PITTSBURGH — Last May, Tom Rhoads took his own life in a field in Lancaster Township.
While his widow, Andi Nachman-Rhoads, lives in Florida, she has returned to the field several times since that tragic day.%
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“This is not a sad place. It's a happy place because he left free of his PTSD,” Nachman-Rhoads said.
After graduating from North Allegheny High School, Rhoads spent much of his life in the military, serving as a Green Beret before leaving the armed forces to work as a private contractor.
Throughout his career, Rhoads was deployed more than a dozen times, but when he came home in December 2013, Nachman-Rhoads said something about him was different.
"He couldn't find his home when he got home from his final deployment, which was a year in Afghanistan,” she said.
Nachman-Rhoads said her husband struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and intestinal issues for more than a year.
She said last May Rhoads told her he was traveling to Pittsburgh to visit a friend, but the next phone call she got was from police, saying her husband was dead.
This Wednesday marks the one-year anniversary of Rhoads’ death. Nachman-Rhoads said she wanted to share his story to help eliminate the stigma surrounding suicide. It’s a stigma that she said shouldn’t apply to her husband.
"I want the world to know that there's an individual there that's not just a person who killed themselves. It is Tom Rhoads and Tom Rhoads' life counts and will always count,” she said.
Rhoads was receiving treatment at a Veterans Affairs facility near his home in Clearwater, Florida, before his death.
Nachman-Rhoads said she hopes that keeping his memory alive will help other veterans and their families who are dealing with similar tragedies.