The Matthew Perna Story, Part 2

MATTHEW PERNA WAS 37 YEARS OLD WHEN HE PUT A ROPE AROUND HIS NECK AND TOOK HIS OWN LIFE. FOR MORE THAN A YEAR, U.S. LEADERS AND MEDIA HAD SHAMED HIM AND MANY OTHERS FOR THE SIN OF SUPPORTING PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP AND GOING INTO THE CAPITOL ON JANUARY 6TH.

 

PERNA NEVER HURT ANYONE AND NEVER TRIED TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT, BUT HIS FAMILY SAID HE MAY AS WELL HAVE DONE BOTH. IN THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION, HE WAS A CONDEMNED MAN, GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION AND THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WANTED HIM LOCKED UP FOR MINOR ACTS OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE THAT WOULD NORMALLY MERIT A SLAP ON THE WRIST.

 

AFTER BEING AT THEIR MERCY FOR OVER A YEAR, PERNA WAS SUICIDAL AND THE DOJ, WHO’D REQUESTED HIS MEDICAL RECORDS, KNEW IT. THEN OUT OF NOWHERE, PROSECUTORS DECIDED TO SEEK YEARS MORE JAIL TIME.

 

THOSE CLOSEST TO MATTHEW PERNA SAID IT WAS THE FINAL BLOW. TO LEARN MORE, WE TRAVELED TO SHARPSVILLE, A SMALL TOWN OF IRON AND STEEL IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA WHERE HIS FAMILY HAS LIVED SINCE THEY FLED MUSSOLINI’S ITALY MORE THAN A CENTURY AGO AND WE MET UP WITH HIS BEST FRIEND, MARCUS PRIESTER, WHO TOLD US MATTHEW PERNA HAD ROTTED AWAY FROM STRESS RIGHT BEFORE HIS EYES…

 

– – – – – – – – –

 

SUMMER WAS JUST SETTLING INTO THE SHENANGO VALLEY WHERE THE FOREST REACHES FROM WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA INTO OHIO WHEN WE MET UP WITH MARCUS PRIESTER. HE AND MATTHEW PERNA WOULD COME HERE TO RUN THE ROCKY DIRT TRAILS, BUT ALSO TO LISTEN AND BE STILL.

 

Nats: water

 

IT WAS A LITTLE MORE THAN A YEAR SINCE HIS BEST FRIEND HAD KILLED HIMSELF AND THIS TIME, HE WAS TAKING MATTHEW’S FRIENDS AND FAMILY ON A PILGRIMAGE OF SORTS TO A CLEARING DEEP IN THE FOREST WHERE MARCUS AND MATTHEW’S UNCLE RON HAD SCATTERED SOME OF HIS ASHES AND PLANTED A TREE IN HIS MEMORY.

 

LARA: Wow. This was Matt’s church, huh?

MARCUS: Yeah.

LARA: Beautiful.

MARCUS: Serenity. It’s where he came to unplug from the hectic lives we live.

 

FOR MATTHEW’S STRONGEST ADVOCATE, HIS AUNT, GERI PERNA, THIS JOURNEY HAD BEEN A LONG TIME COMING.

 

GERI:  You know, it’s strange. I feel like Matt is walking this with us.

LARA: Really?

GERI: Yeah.

 

WE TACKLED FOUR MILES OF WINDING PATHS UNTIL WE CAME TO A PLACE WHERE THE RIVER RUNS QUIETLY AND THE TREES WERE NOT SO THICK.

 

Nats: walking on the leaves

 

LARA: This is the spot he chose?

MARCUS: This is it. This is where he requested to be placed.

MARCUS: It needs some water. Take a minute. It’s a little dry, but it’s doing okay.

MONI: Yeah it is.

MARCUS:  And this is his water bottle.

LARA: Wow. Did he carry that everywhere?

MARCUS: He did, and all these stickers on it.

LARA: Yeah.

MARCUS: They’re from all his travels.

LARA: Wow.

MARCUS: He would always just put another layer on.

MARCUS: There’s about three layers on there.

LARA: Really?

MARCUS: Yeah.

 

THE MOMENT FOR GERI, MORE BITTER THAN SWEET, RECALLING THE PAIN  SHE SAID DROVE HER NEPHEW TO AN EARLY GRAVE.

