Memorial to honor those with PTSD

Megan Connell-cox is a talker, but when it came to predicting what her emotions would be like Monday, she was momentarily at a loss for words.

At 2 p.m. on the campus of the Central Ohio Technical College in Newark, where she is a student, Connell-cox will preside over a dedication ceremony for a monument to those suffering from post-traumatic stress.

Inspired by her life experiences, the monument was envisioned and organized by Connell-cox.

She has a speech prepared for the occasion. But she grew quiet as she thought about what the day will mean to her.

“I don’t know that I can answer that,” she said.

The Newark resident was a bit overwhelmed as she reviewed the dramatic ups and downs of her 39 years, which included physical and sexual abuse, severe injuries, drug addiction and prison.

She has been sober for more than 10 years, though, and has pulled her life back together.

Two years ago, she enrolled at COTC, where she will graduate in August with an associate degree in human services. She will attend the University of Cincinnati, where she hopes to earn a bachelor’s degree and become a social worker.

“I never in a million years thought I would be doing what I’m doing today,” Connell-cox said.

Her mother, Paula Frey, said, “It’s amazing, with all of the things she’s gone through, that she’s doing as well as she is. I just am so unbelievably proud of her.”

Connell-cox is a Navy veteran, but said her post-traumatic stress was not a result of her military service.

Instead, her therapists have told her, it likely was a combination of abuse suffered early in her life, and a traumatic brain injuryfrom a car accident at age 16. Those issues, she said, led to her developing a crack-cocaine habit before she entered the Navy in 2001.

The drug problems worsened later that year after she injured herlower back while handling a 500-pound bomb and was given pain pills. Her drug-related problems prompted the Navy to give her a general discharge in 2002.

Back home in Ottawa, in northwest Ohio, Connell-cox “ran the streets,” she said. A sting of convictions on charges such as forgery and theft landed her in prison twice, for about two months in 2004 and about nine months in 2009-10.

Her sobriety dates to May 28, 2009. Upon her release from prison in 2010, she underwent years of rehabilitation and counseling. Eventually, she got married, bought a house in Newark and earned a grant for disabled veterans from the Veterans Administration that pays her college expenses.

“I’ve kind of been on a pink cloud the past two years,” Connell-cox said. “My husband thinks I’m having an affair with my computer because I’m just constantly in front of the computer. I can’t get enough of learning.”

One class she took earlier this year required her to come up with a project.

The end result is a sandstone boulder — about 3 feet wide by 2 feet tall —inscribed with a quote from Connell-cox: “Struggling through the darkness, into the light —not alone, but together, as one.”

It then reads that the monument is “dedicated to all warriors Past, Present and Future, who struggle, suffer and live with the effects of Post Traumatic Stress.”

A flagpole next to the boulder will fly three flags: anamerican flag, one representing all the branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, and a custom-made flag drawing attention to the number of veterans who research says die by suicide: “22 per day.”

Connell-cox raised more than $2,500 for the project through crowdfunding and personal donations.

“It’s just inspiring,” said April Foster, director of the Licking County Veterans’ Service Commission, which has helped Connell-cox with various issues over the past few years. “And now there’s always going to be a little piece of Megan on campus. That’s pretty cool.”

The dedication ceremony Monday will include patriotic music, a color guard, three-gun salute and remarks by various officials.

Connell-cox will speak, as well.

“My life is a daily struggle but I’m alive and I’m walking and I’m talking," she said. "It could be so much worse, and it has been.

“But I’m so blessed, and I’ve got support coming out my ears. It’s just amazing.”