Nurse Sue Lado knows, like I do, the importance of listening to the whole story. That’s how she helps her clients–combat-injured veterans–begin to heal emotionally, physically, and mentally.

When I was interviewing Sue for an article to celebrate her 10 years of service to the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, she told me about one family she had worked with in particular. This Navy Corpsman had been embedded with Marines in Iraq when he was blown up. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize for years the effects on his brain of those IEDs, and no one really understood why he was experiencing such dramatic declines in his physical and cognitive abilities. It wasn’t until Sue became involved that this veteran was able to get the help he needed to save his life.

I was so intrigued by this story that I asked to interview the former Corpsman and his wife for the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society newsletter. Their story is long, and it’s important. And before it was even printed in the NMCRS newsletter, the story was picked up by The Dolphin, the in-house newspaper of the submarine base near where the Corpsman’s family lives. You never know who’s going to read your story. And when you listen, you never know what stories you’re going to hear.