Stars and Stripes has a new story telling us about how one family back home in Yokosuka deals with separation from a husband & dad serving on the USS Kitty Hawk. The Internet is helping them stay in touch - one of the blessings of technology.
At 8 a.m., an inaudible garbled voice came through the baby monitor in Cindy Williams' living room. "That's Mercedes," Cindy says, running upstairs to see to the just-waking 2-year-old. Moments later, Cindy carries the toddler, still pajama-clad, downstairs. This is the official start of Cindy's workday. She is the wife of USS Kitty Hawk sailor Andrew Williams, a petty officer second class who spends much of his time away from the family. He has to because his country needs him. But that need leaves Cindy - and thousands of other spouses just like her - to play both mom and dad in a temporary one-parent home.
"We get to e-mail each other a couple times a day," she says. The night before, the two were online at the same time. "It was almost like a conversation." Andrew says he e-mails as often as he can - but it all depends on when the ship's server is working. And all the e-mails he receives, he saves on disk. Even toddler Mercedes gets typing time, he says. "She just bangs away at the keyboard. It looks like the Tasmanian Devil talking."
Posted by Alan at April 26, 2003 12:04 PM