Rush Memorial's Road Home Program Annual Gala. Support PTSD Treatment.

Why I Support and Participate...Why You Should Take the Advice of a Marine Mom

My only son decided to join the Marine Corps while he was still in high school"shipping" out 4 months after highschool. Exhausted, after 18+ years of being a single mom I thought I'd muster up enough energy to do some cartwheels when he left. Instead, I fell deeply into a 2 year depression.

Was I still a mom? Now, what do I do? What's my purpose in life? Will he ever come home? Will he be the same? Better? Worse? When I thought I'd hit the bottom of my depression, I found there was another floor to hit.

During that time, I found great comfort and comradery attending a reception for the opening of Bunker Labs, a fabulous veteran's incubator in Chicago...now in multiple locations throughout the United States. At the reception I met veterans who served honorably and then who built amazing lives from the qualities, values and skills cultivated in their years of service. I learned they revered "Marine Mom's." (whoa to anyone disrespecting a Marine Mom!) And I was a Marine Mom. I'm still a Marine Mom. They made this sad Marine Mom feel so much better!

And then I saw how these amazing warriors-turned-amazing civilians continued to serve long after they left their respective branches.

They continued with the principal of "leave no man/woman behind" in their professional and personal lives. And they welcomed me into their military community simply because I raised a Marine. (I have to give credit where credit is due...my son made the decision all by himself). Their warm embrace lifted my sadness. They were active helping each other, attending events, networking and simply making a difference.

And then my friend, Tony Nasharr introduced me to Rush Memorial's, The Road Home Program. Road Home is a PTSD (+ so much more) program for veterans and their families. Like other exceptionally successful recovery programs, it's veteran to veteran, family member to family member working through complexities military transition, moral injury and PTSD.

At a Road Home event a couple of years ago I spoke with a retired Army Ranger Road Home participant who had the same "job" as my son was training for in MARSOC. He said something so profound that I have never forgotten his story.

This amazing warrior served for 27 years. He was called "sir," he was respected and he had a defined role. Yet, to do what was required of him;

He had to put his conscience on a shelf and then 27 years later pick up that conscience and do what with it?

When he transitioned out of the military, no one called him "sir" anymore. There were no defined roles in his day. The purpose was gone and he found himself wanting to beat up anyone who looked at his sister passing on the sidewalk.

He ended up in the Road Home Program where, when I met him, he was happy, grateful and wanting to give back in a new way...helping other veterans who suffered like he had.

With nearly 1 in 3 veterans suffering from PTSD related to their military experience, veteran suicides and mental health issues continue to dominate the daily news. To date, the Road Home Program has treated more than 2,800 of these veterans and their loved ones, none of whom ever see a bill for these services. While we may think these issues should be winding down, in the next five years, more than one million veterans will transition home — many struggling with the same invisible wounds that are making veteran suicides a national epidemic.

Road Home is funded in part from a Wounded Warrior grant. Incidentally, my son transitioned out of the USMC through the Wounded Warrior battalion, and did not need The Road Home, gratefully. For those Marine Moms and all family members of all our military who do need the power of the Road Home Program, listen up!

This is where you can help us change the course of a veteran’s life and this is where my "ask" is!

Please join us on June 26 in welcoming Secretary Leon Panetta and showing veterans and their families that they are not alone at The Road Home Program Benefit. This is a benefit event to help continue the Road Home Program reach to more of our silent hero's who need our support. Please visit www.pjhchicago.com/rush to buy a ticket, table, sponsor or simply donate.