Transcript
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From the time that they pronounced me deaf was a good 45 minutes.
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They cut my clothes and then they paddled my heart, my heart had stopped.
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And I could see people screaming and crying, but I didn't realize that was actually my
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physical body because I was somewhere else.
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The only thing that I could feel, if you could imagine, absolute love and peace, there wasn't
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anything else to be felt.
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I was greeted by people I'd known in the past.
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I'm back home again.
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Incredibly safe and felt at home.
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Welcome everybody to Round Trip Death and I'd like to welcome our special guest today,
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Sky Lynn.
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Sky, how are you?
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Good morning, Buenos Dias.
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Doing well, thank you and yourself.
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I'm doing great.
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Now, tell us why the Spanish, maybe it'll tie in with where you live.
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Yes, I am 18 miles from the Mexican border in Nogales.
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It's Tubaq and we north to give people an idea.
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We're south of Tucson about 35 minutes.
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So between Tucson and the border.
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Correct.
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And it's kind of an artist community, isn't it?
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It is.
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It's been here for many, many decades.
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It's got a lot of like-minded spirit people that it's a creative valley for sure.
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I would say the majority of the people that I've met here have come here with the best.
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They've retired, they've left whatever else was there and they've come back here to just
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enjoy the environment and all the recreation, the hiking and the lakes and so on and so
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forth and the creativity, which is wonderful.
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Now, it's going to sound like we're doing a pitch for the Chamber of Commerce.
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We're not.
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Okay.
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I did look up Tubaq or Tubaq online and it's a fairly small town, but it looks like you
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have good restaurants and a lot of artists and what do you and your husband do for fun
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or to keep yourselves busy?
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Yeah.
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Well, there's two seasons.
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There's high season where it's the tourists, which is next, they estimate somewhere about
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1,100 people a day visit and our whole village is 1,100 people and when low seasons here,
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only 30% of us live here year round.
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So that's our favorite season, but a lot of the restaurants close during that time too.
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And is low season summer because it's hot or winter?
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Well, we should start April first, April to September and then again, January, we get
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another group of people.
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But we'd like to go over towards Patagonia, which is east of us.
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There's beautiful vineyards, there's hiking, they have a beautiful bird sanctuary for hiking.
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There's a couple of really nice lakes to go to and do some kayaking or floating and so
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it's that.
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And then Tucson is really rich too in their art community.
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So we like to, which we'll be doing this week, we'll go up on Sunday afternoon, do some arts,
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stay overnight and then we do our appointments and whatever on Monday and then come back
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home.
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Okay.
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So, Skye, I know that you had an interesting near death experience.
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Take us back.
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How long ago was this?
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The first near death experience that I had was at 11 years old.
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Okay.
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And how many total are there?
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Two actual near death experiences and four brushes with death or vine intervention with
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death.
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All right.
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Well, let's start when you're 11 years old.
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And I can't remember from the pre interview if this is the one where something very interesting
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and unusual happened or something else.
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What happened at 11?
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What started with the night before, I dreamt the whole experience very, very vivid.
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I got up in the morning and my parents were in the kitchen.
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I explained what happened in detail and my dad was a little town doctor.
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It was a Sunday morning.
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We're getting ready for church.
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And my parents, dad says, you know, be aware of what's happening to you, what's going on
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around you.
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Cause we were out to babysit a group of kids, the parents are going snowmobiling or they
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call them poker runs.
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And we were in charge of five little children.
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And my mom says, keep your eyes open.
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So we're out for the afternoon.
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It's a nice winter day and chilly as could be.
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And we decided to go for one last run.
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A start in the sun starting to go down.
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And we're heading back to the farmhouse.
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Everybody's thinking of cocoa, hot cocoa and warming up.
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And as the toboggan, I was on the back of the toboggan and what we call a toboggan
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squat where the kids, we all wrap our legs around each other.
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And I was the first one on where the curve of the toboggan is.
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And I actually had two twin boys in front of me and their little brother.
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As we came up to the road and the snowmobile turned around to go back to the farm, it hit
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me immediately.
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This is where the dream starts.
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And I can hear the roar of a snowmobile coming across the approach.
