Speaker 1: Has summer finally arrived in your corner of the world.
Speaker 1: Is summer a season you enjoy? Do you find yourself
Speaker 1: outside a lot or at least more than you do
Speaker 1: in the colder months. Is your idea of fun summer
Speaker 1: activities things like hiking, camping, kayaking? Or are you more
Speaker 1: of a go to the park that has those splash
Speaker 1: pads or reading under the shade of a tree or
Speaker 1: grilling in the backyard kind of person? How about a
Speaker 1: baseball game, Little League, big League? Your jam? Baseball is
Speaker 1: the great American pastime and if it's your thing, then
Speaker 1: today's podcast guest will be too. Baseball holds a special
Speaker 1: place in the hearts of Americans. The crack of the bat,
Speaker 1: the roar of the crowd, love to rute route for
Speaker 1: the home team, and how many of us dream of
Speaker 1: someday wearing the uniform of our favorite team player. Dave
Speaker 1: Miller was just that kid. In nineteen eighty one. He
Speaker 1: finished his senior year of high school as a star
Speaker 1: pitcher and had set his sights on college and hopefully
Speaker 1: a professional pitchers mound when a car careeming through a
Speaker 1: McDonald's parking lot changed his life forever. I don't want
Speaker 1: to get ahead of the story before I introduced David,
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Speaker 1: man that I find fascinating. I got your book, so
Speaker 1: let me introduce today's guest, David Millard. David, welcome, Hello.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for opportunity to be on your show.
Speaker 1: So David, I did not grow up in a baseball town,
Speaker 1: and when I moved to the East Coast, the first
Speaker 1: apartment I got in Boston was right off the fins.
Speaker 1: I could see the big Green Monster from my little
Speaker 1: fire escape.
Speaker 2: Outstanding.
Speaker 1: But your story of your love affair with baseball goes
Speaker 1: back to birth, goes back to generations. Tell me your story.
Speaker 3: My grandfather played nineteen oh two in the major leagues.
Speaker 3: My father was born in Rhode Island, or lived in
Speaker 3: My grandfather was from Rhode Island. My family lived throughout
Speaker 3: New England, and even though I was born in Ohio,
Speaker 3: I was raised to be a Red Sox fan, and
Speaker 3: my dream growing up was to follow in my grandfather's
Speaker 3: footsteps and make it to the majors as a player,
Speaker 3: and I had scholarship opportunities in high school and had
Speaker 3: planned on playing college ball and had some professional teams
Speaker 3: looking at me and scouting me, and I certainly had
Speaker 3: the passion for it and had opportunities.
Speaker 2: And a month after.
Speaker 3: I got out of high school, we were going to
Speaker 3: be heading to a state tournament, and my coach said,
Speaker 3: you know, David, I would wait to sign a letter
Speaker 3: of scholarship because if you do well at the state tournament,
Speaker 3: you'll have more opportunities.
Speaker 2: I said, that sounds great, coach.
Speaker 3: And on a Friday night, on the weekend night, my
Speaker 3: buddy said, how off we stopped by McDonald's and get
Speaker 3: a bite to eat, And so we pulled into McDonald's
Speaker 3: and got out of the car to start walking across
Speaker 3: the parking lot, and I realized I had forgotten my wallet,
Speaker 3: and so he went ahead and walked into McDonald's and
Speaker 3: I went back to my car and got my wallet
Speaker 3: and turned around and started walking across the parking lot.
Speaker 3: And now in the corner of my eye, I saw
Speaker 3: a car come off the street, and so I stopped
Speaker 3: and motioned with my arm for them to drive through,
Speaker 3: and they stopped and motioned for me to start walking,
Speaker 3: and so I started walking. And then I heard them
Speaker 3: rev their engine and squeal their tires, and I had
Speaker 3: enough time to look up to my left and the
Speaker 3: car was speeding toward me. I raised my left leg
Speaker 3: and kind of put both my hands up. The car
Speaker 3: hit me, threw me twenty feet in the air. I
Speaker 3: slammed into the brick wall where the door jutted out
Speaker 3: at McDonald's entrance, and landed right in that corner at
Speaker 3: the base of the wall.
Speaker 2: And looked up and the.
Speaker 3: Car was speeding at a higher rate of speed and
Speaker 3: ripped the handrail out of the cement and pinned the
Speaker 3: handrail with the.
Speaker 2: Bumper against my knee against the wall.
