As senior Heather Kirwan made her way to Dean of Students Thomas Vierheller’s office, she didn’t know what she had done to warrant a visit to the Dean in charge of discipline. She would have never guessed that her father Mark Kirwan would be waiting for her after returning from service overseas in the U.S. Air Force.
The first thing she said to her dad was that she hadn’t cut the grass yet because of the weather.
For Heather, having her dad coming back from a deployment is nothing new. Mark has been deployed six times since Sept. 2001, but Heather still worries about him.
“I think when a parent leaves it is the hardest part, because with each beginning, I know that there’s a long road ahead. The first month is by far the hardest because it’s all about adjusting to the idea. During that month, all I can do is think about the ‘what if’s?’” Heather said.
This past summer while her father was away, Heather was responsible for taking care of her dad’s house, including mowing the lawn. “I had no problem taking responsibility for the house, but simply only being able to talk [to him] once a week for an hour or two was a burden,” she said.
To stay connected with Mark while he was overseas, she would meet with her grandmother and sister to Skype him every weekend. “I’m just glad we had really good communication the entire time he was deployed. It definitely gave our family a better peace-of-mind,” Heather said.
Heather describes the feeling she gets when her father comes home as ““by far the best feeling in the world.”
“I was just overcome with happiness and relief, and it feels like a weight is just lifted off your shoulders,” Heather said.
While it is tough to have a parent that serves for the country, Heather sees the positive side of her dad’s sacrifices. “It definitely deepens the value of family, because of time away from each other. I think it’s also great to feel such pride in a person and think of them as a hero,” she said.
Heather has been positively affected by Mark’s military involvement. “It’s made me a stronger, more independent person. It’s taught me how to be patient, how to deal with my fears, and how to trust that there’s a reason for everything that happens in life,” Kirwan said.
Junior Adam Isennock also has a father in the National Guard as a helicopter pilot that has been deployed. He was in Iraq from 2005 to 2006 and left again four weeks ago deployed again for 13 months.
“It’s usually really sad when [my dad] leaves for deployment. You don’t realize how sad it really is until you see your other family members’ reactions and [he] leaves,” Isennock said. “It was hard for our family. I have two brothers; one is in eighth grade and the other is a freshman in college. It’s weird because it’s just me, my mom, and little brother at home.”
Isennock and the rest of his family has to take up more responsibilities that his father would usually help out with. Luckily for Isennock, “The year goes by fast, [and] when he comes home it’s a great relief.”
“I think that my dad being away makes my family stronger and it makes me have more responsibility, which helps me as a person,” Isennock said.
Stephanie Meadowcroft is a Lifestyles Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.