Suburban Couple Travels To Kansas, Where Their Missing Veteran Son May Be
(CBS) -- A couple from the north suburbs is 730 miles from home today, in Wichita, Kansas, looking for their missing son -- a veteran who suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Kim Nerstrom is searching a foreign place for someone so close to home.
She and her husband, Doug, drove from their home in Libertyville to Wichita to find their missing son, Dan.
Kim says Dan is a veteran suffering from PTSD. In December, he left home.
"This is unreal to us, still, to think he just walked away," she says.
Weeks later, she got word he may be living on Wichita's streets.
"The Army changed him. I said to my husband when he left for Iraq, I said, 'If our child comes home alive, how screwed up will he be?' Well, on Dec. 1, I got my answer," Nerstrom says.
"I have to get up every day and put on a happy face and pretend life is normal and life is good. And it's not," the mother says.
These parents still hope life could be. Until then, love will drive them on.
"The last words from him were 'Love you too, mom,' and those are the words I need to live with," Nerstrom says.
The family has set up a Facebook page.