More detail on this person: Donald J Truman Walk sheds light on darkness of suicide: City woman's journey motivated by loss of dad By Julie McClure - 10/1/18 7:40 PM Kelly Truman likes things to go as planned and works hard to make sure they do. But when torrential rain Sept. 9 threatened a year of planning she had put into the Out of the Darkness Community Walk in Mill Race Park, Truman reached out to a friend who arranged for walkers have protective cover inside the Columbus East High School gymnasium. Boosted by an act of kindness, the event drew 258 walkers and raised an estimated $13,000 for suicide prevention programming through the national American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The annual fundraiser, which Truman has planned the past two years, is more than a labor of love or community service. The steps she takes during the walk are in remembrance of her father, Don Truman, who died by suicide on Sept. 2, 1993 at age 49. An Army veteran who served as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, Don Truman likely came home from the war with post traumatic stress disorder, his daughter believes. He was shot down during the war, with injuries including shrapnel embedded in his back. "They didn't diagnose PTSD back them and he had to be tough," she said. "Life went on. He worked construction. He was a golf pro at Otter Creek for a while. He loved golf. But he just struggled, and back then he didn't talk about it. He medicated with alcohol." Kelly Truman, a Columbus North High School graduate, grew up in Columbus. Her parents divorced when she was 14, when her father moved to Indianapolis. "I was 23 when he died. No matter your situation, he was my dad and I loved him," Truman said. "They told me the circumstances of his death. We knew it was suicide. But we didn't talk about it at all. We had the funeral and we buried him and we went right back to life." Now Truman says she knows that wasn't a healthy way of dealing with her father's death. It was another circumstance when she envisioned her life turning out a certain way, but it didn't materialize like that. "I got married without my dad," Truman said. "I had a baby without my dad being there." Not dealing with her father's death and the way he died caused a large number of problems, she said. Truman was able to work through them in therapy, however, and by turning to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for assistance. There, she learned that there are people who understand what it is like to lose a loved one to death by suicide. "It's comforting to know you're not the only one," Truman said. Now 48, Truman took over planning responsibility for the community walk after the previous organizers stepped down. Timing seemed right. Truman's son had just moved out on his own and she saw it as an opportunity to give back to the foundation, which every day helps families come to terms with a new reality following a death by suicide. "This walk just had to continue to happen in Columbus," she said. "It needed to have a presence in Columbus." The walk has been held in Columbus for about nine years, starting out as a campus observance at the Columbus Learning Center. It transitioned into a community walk under Truman's leadership.
Burial information: Rest Haven Cemetery, Edinburgh, IN
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Date posted on this site: 03/10/2024
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