Stateside spouse stays busy volunteering

Janet Taylor-Birkey

Gidget Sanders is a stateside spouse who has been left behind for four deployments in just three and half years of being married to Senior Airman Nicholas Sander, 27th Equipment Maintenance Squadron, currently deployed to Balad, Iraq.

Like many spouses, Mrs. Sanders said coming home to an empty house is one of the most difficult things for her. “It’s still hard when you have kids, but at least you have someone there with you,” she said. “I have two dogs and a rabbit, but they don’t speak English!”

Mrs. Sanders would not call deployments easy, but she has found ways to make them not only bearable but meaningful.

“I try to look at the positive in everything,” Mrs. Sanders said. “I hate him being gone … but I have more time to volunteer. I like to get out there with the community.” Besides volunteer work, Mrs. Sanders fills her hours with her job as Protestant Education Director at the base chapel and her hobby of working with stained glass. She said spending time with friends and getting ready to enroll in college are ways she uses to make time pass productively.

“Don’t coop yourself up in the house,” she said. “It’s a good time to make new friends, it’s a good time to get yourself out in the community and say, ‘Here I am to help.’ Get involved.”

Mrs. Sanders doesn’t recall any humorous stories while her husband has been deployed, but because she follows her own advice to get out of the house, she received a gift when she least expected it.

Mrs. Sanders said she knew she had more family in Clovis, but after being at Cannon for three and a half years and not meeting them, she had given up on the idea. “[Nicholas] was gone and I went out with some girls. I actually wound up meeting my half-sister who I had never met before. From there, I found out I have three brothers.”

Although she knows not everyone will have such a dramatic story and may struggle with their spouse being gone, she said there are many things on base to help with the loneliness and finding support. She also encourages stay-at-home moms of children up to five years old to get involved in the chapel’s new playgroup, meeting 9 to 11 a.m. starting Oct. 5. For more information about the playgroup, call 784-2507.

Another idea Mrs. Sanders champions is the Cannon Air Force wives group on http://www.myspace.com. To move outside of the cyberspace realm, spouses also meet at Unity Park on Tuesdays. “It’s a good way to network,” said Mrs. Sanders.

For more information about the park outings, call Mrs. Sanders at 693-1368.