A Daughter's Perspective

Benjamin Franklin said, “Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later.” Too many of the men and women returning from our current wars already understand the truth in Franklin’s statement. That truth is lived everyday in the sharp recoil at the sound of a firecracker, the nightlong restlessness when resisting the sleep that brings troubling images, the stream of tears few others understand. This struggle affects relationships and the people to whom one is tied: friends, parents, spouses, and children. How could it not?

    We’ve just received an insightful and heartfelt post from Kelly (see the “comments” section beneath A Phone Call From Greg), the daughter of Greg, the Vietnam vet we mentioned in our last blog. Kelly helps us to understand several of the subtle yet profound ways children are affected by a parent’s PTSD. I hope Kelly’s words assist, if only in a small way, others who have grown up –or who are now growing up – under similar circumstance.