Editor’s note: This story discusses mental health, suicide and suicidal thoughts and behavior. If you or anyone you know are in crisis, please reach out to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
The depression came on suddenly as Brad and Jan Cundy scrambled to try to get help for their son. Up until then, Matt had always been a popular, well-liked steady guy and right-hand man and partner in the family-owned business Keyhole Technologies.
The onset of depression threw them all for a loop, and they had no idea what they were dealing with.
One day, when Matt failed to show up for work, they went to his apartment and took him to a counselor to get help. He was prescribed antidepressants. But less than a week later, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, 27-year-old Matt took his own life on Nov. 20, 2011.
It's something the Cundys are at a loss to explain, as are everyone who knew Matt as the popular, outgoing happy person who always seemed so even-keeled.
Their son’s death was unbearable, Brad said. The couple’s other two children, Chad and Dawn, were equally devastated. It hit them all hard in different ways.
It was impossible to imagine ever recovering, Brad said, or to predict the miracle still to come.
Revealing Revelations
The family hustled to bury Matt and arrange his funeral where hundreds of family members and friends gathered to share stories.
His parents learned things they never knew about Matt, including that he’d once paid a friend’s rent when he’d come up short and had also skipped a Friday night out while a student at the University of Wyoming to take a girl to the hospital who was feeling sick and didn’t have a ride.
Not only did he drive her there, Jan said, but he waited at the hospital with her.
It was like learning all these new sides to their son through his friends’ stories.
Little did they know that one of the funeral attendees was also experiencing her own revelation. Taezia Tischer had gone to the funeral with one of Matt’s friends, but she also had a history with him.
Five years earlier, Tischer had a brief fling with Matt. She was also dating another man around the same time, so when she became pregnant, she assumed her daughter, Taylee, belonged to him.
Once at the funeral, however, she stared at older photos of Matt and his family members, and couldn’t help but see the uncanny resemblance between her daughter and Matt.
Even the man she was with — who was not Taylee’s father — couldn’t help noticing the uncanny resemblance.
Not long after, Tischer reached out to Matt’s sister Dawn to share her suspicions. Dawn was overjoyed by the possibility that a piece of Matt might still be alive, Jan said.
Dawn had particularly taken her brother’s death hard and had even started a foundation, the Mattie Project, in his honor to advocate for suicide awareness and support. It was through her efforts that she helped create the Wyoming chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
The Cundys have likewise been outspoken advocates for suicide awareness and prevention and frequently share their son’s story.
The idea that he may have fathered a child was almost more than Jan could take, she said, because it was too good to be true.
In fact, Brad and Dawn frequently discussed the possibility that Matt might have a child out there which began to drive Jan out of her mind.
“I finally told them, ‘Enough, I don’t want to hear about this anymore,’” she said, because it just hurt too much.
DNA Seals The Deal
In reality, though, the idea that it might be true was the best news they’d ever heard.
The Cundys were stunned; they had no idea that their son had ever dated Tischer.
It was March 2012 that Tischer contacted Dawn over Facebook messenger. Dawn called her parents and told them to drop everything and get over to the office. Once there, they stared at the message together as a group as they attempted to process the news.
“We looked at the message and thought, ‘Holy crap,’” Brad said.
First thing the next morning, Dawn jumped in her car to drive from Casper, where the family had since moved, to her hometown of Gillette to meet Tischer and Taylee. They all agreed to do their DNA testing, but even before they received the results, Dawn knew.
Taylee, then 5, looked just like her brother.
And sure enough, the test results came back that the likelihood that the Cundys were Taylee’s grandparents was 99.9%.
They could barely contain themselves, and Brad said they had to use great restraint out of fear of overwhelming the little girl.
Even without DNA proof, the Cundy family say Taylee Cundy bears an uncanny resemblance to her father, Matt, both as children and in their senior photos. (Courtesy Jan Cundy) 
Even without DNA proof, the Cundy family say Taylee Cundy bears an uncanny resemblance to her father, Matt, both as children and in their senior photos. (Courtesy Jan Cundy)
Unraveling Paperwork
Apart from the emotional response to their new grandchild, there was also legal work to be done. They needed to transfer Matt’s financial estate to his daughter and change her birth certificate and last name.
Thankfully, Jan said, they had DNA to make the changes legally viable, or otherwise without that it would have been impossible to prove Taylee was Matt’s child.
It took more than a year to get Taylee’s name changed to Cundy, and with the name change came the reality that the man who thought he was Taylee’s father also had to be told he wasn’t.
It was hard on everyone, Taylee said, but he took the news in stride. The Cundys reimbursed him for the years of child support and paid his legal fees.
Telling his mother she was no longer a grandmother was more difficult, Jan admitted, but again, it was the reality that none of them could deny.
“We were trying to make this happen with as little pain as possible,” she said.
To the Cundys, however, it was a miracle and one of the best moments in their lives. They still remember their first meeting and how hard they had to try to give Taylee space and not overwhelm her.
“She started calling us grandma and papa the first weekend,” Jan said with a big smile.
And despite the pain of losing their son, the miracle of Taylee is a blessing that they never imagined would emerge from the tragedy.
“She’s a gift from God,” Jan said, and she feels her son smiling down on them knowing that they’ve found her.
The Cundys are among their granddaughter Taylee's biggest fans and cheer her on both on and off the court. (Courtesy Jan Cundy) an Cundy calls her granddaughter Taylee "a gift from God" after discovering her son had a child following his suicide death at age 27. (Courtesy Jan Cundy) 
Taking family trips together is a priority for Brad and Jan Cundy, who embraced the granddaughter they didn't know existed following their son Matt's untimely death at 27. (Courtesy Jan Cundy)
Part Of The Family
Today at 18, Taylee can’t imagine a different life outside the Cundy family.
Her mother has since remarried, and she has three younger siblings. Likewise, both Chad and Dawn have children of their own, and the Cundys now have five grandchildren ranging in ages from 18 to 18 months and consider Taylee's siblings their bonus grandchildren.
In a few months, Taylee graduates from high school and will be heading off to Black Hills State University. The money from her father’s estate will help pay her tuition, which makes Taylee feel closer to the dad she never knew.
Even without the DNA proof, there’s no doubt that Taylee is their son’s offspring, Jan and Brad say. They share similar mannerisms and athleticism and the same disgruntled face that both she and her father make on the basketball court when a ref makes a bad call.
Taylee plans to have a relaxing summer at the Cundy's lakeside cabin at Keyhole State Park, she tells her grandparents, as they talk through plans of their upcoming summer vacations.
First, Taylee and her mother will head to Vancouver, British Columbia, with her grandmother in late July before meeting Brad and other family in Alaska. These family trips are important to them, Brad said, and they make a point to go somewhere together every year.
Jan is also happy with Taylee’s choice of college, where Taylee’s great-great-grandmother and Jan’s father also attended, as well as Taylee’s plan to study optometry.
They’re just like any other family, Brad said, despite the unique way they all met.
Mostly, they feel their son looking down on them, and Jan swears that he makes his presence known from time to time in their family videos. In one, a young Taylee and her siblings launch purple balloons with their mother at Matt’s grave in Mount Pisgah Cemetery in Gillette.
As the balloons bob toward the sky, an ethereal blue orb bounces in the air to the left of screen as if cheering them on.
Jan calls those her God-wink moments, she said, and she has plenty of them.
Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.
