WHAT IT IS LIKE TO WAIT.

Especially when others think "its over."

Smithson said co-workers tried to console her when her family left by telling her the war was over. “I remember one of the gals at work saying, ‘Don’t worry, it’s all over, Susan. They’re coming home.’ I was like, pshaw, if only you knew,” she said.

Mary Hinojosa of Fort Hood, Texas, said her co-workers at Dell Computer used to ask her every day how her husband, Army Sgt. Gregory Hinojosa, was doing when he shipped out to Iraq in March.

Now the questions have trickled away, leaving her alone with her fears every time the telephone rings or someone knocks on the door.

In her imagination, the message is always bad news about her husband.

“When the phone rings and it’s a bill collector, I’m happy,” she said.

Indeed.

Read it here.