National Tribute Auction

The Canadian Forces were my life from seventeen to thirty. I was a cadet at RRMC and RMC, then an engineering officer in Canada and Somalia. After I left the military, I built a civilian career in project management, coaching, and yoga, while my world quietly got smaller. I did not see how much military trauma was still running the show until I had to put it into words. Asking for help was hard. It also opened therapy, peer support, and the path I am on now as a psychotherapist and art therapist. I have created art for most of my life. Art lets the body and the hands hold what speech cannot. This helmet with poppies sits in that space. It is a military object and a mourning object; it is also a claim on life. It holds the years I gave, the cost of leaving, and the people who did not get a second chapter. The poppies are not decorations. They mark remembrance and the transition to civilian life. I made this piece for Veterans building a life after service, and for anyone who thinks transition is supposed to be easy. It is not. There is still a way through. You do not have to keep doing the one thing you were trained to do. And you do not have to do it alone.