My Life My Story: Stan: “She made me calm.”

We’ve heard a lot of war stories over the years from the Veterans we’ve interviewed for the “My Life, My Story” project. Here’s one where “she made him calm.”

Because our project focuses on Veterans’ entire lives—not just their time in service—we also hear a lot of stories about first loves, broken hearts and the secrets to long marriages. For this special Valentine’s Day episode of the My Life, My Story podcast, we’re bringing you a love story that has a little of all three.

The story of how Stan met his wife, Ginny, and how they eventually made a life together after his time in the Army was over is, at times, funny, sweet and sad. His story also illustrates how, with a little help, people can do things differently than their parents did them—and how that’s not always a bad thing.

Chosen from several thousand stories

We’re currently combing through our archives of several thousand stories that we’ve collected from Veterans at VA hospitals around America so we can release another dozen stories in the next month or so for the second season of our podcast, “VA Presents: My Life, My Story.”

We hope you’ll check it out when we publish. The stories run the gamut of experiences, from a survivor of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis to the story of an Iraqi war Veteran whose life pivoted in middle age after being diagnosed with a terminal illness.

A link to that podcast episode—and more materials about the My Life, My Story project—can be found within the Whole Health website.