Speaker 3: And luckily I landed literally right in that corner, because
Speaker 3: otherwise the car.
Speaker 1: Would have cut you in half.
Speaker 3: Yes, ma'am, it would have been much worse, I thought
Speaker 3: at the time. Not only did it crush my leg,
Speaker 3: I worried it crushed my dreams of.
Speaker 2: Making it to the major leagues.
Speaker 3: And my family said, you know, David, I was My
Speaker 3: father died when I was three, and I was raised
Speaker 3: to believe that adversity makes you stronger and they said, David,
Speaker 3: you know, really you're lucky. You know you have this
Speaker 3: time to find a career that you love to do,
Speaker 3: because so many people don't enjoy their career. You know,
Speaker 3: it's just a job, and you have this time during
Speaker 3: your surgeries to find a passion that you really love.
Speaker 3: And so I walked on crutches for two and a
Speaker 3: half years, walked with it can for ten months, had
Speaker 3: to learn how to walk again, as I had at
Speaker 3: that time seven surgeries, and I thought, what do I
Speaker 3: really love? And I realized I enjoyed science in school.
Speaker 3: I wanted a job that was outside more than inside.
Speaker 3: I enjoyed taking care of people's lawns growing up to
Speaker 3: earn money. I loved baseball, and I thought someone had
Speaker 3: to be a major league groundskeeper. And my brother lived
Speaker 3: in Milwaukee at the time and told me if I
Speaker 3: could get a job with the Milwaukee Brewers, I could
Speaker 3: live with him to save money. So after many many
Speaker 3: phone calls to the Brewers kind of be in a
Speaker 3: squeaky wheel, they said, hey, we'll give you a chance
Speaker 3: to work on our day of games crew on the
Speaker 3: ground crew. And man, I thought I won the lottery.
Speaker 3: I was so excited, and I was planning to go
Speaker 3: to Ohio State to get a degree in agronomy and landscape.
Speaker 1: I got to I got to interject here and back
Speaker 1: up a little bit, because there's a few questions looming here.
Speaker 1: The person who hit you, were they intoxicated, were the
Speaker 1: inexperienced driver? Was there car malfunction? Did the gas pedal
Speaker 1: get stuck?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: How does somebody motion you to go across and then
Speaker 1: run you down and nearly kill you?
Speaker 3: You know, she said she stepped on the gas instead
Speaker 3: of the break. It's just one of those one of
Speaker 3: those things. So she hit me twice that day.
Speaker 1: That kind of trauma you probably don't ever want to remember.
Speaker 3: You know, a lot of people think I'm one of
Speaker 3: the most unlucky people in the world. You know, I've
Speaker 3: had fifty surgeries, I've been hit by a car three times.
Speaker 3: We can talk about the third time here in the minute,
Speaker 3: and I've ended up in a medical coma.
Speaker 2: But I think I'm one of the most.
Speaker 3: Luckiest people in the world because if I wouldn't have
Speaker 3: gotten hit by a car that day, I never would
Speaker 3: have met my wife, who's absolutely my best friend. I
Speaker 3: never would have had two amazing daughters in my life.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have.
Speaker 3: Three amazing grandchildren, I wouldn't have a career that I
Speaker 3: enjoyed so much. And I wouldn't have had a service
Speaker 3: dog named Drago, who passed away in June last year,
Speaker 3: but who literally changed my life and also helped bring
Speaker 3: awareness to how important service dogs are to so many people.
Speaker 3: People think I'm unlucky, but I really feel blessed the
Speaker 3: life I've had.
Speaker 1: That wasn't the end of the trauma. That was just
Speaker 1: the beginning. Yes, ma'am, because I read your books, So
Speaker 1: go ahead and share about the other things that happened.
Speaker 1: So you get this job, you love your job. You're
Speaker 1: starting this direction of a groundskeeper.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: My job's next best thing to play in. I get
Speaker 3: to be on the major league field. And in nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety five, when I was working for the Milwaukee Brewers,
Speaker 3: we were resurfacing in the field. In the fall of
Speaker 3: ninety five, I was out in left field working and
Speaker 3: we had a big left field double gates to get
Speaker 3: equipment on and off the field, and beautiful.
Speaker 2: Fall day, and I heard a car and I thought,
Speaker 2: that's unusual. There shouldn't be a car.
