I moved my own Dad so let me tell you our story on Veterans Day.
It is key to his move. He was a World War II navigator shot down in Poland and transferred to
. He returned home a broken man with PTSD, never took a bus, drove, or flew on a plane again. His disability, like so many vets, was untreated for 50 years. He worked as an advertising agent ala Mad Men and drank like Don Draper. Our family crumbled into a dysfunctional maelstrom, as most families do.
VA GRECC SAVED THE DAY
Finally, after my mother died, I talked him into going to the VA where he did get treatment through the GRECC program. My brother who lived with him died, my Dad found his body and the house caught fire, I then moved my Dad out to a board and care and had the house rebuilt. However, it was Edgar Alan Poe’s House of Usher The perfect storm of 89 flooded the whole house again just like Hurricane Sandy. We lived on the bay off the Jersey Coast, since devastated by the rising ocean.
On Christmas Eve I got him an emergency flight to California with only his clothes and he moved in with us 
for 20 years, until his death. Was it a good move-?
Yes, it was a great move.
My Dad had privacy, although he was on the floor with his 8th-grade granddaughter who dearly loved him- now 40. They both had their own bathrooms. He became the center of the family when he had been a distant removed father. The great-grandchildren Julia & Joseph, my brother’s son Chris and my children Jill and Kali adored him and he loved them. He was “ Pop”.
So on Veterans Day, I would like to give you my own fraught story and remind you of the horrible struggle veterans go through salted by the anguish visited on their families. But there is a great part of the VA and its GRECC. So happy Veterans Day Dad and so glad you moved in with us and had the GRECC program to support us all.