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So I leaned over and I pulled the first little boy off.
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The second little boy didn't want to go.
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I was able to pull him off.
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But the third little boy right in front of me was hanging on.
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He wouldn't let go.
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So I knew something was going to happen.
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And the next thing I could smell the gasoline of the machine and it hit us.
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A 600 pound snowmobile hit us.
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And I thought for a moment that, you know, that I was just sitting there.
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And as the snowmobile sped away, I saw its light and I saw the shattered toboggan.
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And I heard the scream of this little boy.
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Immediately, I felt pain.
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I felt like the toboggan had hit us with the right ski over our left shoulder.
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And this is where I was trying to protect him.
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So it went over my left shoulder.
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His left leg took off.
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What I didn't realize is I was stuck on the ski.
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So it took me down the ditch and then I rolled off at some of the coat tour or whatever.
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And now it's getting dark out.
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But what happened immediately after that is I had this peacefulness.
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I just felt like I had been dropped just gently somewhere and it got, I was freezing cold
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all afternoon.
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I had one of my brother's parkas on and it didn't fit.
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So there was a lot of cold going on throughout the day, my fingers were, but when I landed
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or where I stopped, all of a sudden the noise, everything, this light came on.
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It was actually the sun was setting.
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So it was just getting dark.
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But where I was, it was someplace different.
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It was very warm.
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It was this smell of lemongrass, which is a touchstone to me to my grandmother's farm.
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And I heard this voice.
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And it was very soft.
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I'm going to say it was a man's voice talking to me.
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It was very peaceful.
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And it felt like I was there forever.
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I was just in this delicate cocoon and I didn't want to go anywhere.
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The voice wasn't telling me to come or go.
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It was just telling me I was okay.
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And I thought, well, I just want to stay here.
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I didn't feel any pain whatsoever.
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What was going on in the meantime, the ambulance had come.
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My father actually came along in the ambulance, which is unusual.
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Usually the police would call him and then he would go to the hospital.
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But he knew and he told him that.
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He says, my daughter's out there.
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And they're like, how do you know that?
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You didn't want to get into it.
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So he's sitting in the police car.
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The ambulance people are out there.
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They've gotten the kids into the ambulance.
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They want to go.
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And he keeps telling them, my daughter's out there to look for her.
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And they're like, it's dark out.
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We got to go.
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So they got the flashlights out.
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And sure enough, there I was several hundred feet down the ditch.
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And the first adult to find me grabbed me and started shaking me.
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And all of a sudden in my little cocoon,
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there's sock little cotton candy blanket I was laying in disappeared.
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And it felt like my arm had been ripped off my body.
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The pain was unbelievable.
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Rest is history.
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I've lived through that.
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But they were telling me the adults and the ambulance.
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Attendance were like, we couldn't get a pulse.
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We couldn't get you or not breathing.
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We thought for sure you were dead.
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We didn't know we didn't want a radio back to the police car
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where your dad was to tell him that we're sorry, Scott's dad.
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But it was he kept saying she's out there.
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Go look for her.
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And of course, the next thing I am, I'm in the hospital.
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OK, let's let's fill in a little detail before we go down the road any further.
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Yeah.
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First of all, before we do, I have
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to say on the show we've had guests that have had all kinds of accidents.
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Some people have died from diseases, sickness, heart attacks, whatever.
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But some we've had someone hit by a train, a bus, a van, motorcycle, cars,
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trucks, all kinds of things.
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You're the first one hit by a snowmobile.
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So congratulations on that.
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But if you can remember any more detail, and I know this was a long time ago,
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but you mentioned the voice that you heard and then it felt.
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Did you say soft?
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What were your descriptions on the voice?
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The voice is very soft and it was a man's voice.
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I could hear that.
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And it was as if it took me from my trauma to where I was to call me down
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and telling me that I was OK.
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It's OK. You're safe.
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You're OK.
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And you were feeling no pain at all at this point.
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Absolutely not. And I couldn't feel the cold, which we had been out there since
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one o'clock. So this is about four o'clock, five o'clock in the afternoon.
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Now the sun's down.
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This big parka that didn't fit me very well had been not keeping me warm all day.
