Melanie House mortgage grant recipient December 2007
Melanie and John met when she was just 17 and he 18. He was working as a bus boy in a Moorpark, California restaurant when she came in to eat with a group of friends. The next thirteen years were defined by their love for each other. Their families became intertwined as they vacationed together and shared in holidays and life events. They married 9 years ago with a wedding party in uniform. The last three years since John’s death have been an unreal experience for Melanie and her son James, whom John was never to meet.
Melanie describes the day of her husband’s death in vivid detail. The morning news gave an unclear precursor to the tragic realization when they issued reports that a helicopter went down carrying 30 marines and one navy corpsman. Although the circumstance sounded eerily near to her husband's group, they stated that they were dispatched from a base other than John’s station at Pearl Harbor, HI.
Later that day Melanie was whisked into a scene she describes as right out of a movie. There was a knock at her door. Opening it she was confronted by a group of men in dress uniforms. She gasped, and sunk against the door. She knew what that meant. The news they brought left her in shock and powerless to absorb the impact that was being delivered to the lives of her, her infant son, and the two families that count John as a beloved member.
The days following were filled with endless phone calls and visitors to her home. Visitors paying their deep respect included the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the governor of Hawaii who presented Melanie with the Hawaiian Medal of Honor for John (posthumously), and countless men in uniform. John’s helicopter flew in tandem with a second, containing two additional squads of Marines from the same company, the day it was attacked. The copter that went down held three young fathers who would not have the joy of raising their children, whereas the other bird held none. The men of the second copter paid their respects to Melanie and other widows of their friends and comrades in arms and wondered aloud why it wasn’t them that was taken. When a call came to Melanie from John’s mother, it was clear that she did not know of John’s passing. She saw the same news story that Melanie had but was not home when the knock came to her door in California. Although Melanie could not bear to deliver this blow to John’s mother, the reaction of her daughter-in-law to her question was enough.
Once the shock began to wane, the reality of a funeral took over. The Navy provided a beautiful service with full military honors. It was a gift to all those that had gathered to remember John. There were a few weeks of signing papers and making arrangements to follow, leaving a blur of decisions behind; some good, some bad. She had been issued a sum of money and a time limit to exit her residence at the base. Melanie took her infant son and departed Hawaii heading home to California to surround herself with the comfort and support of family.
Melanie has had to make decisions quickly and without preparation to handle the loss she has experienced. She purchased a townhouse in Simi Valley to be close to both families and started to adjust to the future she began with John. Not wanting to abandon the couple’s dreams for their son’s future, Melanie has done the best she can with what she has been dealt. She purchased a townhouse that has three bedrooms, which her sister and John’s brother rented in the first year to help out with the mortgage payments and to be close.
Over time their lives moved on elsewhere and Melanie has had to take a second mortgage out on her home and can only pay the interest on her loans. This is where the FallenWarriors.org foundation is pleased to be able to step in. As of today, thanks to our contributors, including a local Santa Barbara foundation, the Fionda Group, and the Power Net Global (PNG) phone company, we have paid off the second mortgage to her home, which will ease the burden for this brave woman and her son who gave all they could give to our country—their husband and father.
It is a great honor for the FallenWarriors.org foundation to honor the memory of a brave man whom willingly gave his life for this great country we call home.
Thank you PO3 John House, USN. You are one of America’s finest.
