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The painful task of grieving someone lost in war Jamie Clarkson Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
Growing up, Chad Keith could do no wrong in his little sister's eyes. He loved to draw, write, laugh, and fi ght for what he felt was just. He planned on a career in the military, only leaving, he would tell her, to become president. Glutz laughed when she remembered his political dreams: “I swear to God, he would have.” In 2000, Chad, just out of high school, enlisted in the Army. “I remember him waking me up to leave,” Glutz said. “He was pulling at my blankets and I was pulling back. I was like, ‘wait, you can’t leave!’” She wasn't even a teenager yet. Sgt. Chad Keith, 325th AIR, Company D, 82nd Airborne Division, was killed three years later when a roadside bomb exploded near him during his fi rst deployment to Iraq. He was 21 and only one of the 4,418 to date who have died as a result of their Operation Iraqi Freedom service. Her brother was never coming home. This was something 14-year-old Glutz couldn't make sense of. One month later, Glutz's family traveled to Virginia for her brother's burial at Arlington National Cemetery. The family was seated near his tomb but Glutz sat closest to the casket. Someone, seeing her distress, off ered to trade seats with her. She stayed put. Glutz was having a hard time accepting Chad was actually dead. She hoped he would awake from the casket and end this tragedy. Even if he didn't, she wanted to be close to her big brother. As the days and months after Chad's death went by, Glutz saw that the showering of empathy for his survivors didn't exactly rain down on the siblings as it did on their parents. And her parents, too eaten up by their own grief, were not able to help their living children. Glutz found herself alone.
Army Sgt. Chad Keith, 21, was killed while on patrol in Baghdad when a bomb exploded, July 7, 2003. He's buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His sister, Nicole Glutz, 32, of Goshen, was tin middle school at the time. She has since formed a Cincinnati based chapter of T.A.P.S., a support group for grieving military families. LIZ DUFOUR/THE ENQUIRER
She found herself avoiding the topic of her brother. Any time someone brought up Chad, it felt like unwanted attention. So she took any opportunity to be anonymous so she wouldn’t have to talk about him. She said that, in a way, she pretended that Chad had not existed. It was easier that way. Ignoring the problem made things worse. Unknown triggers would send Glutz into panic attacks that bordered on debilitating. She soldiered on, sad and angry, fi nding it hard to cope with her brother's death. Ten years later, she was ready to get the help that, by now, her parents encouraged. After some research online, her mother told her about the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), a peer-based nonprofi t that offers support for those grieving a military loved one. “All death is tragic. Losing somebody is tragic. But the military is so diff erent than traditional losses,” Glutz said. Even as a child, she had understood the danger of what her brother was volunteering for. There was a fearful sense of inevitability. And, oddly enough, all the days that the rest of us take as comforting, respectful memorials to our war dead were just more reminders of everything she'd lost. Maybe that is why Glutz was interested in the peer-based approach of TAPS. These common experiences make the connection between survivors easier, and more genuine. Rather than relying on counselors who had not experienced this loss, these survivors fi nd value in talking to someone who really understands on a personal level. That's the point of TAPS. "You don't have to have a professional background (in counseling) to be able to make an impact in someone else's life," said TAPS spokesperson Alex Meyers. Glutz found herself opening up. The brother that she was once afraid to talk See GRIEVING, Page 2A
New Richmond Schools’ new lunch bus is fi rst of its kind in Clermont County Madeline Mitchell Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
A "lunch bus" will deliver meals to children in Clermont County's New Richmond Exempted Village School District this summer, offi cials said. It's the fi rst bus of its kind in the county. New Richmond typically distributes 300 to 500 meals per week during the summer months, according to a news release from the district. Offi cials anticipate that number to increase with the Traveling Lions Lunch Bus.
The Clermont County school district serves more than 2,300 students in the village of New Richmond, the village of Moscow, Monroe Township, Ohio Township, Pierce Township, Tate Township and Washington Township, according to its website. About 40% of the district's students qualify for free or reduced lunch. "We've arrived at this moment thanks to the support of many individuals,” student services director John Frye said in the news release. “Over two See LUNCH BUS, Page 2A
New Richmond Exempted Village School District's new traveling lunch bus will help feed students in Clermont County this summer. PROVIDED/NEW RICHMOND EXEMPTED VILLAGE SCHOOL DISTRICT
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