FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Rain or shine, Melissa Lee takes the starting line on Saturday alongside her two daughters, LaTrisha and Taylor, with one goal: to carry LaTasha Lee’s flag to the finish line.
However, Melissa hadn’t always felt ready to finish a 4k.
“It was really hard to get out of bed,” Melissa said.
Grief touches everyone’s life differently, and for Melissa Lee, the loss of her 24-year-old daughter LaTasha drove her to seek comfort.
“I was eating a lot of bad foods, I was eating a lot of junk foods, grief eating is real, I would definitely have nights where I wouldn’t get up from the couch and just watch T.V.”
Tasha Lee overdosed on fentanyl in January last year. Melissa says she had been feeling a little better day by day, but her grief still managed to control her life.
“It has gotten easier, but it’s still fresh, it’s still everyday … you know you wake up and you remember she’s not there, she’s gone.”
It wasn’t until she was scrolling through Facebook in August and saw a Flags4Fallen post that she felt the desire to get up and moving. That’s when Melissa made the decision to rise off the couch, lace up her sneakers and prepare for the Fort4Fitness 4k alongside Flags4Fallen and her daughters, all in the name of Tasha Lee.