It’s amazing how attached I’ve become to my cell phone while my son has been deployed. Maybe attached isn’t the right word… obsessed would be more accurate I think. It “must” be within 3 feet of me at all times. I do several pocket checks during the day to reassure me that it’s still there. Panic mode ensues if the phone happens to get out of sight or reach.

If you have received calls from a deployed loved one, you are familiar with how the numbers appear on the caller ID… just six digits. Each time you see those digits on the caller ID, it’s like the world stops for a split second. You stare at it for a moment as if you’ve forgotten how to hit the “answer” button. But you quickly come to your senses and scream to anyone in hearing range… “IT’S HIM!!!” After you answer the call, you are completely unaware of anything going on around you. Whether the call lasts 5 minutes or 45 minutes, the person on the other end of that call has your undivided attention the entire time.

I quickly realized that when these calls came in they were normally from the same number. So I decided I needed to give that number a “special” ringtone. Something that could be heard from about 2 miles away… something that would wake me from a dead sleep… something that would be unmistakable… I chose a ringtone that sounds like something you’d probably hear during a nuclear meltdown. When you hear “THE” ringtone it saves you a few seconds because you can skip the “staring at the phone” part and go straight to the “IT’S HIM!!!” part.

~This article was originally posted at comfy couch command~