Real Talk: Mental Health By Jenny Lynne Stroup, Outreach Coordinator for the Cohen Clinic at VVSD
Lessons in Love: Good Help They walk down the aisle of the pharmacy hand-inhand. As they reach the counter, one hooks his cane on the shelf as the other rummages around in her purse for their prescription bottles. This couple is not imaginary, they were long-time customers of my family’s independent pharmacy. Nearly every day, they would shuffle in the door and down the long aisle to the back counter. Always together. It is this image I have of some of my favorite customers that informed what I wanted from marriage long before I was married. I wanted someone who would shuffle alongside me to accomplish the mundane tasks of life ‘til death do us part. I was naïve to think that this end-of-life togetherness comes easily. That because two people lived with each other for a long time, the natural conclusion is that when they were old, they would totter to the pharmacy together each day. I’ve been married for over a decade now. Sometimes that decade feels like a thousand lifetimes. Who knew you could pack so much life into ten years? 22
WWW.HomelandMagazine.com / FEBRUARY 2021
When my husband and I said our vows we were young, naïve to the ways of military life, and lured into the promise of ease that only shore duty can bring. We had not yet been tested by time and distance, war and illness. Those things above-time, distance, war, illness-are things that can easily smash a marriage into smithereens on their own. When added altogether they are surely a recipe for decimation. Yet, we’re still here. Still married, and most days, happily so. I attribute our continued relationship, especially the happy part, to knowing we needed a professional to help us be the partners, parents, and people we really wanted to be. Time and distance, war and illness, play significant parts in our marriage story and we were unable to overcome the worst parts of those on our own. We had to ask for help. For us, help looked like both individual and couples counseling. Through the years, we’ve sought help from a variety of sources, and I’ve discovered what good help looks like to me.