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Finding peace at a camp for female veterans

Herald News - 3/27/2018

FALL RIVER - Sharing common experiences as veterans and as women - and climbing up a mountain - was an experience that Sharon Jussaume can't wait to repeat.

"It was so good for me," Jussaume said.

Jussaume, for a few days in February, attended Camp Resilience by the Patriot Resilient Leader Institute in New Hampshire.

Jussaume and 11 other female veterans shared stories of their lives and their time in service, all while participating in workshops in self-esteem building, finance, communicating with family and taking part in physical activities like yoga, water aerobics, skiing and, yes, even hiking up a mountain.

The goal of the camp, which operates on donations, is to help wounded warriors recover their physical, mental and emotional well-being. It offers women's-only camps, as well as men's camps and some for those needing assistance.

For Jussaume, the marks left from her service were not physical.

"It helped me tremendously," Jussaume said. "I came back with a whole new lease on life."

Jussaume, "a late bloomer," started her military life at the age of 31.

"I was an accountant. I was bored with it," Jussaume said. "I had just gotten a divorce and was starting over. I just knew I needed a change."

After talking with a Navy recruiter about her interest in electronics, she closed the books on her accounting career and enlisted around 1980.

Jussaume said they were trying to attract women to underwater mine positions, so she followed the call. For 17 years, she tested and maintained explosives on shore, eventually meeting her second husband and having two children.

While she loved her time in the Navy, she said things were different back then when it came to women. She experienced sexual harassment, resulting in post traumatic stress disorder. Then in 1997, Jussaume took an early retirement to care for her children while her husband was at sea for months at a time.

Since those days, she's lived in Florida and Nashville, where she worked in a career center and as a bartender. She now resides in Fall River, where she cares for her grandchildren. She's also a jewelry maker.

As a 60-something-year-old woman, Jussaume said she needed a reset from the many responsibilities in her life. She said she started to feel angry and was "snapping" at loved ones.

"I think it was a combination of everything," Jussaume said. "Sometimes as women, we put ourselves on the back-burner."

A few days away proved an effective cure. As did climbing that mountain.

"I used to know I could do anything; I think I lost that," she said. "I needed to make changes in my life."

Jussaume said hearing the experiences of the other women, ages 25 and up, helped her to put her own life in perspective, too.

Since she returned from camp, Jussaume has joined an online exercise program for veterans, and has started walking every day.

She said she plans to attend another Camp Resilience adventure over the summer.

"If I'm healthy and happy, my family is healthy is happy," Jussaume said.

To learn more about Camp Resilience or to make a donation, visit http://www.prli.us.

Email Deborah Allard at dallard@heraldnews.com.