Speaker 3: You know, near the field, and I looked up and
Speaker 3: there was a car coming toward the field that must
Speaker 3: have gotten through, you know, behind the bleachers somehow, and
Speaker 3: so I put both my arms up to you know,
Speaker 3: motion for the car to stop, and the driver stepped
Speaker 3: on the gas and came right at me, and the
Speaker 3: car hit me. I hit the windshield and landed on
Speaker 3: the warning track, and the car went speeding down the
Speaker 3: outfield warning track, made a full lap around the warning track,
Speaker 3: and as I was laying against the wallpad, the car
Speaker 3: kept coming a full lap around the warning track, and
Speaker 3: then the driver started aiming right at me, and I thought, Oh,
Speaker 3: my gosh, what's this lady doing. And at the last minute,
Speaker 3: she swerves and misses me and slams on the brakes
Speaker 3: and stops, leans up in her car and waves at
Speaker 3: me and then peels out and covers me in track
Speaker 3: material and goes out the gate. And it just took
Speaker 3: me a minute to kind of gather myself, and I
Speaker 3: yelled to one of the crew members after she first
Speaker 3: hit me to lock up the big steel double gates
Speaker 3: behind the bleachers so she couldn't get away. And so
Speaker 3: after she pulled out of the field, I pulled myself
Speaker 3: up against the outfield pads and made my way behind
Speaker 3: the bleachers, and by the time I got out there,
Speaker 3: she was out of her carreaming obscenities at the security
Speaker 3: guard telling her to let her out. And I noticed
Speaker 3: her keys were still in the ignition and the car
Speaker 3: was running, and so I turned the car off and
Speaker 3: took the keys because they didn't want her to hurt
Speaker 3: someone else. It turned out my knee was re injured
Speaker 3: and ended up having to have surgeon and ultimately, in
Speaker 3: the long run, a knee replacement.
Speaker 2: It could have been so much worse.
Speaker 1: So was she held accountable.
Speaker 3: She had some mental health issues and she wasn't on
Speaker 3: her medicine, and she was just had some misunderstandings going
Speaker 3: on in her mind.
Speaker 1: You have a lot of grace, David Miller. You have
Speaker 1: a lot of grace.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, we all have challenges in our lives,
Speaker 3: and you know there was a time when, you know,
Speaker 3: I had one to five horrific nightmares for twenty nine
Speaker 3: years when I first got hit by the car in
Speaker 3: this car, and I was scared to go to leap
Speaker 3: at night. I didn't know what was wrong, and I
Speaker 3: didn't think anybody could understand it, and I didn't think
Speaker 3: anybody else had really challenges.
Speaker 2: And now I know when.
Speaker 3: I look up at Fenway Park and see thirty seven
Speaker 3: thousand people in the stands, I know everybody there, either
Speaker 3: themselves or one of their loved ones, has some challenge
Speaker 3: in their life. And one there's nothing to be ashamed
Speaker 3: of to ask for help. And it takes courage to
Speaker 3: ask for help. And I want people to know that.
Speaker 3: You know, when my wife and I wrote my memoir,
Speaker 3: our memoir, we were hoping if sharing our story through
Speaker 3: programs like your Wonderful program, through other opportunities, or the memoir,
Speaker 3: if we could help one person know that helps available
Speaker 3: and treatment works, and that they're not alone. It's worth
Speaker 3: sharing that story because we all have different challenges in
Speaker 3: our lives, and there was time I didn't understand that.
Speaker 2: I just tried to suck it up and think I'll
Speaker 2: just work through it.
Speaker 1: So how were you eventually diagnosed with PTSD? Was that
Speaker 1: your wife's doing? Tell our audience how you finally went,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, there's a name for this, there's treatment
Speaker 1: for this. I don't have to suffer like this in silence.
Speaker 3: Yes, ma'am I thought PTSD could only happen to veterans
Speaker 3: or someone in war.
Speaker 2: And my daughter was going to.
Speaker 3: School for psychology to be a doctor in psychology. And
Speaker 3: when she was in college, she got an internship at
Speaker 3: a wonderful program here in Boston called the home Base
Speaker 3: program that was started with Mats General in the Red
Speaker 3: Sox Foundation help veterans and their families dealing with post
Speaker 3: traumatic stress. And I was getting an acupuncture treatment in
Speaker 3: twenty ten, and before I went into the the treatment,
Speaker 3: and I picked up a Smithsonian magazine and I laid
Speaker 3: down on the table and I just opened up this
Speaker 3: magazine and the first page I opened up to was
Speaker 3: about a new treatment facility offering treatments for veterans dealing
Speaker 3: with PTSD. So I thought I'd read this article to
Speaker 3: learn more about what my daughter was learning about.
