of all the stories i read

Petty Officer 1st Class, Janet Grass of Dubuque, Iowa, gives her son Lt. Tim Grass a hug Thursday before leaving for California for training prior to deployment to Iraq.
Jeremy Portje/Dubuque Telegraph Herald/WpN

day in and day out about starvation and the war and abuse and injustice and this and that, i actually cried when i read this one (oh, i've cried while reading others too but this one surprised me)

Ordered to Iraq 10 months before retirement
Iowa teacher-grandmother, 52, in Navy Reserve deploys for security work

DUBUQUE, Iowa - A grandmother in eastern Iowa is getting one last call to duty.
Janet Grass, 52, had planned to retire from the military in about 10 months after spending 19 years in the U.S. Navy Reserve. Instead, she has been ordered to leave her job as a special-education teacher in Cascade to do security work in the Middle East.
"They're changing my career just as I'm retiring," she said. "I guess they wanted to try one more thing for me."......

.........As Grass prepared to board the airplane, a grandson grabbed her leg in embrace. She smiled at the boy. "I'll be back," she said.
Her sisters Julie Small and Jolene Petesch stood nearby, sobbing and holding each other in support. Tim Grass, holding a small American flag, watched his mother pass through the terminal gate as other family members questioned the timing of the deployment.
"I think it's wrong," Jolene Petesch said, noting that her sister was about to retire from the military. "The military screwed up there, and I'm angry about it............