thedrifter
02-14-07, 01:17 PM
A love letter from Iraq
By DANIEL BOYLE
Bucks County Courier Times
Editor's note: Daniel Boyle, a Marine lieutenant stationed in Iraq, e-mailed the Courier Times this Valentine's Day surprise to his wife, Lisa Jakubowicz, a former Conwell-Egan Catholic and Temple University basketball standout. Lisa and her 1-year-old daughter, Frannie, are living with Lisa's parents in Middletown during Daniel's one-year deployment.
We met at a college lacrosse party. I remember it well because it was Oct. 14, 2000.
The next day, Lisa (then Lisa Jakubowicz) would begin preseason basketball workouts for new Temple University basketball coach Dawn Staley in preparation for the 2000-01 season.
Lisa was a beautiful, tall, blonde, standout athlete. I was a college-loving contributor (at best) on Temple's Atlantic 10 champion baseball team. We talked all night.
I probably would have annoyed the hell out of her if she didn't feel the same way about me as I did about her. I told Lisa that very night that I was going to marry her someday.
Our lives were so easy back then. We were carefree college students whose biggest concerns were athletics and partying — and not necessarily in that order. I was crazy about Lisa. She was great company. We could sit and talk for hours and it would seem like seconds. There was no better audience.
For reasons well beyond my comprehension, Lisa thought I was hilarious. And I felt the same about her. We would laugh until we cramped up. What I loved most about Lisa was her easygoing attitude. She was low maintenance. No one is better at making the most out of difficult circumstances than Lisa. It is a trait I respect very much in her.
It wasn't long before I knew we would spend the rest of our lives together. When it came to dating and marriage, my parents, in their infinite wisdom, offered two pieces of advice.
One: Marry someone who will make you be a better person.
Two: Marry someone who makes you laugh. You are going to grow older and uglier, but if you make each other laugh, then you will never get tired of one another. It was advice well-taken from the parents of 12 children. At that point, they were going on 37 years of marriage.
Lisa and I graduated from Temple in 2003. Lisa went on to teach preschool in Yardley. I ventured off the communications path I had traveled at Temple and went to Officer Candidate School for the Marine Corps. Like many men and women my age, Sept. 11 was an awakening. I am as proud as anyone to be born in this great country, and I was honored to be in a position to defend it.
After my extensive training as a Marine Commissioned Officer, Lisa and I married in May 2005. To this day, it is easily the greatest day of what, I can only hope, will be a long and blessed life together.
Nine months later (what can I say, we're Irish Catholics), we welcomed Mary Frances Boyle into the world. We were living at the Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., at the time, and we couldn't have been happier.
It wasn't long after Frannie's birth that I received news that I would be deploying to Iraq with Regimental Combat Team 2. It came as no great surprise to either of us. After all, there are three types of Marines: Marines who are just returning from Iraq; Marines who are preparing to deploy to Iraq; and Marines who are in Iraq.
I suspected my upcoming deployment would be a difficult obstacle for Lisa to overcome. As usual, however, I underestimated her. Lisa's easygoing attitude, which makes her an amazing military wife, made my ensuing deployment much easier on our family. That was important, because we had just found out our family was going to grow, with the addition of another daughter set to arrive in April. (See Irish-Catholic reference above.)
With a strong family supporting her, Lisa decided to move back to Middletown for the duration of my yearlong deployment. It is often said that the hardest job in the Marine Corps is being a Marine wife, and no one does it better than Lisa.
With Valentine's Day upon us, I want everyone to understand what an amazing woman she is. Raising a 1-year-old, seven months pregnant, with a husband in a combat zone is nothing Lisa ever asked for. I often go days at a time conducting operations I cannot talk to her about, in areas I cannot mention, leaving Lisa worried and scared for my life.
E-mail has become our primary means of communication. The phone conversations we do have are certainly too few and far between. We spend most of the conversations laughing, as we always have. And when my 30-minute time limit is up, I can hear her fighting back tears thousands of miles away.
As she says, “Saying goodbye never gets easy.”
We have been the biggest part of each other's lives for seven years, and now I can only cherish the moments that I hear her voice on the other line or picture her smiling while we are talking. I am not too selfish to complain about it, just grateful for the interactions we have. It is easy for both of us to feel lonely, but it is impossible to be alone, knowing that someone, somewhere, feels the same something that you do.
People often stop and thank me for my service. I tell them I am honored. And I am. Lisa just stands proudly next to me. I am here to tell you that she is the one who deserves all the thanks. She makes the sacrifices that keep our young family together.
Knowing that Lisa has things taken care of at home gives me the ability to focus on my mission here. I know that it is more difficult on the spouses than it is on the Marines in the fight. They know less and worry more. I am eternally grateful to have her as my wife. She is my hero. She is the love of my life and my best friend. Lisa is the best Valentine any Marine could ever hope for.
