All volunteers since Day 1.

9/25 - One of a kind email from one of our former Adoptees:
"Good morning, Mary-Edna, 

Your organization profoundly helped me in 2019, and I’m writing to offer you an update on what’s happened since then.  I was going through some old emails, and have been reflecting on a few of them with our conversations being one of them.  

Since 2019 I’ve done a LOT of work on myself… I was a still very fragile back then, and having my service dog Bandit with me made all the difference.

In September of 2019, I moved into veterans housing in Connecticut where I stayed for about 2 years.  I had a relationship with someone in Jersey City, and spent a lot of my time there.  In 2021, the VA adjudicated my claim, declaring me to be 100% totally and permanently disabled.  Up to that point my children were still not speaking to me, and as I was a looking to relocate I was considering living on a boat at the mouth of the CT River.  Then, my kids contacted me.  I was a week away from purchasing the boat I was going to live on, and my plans obviously changed.

A friend who was a real estate agent, instead of helping me find a rent, helped me find a home that I was able to purchase with my VA loan.  I’ll tell you, it wasn’t easy.  I went through quite a depressive episode because I had then laid down roots, and at the time I really didn’t want them.

On the upside, I made friends with the Executive Director of the Thomaston (CT) Operation House.  He cajoled me into auditioning for my first musical, “Let it Be.”  I auditioned and earned the lead role, and it terrified me.  I wondered if I had bitten off more than I could chew.  Well, it led me to sing the role of Caiaphas in “Jesus Christ Superstar,” and then onto productions for “White Christmas” and “Beautiful.” 

While “Beautiful” was just about to open, I met a woman at an open mic on March 18th, 2023, the day after Saint Patrick’s Day.  After the open mic we had a couple of beers with the organizer of the event, and I had that epiphany that this woman was “my person.”  After a failed 31-year marriage I swore I’d never do it again, and she compelled me to reconsider.  But her… she graduated from the US Naval Academy, is a professional musician (bagpiper and flute & piano), also has a math degree, AND served on the same ship (USS Dwight D. Eisenhower) I served on, only 20 years later.

A month in , and on our first “date” as far as her 8 children knew, I asked her as we were driving home from a gig and hanging our with friends in NYC, “Would you let me know when I can tell people, you know, we’re boyfriend-girlfriend?”  She said, “I’m never going to be anyone’s girlfriend again.”  I then asked her, “Will you be my wife then?”  And she said YES!

So two-and-a-half years later, and two trips to Scotland, we live at twice the speed of life as musicians.  I sing and play guitar, and I get to make music with my wife. 

I want you to know that where I am at now started with the kindness you and the trustees showed me when I was a shell of the man I am now.  I have my life back, and it’s taken a turn I NEVER saw coming.  Just know I am an exceeding happy man, husband, a step-dad to 8 remarkable children, and I continue to do the work to recover.  

With enduring gratitude, 

Bob