 

GERI: People literally hated you, that didn’t even know you. They hated you. I could post something on Twitter with Matt’s picture, and I can almost always count on somebody to come on and tell me that he deserved it or he was a coward. He took the coward’s way out and it sickens me to my core, because he’s dead. How much more – how much more could these people want from him? He’s dead. I – spitting on his grave brings you joy? I don’t understand that mentality in people. I don’t understand how anybody could have that much hatred in their heart. That they would – they would say things so horrible about somebody who’s dead, knowing that their family member is grieving. Have they never lost anybody that was close to them? Have they never had that feeling that I feel, and that my family feels, and that Matt’s friends feel? If you’ve never had that, then I feel sorry for you because you’ve never known love. You’ve never known love if you don’t feel what we’re feeling about somebody we loved so much.

LARA: And Matt, I mean, he had his family, he had his friends, and he had help.

GERI: But he needed somebody to tell him what was going to happen. He needed somebody to – to lay it out for him, and nobody could tell him. Nobody. There wasn’t one person. That’s why he searched his Bible – he searched his Bible so often. His Bible is just filled with notes. And oftentimes there’s sentences with a question mark on the end, asking God, “why is this happening?”

LARA: Sin, guilt, shame, remorse, depression.

GERI: Numb the pain, bitterness, anger. He just couldn’t find the answer in this book and after he died and we went into his home and this was sitting on his coffee table, and I could tell that this book had been thrown many times.

LARA: All these notes.

MARCUS: They painted him out to be this person that he wasn’t and there were conversations and he  – he was starting to believe it.

GERI: He did.

MARCUS: He was starting to. I was like, “Matt, what’s wrong with you, man?”

GERI: In our last conversation, he said to me, “They keep telling me I’m guilty, Aunt Geri. I must be guilty. I’m getting what I deserve.” And I was like, “what are you talking about?”

 

THE AFTERMATH OF JANUARY 6TH HAD SWEPT THROUGH MATTHEW PERNA’S LIFE LIKE A HURRICANE.

 

HIS FACE ALL OVER LOCAL NEWS AS THE PROTEST THAT WAS TURNED INTO AN “INSURRECTION” BECAME A DEATH SENTENCE.

 

OUT OF MORE THAN 1,100 ARRESTED, LESS THAN TWO PERCENT WERE CHARGED WITH CONSPIRING TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT, BUT YOU’D NEVER HAVE KNOWN FROM WATCHING THE NEWS OR LISTENING TO LEADERS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE.

 

Nats from MSNBC:  January 6th was the very definition of an insurrection.

 

Mitch McConnell: It was a violent insurrection.

 

Chuck Schumer: These were rioters and insurrectionists.

 

Adam Kinzinger: Trump-incited insurrection.

 

John Katko: The nation watched as insurrectionists…

 

Nancy Pelosi: Attacked by insurrectionists.

 

President Joe Biden: It’s not protest. It’s insurrection.

 

TO MARK THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF JANUARY 6TH, ABOUT SEVEN WEEKS BEFORE MATTHEW KILLED HIMSELF, THE MOST POWERFUL JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL IN THE NATION PROMISED MORE ARRESTS…

 

MERRICK GARLAND: The actions we have taken thus far will not be our last.

 

MATTHEW PERNA’S FATE LAY IN THE HANDS OF THOSE SENDING POLITICAL PROTESTORS TO PRISON FOR NON-VIOLENT OFFENSES.

 

Nats: protests from Kavanaugh hearings

 

SOMETHING THEY DID NOT DO TO THOSE PROTESTING BRETT KAVANAUGH’S NOMINATION TO THE SUPREME COURT IN SEPTEMBER 2018…

 

Nats: more protests from Kavanaugh hearings

 

WHERE HUNDREDS HAD THEIR CHARGES DROPPED OR WERE ORDERED TO PAY FINES AROUND $50 UNDER A WASHINGTON D.C. LAW KNOWN AS “POST AND FORFEIT.”

 

NOR DID IT HAPPEN TO THOSE IN PORTLAND, OREGON DURING THE SUMMER OF 2020, WHO NIGHT AFTER NIGHT TRIED TO BURN DOWN THE FEDERAL COURTHOUSE WITH FEDERAL AGENTS INSIDE. THOSE RESPONSIBLE GOT TO SKIP JAIL WITH NO CRIMINAL RECORD IN EXCHANGE FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE AND STAYING OUT OF TROUBLE FOR A TIME.

 

YET FOR JANUARY 6TH, THE FBI TURNED SWAT TEAMS AND BATTERING RAMS ON AMERICAN CITIZENS, OFTEN FOR MISDEMEANOR CRIMES.

