Soldier's family returns to Mainland to cope with his lengthy deployment
| • | Staff Sgt. Joshua Clough's postcard home |
By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer
Since Christmas, the changes have come quickly for 26-year-old Jessica Clough.
Clough family photograph
Today, she will spend her fourth wedding anniversary in Indiana while her husband, Army Sgt. Joshua Clough, 23, serves with the Alpha Battery, 2nd Battalion, 11th Field Artillery in Kirkuk, Iraq.
Jessica Clough poses with her children, clockwise from top, Keisha, 9, Aaliyah, 2, and Alexander, 3. Dog Mimi joined in as well. Husband and father Joshua is in Iraq.
In the four years they've been married, the longest Joshua Clough has been separated from his family was 30 days.
"I'm so used to him being around and having him to talk to and knowing he will be there to help me, you know, just have someone to be close to," Jessica Clough said. "There is no one; it's really lonely. No one really knows what I'm going through except for him."
The Cloughs decided to leave their Schofield Barracks home so that Jessica and the couple's three children, Keisha, 9, Alexander, 3, and Aaliyah, 2, could have the help of Jessica's parents in her hometown of Columbus, Ind.
The decision was good, Clough said, because her parents had only seen their grandchildren three times. One bond broken, another forged; such is the life of an Army wife.
So a few days after Christmas, Clough loaded the kids into the family car and drove across the country from her in-laws' home in Las Vegas to her hometown of Columbus.
The move was a tough one, Jessica said. New schools, new friends, new weather. Yesterday's temperature in Columbus was 37 degrees.
"It's very hard. I'm used to getting so much help from my husband. Now he's gone," said Clough. "My son has a really bad reaction when his dad is gone."
On her anniversary today, Clough said she will put the kids on the school bus and probably clean the house.
The last time she saw her husband was January 5.
She did get to talk to him on Saturday for 10 minutes.
"It feels really weird being here without him, trying to get on with daily life knowing he's not going to be here for a really long time," she said. "I worry about him. I know he is going to come home. I'm looking to the future and what we're going to do when he comes back."
Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8110.
