Andy and I started dating when we were 15, and our love just grew from there. When we were 18 years old, he enlisted in the Army and began training shortly after. We went from spending every second together, to only letters and short phone calls. But it just made our love stronger. Shortly after training he proposed to me and we got married on December 19, 2004, the best day of my life. I remember looking into his eyes and it felt like it was just him and I standing up there.

He deployed to Afghanistan a few months later and returned home in early 2006. We then moved to Ft.Stewart, GA and finally began our married lives together. It was amazing. I fell in love with him more and more every day. My life felt so complete and I knew I was right where I belonged. In May of 2007, Andy deployed to Iraq. The other military wives and I sat in the parking lot watching our husbands pack up and board the busses. I remember him standing in the empty lot sooo close to me, but I couldn’t reach out to him and hold him one last time. So instead I yelled out “ I love you baby.” He turned around and smiled at me and said, “ I love you too.” Little did I know then that it would be the last time I saw him alive.

Three long months later, on August 11, I got the dreaded "knock at the door." The one every military wife dreads. The one every military widow will never forget. I thought there must have been a mistake.

I still think they made a mistake. He is my best friend, my soul mate, my hero, my everything. The months afterwards were a blur. I still wait everyday for him to call me. I miss him sooo much every second, but I know that I will be with him again someday. When I used to write him I would always say, “Remember, it's not goodbye, it's I’ll see you later.”
 

Tabbatha Lancaster
Proud Wife of SGT Andrew Lancaster
KIA 8/11/07

~Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away~

tabbatha@fineyoungwidows.com