 

NATS from fbi confrontation: “Don’t touch me! This is a crime. Keep your f*cking hands off of me. Step back over there.”

 

AND MATTHEW PERNA FELT THE WORKING CLASS STREETS OF HOME HAD TURNED ON HIM AND HIS FAMILY.

 

MARCUS: His father had received hate mail, threats. Some of the most awful things you could say about a person.

LARA: And that bothered Matthew?

MARCUS: It sure did and he got to the point where he didn’t feel comfortable showing his face in town. He would – him and I would have to drive out of town to a place where he felt more comfortable because he didn’t want to show his face in the community.

 

THAT SENTIMENT ECHOED IN A LETTER HIS FATHER, LARRY PERNA, WROTE TO JOHN BATES, THE JUDGE IN MATTHEW’S CASE WHERE HE SAID:

 

“WE WERE NO LONGER COMFORTABLE GOING OUT IN PUBLIC, SOMETHING I NEVER IN MY LIFE THOUGHT I WOULD EXPERIENCE IN THE TOWN WHERE OUR FAMILY WAS RESPECTED AND WELL-KNOWN.”

 

MARCUS AND OTHERS CLOSE TO MATTHEW LAID MUCH OF THE BLAME WITH THE SHARON HERALD, A LOCAL PAPER WHOSE NARRATIVE THEY FELT WAS ONE-SIDED, FALSELY CAST MATTHEW AS A THREAT, AND AFTER HE HANGED HIMSELF, ALTERED HIS OBITUARY AS CONFIRMED BY THE FUNERAL HOME, REMOVING TWO LINES THEY DID NOT WANT TO PRINT. ONE SAID: “HE WAS USHERED IN BY POLICE.” THE OTHER: “MANY PEOPLE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PAIN HE ENDURED.”

 

WE REACHED OUT REPEATEDLY TO THE SHARON HERALD FOR COMMENT, BUT NO ONE WOULD TALK TO US. AS MATTHEW PERNA’S CASE DRAGGED ON, HIS FAMILY SAID THEY FELT HIM SLIPPING AWAY.

 

GERI: He didn’t want to go out with his friends. Sometimes he answered his phone, sometimes he didn’t. He became a recluse in a sense.

LARA: And if he didn’t answer his phone, what would you do?

GERI: We panicked and we kept calling.

 

MATTHEW WARNED HIS FRIENDS IN TEXT MESSAGES THAT WERE HARD TO READ AND IN HIS BIBLE, AMONG HIS MANY NOTES, NEXT TO PSALM 13 HE ASKED “HOW MUCH LONGER?

 

SOME FRIENDS WENT TO HIS ATTORNEY, OTHERS TO POLICE WHO WENT TO HIS HOUSE THREE TIMES TO CHECK ON HIM. THE PROSECUTOR IN HIS CASE, NIHAR MOHANTY, REQUESTED A MENTAL HEALTH EVALUATION TO HELP HIS “SUPERVISORS” KNOW “MORE ABOUT MR PERNA’S MENTAL HEALTH STATUS.”  IN THE EVALUATION SENT TO THE DOJ IN JULY, THE PSYCHOLOGIST STATED MATTHEW WAS AT “MODERATE” RISK OF HARMING HIMSELF,  WAS NOT AGGRESSIVE, HAD “NO INTENT TO ENGAGE IN CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR” WHEN HE ENTERED THE CAPITOL AND PRESENTED “NO SIGNIFICANT RISK FOR CURRENT OR FUTURE OFFENDING”.

 

THAT DID NOT APPEAR TO MOVE THE DOJ, WHO STILL WANTED TO SEND MATTHEW PERNA AWAY FOR YEARS AND REFUSED A MISDEMEANOR PLEA DEAL. TIME AND AGAIN THE PROSECUTOR IN D.C. INDICATED HIS OFFICE WAS CALLING THE SHOTS – NOT HIM. IN DESPERATION, AUNT GERI SAID, AFTER ALMOST A YEAR, MATTHEW COLLAPSED UNDER THE WEIGHT OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND PLED GUILTY TO THREE MISDEMEANORS.

