Charlotte Cosby is an expert on moving. The author, military spouse and educator has moved nearly 30 times, to duty stations that include Washington, D.C., Nebraska, Alabama and Rome over the course of her family’s military service.
For Cosby, mother to 11 children, the lessons from these military moves were hard-won. She handled many of these moves with short notice, often while pregnant or caring for small children. Now, Cosby has turned her experiences into a children’s book to help ease other families’ transitions, called “Bloom: The Military Child’s Journey.”
In “Bloom,” a military family unpacks in their new home as their mother simultaneously prepares for an upcoming deployment. The book is a welcome upending of stereotypes about military families, as the father cooks dinner and handles the admin calls to set up utilities, and the mother is depicted as commanding troops and headed out soon for a year. The book weaves tips for military moves into the narrative, such as one key piece of practical advice — set up the beds first. “Nobody wants to end the day trying to find screws for beds,” one character remarks.
Cosby’s mother was a frequent hero in many of her own family’s moves, often traveling to help. “Bloom” pays honor to this often unsung role in many military families’ lives, with the character of Granny stepping in to watch the youngest baby and change diapers as the family scrambles to unpack and settle in.
The creation of the book was also a family affair, with illustrations by Cosby’s daughter Alana, who was born during the family’s time in Rome. Cosby recalled her family’s time in Italy fondly, especially the bond between the spouses. As all of them figured out life overseas — with sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartrending results — the spouses helped each other through everything from miscarriages to electrical shortages.
“You’re your own family in the military. You have to stick together,” Cosby said of the bond.
Military life wasn’t Cosby’s initial plan. An elementary school teacher, she met her now-husband at a dinner in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen. She invited him to speak to her classroom, never expecting that he would drive the two-and-a-half hours to speak to her young students, but he did. As his career progressed, he served as a B-2 bomber pilot in the Air Force, and then as a test pilot, and she learned to handle the challenges that came with the role of military spouse, especially the challenges of settling a family into new towns and new routines. Education was always a priority for Cosby, whose children have experienced the gamut of schooling options — public, private and homeschool — over the years.
And as Cosby once navigated the responsibilities of military spouse, now she has added a new position: military mom. Three of her oldest children are now service members as well, serving in the Army National Guard, the Navy and the Air Force. Cosby said the role does feel different.
“When you’re on the spouse side, you have to put on that strong face. I didn’t have time to think woe-is-me,” she said. “When it’s your own kids, your mama heartstring is being pulled.”
In addition to “Bloom,” Cosby is also the author of “Investments,” an honest look at parenthood for adults, and her work for younger readers, including “Dad’s Mission,” a dual-language book adapted for young readers in English and Spanish, about a father’s words inspiring his child to reach for the literal stars. The work is adapted from her book pictorial biography of astronaut Colonel Frederick Drew Gregory, also titled “Dad’s Mission.”
Cosby’s work is available on the In Writing Publications website.
