Police wives learn to handle everything from childcare to auto repair alone. I hate sitting down to a Thanksgiving dinner or the kids' birthday parties without him. Sometimes I feel like I'm raising this family alone. By the time he's home again, they're sleeping. And so it goes, the next day and the next.
Intimacy suffers, too.
Warm embraces are replaced with a cold and empty bed when he's working through the night. Interludes traditionally reserved for moonlit eves, shift gears as shifts change and turn his circadian clock upside down. I know it's difficult for him, but I get lonely too. The void can go beyond the physical, as well. Emotional distance is often a side effect of the stress he encounters on the job.