PTSD Patrol on location at Wickham Park

Wickham Park Wall Escort 2019

Wounded Times and PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
May 5, 2019

This morning I was at Wickham Park in Melbourne Florida for the Vietnam Memorial Wall Escort. It is the start of the week long reunion for veterans. While it started as a Vietnam veterans reunion, it was changed so that all veterans felt like family!

It is one of my favorite events and I wanted to share it with you, so, no PTSD Patrol video as usual today. Besides, when it comes to empowerment...sometimes it comes on two wheels and side by side~

East Orlando Harley Davidson for Ride to Fight Suicide

A ride for life
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
September 30, 2018

Today my husband and I are celebrating our 34th anniversary. No matter how hard some years were, we had love and fed each other hope. He is the reason I have done this work for the last 36 years. I have seen the darkness but have also seen what brighter days bring.

Yesterday I went out to East Orlando Harley Davidson for Ride to Fight Suicide

All of our lives have been changed in someway by the lose of hope, but none of us are ready to give up this fight for life.

While our lives may be different, the purpose of our lives has become one of restoring hope.

Romans 8:28 King James Version (KJV)

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Suicide is a painful thing for the families left behind. They never find the answers they are looking for. It is always with them, when the person they loved gave up on themselves. Beyond that, they gave up on the people who loved them as well.

The never ending questions of "why didn't they come to me" or "talk to me" or "let me know how much they were hurting" or "why didn't they trust me to listen to them?"

I know those feelings all too well, because it happened in my family. My husband's nephew was also a Vietnam veteran and he committed suicide 18 years ago. I have all those questions still in my head that will never be answered.

What makes it a little worse for me, is that, I knew everything he needed to hear to take back his life from PTSD. What I didn't know was how to get him to listen. I am sure that his suicide is the biggest reason I have fought so hard all these years.

I have seen what it is like when lives turn around and they live a better quality of life. I also know what it is like to want to die. I was in the hospital with a massive infection 30 years ago and my life was so hard, I was praying to have all the suffering ended. Yes, I was praying to die even though the nurse thought I was fighting to stay alive. My life was too hard but I had a reason to live and that reason was love.

Everyone involved in this suicide prevention event has been touched in one way or another by the suffering of someone else, or what they had survived in their own battles to heal.

When someone has lost everything, especially themselves, it is hard to find hope but within that dark place, who they are is still in there even though how they are is much different than hoped for. It can all change for the better and no one has to fight this alone.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is doing whatever they can to stand by the side of anyone fighting this battle to heal their lives.


Grant is riding 100,000 for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Ride Out of the Darkness

My name is Grant and I have committed to ride 100,000 miles on my Harley Davidson Road King in 2018 to spread the word how together we can lower the Suicide rate. I'm inspired to set out on this journey because I don't want anyone to ever have to wake up to news that another friend, family member, or coworker decided to end their life. Together with the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention we can take a stand and remind our loved ones that they indeed are truly loved. Now is the time!

And Dave Matthews of Never Forgotten Memorials was also out there to change the conversation.
Our purpose is giving others back hope that their lives can be so much better. That their last worst day will end because the next day they are healing. To help them to see that #TakeBackYourLife is more than a slogan but empowering the strength that got them through all the other days of their lives.

No matter what they survived, whatever caused the pain they carry, they defeated it and it is time to see what they have already overcome. 

It is your life! You decide where you want to go and with help, you can get there. Just like someone had to go out and clear the way to make the roads you drive on, others have cleared the way for the roads you live on! It is your life. Time to get in and drive it!