“So, I've been telling you to wheel her in and let me check her out, and you have, Colonel – I'd just go on and pronounce y'all man and wife, but that's not my call!”
Colonel H.F. Lee smiled, and his fiancee Maggie Thornton broke out laughing. The widower and the widow had come up to VA Hospital on their way to their second marriage to each other, and the fact that those who were helping him live with bipolarity and overcome PTSD saw in his beloved what he saw reassured Colonel Lee.
Colonel Lee was a humble man, and knew how the death and aftermath of his first wife's death along with the things he had seen and done in his military service had damaged him, and therefore all his perceptions. In the Army, and to a certain extent a paramilitary type situation like a police force, he operated with an efficiency and brilliance that was unmatched … but he had not engaged in anything like a personal life for 27 years, except for when with his grandparents who had raised them, his in-laws the Mortons, and with his cousins the Hamiltons – visits to what he did not possess.
But then, Maggie Thornton had entered his life … and he still had not set a date for his marriage because his mind was having trouble wrapping around the reality of her love, and because he still wasn't sure he could handle it. Those were the facts, even though they had agreed on the springtime, and even though he knew the minute she insisted on a date, he would make it whatever she wanted because he could not bear to lose her.
Still, Colonel Lee knew: Mrs. Lee-to-be expected him to take the lead on these matters. She was being patient. She understood his situation. But he knew he had to get it all the way together, and the clock was ticking.
Every counseling session helped, and every counselor he respected had reinforced him in doing that.