Sometimes shared experiences – painful or positive – can make your world seem a lot smaller.
That's what happened with Sandi Lowe, Liisa Temple and Lisa Freeman. All three ladies are part of the Blackhorse family – united by their loved ones' past service at Camp Blackhorse outside Kabul.
Liisa Temple's husband Rex recently left the base, where Lisa Freeman's son Matt and Sandi Lowe's son Kit served until a battle on August 7 in which Kit was shot in the leg and Matt lost his life.
Now, all three Blackhorse women are together in person for the first time at Sandi Lowe's business in Savannah.
"Today is the first time that we've really gotten together, and it's been very comfortable," said Lowe.
"They're such a huge source of support for me personally because they know exactly what I'm going through," said Temple.
The ladies are boxing up school supplies for Afghan children. The boxes are part of
a drive Senior Master Sergeant Temple began when he arrived in Afghanistan months ago.
"I just want to give them a chance. They're just so poor, and this country's been at war for 30 years," said Rex.
It's also something Matt Freeman mentioned in his last phone conversation with Lisa.
"I feel very thankful. I still have a need at this point to know that Matt died for more than just what he believed in, but what we all believe in. Matthew was very much an all-American boy, and this would have made him very proud, to think that this much has been raised," said Freeman.
After a morning of packing, all the supplies are loaded into Sandi's SUV and then driven across town to Hunter Army Airfield, where they're loaded aboard shipping containers headed to Afghanistan with the Third Infantry Division's Aviation Brigade.
Kit Lowe, home for the first time from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, helped load them in.
"It makes me real excited that the people I know, and am good friends with, and I care a lot about, are going to be getting something that I'm going to be able to help out with. Being able to do that and help them out with it means a lot,” said Kit.