 

Nats: USA chats

 

AND THE FELONY CHARGE OF OBSTRUCTING AN OFFICIAL PROCEEDING, EVEN THOUGH THE SENATE CHAMBER WAS EMPTY WHEN MATTHEW WALKED THROUGH THE CAPITOL BUILDING. WITH NO CRIMINAL HISTORY AND NO VIOLENT CRIMES, MATTHEW PERNA PINNED HIS HOPES ON A SENTENCE OF MONTHS, NOT YEARS, AND PREPARED FOR PRISON.

 

THAT CHRISTMAS WHEN HE CAME TO STAY WITH HER, AUNT GERI SAID HE WAS NOT THE SAME.

 

GERI: And there was a picture of him and my son and I on that Christmas, that last Christmas, and every time I look at that picture and I compare it to every picture of Matt that I have prior to that, there was a sparkle in Matt’s eye before and that picture on Christmas, the day after Christmas that picture was taken, that sparkle is gone and it’s then I realized his spirit was dead at that point and nothing was going to get it back.

 

WHEN THE NEWS CAME THAT THE DOJ, AT THE LAST MINUTE WAS SEEKING A HARSHER SENTENCE THAT COULD ADD FIVE TO SEVEN YEARS OF JAIL TIME, AUNT GERI SAID MATTHEW WAS CRUSHED.

 

HE TOLD MARCUS AND GERI IT WAS A TERRORISM ENHANCEMENT – ACCORDING TO THE DOJ, IT WASN’T. THERE’S NO OFFICIAL RECORD BECAUSE MATTHEW DIED BEFORE THE PAPERWORK WAS FILED, BUT HIS FAMILY SAID THEY WERE TOLD IT WAS BASED ON A “THREAT TO CAUSE PHYSICAL INJURY” FROM A COMMENT MATTHEW MADE IN THIS FACEBOOK LIVE VIDEO THE EVENING OF JANUARY 6TH.

 

MATTHEW Facebook live video: “Before we wrap this up, I just want to clarify, all of the people that are really concerned, that this is not over now, that Trump lost. It’s not over, trust me. The purpose of today was to expose Pence as a traitor, period.”

 

GERI: They used a couple of sentences from that video that they took completely out of context. They took “Mike Pence is a traitor” [and] “it isn’t over yet.”

LARA: As if it was a threat.

GERI: And that is the terroristic threat that they were trying to use.

LARA: And you had a conversation with the prosecutor. Can you tell us about that?

GERI: Yes. There was an operator on the line and she said, “I’m going to have the attorney on the phone with you. Um, I want you to know that you are on a recorded line with several witnesses listening in.” I was like, “Okay.” So he gets on the phone. I tell him who I was. I said, “I am Matthew Perna’s aunt.” He says, “Let me start off by saying that there are many people in my department that felt very bad that Matthew decided to take his life. I said, “Really?” I said “There are many people in your department, including you, who are the reason Matthew took his life. He hanged himself because of the people in your department.” I said, “What exactly about Matt’s case warranted a terrorism enhancement? Exactly what did he do?” He said, “If he just could have waited, I don’t think the terrorism enhancement would have stuck with his judge.” That infuriated me and I said, “Do you not understand? It was the threat of that enhancement that caused my nephew to hang himself.” I said, “You don’t understand these are human beings that you’re playing with? You throw out an idle threat that could have taken his sentence from six to 12 months to five to six years, and he hangs himself because of that fear that you instilled and now you’re saying you don’t think it would have stuck?” He said, “Again, I am very sorry that your nephew took his life.” I said, “I hope that every night before you go to bed, the last thing you think of is the name Matthew Perna and the role you played in his death.”

 

WE TRIED TO SPEAK WITH NIHAR MOHANTY BUT HE WAS UNABLE TO COMMENT AND HIS OFFICE DISPUTED GERI PERNA’S MEMORY OF THAT CALL.

 

LOUIE: There’s an old adage. ‘Democracy ensures people are governed no better than they deserve.’ If you don’t protest, you don’t demand that your elected officials do something about injustice, you’re going to be governed with injustice and you’re going to be the victim.

 

LOUIE GHOMERT, WAS ONE OF THE FEW IN CONGRESS, GERI PERNA SAID. WHO ALWAYS MADE TIME FOR HER AND SEEMED TO CARE ABOUT MATTHEW.

 

LARA: What was it about his case that struck you?

 

LOUIE: To see somebody that was a victim of our own Department of Justice. It’s just – and especially somebody as peaceable and caring as Matthew obviously was. Shame on anybody that doesn’t care how the system abused this poor guy.  It’s just too tragic. We shouldn’t have a repeat of that.

