Astronaut’s ‘calling’

Evelyn Husband remembers the last time she saw her spouse, the late astronaut Col. Rick D. Husband, who commanded the Space Shuttle Columbia.They spent the day picking up seashells on the beach near the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. In the evening, they met with the other astronauts and spouses for a farewell dinner.

“Rick led a toast for the crew and the success of the mission,” she says. “Then, he said, from memory, Joshua 1:6-9, which talks about being strong in the Lord and being of good courage. … It meant an awful lot to him. That was the last time I ever held him and we ever kissed.”

In her new book, “High Calling,” Mrs. Husband writes about the courageous life and faith of her spouse, who died Feb. 1 while trying to return to Earth on the Space Shuttle Columbia.

On Jan. 16, 2003, Col. Husband and the six other astronauts embarked on a two-week mission that ended when the spacecraft broke apart during re-entry, an accident that scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration say probably was caused by damage that occurred during takeoff.

Although Mrs. Husband struggled with the idea of writing a book about her spouse, she decided to engage in the task for her children. She also thinks it’s a way to show the public the integrity of the man she loved.

“The world is going to see Rick as a public hero, which he is,” she says. “I agree with that, but privately … he was such a humble man.”

She hopes that his example serves as an inspiration to others, especially men. Although Col. Husband had a successful career, she says he had his priorities in order. She insists that he wasn’t obsessed with his achievements, but esteemed his family before his job.

“He put God first, which was the most important priority, and everything else fell into place,” she says. “If Rick had survived on February 1, nobody would know that, and we’d continue on happily with our lives.”

Donna VanLiere, who co-authored the book, says she was amazed at Col. Husband’s devotion to his family. While working on the project, she gained a lot of respect for a man she never knew while he was alive.

“We are all busy in life regardless of what we do,” Mrs. VanLiere says. “Here is the man who was the commander of this space shuttle, who had to have not only incredible knowledge of the shuttle he was flying and know all of those systems forward and backward … he had all of this pressure and stress of his life, but when he walked through the door of his house, he was 100 percent there for his family.”

Before blasting off aboard the shuttle, Col. Husband wrote a journal for his wife. He also made devotional videos for his children, Laura, 13, and Matthew, 8, for each day he anticipated being apart from them. Ironically, one of the passages he is recorded reading is Isaiah 61:1-3, which says, “The Spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to … comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”

Since his death, Mrs. Husband says, she and her children have been unable to watch the videos for emotional reasons, but she knows they will bring her family comfort in the future.

“He viewed these videos as spending time with them every day when he was in space,” she says. “They watched them every single morning. He reads passage of the Bible and their devotional books and prays with them and tells them how much he loves them.”

She says she is proud of her children’s strength and faith while enduring the loss of their father. In “High Calling,” she quotes a passage Laura wrote on the bottom of a calendar the day her father died.

“My dad dies as the best dad in the whole world! I love him so much and I will see him in heaven. He died as a hero and he loved my family sooo much. He loved Jesus and he led me to Christ. He loves Jesus with all his heart and said and did everything he could to get us to love Jesus as much as he did and still does. I love you, Daddy! Love, from your biggest fan and daughter, Laura.”

Mrs. Husband said she is pleased with President Bush’s announcement to return to the moon by 2015, with hopes of sending a manned mission to Mars.

“I wish NASA the very best,” she says. “I want to see them succeed. I think moving onto other places is the right direction for NASA to go. It stirs up an awful lot of interest and enthusiasm for the space program, and Rick very much would have loved to have the opportunity to go to the moon and to Mars. I think it’s very exciting. I think it’s great.”

Mrs. Husband is carrying on her spouse’s final wishes. In the “Other Special Instructions” portion of the “Special Instructions for Funeral Services” that Col. Husband filled out before take-off, he outlined the legacy he wished to leave in case of his passing. He wrote, “Tell ’em about Jesus! That He is real to me. Proverbs 3:5-6, Colossians 3:23.”

“He meant that from his heart,” Mrs. Husband says. “Jesus was very real to Rick, and so that’s one of the things that’s been a real encouragement to me. That’s what I’ve been doing, because Jesus is real to me, too. … No matter what you go through in life, God will be faithful.”