Episode #223
When Life Doesn’t Give You Time to Grieve: The Loss of My Father, 20 Years Later
In May 2006, while serving as a Marine recruiter in San Diego, I received a phone call that changed my life. My father and grandfather had been murdered in Colombia. Within days, I was standing at my father’s funeral saying goodbye to my old man. Then life kept moving. I returned home because my son needed spinal cord surgery. I went from burying my father to sleeping in my son’s hospital room, waking up in the morning, putting on my Marine Corps uniform, going out to recruit, and returning to the hospital to be Dad. There wasn’t much time to stop. There wasn’t much time to process anything. And looking back almost 20 years later, I realize that not having the opportunity to properly grieve affected me for years. Today on The Field Op Podcast, I’m telling that story. Not because I have grief figured out. I don’t. I’m talking about what losing my father taught me about family, anger, responsibility, regret, appreciating the ordinary moments, and what happens when life forces you to keep moving before you’ve had time to process what just happened. I’ve lost people to violence. I’ve lost friends through war and suicide. And those experiences changed the way I look at life. I don’t take the little moments for granted anymore. Because eventually you learn they were never little moments at all. If there’s somebody you need to call, call them. If there’s something you need to say, say it. Tomorrow isn’t promised. The Field Op Links: https://linktr.ee/thefieldop #TheFieldOpPodcast #Grief #Loss #Family #LifeLessons #Veterans #VeteranStories #USMC #Marines #MilitaryLife #MilitaryFamily #MentalHealth #GriefJourney #Healing #FathersAndSons #VeteranPodcast #MilitaryPodcast #SemperFi