 

GOHMERT WAS ON THE FLOOR OF CONGRESS ON JANUARY 6TH, OBJECTING TO THE CERTIFICATION OF RESULTS IN CONTESTED STATES. HIS FOURTH ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTE COUNT IN 18 YEARS ON THE HILL.

 

LOUIE: It wasn’t until January 6, 2021 Republicans objected, and the Democrats were all saying that’s a crime for you to object. It’s treasonous, seditious. I’m going, “What? We’re doing exactly what you did.”

LARA: You witnessed that firsthand.

LOUIE: Yeah and I’m going, “This is crazy. You guys did this.” So were you being treasonous in 2017, 2005, 2001? It didn’t make sense.

LARA:  Did you have the sense that some of your Republican colleagues were in lockstep with uh, the Democrats on this. I mean, Mitch McConnell and others?

LOUIE: There were Republicans that got mad because we were objecting, yes.

LARA: So your own party.

LOUIE: Some.

LARA: Some in your own party were not happy with you.

LOUIE: The majority of the Republicans were concerned.

LARA: Are you a dying breed, Louie, in the GOP?

LOUIE: I would like to think there are more people in Congress now that will say what they believe even if it costs them a committee or a chairmanship.

LARA: What have we gone, from 1% to 2?

LOUIE: Well, I think they’re more now.

 

WHEN WE CAUGHT UP WITH GOHMERT IN THE LONE STAR STATE RETIREMENT SEEMED TO HAVE SET HIM FREE, SO WE ASKED A FEW TOUGH QUESTIONS ABOUT JANUARY 6TH.

 

LARA: Do you believe that this was a setup, this was an intel operation?

LOUIE: You know, these people came to Washington to protest, but the masses had no intention to be involved in any violence at all.

LARA: So you’re dodging the question.

LOUIE: No, I do think that a lot of what happened was stirred up by the federal government. All those people that showed up, they showed up of their own accord, but there were people involved that manipulated them.

LARA: They were framed.

LOUIE: They were framed.

 

J6 nats: “Thank you, thank you, no metal, thank you sir. Love you. We love you.”

 

GHOMERT SERVED ON THE HILL FOR SO LONG, MANY HAD FORGOTTEN HE’D SERVED ON THE BENCH BEFORE THAT: 10 YEARS AS A FELONY JUDGE IN TEXAS. IN HIS VIEW, MATTHEW PERNA SHOULD NEVER HAVE GONE TO COURT, LET ALONE PRISON.

 

FROM THE SIT-INS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA AND THE VIETNAM WAR, AMERICANS HAVE A LONG TRADITION OF BREAKING LAWS IN THE NAME OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND FEW CITIES HAVE SEEN AS MUCH RESISTANCE AS THE NATION’S CAPITAL, WHERE DEMOCRATS OBSTRUCTED AN OFFICIAL SESSION OF CONGRESS FOR 26 HOURS ON THE 22ND OF JUNE 2016.

 

Nats: “We will occupy this floor.”

 

Nats: “No bill no break! No bill no break!”

 

GOHMERT WHO WAS THERE, SAID NO ONE WENT TO PRISON.

 

WHAT STOOD OUT TO US IN WASHINGTON D.C. WAS THE EASE AND ENTHUSIASM WITH WHICH MANY REPUBLICANS TOSSED THEIR OWN UNDER THE JANUARY 6TH BUS. GOHMERT AND MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE FOUGHT MOSTLY ALONE TO SEE JANUARY 6TH PRISONERS INSIDE THE D.C. JAIL, RE-NAMED THE “GULAG” BY THOSE INSIDE WHOSE CRIES FOR HELP WERE MOSTLY IGNORED, INCLUDING VETERANS AND RETIRED LAW ENFORCEMENT, SOME HELD WITHOUT TRIAL FOR TWO YEARS OR MORE. GOHMERT SAID WHAT THEY FOUND THERE WAS A SHOCK.

 

LOUIE: People needed medical help and they weren’t getting it. One guy had cancer wasn’t getting the treatment. It was just outrageous.

LARA: Were any of the prisoners beaten or abused?

LOUIE: Some had been, yes.

LARA:  Is that normal?

LOUIE: No, no.

LARA: Is it even legal?

LOUIE: No. People don’t listen to those that have been jailed.

 

GERI nat from press conference: “He lost income. He lost his friendships. He lost his standing in his community, but we stood by Matt as his family because we knew him.”

