Dear Mollie,

My husband is a corpsman and we are stationed at a Marine Corps base on the East Coast. We've been here for a while now, but I'm still having trouble making friends. I only have about 3 friends. I've noticed that a lot of Marine wives won't talk to me because I am not one. It seems like the only ones who do are those who's husbands who have been injured during deployments. I don't know any other corpsman wives either. We seem to be very few and far between! Our first deployment is coming up shortly, and I'm worried I'll be lonely. Is there anything you could suggest?

-- Sophia

Dear Sophia,

Let me assure you that is not the number of friends you have but the quality of friends you have. If Marine wives won’t talk to you just because your hubby is a CorpsMan, then they are jerks and probably of crappy character. I would not want to be friends with them either. Look at it like their loss.

My suggestion is put out a post on line, in your base paper or make signs and put them on your neighborhood mailboxes for a party. You and your three close friends could host a party for anything that interests you. Get a Cookie Lee lady to come out, or Mary Kay. Maybe start a Bunco group, or a book club. Invite wives to your house. A lesson I learned early on on base, is you have to put yourself out their and sometimes take the bull by the horns.

You could even start a support group for wives whose husbands have been injured!

Best,

Mollie