Monthly Archives

May 2020

Making Connections, Building Community

by Aditi Patil May 27, 2020

When I first heard the term “trailing spouse,” I had just moved to the United States. Being labeled took me by surprise, and I couldn’t help but cringe.

This wasn’t my family’s first move prompted by my husband’s marketing career — we had previously relocated from India to Malaysia and Singapore — or a new sense of struggle. With every move, I grappled with loneliness and a feeling of being uprooted, while managing my family’s transition, my career ambitions and my own emotional needs.

But going from Asia to North America was a more challenging culture shock.

Career Transitions Expat Experiences Military Moves

Viva la Vida Trailing Spouse

by Erica Klinger May 20, 2020

written by Erica Klinger

Trailing spouses are forced to encounter change more than the average human, often without much support. In my 26 years as a Navy wife, my family has experienced 10 house moves, including five different states and one overseas tour. Throughout this adventure, I’ve continued prioritizing my professional advancement as a creative marketing professional. In the past, pursuing your own career dreams hasn’t been expected of military wives — but times are changing and I hope sharing my story publicly for the first time inspires others to never give up on their dreams.

Continued from Part 2 of Erica’s story….

Three years after our relatively relaxing relocation from Virginia to New Hampshire, I was ready for my family’s biggest adventure yet: Naval Station Rota, Spain.

Or, so I thought.

Book Club Expat Experiences

Locked Down? C’est La Vie

by Brigid Keenan May 7, 2020

written by Brigid Keenan

Brigid Keenan, British author of the best-selling Diplomatic Baggage: The Adventures of a Trailing Spouse, accompanied her diplomat husband around the world for nearly 40 years — which, she says, turned out to be good practice for being locked down while far from home.

On February 26 — about a hundred years ago, or was it in another life? — my husband “AW” and I put our car on a cross-channel ferry and drove through France to a place called Elche, in Spain. We chose this destination, an extraordinary oasis probably planted by the Carthaginians, because AW is writing a book about date palms. Afterwards, we headed back north into France, to our little house in a village not far from Montpellier.

We had planned to stay about a week: sort out the small garden, clean the rooms, get it ready for summer and then leave. AW was booked on a Buddhist retreat in Scotland; I had to concentrate on the monthly column I write for The Oldie magazine. (I was looking forward to interviewing actress Sarah Miles, the long-ago star of “Ryan’s Daughter” and a rumored sequel in which she will play a grandmother.) But Fate had other ideas: within a few days of our arrival, the whole world turned upside down, with all travel, commitments, appointments and engagements abandoned.

Almost two months later, we are still here — locked down, with one change of clothes each — in our French valley.