By Johna Till Johnson
Sailors preparing for the funeral, May 2014 (photo provided by Steve Hannifin)
Medicine, the ministry, and the military. Those were the “three Ms” that—according to my mother—defined the callings of our family, dating back to before the American Revolution. Each is characterized by a commitment to a greater good than self, or even family: Healing, God, country.
That sense of commitment is likely one reason my mother came to marry my father, a naval officer, and it permeated my life growing up.
When we uprooted ourselves to move across the country or around the world for the fifth (or the seventeenth) time, it wasn’t for personal gain. It was because the Navy needed us there to protect our country. That’s what my parents said, and that’s what we believed. When our country called, we came—particularly my father, who spent years underwater in a nuclear submarine.
Some…
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