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It was one of those old Air Force jackets that had the fake fur around it,
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big green things. And it was way too big for me.
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And that's why the snowmobile ski was able to pick it up and drag me as far as it did.
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Yeah, because of the loose clothing.
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Yeah.
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Did you do you remember seeing anything or was it just dark and you were hearing this?
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No, it was extremely bright, like a sunny afternoon,
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walking through a field of lemongrass and that smell and that comfort it gave me.
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And the light was warm, glowing.
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It wasn't like a spotlight.
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Like everything around me was this completely warm, almost a yellow warm.
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Maybe that's where the lemongrass in my mind's eye went with that.
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That was just peaceful.
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And it was like I was laying down.
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I know I felt that.
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That I just, wow, I woke up in this great cotton candy blanket.
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It's the best way to explain it. Yellow cotton candy blanket.
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Sounds sweet and comfortable and warm and everything else.
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The lemongrass smell of lemongrass.
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Where does that come from? Do you think?
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Again, my grandmother up in Northern North Dakota, she had it growing around the farmstead.
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So when we went, the first thing getting out of the car and running to grandma's farmhouse
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was this smell of lemongrass. So it's that comfort that you're okay, you're safe.
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And that's how I felt.
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And feeling the peace that I was going to be okay, whether I stayed there or not,
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it just felt like I was fine.
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And I didn't want to leave that.
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It was the abruptness of the first adult that got to me and started shaking me
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because he couldn't get a pulse or he couldn't feel the breath,
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which in, you know, it's freezing cold out. You can see mist of air.
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They could get nothing out of it and started doing a little CPR.
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They weren't getting anything.
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And he literally grabbed the jacket and started shaking me.
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This was my best friend's father who I'd stayed at his farm many, many times
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and Snow will build with him.
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And he kept yelling, you're not going to go, you're not going to go stay here.
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And it was just as if I'm in this little blanket and pulled out immediately
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and the pain and the coldness and all the commotion around me was like sensory overload.
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It was exactly the opposite of where I had been.
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Voice is gone, warmth gone, yellow is gone.
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I am in the dark.
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I'm screaming.
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The pain hurts terribly.
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My clothing had been ripped.
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So that's more cold.
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And they told me the arm was upside down and out of the side of the jacket
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that they could see so they could see that it wasn't attached any longer.
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So that was very painful.
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So that was a root awakening.
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Yeah.
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And you went to the hospital.
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What other did you have any other injuries besides your arm?
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Not that they could tell.
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The first three or four days they fixed the arm.
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We lived across from the school.
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I get home and dad says, OK, you missed just about a week of school.
244
00:13:52,520 --> 00:13:54,040
Go to school.
245
00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:55,640
So they set it up.
246
00:13:55,640 --> 00:13:58,760
I walked over and I went in between classes.
247
00:13:58,760 --> 00:14:01,560
This is a three story old stone building.
248
00:14:01,560 --> 00:14:06,120
I'm at the top of the third floor with my where my locker is.
249
00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:10,640
And I run into this kid that ran me over.
250
00:14:10,640 --> 00:14:13,520
And I said, hey, no hard feelings.
251
00:14:13,520 --> 00:14:16,440
And he goes, yeah, well, my plan is to kill you.
252
00:14:16,440 --> 00:14:21,760
And he pushed me backwards down the marble steps.
253
00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:25,400
And along the way, the cast shattered.
254
00:14:25,400 --> 00:14:27,000
And I fell to the very bottom.
255
00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:29,680
And you could see blood bubbling out of the shattered.
256
00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:30,720
And he looked down.
257
00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:33,840
He says, next time I won't miss.
258
00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:36,600
So now we've got injury on injury.
259
00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:38,520
Holy cow.
260
00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:42,840
Should I ask what happened to him?
261
00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:46,200
He ended up in an institution, mental institution.
262
00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:50,840
And then when he was let go shortly after that took his own life.
263
00:14:50,840 --> 00:14:52,440
What a sad story.
264
00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:53,240
Very sad.
265
00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:56,600
He was not stable and I feel so sorry for his family.
266
00:14:56,600 --> 00:14:58,440
OK, well, we'll get past that.
