“It is all in the eyes of the beholder”- No phrase describes the differences in the trailing spouse experiences better. Is following your husband’s career around the globe a perfect recipe for the spot in the “graveyard of ambition” or is it the unique opportunity to live your life to the fullest, discovering your many skills and talents? What is it in your eyes?

My mother was a trailing spouse. She followed my father through Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Europe. She sewed shirts for lepers in Mexico and helped women market their crafts in Colombia. But mainly, as the blogger said, she kept the show on the road.
When there was no doctor to call in up-country Burma, she read Dr Spock and became a doctor. When her children didn’t show up at the airport as scheduled and there were no means of communication, she became a detective, analyzing all the travel possibilities and determining what the outcomes could be eventually meeting the right plane. When she was stranded in Liberia for four days because the plane broke down, she befriended strangers and learned to survive. When there were shortages in Nigeria and the electricity went out during important dinner parties, she improvised.

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