Unpredictable. Unfocused. Just like life.

This week Canada experienced the first female casualty in the history of its military when Capt. Nichola Goddard was killed. I picked up my local paper this morning to read this headline:

Soldier's medal to go to 'widow' husband

My local paper is making a big deal of the fact that her husband will be awarded a medal called the Memorial Cross, "an award previously reserved for widows and mothers." Apparently it is the first time the award has gone to a man.

For my entire life a man whose wife has died was known as a "widower", and I'm sure the paper is aware of that. In light of this death it just seems a very poor message to send.