Speaker 1: So you thought you were going to enrich your mind
Speaker 1: just so you could then understand your daughter and her
Speaker 1: program more. Yes, ma'am not thinking about yourself, not thinking about.
Speaker 3: Totally, Just hoping to learn more about my daughter and
Speaker 3: how proud I was of her, and learn more about
Speaker 3: what she was doing and how the Red Sox were
Speaker 3: helping veterans and MATS General was helping veterans, and the
Speaker 3: first paragraph listed twelve symptoms of post traumatic stress. And
Speaker 3: I started reading it and chills ran through me and
Speaker 3: literally tears started going down my face because I could
Speaker 3: actively feel ten of these twelve symptoms. Only the ones
Speaker 3: I did not have were suicide or drug use either.
Speaker 3: You know, I had anxiety. You know I had nightmares.
Speaker 3: There were so many of these. I listed them in
Speaker 3: the book. There were just so many things that I
Speaker 3: could relate to, and I thought, oh my gosh. While
Speaker 3: it scared me, it gave me hope. It was like,
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, maybe this is what I have and
Speaker 3: I've had for the last twenty nine years. And if
Speaker 3: I could get treatment, not only hopefully it helps me,
Speaker 3: but hopefully I can be a better husband, I can
Speaker 3: be a better dad, I could be a better boss, friend, mentor,
Speaker 3: and hopefully I can help others. And my wife is
Speaker 3: my absolute, my best friend. But I was scared to
Speaker 3: share with her how scary my nightmares were. You know,
Speaker 3: I slept with the TV on every night loud so
Speaker 3: that when I would scream out at night, I would
Speaker 3: try to tell the kids, hey, that was a TV.
Speaker 3: When they would say, what was that noise? And they knew,
Speaker 3: you know, as I found out, you know, they knew
Speaker 3: something was going on.
Speaker 1: They had known all along, but they didn't know what
Speaker 1: it was. I'm sure correct, correct.
Speaker 3: PTSD affects the whole family. And it's not just from
Speaker 3: war and veterans don't just get it. It comes from
Speaker 3: you know, the leading cause of PTSD and men is
Speaker 3: car crashes, and it comes from sexual abuse, It comes
Speaker 3: from fires, and it comes from any kind of trauma
Speaker 3: can cause PTSD and there's nothing to be a shame of.
Speaker 1: And here's the interesting thing that you brought up in
Speaker 1: your book that I think a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: realize is that it may not happen right after the
Speaker 1: traumatic event. You may not develop PTSD until months or
Speaker 1: even years after the trauma happened.
Speaker 3: And triggers, you know, sights, sounds, smells can trigger these.
Speaker 2: Anxieties and these.
Speaker 3: Emotions to cause flashbacks and memories. You know, it may
Speaker 3: sound weird to people. People could relate to squealing tires
Speaker 3: and reving engines to the car crashes causing anxiety or
Speaker 3: flashbacks to me, but literally, the smell of McDonald's French
Speaker 3: fries would cause flashbacks and anxieties. People would bring McDonald's
Speaker 3: back to lunch and I would have to leave the
Speaker 3: room because I would break out in cold sweats, I
Speaker 3: would get chills, I would turn bright red.
Speaker 1: That's unfortunate because McDonald's fries are one of God's gifts
Speaker 1: to the world.
Speaker 2: I do a joy I joyed.
Speaker 1: I rarely buy them, but boy do I enjoy them
Speaker 1: when I do.
Speaker 2: 'A I can relate to that. It's something that I
Speaker 2: just want people to know.
Speaker 3: And I appreciate opportunity on your show to help people
Speaker 3: know that help is available and that it's not going
Speaker 3: to be ashamed of to ask for help.
Speaker 2: And if you do ask for help, that there's a lot.
Speaker 3: Of different kinds of treatment whether and if you don't
Speaker 3: click with that first counselor or that first type of treatment,
Speaker 3: hey try another one.
Speaker 2: You know, I've been very blessed with incredible counselors and
Speaker 2: I'm proud to you know, I just talked to my
Speaker 2: counselor yesterday and I'm proud to do that.
Speaker 3: And you know, there's different types of counseling, and it
Speaker 3: literally is life changing.
Speaker 2: It changed my life.
