To let it slip

Roughly two years before Sweet Boy and I started dating, he was hurt overseas. He was dating another girl at the time, but we were still friends and kept up with each other. I found out through Facebook that he was hurt. When I first read the news, I sat there stunned on my bed. It felt like a knife went through my chest. I couldn't breathe. I ran downstairs, crying, to look for my mom and I sat there, by my computer and my phone, waiting for more news.

When Sweet Boy and I were preparing for our first deployment, he sat me down and told me all about what would happen if something was to happen to him overseas. He explained the whole process; there would be a "communication blackout" and then a car would pull up to his parents' house (who were living in a whole different area and timezone as me) and they would be informed about what happened. I would then be notified. We then proceeded to talk about details of his memorial service and what he wanted people to do or say. He told me he wanted to make sure I was taken care of and told me of all the things he was going to leave me. I was 20 years old. Talk about growing up. Here I was, just beginning to fall in love with the boy sitting across the table from me, and we were talking about his possible funeral details.
Thankfully, none of the information from that conversation was ever used. Hopefully it never will be.

I was always prepared for that knock on my door. I was always prepared for the possibility that some day I would be confronted by two men who would tell me the devastating news. I was not prepared, however, to find out something via text or Facebook, which is what one army wife had to face recently (that article can be found here). It breaks my heart that she had to find out this life-changing news about her husband through a text message, and then again on Facebook. What happened? What went wrong here? How did this information leak out before the family was notified?
There was a breakdown somewhere - with another wife. This is a case where people are obviously way too 'involved' that they can't think to keep their mouths shut. This young wife, only a few months older than myself, was not notified the proper and decent way that her husband was killed. What the other wives should have been doing, instead of texting or updating their statuses, is praying for the wife that just lost her husband, the mother who just lost her son. We get so caught up in all the extra stuff in life that we forget what is truly important; other people. I will pray for Megan Born and her family and I ask that you will, too. Don't let this mistake happen again. Don't let tragic news be found out in a more devastating way than the news itself.