half engaged...

A young womon is waiting for us at the truck, as Nancy and I cross the street. She’s smiling in hopeful wonderment and asks us what this all means, gesturing at the messages on the truck.

As she begins to talk, she tells us tomorrow was to be her wedding day. Her fiancée joined the service with his best friend, went to Iraq, came back last November: they set the date July 12^th, for their wedding.

She found him with a rope around his neck, trying to climb a chair, getting ready to kill himself – for the second time since November.

He has spoken to her – and no one else – twice about what happened in Iraq. He has finally gotten an appointment to speak with someone in the military.

They have taken away his guns at last, she tells us with some relief. She thinks this means he won’t get sent back to combat.

She is heartbroken. But she is also strong. She knows they cannot go forward with the marriage until he has healed himself.

She says they were only half engaged unlike their best friends in the service who were 100% engaged, for her friend found out she was pregnant after the guys deployed to Iraq. He was shot in Iraq dragging her fiancé away from an explosion. Shot to death. Her fiancé lived.

But he doesn’t want to.