HAPPYHOLIDAYS
SEPARATED for the
HOLIDAYS: How Families Celebrate when a Service Member is Deployed by tracey prohaska carroll
W
hen Hannah Moore found out her father was getting deployed, she immediately thought of all of the things he would miss that year. “It was especially hard to envision him missing the holidays because that’s not something I had experienced since I was 7, and he had been deployed for a year,” said Hannah, the 18-year-old daughter of Sargent First Class Moore of the Army National Guard. “Holidays are such a big family event that I couldn’t comprehend celebrating without him.” Hannah and her family live in Orange and are one of the many families who have experienced the holidays without a beloved service member. There are so many reasons to be thankful to the brave men and women who serve our country, but we can’t forget the added sacrifices they and their families make by not being able to spend the holidays together at times.
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