PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — It’s been a long road through unimaginable pain.
"I didn’t know I was coming here, I was just driving,” Cherya Cavanaugh said, remembering a trip down Palm Valley Road near Nocatee.
It was a drive that Cavanaugh had made hundreds of times before. But this time, this drive, brought a new destination.
The Cavanaugh family - a handful of kids, literally. Of the five children she shares with her husband, Tom, there were twin sons named David and Tommy.
"It's just a lot of love, all five kids,” Cavanaugh told First Coast News while holding her favorite family photo.
She remembers the day Tommy decided what he was going to do after graduating from Ponte Vedra High School.
"Tommy says, ‘Mom, I talked to the marine recruiter at school today,'” Cavanaugh said.
Cavanaugh says she remembers when Tommy became the first student at Ponte Vedra High to go into any branch of the military, given that it was fairly a new school at the time. And as is the case with identical twins, there is a bond, like gravity, that pulled David toward his brother.
“When David showed up at Tommy’s graduation at Parris Island [South Carolina] and saw what a phenomenal young man Tommy had become, David said, 'I’m cutting my hair, going to clean up and follow that path,'" Cavanaugh said.
Tommy ended up being stationed at the Pentagon, doing diplomatic work and was a photographer, while David became a machine gunner.
“And there’s only one place to be a machine gunner, and that’s overseas," Cavanaugh said.
David served three deployments, including one in Afghanistan. When he came home after his third, Cavanaugh says he was told there would be a fourth in Iraq.
"We had some really good time home, then he went to California to do some training, getting ready to go to Iraq,” Cavanaugh said.
Cavanaugh remembers getting a FaceTime video call from David a day before he was set to go out into the field for training.
“He said, 'Hey before I go to Iraq, let’s plan a ski trip. I’m going in the field a few days and you won’t hear from me,'" which Cavanaugh said was a totally normal phone call.
But the very next day, Cavanaugh got a call she didn't think was possible. Her son had taken his own life.
“And at sunrise, two Marines knock on our door in their dress blues,” Cavanaugh said. “We had no idea, no idea the true struggles [he went through].”
K9s For Warriors: Hope and Puppies
In the midst of planning a funeral for David, Cavanaugh remembers her home was full of people ready to help. But, she had a moment that led to the fateful, aforementioned drive.
“I remember I had to get out of the house and just clear my head," Cavanaugh said.
So, she got in her car and drove down Palm Valley Road with a flood of thoughts going through her mind.
“My Marine doesn’t want flowers at his service," Cavanaugh said as she reminisced on what she was thinking at the time. "And I’m driving down this road and saw K9s For Warriors and thought, 'This is it.'"
It became a mission in honor of David.
"Instead of flowers, please give to K9s," said Cavanaugh. “In a blink of an eye, we raised $25,000 which is enough to sponsor one dog.”
Her motivation: "Our son’s life is going to go on by helping another warrior decide to stay with us.”
But, while the devastated mom was focusing her pain on this new work, her other son struggled.
“And through this all, David’s twin, Tommy, we never saw the same again," said Cavanaugh. “When you have identical twins born in the same womb, they always had this bond that no one could understand. So, I don’t even know if recovery was possible.”
Tommy moved back to Jacksonville and became a firefighter.
"Two months later, he left us a note and just said that he needed to be with his twin," Cavanaugh said. "Here we go again.”
The only thing that kept Cavanaugh going in that time was her belief that God brought her to K9s For Warriors for a reason.
"When you’re a believer, there are no coincidences,” Cavanaugh said. "We took the next step with K9s For Warriors and we sponsored another dog, and we gave them the boys' nicknames. Tommy's nickname was Johnson."
That service dog went to a veteran named Liyah.
"Our next one was Cooter, which was David's nickname," Cavanaugh said with a laugh. "That was after Dukes of Hazard, let me just say that fast.”
Cooter went to a veteran named Ramiro.
The Cavanaugh family is now puppy raisers.
"We usually get them at eight weeks, so they’re totally crate trained, trained from the very beginning to be work dogs and not pets,” said Cavanaugh.
K9s For Warriors says this is a critical first step in the path of a service dog going home with a veteran.
"Every week, you work on one skill or maybe two.”
And 'John E.' is their fourth dog that she’ll handover to a veteran battling post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
“Is it hard to give them away?" Cavanaugh asked. "Of course. But, it becomes your love and your passion to turn the leash over to a warrior, and that feeling is far greater.”
Cavanaugh says she does it to make sure no other mother gets the call she got.
"I always say God gives us hope everyday and he uses puppies to do it.”
So, what all started with an unimaginable drive to nowhere in particular, has led her on a journey of hope, walking one step at a time.
"God is leading your path," Cavanaugh said. "He landed me in this spot for this organization to come alongside our family and to figure out how to walk through this.”
You can give or get more information about K9s For Warriors by clicking here.