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They were high school sweethearts and she thought they’d be together forever.
But Alex Maddox’s dream wouldn’t last forever.
She got the call in 2018 every cop’s wife dreads: her husband, Chase Maddox, was shot three times while trying to serve an arrest warrant in their small town of Locust Grove, Ga., and died on the way to the hospital.
“It was hell on earth,” she told The Post. “It was my worst nightmare come true.”
Four days after her husband was killed, Maddox gave birth to her second son, Bodie.
The mother-of-two, who had been a project manager at Delta Airlines, was forced to give up her job when she became a single parent.
The couple’s first child, Bradin, was born in June 2010 with special needs. He died from complications in 2022, leaving Maddox devastated yet again.
“I was at a point in my life where my foundation felt very broken,” she said. “I felt like I was spinning my tires just trying to move forward.”
That’s when she discovered the non-profit Folds of Honor, which gave her a scholarship to go back to school for communications but also provided her with a support network of other police widows.
“Folds of Honor has brought a lot of support to my life,” she said.
“We have been able to go to events and meet other people who are going through the same thing. We’re going through and it makes you feel a lot less alone,” she said of herself and her 7-year-old son.
“It’s helped me meet other widows who are further along on this journey and it’s given me hope to say, ‘Ok, we can make it.’”
Folds of Honor, a national non-profit foundation, has given 73,000 scholarships totaling more than $340 million nationwide since its inception in 2007.
This week the organization is announcing scholarships for the children of NYPD officer Didarul Islam, 36, who was killed in a mass shooting in July while doing a paid security job at a Park Avenue building in Midtown Manhattan.
“This commitment to the brave men and women who protect our families embodies our mission to honor their sacrifice and educate their legacy,” said Lt. Col. Dan Rooney, founder, and CEO of Folds of Honor.
The scholarships are $5,000 annually — so if all three Islam children go to school for four years, the family would get $60,000, officials said.
“The families of our fallen and disabled heroes sacrifice so much,” said NYC Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry.
“When tragedy strikes a police family, any plans they had for the future, including their educational goals, are turned upside down. With their extraordinary scholarship commitment, Folds of Honor is giving these hero families a piece of their future back. That means the world to our entire ‘Blue Family.’ We can’t thank them enough.”
English (US)