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It was May 12th and I was typing away, preparing my next blog about how the city of Wichita really dodged a bullet on May 10th, when a tornado had its sights on the city.  But on May 14th, everything changed.

One of our KAKEland StormChasers, Matt Hughes, was taken to the hospital after trying to take his life. This sentence is still hard to explain and even more difficult to express on a computer screen. Matt was in the hospital for several days in intensive care, there was a 24 hour vigil outside the waiting room, family, other chasers, business associates, etc.

I spent quite a bit of time bouncing from work to the hospital and back again...hoping for the best, comforting others, but several days later, after serious complications arose, I knew we were going to lose him.

I want to explain something right away, Matt was a young, vibrant, and resourceful man. One who embodies the passion everyone should have doing something they love.  He would do anything for anyone, would try to make everyone happy, would try to do a good job for someone..and would never ask for anything in return. 

What a lot of us didn't know was that he suffered from depression.

When Matt came to me in March of 2009 to tell me that him and his chase partner, Brandon, were picked to co-star in the Discovery Channel's hit show "Stormchasers" --I was excited!  Matt was truly worried about his role for KAKE and that he'll not be able to do as much for us as he wanted to since he'll be away from the state a lot with the production crew.  He then asked me what I thought about the show and whether he should do it. A veteran of several chasing shows myself, I told him to seize the opportunity because it may never happen again.  He accepted the job and the rest is history.

For those who follow the show, Matt was the forecaster for Sean Casey's TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle)--he was responsible for placing Sean in front of tornadoes so he can capture IMAX quality footage for a future project. Matt did a fine job on the show, he was responsible for getting Sean his first legitimate close-up encounter with a tornado with his IMAX cameras.  The producers of the show were so happy with Matt and Brandon that they signed up for a second season, of which principal shooting is wrapping up now.

The two of them this year were able to capture some amazing footage for the show, and for Sean. While the professional side of Matt was going fine, his personal life was nothing but. 

I won't go into specifics here, but there was never any illegal activity, but an accumulation of issues at home were mounting, and he kept it to himself until the end.

His friends, and I, will never know what he was truly thinking, will never know if there was something we could've done, will never know if anything could've been done. I've spent several sleepless nights over the last few weeks playing Monday morning quarterback..trying to make sense of this, wishing things were different. I'm going to miss Matt and everything he stood for.

Depression is a silent and debilitating disease..it can effect more than just the person suffering from it. It can destroy marriages, it can alter relationships, it changes lives.

His funeral last week was attended by over 500 people. If only he would've seen all the people who care for him ..could things have ended differently? 

I wanted to wait until he was laid to rest, and for me to find the right words before I felt like blogging again.  I also want to thank my employer, KAKE-TV, as they made a donation to a memorial fund set up for Matt's family at Intrust Bank.

Matt-- I hope this was ok?