Life is a Project

Lee Hillman Brown had a dream of having her family surrounding her during her golden years.  Her oldest son, Lt Col Mark Wood, was less than a month from retiring from the US Air Force and moving to Seattle with his wife and two daughters.  The plan was for all five of her sons to live in the greater Seattle area with her grandchildren. On 27 May 2016, everything changed, Lee Hillman Brown had a stroke from which she did not recover.   Lt Col Mark Wood was in London for his last mini-break in Europe, when he received the news of his Mother's passing. Lee was always able to relate to the Air Force lifestyle, being an Air Force brat herself.  Lee was born in 1946, two years after her father had escaped from a German prison camp.  Lee's Father,  Donald E. Hillman , moved the family a lot while Lee was growing up from Maine to Alaska, from Florida to California. Lee always maintained the skills she learned as an Air Force family member, to include flexibi...

My friend and coworker at the US European Command in Stuttgart Germany is retiring from the military after 22 years.  Fortunately, life in the Air Force as a cyber warrior has trained him to be prepared to deal with the unexpected.  Until an ill fated call over Memorial Day weekend, the very organized Lt Col Wood was on track to return to the United States and transition to life as a civilian.   Lt Col Mark Wood - Cyber Warrior He, his wife and two daughters decided to take one last trip, before retiring in Seattle to spend more time with his extended family. Immediately after checking into their hotel in London, Mark received the devastating news that his Mother had unexpectedly had a stroke. Before he could arrange transportation back to the United States, she had passed away.  The final mini-break to London had went from excitement over tickets to Harry Potter World, to the realization of how fragile life is and how important it is to expect the unexpected. Re...