Speaker 3: It's helped my family And another part of therapy that's
Speaker 3: helped me is I had a service dog that came
Speaker 3: into my life in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: That became quite famous in the Boston area. Our service
Speaker 1: dog went with you everywhere he did.
Speaker 2: His name was Drago and.
Speaker 1: Drago the dog O, who was a beautiful German shepherd. Correct, yes, ma'am,
Speaker 1: he was.
Speaker 3: He literally helped bring awareness to service dogs and how
Speaker 3: life changing they were and are, and how.
Speaker 2: Much he was to me.
Speaker 3: And he ESPN did a special on him, if it's
Speaker 3: all right to say that they did one called Dave
Speaker 3: and drog Go to bring my awareness to service dogs.
Speaker 3: And he literally was an ambassador for service dogs. And
Speaker 3: he gave me a confidence to take on challenges and
Speaker 3: open up a world that I hadn't dealt with in
Speaker 3: twenty nine years or thirty years plus. And he passed
Speaker 3: away June seventeenth last year from a stroke. And I'm
Speaker 3: in the process of had a great call last two
Speaker 3: days with an organization foundation that we're hoping to connect
Speaker 3: with for a new service dog and service dogs or
Speaker 3: another part of helping mental health.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there's something about the love of a four
Speaker 1: legged creature that is healing.
Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1: The things David is endured and how he's turned tragedy
Speaker 1: into triumph gives me chills. We've got a little more
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Speaker 1: b I G E l O W t e a
Speaker 1: dot com. So, David, Boston is your home, That's where
Speaker 1: your heart was, That's where your dreams were. How did
Speaker 1: you get from the other ballparks to back home to
Speaker 1: the Big Green Monster into Fenway Park and the hot dogs.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, the hot dogs.
Speaker 2: You know, that was an interesting story. You know.
Speaker 3: I was working for the Milwaukee Brewers and I just
Speaker 3: moved into.
Speaker 2: The new ballpark, into my new office.
Speaker 3: And the Cincinnati read had called and offered me a
Speaker 3: head job at their new ballpark. And my wife's family
Speaker 3: still lived in Ohio and so it was an interesting
Speaker 3: opportunity and appreciated the offer, but we just couldn't come
Speaker 3: to terms. So I respectfully turned it down. And they
Speaker 3: called back and said, you know, we would still like
Speaker 3: to negotiate for one more week. Would you be willing
Speaker 3: to negotiate till next Saturday? And I said sure, and
Speaker 3: out of the blue, on that Wednesday, mister Mooney, who
Speaker 3: was the groundskeeper for the Red Sox for thirty years,
Speaker 3: called me and said, David, I'm thinking about retiring, but
Speaker 3: I'll only retire if you replace me. And I said,
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, mister Mooney, you know, I'm incredibly humbled.
Speaker 3: I have to give the reds an answer on Saturday.
Speaker 3: And he said, I will have John Buckley, who was
Speaker 3: the president of the club. I'll have him call you.
Speaker 3: We'll get you out here on Friday, and the Red
Speaker 3: Sox brought me out and said, David, we know what
Speaker 3: you can do for us. More importantly, what can we
Speaker 3: do for you and your family to make this move successful?
Speaker 3: And the Red Sox just made the perfect package for
Speaker 3: us to move here, even though we had family in
Speaker 3: Ohio and I grew up a Red Sox fanatic. My
Speaker 3: wife said she knew when mister Mooney called we were coming,
Speaker 3: but they had to make the right offer, and the
Speaker 3: families what put it over the top, because family means
Speaker 3: the world to me.
Speaker 1: So you've been there forever. You've been back home forever, yes, ma'am.
Speaker 3: So we this my twenty third season at Fenway Park,
Speaker 3: in thirty ninth year in the major leagues.
Speaker 2: Wow. So I've been very, very blessed.
Speaker 3: And you know, I grew up wanting to stand on
Speaker 3: Finway Parks mound and now I get.
Speaker 1: To do it every day, every day, every day. And
Speaker 1: a lot of pictures have come and gone. I'm sure
Speaker 1: in the time that the twenty some odd years you've
Speaker 1: been there.
Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 3: And you know, you think of all the struggles we
Speaker 3: have in our lives, and if I would have given
Speaker 3: up at some point, I never would.
Speaker 2: Have had these opportunities. We all have those tough days.
Speaker 3: But if you stop and you don't grind through them
Speaker 3: and keep pushing, you don't reach those opportunities.
Speaker 1: You've had more than a few tough days, David had
Speaker 1: I love that you have not allowed your trials, your
Speaker 1: traumas to define you, but to inspire you and push you.
