ATLANTA — During a storm of loss, two Georgia veterans found strength, sisterhood and ultimately -- three bundles of joy.
When Army veteran Heather Cramer and Air Force veteran Climmie Cooper-Lewis first met, they were searching for support and struggling with the fear that their dreams of children may not come true.
Cramer has lost 19 pregnancies, with the last two being sets of twins, whereas Cooper-Lewis said she's lost six.
"When I deal with my chronic pain, it's depression, and it's something that even when I met my spouse, I was afraid to tell him," Cooper-Lewis said as tears formed in her eyes. "But he loved me for me to the core and still wanted a family. So I didn't perceive that I would have any problems until I did."
Cooper-Lewis explained how, one day, she was really down and knew she needed help.
That's when she discovered the Atlanta VA Women's Health Program. The program offers numerous services, such as primary care, gynecology, mental health, maternity coordination and group counseling.
The group Cooper-Lewis joined is called "Coping with Loss" and is centered around female veterans who've experienced pregnancy or newborn loss. It was this same group that led her to meet Cramer and develop a lifelong bond.
"We were in a club that nobody wants to join," Cramer said, calling it the "Sad Moms Group."
Cramer first reached out to Cooper-Lewis in case she wanted someone to talk to.
"'Hey! I'm here if you need to talk because I do understand what it's like to be in that,'" Cramer recalled. "It's just, it's dark."
After a handful of messages, Cooper-Lewis eventually took Cramer up on her offer -- creating a lasting bond that Cramer likened to more of a sister than a friend. Through the group and the storms, they're still part of each other's lives -- bringing a little bit of sunshine to one another in the midst of the darkness.
"Because the grief is still there," Cramer explained. "I'm just a little stronger for the resources I was able to access and for my friend."
But after everything they've weathered, they've been blessed with the children they desired through IVF. Cramer has a little girl, and Cooper-Lewis has twin girls.
Cramer said that she recognizes not everyone gets the happy ending she's experienced, but the pair encourages women dealing with grief, depression or frustration to reach out for help.
"Not everyone gets their rainbow baby, their happy ending," she said.
But for these two veterans, it's the help and support they received that enabled the storm to end. It's an ending and a new beginning -- marked by three precious, little rainbows.
“I think, for me, you can finally say the storm is over," Cooper-Lewis said.
