- Jessica, take us back when you got the news.
When you got that phone call.
- It was a bad day.
- (Kelly) Yeah. - It was a really bad day.
So, I was actually working on a tax return,
of all things, and I get a phone call
that I need to call the Army.
And the first thing they said to me was (mumbles)
because he's not going to make it.
So, it started out, 8 A.M., pretty rough day
as you can imagine.
And then the day got better because we got
more information that it was just two legs.
It was just an elbow.
Which I know sounds awful, but when you go from
we're coming to see you today.
And you think about those guys in uniform
coming to knock on your door, and that's how my day started.
And by the end of the day, I have a husband.
I'm not a 32 year old widow.
My kids still have their dad.
So, the day got much better as it drug on.
But it was a bad day. (laughing)
- Oh my God, I can't even imagine.
What was that timeline like for you Chaz?
- I was in and out of consciousness
quite a bit until I got to Walter Reed
which is about a two day period.
But, upon getting there, my big fear
was kind of the unknown and how this was
going to play out getting in touch with my wife.
And just kind of resonating with her as a family
and trying to get them to understand
the extent of what had happened.
- Going back and forth, is it very hard,
did it take a toll on y'all having to go back and forth
to D.C. and home, right?
- Well they didn't go back and forth at first.
I had no idea what was going on so I went first.
And I sat there and realized they were
too young to be there.
They were five and eight at the time.
But we waited to reunite them until
he was tube-free except for his PICC line
that we could hide under his sleeve
because we just wanted it to be
the least traumatic as possible.
And so that's when we decided
to reunite at the Fisher House.
And so we brought them into the Fisher House
living room, and so they got to see their dad
for the first time in the Fisher House living room
rather than a cold, sterile hospital room
with scary machines and all this stuff.
And it went so well.
They threw their arms around him and they're like
"Hey dad, great to see you, there's a playground out back."
- Oh my God, you're so my kids.
That's my kids.
But tell us about the Fisher House.
Because this is pretty incredible what they do.
- The Fisher House is kind of a home away from home.
So, when you get there, you have no idea
what you're going to do.
There's like a thousand questions,
like where am I going to stay, how is this going to work?
And these awesome people at the Fisher House
are already thinking ahead for you.
They have built these homes on
the Military Medical Center campuses and the VA hospitals
so you have a place to go.
And it was free.
- And that's an amazing thing for people to do
because I can't imagine the chaos that you're feeling.
You can't find stability probably in that environment.
Especially, y'all leaving school, right?
You had to go to D.C. right?
Was that hard?
- It was difficult at first just because we were young
and we didn't completely understand what was happening
and why we were moving.
But, after we figured it out, we had
a lot of fun because we went and we did fun stuff,
we went to the museums, we played on the playground,
and we made new friends and stuff at the Fisher House.
- Yeah, and you had these people that kind of set up
a little home away from home for y'all.
- We absolutely made the best of it.
- (Kelly) Amazing family.
What do you wish people understood more about
veterans and their family?
- I wish more people would think about not just me,
because I'm getting thanked every day by people.
My family gets left out and they never get thanks.
So, it's just unfortunate that they're
always put on the back-burner of being thanked.
- (Kelly) Right. - And that's especially true
for the kids.
These kids are literally our littlest warriors.
They are so brave and they are so resilient.
- (Kelly) Yeah. - And they're so awesome.
And then they just roll with the punches
and you're like "Hey, dad's got orders, we have to go."
It's horrible.
And they just roll with it.
And they do the best that they can.
- I think it's very important that y'all
are saying this because in my mind too,
I don't think I've ever thought that.
I always thanked the person for their service.
I never think "Oh my gosh, this affects so many people."
And their every day household.
It's a very important thing to get out there.
And also, I know it's important to have a day
to celebrate veterans, and I'm very happy we do,
but every day you should be thanking
not only him and their families and everybody
involved because that's our safety,
that's our security.
You're sacrificing a lot.
Not only you, but your family as well.
And I think that was a really important point
that I wanted to make sure we made on this show.
You now work with the Fisher House, right?
Because their needs are growing, right?
- Well, we just speak about their mission,
because we were so blessed to receive from their mission.
So, we are now in a season of returning the gift
and paying it forward.
- (Kelly) Yeah. - So we are
just honored to be here and talking about
how they blessed our family because we wouldn't be
where we are today if they didn't step up
and give us a place.
I would have had to have stayed next to him
in the hospital room or maybe a cold hotel.
Instead, we got to have a place to be a family,
to heal as a family.
And Fisher House gets it.
- So, Jessica and Chaz, how can people
support, at home, veterans and families like yourselves?
More so than just saying, I know it's nice to say
thank you for your service, but how can people really help?
- A lot of times, people like to donate
towards Fisher House, is a start.
Also, Hero Miles.
- It's a Fisher House program.
- It's a program ran by Fisher House.
- 96 percent of your dollar goes
to Fisher House's mission, which is quite phenomenal
when you think about it.
- I'm really glad that you said that because
sometimes people are afraid to donate money
because they don't know where it's going.
- But it's going to the mission.
It's going to the mission which is awesome.
- Alright, tell me more about how Suave
is working with Fisher House.
- This is the second year that Suave
is working with Fisher House.
And they're trying to commit up to
a million dollars to the Fisher House Foundation
to help them push their mission forward
and help more families like us.
So they started with a Twitter campaign
where they were matching up to a million
frequent flier miles to keep Hero Miles flying.
But now they have specially marked packages
that you can pick up at any of your local stores,
and they're committing up to a million dollars
purchasing those products.
- Oh, that's amazing.