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Kelli
Kelli, 26, is constantly thinking of where her husband is and what he’s doing. After his discharge from the Army and eventual PTSD diagnosis, he retreated behind the door of their bedroom, where he spends his time playing first-person shooting games and struggles with the social and psychological demands of even simple trips to Home Depot. “I’m an extremely loyal person,” says Kelli. “Our vows said in sickness and in health, and I’ll honor that.” Their shared dreams of buying a modest home and having a child together have been indefinitely put on hold; Kelli splits her time between earning money as a part-time nanny, and the full time job of navigating the V.A. system to get her husband the care he needs. It is a labor of love that Kelli shoulders with grace and persistence, though few people understand or empathize with the real limitations her husband’s PTSD places on their lives together.
JEMMA
Jemma left her husband when she realized she needed to protect their two daughters from his increasing physical and emotional violence. Jemma recalls a nostalgia for the first years of their ten year marriage, and a love for her husband that became increasingly hard to balance against his abusive treatment of her and her daughters, Willow and Luna. After a particularly violent episode, Jemma found refuge in a domestic violence shelter with her girls, and started the process of building a new life. “You can’t hold onto the past, you can’t ever make it come back,” she says. “You shouldn’t have to lose yourself to save somebody else. I’m sad for him. My main fear was that he isn’t going to get the help he needs. And that’s true, he’s not. I am sad for him because I’m able to get my life back. And I don’t think he is.”
Sabri
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MARISA
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Liza
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