Cleveland family creates ministry to help military spouses cope

Amazing advances in trauma care created a devastating irony in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Soldiers whose wounds would have killed them in the Vietnam War were saved on Iraqi and Afghan battlefields by miraculous technology and resourceful doctors and nurses.

But it also meant men were coming home with injuries and disabilities unlike any that Americans had encountered before. To give their wounded warriors time to heal and learn to adjust to life after war, wives and mothers had to take on responsibilities their husbands once handled.

Scott Cunningham, who served as U.S. Air Force chef at the Pentagon’s Executive Dining Room in the late ’80s, would hear stories about the pain these families suffered and dreamed of helping those wives and mothers. He wanted it to be a family operation that utilized the skills of his wife, Heidi, as well as those of daughter Meg, who has a master’s in pastoral counseling from Liberty University, founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, and a master’s in child development from Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn.

Brook Mahan, administrator of All True Ministries, works on the company’s social media.

The couple decided Cleveland was a perfect place for them to create a new business called The Estate Keeper, a company that manages estates for the wealthy and trains maids, butlers, chefs and personal assistants, the family thought the small city could be the right place to make their nonprofit dream come true.