came to have lunch with him three times a week, and slowly, other vets who were in therapy had started moving closer and closer to the immense fatherly presence of the captain.
Major K.D. Mueller watched this occurring in astonishment, although he had predicted that Capt. Ludlow would become a great encourager of me such as himself who needed to take hard steps to secure their mental health.
“His forebears, looking at him without a wider view, would think him weaker than them,” the major wrote in his journey, “for he is master of nothing but himself, and yet in the Scripture it is written that he who rules his own spirit is mightier than he who rules a whole city. Forget a plantation! Capt. Robert Edward Ludlow Sr. was born for more than that, even if more than that is his fellow vets healing all around him!”
Capt. Ludlow himself was not aware of the men pooling around him because he was focused on Lt. Wilson, but Mrs. Ludlow noticed that he was not at all disturbed by visits to the lieutenant, and sensed that the life he was living with her and would soon be again living with his grandchildren was going to become integral with his work, and that work would be with encouraging his fellow veterans. She knew this because her husband, a fine military commander, had a glow about him when he spoke of his units not in terms of orders to give, but in how he was working to keep up their morale – and that was the one part of military life he didn't miss because Ludlow Family 2.0 was really the same type of job, day in and day out, the unit being a family of nine.
One thing about the Ludlow grandchildren: they got in and out of trouble and little misunderstandings and conflicts as little children will, and several of them were ridiculously precocious on top of that, but what they were not was discontent. Eleanor, Andrew, George, Edwina, Amanda, Grayson, and Lil'' Robert had been through a lot of bad stuff in losing their parents, but their morale was way up while living with their grandparents – the chief morale officer, quietly, was always on the job.
And, sure enough, the chief morale officer had picked a huge bouquet of those little white wild roses that his wife liked on their walking route, too – Robert Edward Ludlow Sr. was on the job, day in and day out, and loving it. It just remained for him to get paid for it at the Veteran's Lodge.