Page 104 - Middle Georgia State University - Knighted 2019

Thetford
Aisha K. Mayes
Watching Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E in my hospital bed while my husband Jonathan
drives back near our home to get our son Joshua and take him to one my coworkers’ home to
stay the night. The medical staff thought I would deliver soon. It's taken me time, but I still can’t
watch either one of these movies without thinking about that night. It was November 2008, the
week of Thanksgiving, and I was pregnant with my second child that Jonathan and I had learned
a week prior that our baby was a girl and would make her debut in early spring of the new year.
Jonathan, active duty Air Force was assigned to Royal Air Force (RAF) Lakenheath U
Kgdom, and I was Air Force Reserve assigned to the same installation. He worked at the 48th
Medical Operations Squadron as the lead supervisor in charge of the physical therapy clinic in
the hospital. I worked in the 48th Mission Support Squadron in Customer Service as an assistant
supervisor, when I performed drill days. My main job was as a stay-at-home mom and part-time
student, which fit neatly for our growing family with one child, Joshua who turned one year old
at the beginning of what I like to call the “ber months” (Sept, Oct, Nov, etc…), and another on
the way.
Our quickly growing family lived in the town of Thetford in Norfolk; to be exact, we
lived at 40 Stanford Road, Thetford, Norfolk, a small town, or parish as they call it, nestled about
74 miles east of the center of London. In a cozy semi-detached two-story townhome with a
medium sized back yard and detached garage. Threebedrooms, one full bathroom upstairs, and in
the master bedroom a sink and mirror. The outside of the home looked the same as the other in
the subdivision: all brick detached and semi-detached homes. Looking directly at our home with
its pale-yellow bricks from the grey brick paved street, the house looks out of place among the

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