Thank you for highlighting Support Military Spouses again this year. As a military spouse, I deeply appreciate those who realize deployments don’t just affect service members. I would, however, like to make a request on behalf of the most forgotten unsung heroes.

I hope the gift-filled shoebox distribution includes spouses who live distant from any military installation. Spouses of deployed reservists often live too far away to take advantage of school liaisons, spouses clubs and other programs. These benefits are readily available to the spouses who are also receiving shoeboxes.

Spouses living outside a military town don’t constantly run into people who identify with our situation. Military services and support groups are hours away. No chaplains drop by, no trained volunteers keep a pulse on our well-being. No family support events are booked nearby.

Away from Fayetteville, Jacksonville, Goldsboro and other military towns, regular military and reservists’ families are completely isolated.

I’m not saying spouses don’t deserve kind gestures just because they can quickly drive over to join a group or get tailor-made help. I’m asking kind people to remember there are spouses in the Triangle who have waited sometimes two years for their reservist to resume civilian life at home.

Unless they live near an installation, support for spouses equates to two phone calls from a government contractor, confusingly busy websites and a monthly newsletter.

Sandra Bachmann

Cary