Local teacher publishes book about her father's recovery from PTSD

One of Susan Tetreau's oldest memories of her father was her asking him why he was claustrophobic while she was a child.

She said Raymond Somogy first expressed surprise she knew such a big word, then told her he would answer her when she was older. Decades later, she would learn he was buried alive in a cave while serving in the Vietnam War, one of several incidents which contributed to his eventual diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The story is one of several she recounts in a new book released Wednesday, "Pieces of My Father's Heart."

The book is the culmination of several years Tetreau spent digging through family notes, war letters and her father's journal after he died in 2017.

"After my dad passed away I just started writing these stories down," Tetreau said.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Tetreau said she found herself with more time to focus on writing and decided to make those stories into a book, half focused on her father's experience during the war and the other half focused on her own experiences growing up with him in Port Huron.

Tetreau, who teaches at Port Huron's Michigamme Elementary School, had helped her father share some of his experiences by having him speak to her students. He would show them how to do a proper salute, or talk about daily life in Vietnam. She recalled a student asking him how he slept during the war.

"Sleep?" he responded. "There were snakes crawling around, no we didn't sleep!"

While preparing the story, Tetreau had copies of letters her father sent home to his parents and a diary he kept describing his experiences. She said she authenticated his writings by interviewing family members and other veterans, including Jim Mulloy, who served with her father.

Many of the stories Tetreau shares were unknown even to her until 2012, when her father had several flashbacks to the war while he was being prepped for heart surgery. In the book, Tetreau describes seeing Somogy thrashing in his hospital bed as four nurses held him down and he yelled, "Get your God damn hands off me Charlie!"

Tetreau later realized her father wasn't talking about a person named Charlie, but a nickname U.S. troops used during the Vietnam War to refer to the Viet Cong, the force that fought for North Vietnam using guerrilla tactics.

Other chapters show the reader Tetreau's experience growing up, including stories about her family having to track down runaway cattle, or watching her father stop a fight by talking the aggressor down. Port Huron residents, she said, will particularly connect with it as she talks about growing up in the city in the 1970s and 80s.

The juxtaposition between Somogy's traumatic experiences in Vietnam and Tetreau's more wholesome experiences as a child may seem at odds, but Tetreau said it was important they go together to show how her father found solace in his family.

The cover, which includes a picture of her father with Tetreau and her siblings as children, aims to illustrate that point. Originally Tetreau included a war photo of her father in uniform, but her publisher warned her a photo that included a gun would drive away half her readers, so she chose the family photo instead.

"I think that my dad did a really good job of keeping the trauma at bay," Tetreau said. "This is not a war story, it's a story about survival from trauma."

That, Tetreau said, is the message she hopes readers take from her book. She is particularly hopeful that other veterans who also have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"They're going to see how my dad handled it," Tetreau said. "He surrounded himself with family."

"Pieces of My Father's Heart" is Tetreau's first book, though she does not intend for it to be her last. With some writing experience under her belt, she said she is writing a second book, a work of fiction.

The book is available on Amazon. Tetreau said copies will also be sent to Weekends on Water Street in Port Huron starting Sept. 6.

Contact Johnathan Hogan at jhogan@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Local teacher publishes book about her father's recovery from PTSD