A heartbreaking year
It has been a year since Dena Yllescas buried her husband, Capt. Rob Yllescas, after he died of wounds suffered in a bombing in Afghanistan. “I have managed to put one foot in front of the other and try to make the best out of a horrible situation,” she writes in her blog as she ...
It has been a year since Dena Yllescas buried her husband, Capt. Rob Yllescas, after he died of wounds suffered in a bombing in Afghanistan.
“I have managed to put one foot in front of the other and try to make the best out of a horrible situation,” she writes in her blog as she meditates on how she and her children are taking the grim anniversary. “Our life will never be the ‘old normal’ so we’re making a ‘new normal.” To her credit, she marked the hard day by getting a dog for her older daughter, which strikes me as a thoughtful, healthy step.
yllescasfamily
Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1
More from Foreign Policy

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak
Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage
The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine
The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

The Masterminds
Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.