February 14, 2007 8:05 AM
Ellie
By DANIEL BOYLE
Bucks County Courier Times
Editor's note: Daniel Boyle, a Marine lieutenant stationed in Iraq, e-mailed the Courier Times this Valentine's Day surprise to his wife, Lisa Jakubowicz, a former Conwell-Egan Catholic and Temple University basketball standout. Lisa and her 1-year-old daughter, Frannie, are living with Lisa's parents in Middletown during Daniel's one-year deployment.
We met at a college lacrosse party. I remember it well because it was Oct. 14, 2000.
The next day, Lisa (then Lisa Jakubowicz) would begin preseason basketball workouts for new Temple University basketball coach Dawn Staley in preparation for the 2000-01 season.
Lisa was a beautiful, tall, blonde, standout athlete. I was a college-loving contributor (at best) on Temple's Atlantic 10 champion baseball team. We talked all night.
I probably would have annoyed the hell out of her if she didn't feel the same way about me as I did about her. I told Lisa that very night that I was going to marry her someday.
Our lives were so easy back then. We were carefree college students whose biggest concerns were athletics and partying — and not necessarily in that order. I was crazy about Lisa. She was great company. We could sit and talk for hours and it would seem like seconds. There was no better audience.
For reasons well beyond my comprehension, Lisa thought I was hilarious. And I felt the same about her. We would laugh until we cramped up. What I loved most about Lisa was her easygoing attitude. She was low maintenance. No one is better at making the most out of difficult circumstances than Lisa. It is a trait I respect very much in her.
It wasn't long before I knew we would spend the rest of our lives together. When it came to dating and marriage, my parents, in their infinite wisdom, offered two pieces of advice.
One: Marry someone who will make you be a better person.
Two: Marry someone who makes you laugh. You are going to grow older and uglier, but if you make each other laugh, then you will never get tired of one another. It was advice well-taken from the parents of 12 children. At that point, they were going on 37 years of marriage.
Lisa and I graduated from Temple in 2003. Lisa went on to teach preschool in Yardley. I ventured off the communications path I had traveled at Temple and went to Officer Candidate School for the Marine Corps. Like many men and women my age, Sept. 11 was an awakening. I am as proud as anyone to be born in this great country, and I was honored to be in a position to defend it.
After my extensive training as a Marine Commissioned Officer, Lisa and I married in May 2005. To this day, it is easily the greatest day of what, I can only hope, will be a long and blessed life together.
Nine months later (what can I say, we're Irish Catholics), we welcomed Mary Frances Boyle into the world. We were living at the Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., at the time, and we couldn't have been happier.
It wasn't long after Frannie's birth that I received news that I would be deploying to Iraq with Regimental Combat Team 2. It came as no great surprise to either of us. After all, there are three types of Marines: Marines who are just returning from Iraq; Marines who are preparing to deploy to Iraq; and Marines who are in Iraq.
I suspected my upcoming deployment would be a difficult obstacle for Lisa to overcome. As usual, however, I underestimated her. Lisa's easygoing attitude, which makes her an amazing military wife, made my ensuing deployment much easier on our family. That was important, because we had just found out our family was going to grow, with the addition of another daughter set to arrive in April. (See Irish-Catholic reference above.)
With a strong family supporting her, Lisa decided to move back to Middletown for the duration of my yearlong deployment. It is often said that the hardest job in the Marine Corps is being a Marine wife, and no one does it better than Lisa.
With Valentine's Day upon us, I want everyone to understand what an amazing woman she is. Raising a 1-year-old, seven months pregnant, with a husband in a combat zone is nothing Lisa ever asked for. I often go days at a time conducting operations I cannot talk to her about, in areas I cannot mention, leaving Lisa worried and scared for my life.
E-mail has become our primary means of communication. The phone conversations we do have are certainly too few and far between. We spend most of the conversations laughing, as we always have. And when my 30-minute time limit is up, I can hear her fighting back tears thousands of miles away.
As she says, “Saying goodbye never gets easy.”
We have been the biggest part of each other's lives for seven years, and now I can only cherish the moments that I hear her voice on the other line or picture her smiling while we are talking. I am not too selfish to complain about it, just grateful for the interactions we have. It is easy for both of us to feel lonely, but it is impossible to be alone, knowing that someone, somewhere, feels the same something that you do.
People often stop and thank me for my service. I tell them I am honored. And I am. Lisa just stands proudly next to me. I am here to tell you that she is the one who deserves all the thanks. She makes the sacrifices that keep our young family together.
Knowing that Lisa has things taken care of at home gives me the ability to focus on my mission here. I know that it is more difficult on the spouses than it is on the Marines in the fight. They know less and worry more. I am eternally grateful to have her as my wife. She is my hero. She is the love of my life and my best friend. Lisa is the best Valentine any Marine could ever hope for.
February 14, 2007 8:05 AM
Ellie