Corie Weathers Reading & Booksigning, Barnes & Noble, Savannah, Saturday, February 11, 2017, 2 PM

Elva Resa author Corie Weathers, and her husband, Army Chaplain Matthew Weathers, will read together portions of Corie’s book Sacred Spaces: My Journey to the Heart of Military Marriage at a booksigning event Saturday, February 11, 2017 at 2 PM Eastern. The event takes place at Barnes & Noble, Oglethorpe Mall, 7804 Abercorn, Savannah, Georgia.

Copies of Sacred Spaces will be available for sale at Barnes & Noble during the event and Corie will sign purchased books following the reading.

About the book:

As the 2015 Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year, Corie traveled on an overseas holiday trip with US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter in December 2015. She wanted to better understand her husband’s deployments and share her experience with other military spouses.

Like many military couples, Corie and Matt accumulated significant unshared moments during Matt’s deployments. Matt lost friends and fellow soldiers to combat in Afghanistan. On the home front, Corie sat with bereaved military families and walked through dark days with new widows as a friend and professional counselor. When Matt returned, he and Corie began using the term “sacred spaces” for these and other significant moments they had experienced independently. After multiple deployments, sacred spaces were taking up a lot of emotional room in their relationship.

Corie didn’t choose the timing or circumstances of her trip with Secretary Carter—Christmastime, in the midst of her family’s second cross-state move in six months—but it seemed the perfect opportunity for Corie and Matt to gain a better understanding of each other’s perspectives.

Matt experienced life on the home front with new eyes as he moved their household belongings, prepared for the holidays, and settled their two young sons into their new school.

Corie’s trip brought her to Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Persian Gulf, where she spoke with military families stationed overseas and deployed troops on the ground, in the air, and at sea.  As she sat in the belly of a C-17, where her husband had said goodbye to the remains of friends and fellow soldiers, as she touched with her own hands the memorial at FOB Fenty and reflected on her grief as a care team member following the battle of COP Keating, Corie realized this journey was about much more than the push-pull of duty away from loved ones.

This was a journey to the heart of her marriage, a place where she would have to leave behind her resentment in exchange for ground she and her husband had surrendered to hurt, misunderstanding, loss—and to Afghanistan.

Corie set out on this trip hoping to gain a better understanding of her husband and his deployment experience, but along the way, she discovered a whole new perspective of herself and her military marriage.

Local ties:
During Matt’s second deployment to Afghanistan, he was stationed with Fort Stewart-based 3rd Infantry Division. He needed a ride back to the US for an important ceremony in Washington, DC, to support a fellow soldier.

From Sacred Spaces: “Fortunately, he encountered a group of special operation soldiers out of Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia.  They were headed home and heard that Matt was trying to get back to the US and why.  They ripped off Matt’s unit patch and told him he could be their chaplain for the duration of the trip back to their home base.  All he had to do was pray over their flight home.”

Corie says, “Matt will be forever grateful for the guys who snatched him up.  They had a part in changing our lives and our story.”

The event:

Corie and Matt will read excerpts from the book at 2 PM and talk briefly about the impact of sacred spaces in their marriage and how couples can strengthen their relationship by intentionally creating shared sacred spaces. The booksigning will follow immediately after the reading.