#restinpeace — Public Fediverse posts

My mother was a monster and my father was no one at all to me.

When I was growing up, my role models had to be something other than the people around me. If I had a father at all, he was Rupert Giles, Buffy the Vampire Slayer's fictional guardian.

Obviously, Giles was never real, and his performer was never really Giles. But I remained deeply grateful to Anthony Stewart Head for playing a role that had meant so much to me at a time when abusers had effectively isolated me from any true positive influence.

Today, I learned that Anthony died two days ago on Friday, and it hits a little like it did when I lost one of my favorite uncles—a man who sometimes protected me from my mom—to a drive-by shooting while I was still in need of a father figure.

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#BuffyTheVampireSlayer #AnthonyStewartHead #RupertGiles #Grief #MentalHealth #Healing #WritingCommunity #TraumaRecovery #PersonalStory #Fandom #RestInPeace

Gather round y'all. It's story time.

My son is in Washington DC this week for a spring break trip and today he visited Arlington National Cemetery.

There's a couple people I served with that are buried there. My son stopped by their grave sites today, cleaned them up a bit, and left a dime on each from me. Thank you, son. 



Each of these soldiers made a huge impact on me during one of the most challenging times of my life -- rentry into the army after a short and failed attempt at post-war civilian life. I was alone at a new post (Ft Drum NY), 3,000 miles away from home and dealing with depression and PTSD.

Sergeant Garrigus and I previously served together in Iraq and was the first familiar face I saw when I signed into the replacement company. He had just been reassigned to the post. I still remember the relief I felt knowing I was around other soldiers who understood what I gone through. Such a huge burden was lifted. A little more than a year later he was killed in Iraq when an roadside bomb struck his vehicle.

Lieutenant Colonel Fenty was my squadron commander at the new unit. It was my first week there and got put on staff duty -- a horrible place to be as a new soldier when you are expected to know who everyone is. As he left the building for the day he noticed me, the new sergeant. And instead of ignoring me like most senior officers would have done, he came over and introduced himself. We chatted for about 20 minutes and learned we had something in common. Our wives were both pregnant with their first child and they were due around the same time.

I ended up deploying late to see my daughter born. It was SOP if the child was expected to be born in the first 90 days of deployment.

As the squadron commander, he didn't do the same.

Instead, he went forward with his troops and never met his child. He was killed in helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

To this day, I still feel shame over the fact that I was able to see my child be born and he didn't.

I'm forever grateful to have ever known such men and thankful they were there at a moment when I needed the ear and camaraderie. 🫡

For those that don't know about the coin thing, here's a good explanation.

#Resteasy

 #valor #10thMountain #veteran #arlington #army #usarmy #oef #oif #iraq #afghanistan #restinpeace #untilvalhalla #PTSD