Offering Hope, PTSD Suicide Survivor Opens Up on Healing

Suicide survivor has message for those facing depression
CBS 7 News
By Stephanie Bennett
Dec 23, 2016

Although Bray admits she still struggles with depression, it’s her faith, counseling, and spending time with her family and dog, Snappy, that keeps her going.

ANDREWS -- The military and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are often associated, but after an Army career that ended many years ago, an Andrews woman was just recently diagnosed with PTSD, but not for the reason you may think.

Lora Bray remembers her days in the Army as some of the most fun times of her life.

But then, a culmination of losses and tragedies took over her life, and she became very depressed.

Back in August she even attempted suicide but survived.

Now, she has a message for anyone going through depression.

But first, let’s rewind the clock to the day she tried taking her life:

“I didn't want anybody to know where I was at, so I went to a little farm road, took some pills, I just wanted to die,” Bray said.

While several Andrews residents assisted in looking for her, it was ranchers who eventually found Bray unconscious in her car.

She was then hospitalized and later diagnosed with PTSD.
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Staff Sgt. Shilo Harris, Combat Wounded Soldier Feeling Blessed

Austin film crew bringing veteran's life to the big screen
FOX 7 News
Elizabeth Saab
December 23, 2016

“There are blessings out there. There are better ways to live. There are other ways to live and if they're not living their lives, they need to start living their lives.” 

Staff Sergeant Shilo Harris

A film crew in Austin is chronicling the life of a U.S. Army Veteran who was seriously wounded in Iraq a decade ago.

Staff Sergeant Shilo Harris enlisted after 9/11. “I had two tours in Iraq,” he says. It was during his second tour “On February 19, 2007 we got a call to investigate a possible I.E.D.” Harris was traveling in a Humvee when it hit an I.E.D. “It literally erupted,” he says remembering that day, “700 pounds of explosives went off underneath the vehicle just blew the Humvee apart, shredded the vehicle and killed 3 of my soldiers.
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5 Ways For Better Christmas With PTSD

5 ways to get through a blue Christmas
The (Clarksville, Tenn.) Leaf-Chronicle , WXIA
Tim Parrish
December 24, 2016

"They believe no one can understand their situations unless 'they have been there.’ Some suffer survivor’s guilt about why they survived but their buddy was killed in action." Rev. Jodi McCullah

For some people, Christmas is not all sweetness and light. (Photo: Getty Images)

Society has great expectations for people to have the perfect house, bake perfect cookies and show off the perfect family in Christmas letters, Facebook posts and Instagram photos.

But look more closely at the people you meet, and you might see expressions of grief and depression.

Sometimes, Christmas is a holiday to soldier through, and some people would rather escape from it.

“Christmas is normally a family time. It might be the only time for some people to get together,” said Henry Moore, a social worker and grief counselor at AseraCare Hospice in Clarksville, Tenn.

“If you are grieving over the death of a loved one, you might think being around lots of happy people would make you happy. That’s not how it works," he said. "Happy people only remind you of what you no longer have.”

While everyone deals with grief differently, Moore said a lot of common emotions come up at the holidays, and they often revolve around family traditions.

"A sense of hopelessness and despair are not uncommon," he said. "Sadness can be overwhelming at times when you see people or places once special to you and your loved, but now that person is gone.”

Grief isn't always about death. It can come from a divorce, losing a job or trying to adjust to life after being deployed in a combat zone.

1. Start new traditions but don’t throw out the old ones. Keep as many as you can.
2. Accept invitations to events and then attend them. Interacting with people can be difficult but important.
3. Be honest to close friends and family about how you're feeling about the holidays.
4. Include a place at the dinner table for a missing person.
5. ​Don't use alcohol or drugs to deal with emotional pain.
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Kindness Melted Gulf War Veteran's Heart For Christmas

Veteran's family gets surprise
The Daily Item
By Justin Strawser
December 24, 2016

“There’s a lot of love in every package there,” DeFacis said.

Justin Strawser The Daily Item
Ray DeFacis, left, one of Santa's helpers in Sunbury and the co-founder of Santa's Miracle Gift of Giving, delivers presents to Anthony and Regina Fera, of Shamokin, on Friday morning.

SHAMOKIN —Anthony Fera and Ray DeFacis embraced Friday afternoon, tears in both their eyes, at the Chestnut Street home in Shamokin. Moments before, DeFacis and other volunteers dropped off dozens of presents to the Fera family of eight.

Fera, 41, a disabled Gulf War veteran who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, said the gesture from DeFacis and the Santa’s Miracle Gift of Giving to him, his wife and six children inspired him and melted his frozen heart.

“I’ll be honest, I’ve been bitter and becoming hard,” Fera said. “This renewed and rebirthed my giving spirit.”

DeFacis, who plays Santa Claus in Sunbury, is the co-founder of Santa’s Miracle Gift of Giving, a program that provides gifts and food for families across the Valley. The Fera family was one of four families who received a delivery from Santa and his helpers on Friday.

Fera and his wife, Regina Fera, 36, have one income and are raising six children: Joslynn, 14; Gabriel, 10; Joshua, 8; Leah-Marie, 6; Hannah, 4; and Autumn-Rose, 2. The family has two dogs: Snowball, a 4-year-old English golden retriever, and Athena, a 10-month-old English mastiff.

Regina Fera is a stay-at-home mother while her husband is a painter for a sub-contracting business, but work is slow in the winter months. Anthony Fera also experiences Post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety issues from combat, hearing loss from working with explosives during the war and is constant pain due to injuries from his current career. He does receive some benefits from the VA, but it’s not enough.
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Young Girl's Santa Letter Changed Soldier's Life

Santa letter 50 years ago changed lives
The Republic
By Staff Reports
12/23/16

Written by Kim Stover

Our shared wish for an end to armed conflict still resonates, and my Vietnamese doll still stands on my desk, a testament to a young soldier’s big heart and a young girl’s belief in Santa Claus and in goodness itself.

Fifty years ago, the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal published my letter to Santa Claus, shaping my adult life.

When my second-grade teacher, Judy Williamson Mervine, assigned a letter to Santa Claus, I wrote, “Dear Santa Claus, Please stop the war in Vietnam and give all of my toys to the people there so they will have a good Christmas and if I don’t get any toys I won’t care because Christmas is when the baby Jesus was born in the manger and we have gifts to celebrate Christmas. Kimberly Ann Stover.”

Surprised that my letter asked for something beyond toys, Mrs. Mervine decided to contact the Journal.

The Journal reporter asked me what war was, and I said it was fighting with guns. She asked me if I really believed in Santa Claus, and I said yes, but admitted, “Santa might not get there because his reindeer would get tired.” She also asked if Santa had any toys left over, what present would I want. I said a doll.

The front page of the Dec. 22, 1966, Journal featured the story.

Close to where my family lived, Mrs. Anita Ripley read the article and sent it to her son, Private First Class Jim Ripley, who was stationed near Saigon working as a heavy vehicle driver in Company B of the 69th Engineering Battalion of the U.S. Army.

Then Jim decided to make sure that I got that doll.
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