 

FROM THE STORMY STREETS OF D.C., TO MAR-LARGO WHERE SHE MET WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP, TO THE HILL WHERE SHE TESTIFIED AT A FIELD HEARING HELD BY CONGRESSMAN MATT GAETZ, GERI PERNA HAS MADE JUSTICE FOR MATTHEW HER FULL-TIME JOB.

 

GERI nat from field hearing: “I ask you to bring this bill to the table and encourage your constituents to pass it. Please, I ask you. Do not let my nephew’s death be in vain.”

 

THE MATTHEW LAWRENCE PERNA ACT OF 2022, WRITTEN BY LOUIE GOHMERT’S TEAM TO PROTECT NON-VIOLENT POLITICAL PROTESTERS ON ALL SIDES, WOULD END PRE-TRIAL DETENTION FOR DEFENDANTS LIKE MATTHEW NOT CHARGED WITH VIOLENT CRIMES, BUT THE BILL MAY NEVER BECOME LAW. SO FAR MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE,  THE ONLY MEMBER OF CONGRESS TO CO-SIGN.

 

GERI: The people’s house. They call it “the people’s house.” Which people? Not you and me.

LARA: Actually, the founding fathers did mean you and me.

GERI: But it’s not what it means now.

LARA: No.

GERI: That’s not what it means.

 

WHEN WE JOINED MATTHEW’S FAMILY IN THE FOREST, THE PAIN OF HIS DEATH HAD NOT FADED, NOT FOR HIS UNCLE RON, NOR FOR AUNT MONI, HIS MOTHER’S IDENTICAL TWIN. MATTHEW HAD SLEPT AT HER HOUSE NEARLY EVERY NIGHT BETWEEN HIS ARREST AND SUICIDE.

 

MONI: To me, he was just driven – he was just driven to this and I can’t accept this.

LARA: Do you think you’ll ever accept it?

MONI: I believe that God is good and maybe He said, “it’s time, Matt, quit suffering now, come up.” You know. I don’t know, because I always thought suicide was wrong.

LARA: It’s hard to see someone you love suffer like that, to that point.

MONI: I think what really upsets me is I really believed this country was good and the more and more I see, I don’t know that it is.

LARA: Do you feel betrayed?

MONI: Yeah, I do and that’s why I love Trump because finally, you have somebody who’s willing to stick up for us, normal people, and say they can’t trample on you. I won’t let them because otherwise, hell, we could be next. What’s to say they won’t come and throw us in jail and say there’s nothing you can do?

LARA: Well, some people blame Trump.

MONI: I know.

 

IN MATTHEW’S LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY, A SUICIDE NOTE HE’D WRITTEN JUST FOR HER: “I CARED TOO DEEPLY AUNT MONI. THERE WAS THE WAR AND I CHOSE TO FIGHT IN IT. HATS OFF TO PELOSI AND SCHUMER. HECK OF A SNARE THEY HAD ME IN. PLEASE DON’T THINK OF ME AS A COWARD, I JUST COULDN’T HANDLE THESE FEELINGS, THIS FEAR AND UNCERTAINTY ANY LONGER.”

 

MARCUS: And that was Matt. An old soul. Here he is. This guy, he’s five years younger than me and he had this quality that my grandfather had and it was just beautiful.

LARA: You miss him?

MARCUS: Oh yeah. Yeah.

LARA: What do you miss the most?

MARCUS:  Just him being there.

LARA: It never goes away.

MARCUS: Yeah, I don’t expect it will.

 

FOR GERI PERNA IN SOME WAYS, LIFE STOPPED WHEN MATTHEW DIED BUT THERE WAS ONE MOMENT AS UNEXPECTED AS IT WAS COMFORTING: WHEN AN HONOR GUARD FROM OHIO STOOD WITH THEM AS THEY SAID GOODBYE TO MATTHEW.

 

GERI: And that night of the viewing, there were two officers there, and they took turns, and my brother was very confused. Ah, we were all confused.

LARA: And in shock.

GERI: Yeah. We didn’t understand why there was an honor guard there.

LARA: Just the two of them?

GERI: The two of them. The same officers came the next day, and they had an American flag, and they did a flag folding ceremony and they handed the flag to my brother and after which, after the funeral, my brother said to them, “I’m so confused. I’m grateful that you came, but Matt wasn’t in the service.” And they said, “Matt was more of a patriot than most every veteran we’ve ever done a funeral for.” That’s what they said and they handed Larry the flag.