Hand in hand

We have a lot to learn from our cousins in the primate family, and the monkeys and apes and so forth have always been very patient in teaching us how to live better.  AND they don't make a big deal and rub it in because they don't go around buying trampolines or $2,000 bottles of wine.

And we are helping monkeys.  

Way down in Mississippi, at the Gulf Coast Primate Sanctuary,  April Stewart, the founder, has hopes that her monkeys will help victims of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder deal with the condition.

And she is finding a happy side benefit: it's good for the volunteers who work with the victims, as well. There are some 30 volunteers, some of whom are veterans such as Ms Stewart (Air Force).

 All in all, it comes down to monkeys who were once parts of families, but then were "surrendered" (the polite way to say "dumped") and people who suffered trauma in their days are learning together to trust again.

Ms Stewart, 51, says, “There’s something magical that’s happening here. There’s such a peace that we have.”

She herself suffered PTSD when, as a member of the Air Force Security Forces, she was sexually assaulted by a fellow service member in 1997. 

She soon thereafter left the USAF and left her PTSD unaddressed for years, until her youngest child left home to live on his own, and she suffered panic attacks and sleeplessness. She found that rescuing animals was a fine way to build herself up, so here came the dogs, cats, and monkeys to her home!

Louie, the monkey pictured below, came along in 2023 as a baby dropped off by someone unable to care for him. In 2023, Stewart adopted Louie, then still a baby, from someone who could no longer care for him. She met a man named Richard, who had volunteered to build animal enclosures for the rescue, but found help in the very act of helping others. He had not wished to leave his home for many years, but getting involved with the sanctuary changed all that. 

After a gas chamber training incident at Fort Knox in the 1980s, Richard dealt with PTSD and "crippling" anxiety. But now, when he sees "his little buddy" Louie, he feels good because his afflictions seem not to matter to the monkey and his other monkey friends.

"I don’t have to worry about talking to them,” said Richard, 64. “They can feel you without speaking.”

Richard still works on the enclosures for the primates, and finds it rewarding to build nice homes for them.

And you get the feeling that the monkeys are grateful, too!