A veteran's suicide causes community to hope

A veteran's suicide causes community to hope
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 19, 0213

In Winsted Connecticut an unlikely group of veterans came together filled with hope of doing something to change what has been wrong. So much love and hope surrounded them that it is stunning when you learn what caused all of them to gather together. A young National Guardsman of two states committed suicide.

Tracey Melanson gets a hug from American Legion Post 43 Commander Art Melycher as he and Keith Bruno, right, owner of The Shop in Winsted, present Tracey and her husband Marc Melanson with a framed American Flag in honor of their son Matthew Marc Melanson following a motorcycle run on Sunday.

The 43-mile motorcycle run drew more than 150 riders to raise money for the American Legion Post 43's Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder account for local vets.

Matthew Marc Melanson, who served in the Connecticut and Massachusetts National Guards and served in Afghanistan from 2011-12 and suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, later committed suicide.
Jim Shannon/RA

The hope came when people decided that his life was worth far more than the way his life ended. Had they settled for what "was" instead of what was possible, he would have simply been buried and mourned by those who loved him.

When you read the numbers, they are more than just numbers even though most of the time you never know their names. Each one of them had someone loving them and trying to do whatever they could to help them heal but they didn't get what they needed to do it.

When you read about a family trying to make a difference, they are doing it because they know first hand how much their veterans gave and cared along with how much they suffered. They are also rare. Consider veteran suicides are over 8,000 a year and we don't get to read about many families coming out and talking about it. Why? Lots of reasons but the one I hear most is they blame themselves for someone they love not wanting to be here anymore.

It takes so little to help them heal but not doing it causes endless, needless pain for them.

Families like the Melanson's are doing a lot more than they think. The hope they have that things can change will also help other families heal.