As the nation pauses on Memorial Day to honor military personnel who died in service, the somber holiday presents an additional opportunity to reflect on hardships that disproportionately affect members of the armed forces.
Angela Myers Sweet — the daughter of Kathy Williams, of Ocean Park, Washington — is bringing attention to one such issue, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), through her work in “We Are Stronger,” a faith-based feature film set for an initial five-city distribution but can be viewed in Oregon and Washington later this year.
Produced by Reflective Life Ministries in partnership with the Mighty Oaks Foundation and other organizations, the movie follows Master Sgt. Victor Raphael, who is nearing the end of his military career when he is injured by an explosion in Afghanistan, according to the official website.
At home in Texas, Raphael suffers the pain of physical rehabilitation, the stress of stabilizing a rocky marriage, and the tension of reentering the civilian world. Though he copes, at first, with his post-traumatic stress through isolation, he eventually finds hope and healing through spiritual faith and a community of people who also have faced and survived trauma.
Sweet, 39, who plays Victor’s wife Michelle Raphael, has been acting for decades. At age 11, she played Lucy in a stage adaptation of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” in Longview, Washington, her hometown.
She continued honing her skills through acting classes in Vancouver, Washington, and then in California, where she worked as a model and film extra.
In 2012, she moved with her
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