[NetBehaviour] Guard families cope in two dimensions.

[marc]

Guard families cope in two dimensions.

`Flat Daddy' cutouts ease longing

By Brian MacQuarrie.

But now, thanks to a popular family-support program, they're even closer.

Welcome to the ``Flat Daddy" and ``Flat Mommy" phenomenon, in which 
life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine 
National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home.

The Flat Daddies ride in cars, sit at the dinner table, visit the 
dentist, and even are brought to confession, according to their 
significant others on the home front.

``I prop him up in a chair, or sometimes put him on the couch and cover 
him up with a blanket," said Kay Judkins of Caribou, whose husband, Jim, 
is a minesweeper mechanic in Afghanistan. ``The cat will curl up on the 
blanket, and it looks kind of weird. I've tricked several people by 
that. They think he's home again."

At the request of relatives, about 200 Flat Daddy and Flat Mommy photos 
have been enlarged and printed at the state National Guard headquarters 
in Augusta. The families cut out the photos, which show the Guard 
members from the waist up, and glue them to a $2 piece of foam board.

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