Speaker 2: I'm very humbled by your kind words, ma'am.
Speaker 1: But it's true. It's true. People recognize you on the field.
Speaker 1: The fans love you, They loved your dog. People recognize
Speaker 1: your patterns that you you know because you're so artistic
Speaker 1: and creative, and you've come up with beautiful ways to
Speaker 1: make the field look awesome, and you've shared that with everybody.
Speaker 3: Well, it takes a lot of teamwork. I'm blessed to
Speaker 3: have a lot of support from a lot of people,
Speaker 3: and it starts with my wife.
Speaker 1: Well, it has been wonderful talking to you. You are
Speaker 1: a fact fascinating man. I love your attitude.
Speaker 3: I'm humbled by your kind words and support and thank
Speaker 3: you for all you do and for helping others. Truly
Speaker 3: humbled by all your support.
Speaker 1: Well, God bless you, David, Thank you for this time.
Speaker 1: Have a wonderful rest of your baseball season.
Speaker 2: Thank you, ma'am. I look forward to seeing you in Boston.
Speaker 2: Please stay in.
Speaker 1: Touch, all right, I will. David R. Meller is the
Speaker 1: senior director of Grounds for the Boston Red Sox baseball
Speaker 1: team at Finway Park, where he oversees everything that involves
Speaker 1: the playing field. He is the leading innovator of elaborate
Speaker 1: patterns used on athletic turf and turf in general. Articles
Speaker 1: about his beautiful work have been widely published, and he's
Speaker 1: appeared on countless TV and radio programs. His mowing patterns
Speaker 1: have been featured in the American Folk Art Museum and
Speaker 1: an international art exhibit. Besidesides his remarkable autobiography, One Base
Speaker 1: at a Time, How I Survived PTSD and Found My
Speaker 1: Field of Dreams, David has published two books on gardening
Speaker 1: and horticulture, Picture Perfect Mowing Techniques for Lawns, Landscapes and
Speaker 1: Sports Considered the Textbook for Lawn Patterns, and the Lawn Bible,
Speaker 1: How to Keep It Green, groomed, and growing every season
Speaker 1: of the year. Any One of these or all three,
Speaker 1: would make absolutely fantastic Father's Day gifts. David has over
Speaker 1: three decades of major League Baseball experience, and has been
Speaker 1: at home in Finway Park since two thousand and one.
Speaker 1: He scared for some of the greenest lawns in the nation,
Speaker 1: the ballparks used by the California Angels, San Francisco Giants,
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers, and of course, his beloved
Speaker 1: Boston Red Sox. David considers himself one of the luckiest
Speaker 1: peace people in the world, living by the old baseball
Speaker 1: saying one base at a time, which is another way
Speaker 1: of saying, take it one step at a time. He
Speaker 1: buys a lottery ticket every time the jackpot rises over
Speaker 1: one hundred million dollars, as the statistics of winning millions
Speaker 1: of dollars is more likely than the chance of being
Speaker 1: hit by two different cars in two different cities. One
Speaker 1: Base at a Time is a remarkably inspiring story and
Speaker 1: a great book to take with you to the park,
Speaker 1: the lake, or wherever your summer reading takes place. It's
Speaker 1: been touching people one heart at a Time since it
Speaker 1: was published in twenty nineteen and continues to do so.
Speaker 1: PTSD post traumatic stress disorder is a mental health issue
Speaker 1: that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life
Speaker 1: threatening or traumatic event like combat, an accident, and assault,
Speaker 1: just to name a few. It's normal for folks who've
Speaker 1: lived through such traumatic things to have upsetting memories, feel
Speaker 1: on edge, or have trouble sleeping, but then they start
Speaker 1: to feel better. But for some it goes on longer
Speaker 1: and causes difficulties in their lives. That is PTSD. Everyone
Speaker 1: experiences PTSD differently. Sometimes symptoms can start months or even
Speaker 1: years after the event. Sometimes symptoms come and go over
Speaker 1: a period of years. As David has attested, there is
Speaker 1: help for PTSD. It's not something to hide. It's not
Speaker 1: something to be ashamed of, nor is it apt to
Speaker 1: go away on its own. If you or someone you
Speaker 1: know is suffering with PTSD, a conversation with a doctor
Speaker 1: or mental health professional is the first step on the
Speaker 1: road to healing. As David says, take it one base
Speaker 1: at a time.