Andy and I met some time ago. At the time he was working at the same company my mom was. She would come home every day and tell me about this amazing guy whom I just had to meet. When I finally got the chance to get to meet him he stood across the room from me and said no more than three words. Come to find out he thought that I was too “stuck up” for him. Needless to say it was not love at first sight. A few days later my high school was having a big football game. Later, after the game had ended and I had dropped my friends off at home, I decided to give Andy a call. When he answered the phone he was with a friend at a bar. I must have been more of his type then he thought because he left the bar and met me at a pizza place just down the road. We got to talking, and I must have said the right thing because his friend decided to leave (later out finding they had a code word). This left me with Andy and only my car. Long story short we spent the night driving around town, having pickle races on the window of McDonalds, and messing up my car with confetti from some party poppers (that I still have wrapped around my mirror to this day).
It didn’t take long after that night for me to realize that I was completely head over heals in love with this guy. And not too long after that he left for our first deployment. Growing up I was always involved with long distance relationships. I knew that this deployment was going to be hard, but I also knew that our love could survive the distance. So with a message on my voicemail that said he loved me and would miss me and a note on an index card that said, “no matter how bad it gets no one can stop time; and that is one thing we will always have going for us” he left. Seven months, many restless nights, four phone calls, many letters, infinite pride, and a diary full of every good, bad, and tearful moment, later… he was home! And we were ready to start our life together.
Andy and I try to live our life in the best way we know how. We have learned to not take for granted the time we have together. We have built our relationship on the promise of trust and commitment. We promised to always love one another. We promised to always return home to one another’s arms. We promised to keep each other close to one another’s heart… I do so by wearing his dog tags. And most of all we promised to be faithful… this promise we wear on our left hands.
While Andy is my best friend and my hero, he is most importantly my husband. We have not let the Marine Corps define our life or our relationship. While I wear my dog tags, hundreds of marine t-shirts, and a survival bracelet with extreme pride, we have learned that life will go on after he leaves the Corps. I will always credit the deployments for making our love stronger. We will continue to fly the Marine flag with pride. I will always consider Andy and his fellow marines as my hero’s, and I will never get tired of hearing him called Cliff. However, I will not miss sleeping with my phone instead of him by my side. The USMC will always be a part of our lives. The great thing is that the marines will go on just fine without him…I will not.
-Taylor Cliff. Proud wife of a U.S. Marine! Semper Fi
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