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"If I was ever going to be depressed, that would have been the time," recalled Ed. "But Tina and the kids kept me from it."

Their daughter's loss was a test the Greens would not have passed had they not resolved early on to make their marriage work.

When they said, "I do," 52 years ago, they enlisted in a difficult challenge. As a Marine, Ed had to travel often and sometimes far away, leaving Tina to fill the role of both mother and father.

But Tina accepted the mission readily. The daughter of a Philadelphia cab driver, she grew up watching her mother raise the family while her father worked six-and-a-half days a week to provide. "It wasn't my job to make [Ed's] job harder," she said. "It was my job to make it work."

Imitating her mother, Tina supported Ed while keeping the children active in sports, music, and the arts. She also earned two master's degrees and worked in family therapy. Meanwhile, Ed excelled at work, including one post as the commander of an infantry battalion overseas.

Living apart in different cities or together at home, commitment to the Bible, each other, and their children made the family work. It took resolve, since Tina came from a family whose parents stayed married, while Ed's parents separated when he was a baby. Ed had a harder time envisioning a successful marriage and identifying the threats.

This difference surfaced during one conflict when Tina challenged Ed on how much time he spent at work. "Ed said, 'Maybe military families can't make it,'" Tina recalled. "I lost it! I told him there was absolutely no chance that was going to happen."