Author: Artis Henderson
Publisher: January 7th 2014 by Simon & Schuster
Format: ARC Pgs 242
Genre: Memoir
Source: Amazon Vine Program
“They came to my door today”
Stunningly devastating words uttered by Artis Henderson when she makes a call to a fellow military wife after she returned home to find two representatives that were there “to regretfully inform her” of her husband’s death.
From the beginning, you meet Artis, a woman that describes herself as “the not right kind of pretty” and her blossoming relationship with a man that is her everything.
Artis has always dreamed of moving overseas and becoming a writer, instead, she put her life on hold and travels from base to base with her boyfriend then husband. Taking odd jobs and barely subsisting with broken down apartments and broken down cars. However, that reality does not matter, what matters is that the moment he walks through the door her life begins.
Seeing how her mother had handled grief when Artis’ father died, she thinks that maybe she can learn from her, but comes to the realization that grief is personal. That each person must walk down their own path to see who they are at the end, and that grief is not a weakness, it is an individual act.
The reader journeys with Artis and along the way meets the individuals that have helped her become the person that she is today. I may not have agreed with all of her choices, but they were not my choices to make. Though at points, she may have felt that she had dishonored her husband, had not loved him enough, I did not see that at all. I saw a growing young woman, who started out afraid and insecure, who blossomed into a woman that had taken the worst that was handed to her and made a new life. A life that Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Miles P. Henderson would be able to look her in the eyes and say, ‘Yeah babe. You’re Okay’.
“Pursue your dreams wisely, with all your heart, with honor and with decency”
Stunningly devastating words uttered by Artis Henderson when she makes a call to a fellow military wife after she returned home to find two representatives that were there “to regretfully inform her” of her husband’s death.
From the beginning, you meet Artis, a woman that describes herself as “the not right kind of pretty” and her blossoming relationship with a man that is her everything.
Artis has always dreamed of moving overseas and becoming a writer, instead, she put her life on hold and travels from base to base with her boyfriend then husband. Taking odd jobs and barely subsisting with broken down apartments and broken down cars. However, that reality does not matter, what matters is that the moment he walks through the door her life begins.
Seeing how her mother had handled grief when Artis’ father died, she thinks that maybe she can learn from her, but comes to the realization that grief is personal. That each person must walk down their own path to see who they are at the end, and that grief is not a weakness, it is an individual act.
The reader journeys with Artis and along the way meets the individuals that have helped her become the person that she is today. I may not have agreed with all of her choices, but they were not my choices to make. Though at points, she may have felt that she had dishonored her husband, had not loved him enough, I did not see that at all. I saw a growing young woman, who started out afraid and insecure, who blossomed into a woman that had taken the worst that was handed to her and made a new life. A life that Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Miles P. Henderson would be able to look her in the eyes and say, ‘Yeah babe. You’re Okay’.
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