- Mental Health
My maternal grandmother would always talk fondly of her younger sister, Mildred, who died at 29 of tuberculosis right after World War II. She kept her black and white photograph on the wall in one of those curved, burled walnut frames that gave her image a ghost-like presence that belied tragedy.
My grandparents would tell stories of her husband, Walter, and his service in the Army during the war. He was stationed in the Philippines before the attack on Pearl Harbor and was captured and forced to suffer though the Bataan Death March. The 80-mile march was judged to be a war crime and thousands of Filipino and American prisoners of war died.
I was told he committed suicide years later, after suffering from nightmarish dreams and flashbacks when it rained. In doing genealogical research, I discovered his war records and marriage certificate. He enlisted on March 19, 1941 and was married just five days before that. My Aunt Mildred died in 1949. He was liberated from an Osaka prisoner of war camp called Chikko in 1945. I cannot imagine the hellish intervening years they suffered and the lack of knowledge around post-traumatic stress disorder.
I am very proud that Foundations Recovery Network has developed a conference to deal with veterans’ issues surrounding trauma and addiction.