267
00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:00,200
Let's get back to you.
268
00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:02,800
So that set your arm way back, it sounds like.
269
00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:04,800
Then what happened with it?
270
00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:09,240
And so, yeah, they had to take me up to the big city doctors.
271
00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:10,400
And they had to fix it.
272
00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:14,760
And so they put a cage around the bed.
273
00:15:14,760 --> 00:15:20,320
And for 90 days, I had to lay there with a pin in it.
274
00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:22,840
And back then they didn't do physical therapy.
275
00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:26,040
They didn't do anything other than change the bedding.
276
00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:30,320
And when I finally was out of the pins that were in the arm,
277
00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:31,640
I grew back the best I could.
278
00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:33,520
They took it out and they took me out of the bed.
279
00:15:33,520 --> 00:15:37,240
And then they realized there had been a lot of damage in my back.
280
00:15:37,240 --> 00:15:38,560
But they hadn't seen it.
281
00:15:38,560 --> 00:15:41,640
This is back in the 60s.
282
00:15:41,640 --> 00:15:44,240
Medicine was pretty basic.
283
00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:45,520
Yeah.
284
00:15:45,520 --> 00:15:47,960
You know, in a way, I can relate just a little bit.
285
00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:53,880
I had an injury in the early 70s when I was of a similar age,
286
00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:59,080
a broken leg, and they put it in a cast for three months,
287
00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:02,880
you know, about as high as it could go and all the way to my toes.
288
00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:05,840
So my knee had never bent this whole time.
289
00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:09,200
When they took it off, it's like, okay, see ya.
290
00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:11,680
And you're, you know, my knee wouldn't even bend.
291
00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:13,880
And my knee wasn't what was hurt.
292
00:16:13,880 --> 00:16:16,040
The tibia had been broken.
293
00:16:16,040 --> 00:16:19,240
So I get it and your injury is much, much worse.
294
00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:22,960
But yeah, it was sort of, okay, your bones are back together.
295
00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:25,920
Now just go fix everything, the rest.
296
00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:27,800
Oh, put me in the wheelchair.
297
00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:31,200
My parents came to get me and then it's like, well, I couldn't walk.
298
00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:34,560
It's like, yeah, so that was a whole new getting back into.
299
00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:36,040
And this is in the middle of the school year.
300
00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:38,240
This was done in January.
301
00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:40,120
So I still had four months school up.
302
00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:42,280
So that was, and I'm left-handed.
303
00:16:42,280 --> 00:16:45,240
So I had to learn how to right-right-handed.
304
00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:48,720
And this is probably where I became,
305
00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:50,280
I've always enjoyed writing,
306
00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:52,400
but some of my teachers, I asked them
307
00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:54,320
if I could just do the test orally
308
00:16:54,320 --> 00:16:56,360
if they would just ask me the questions.
309
00:16:56,360 --> 00:16:57,200
Oh, good.
310
00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:02,200
So it was a lot of memory rehearsing, memorizing to answer.
311
00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:07,960
So you had an unusual situation that you were growing up in
312
00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:10,680
in that you had had this experience.
313
00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:14,080
Most people don't when they're going through adolescent years,
314
00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:15,360
et cetera.
315
00:17:15,360 --> 00:17:17,320
And you had told me about another experience.
316
00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:19,640
It had something to do with your grandmother.
317
00:17:19,640 --> 00:17:21,360
And let's briefly hear that too,
318
00:17:21,360 --> 00:17:23,600
just to fill in some blanks here.
319
00:17:23,600 --> 00:17:24,440
Okay.
320
00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:26,600
I was 22 years old.
321
00:17:26,600 --> 00:17:28,440
I was living in California
322
00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:32,000
and my grandmother was 80 at the time.
323
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:33,640
And somewhere in the middle of the night,
324
00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:36,320
I woke up and I could smell lemongrass.
325
00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:37,160
And there she was.
326
00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:39,120
It was like a hologram at the end of my bed.
327
00:17:39,120 --> 00:17:41,880
I got out of bed and I sat at the end of the bed next to her.
328
00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:44,080
And I just, we could almost touch hands
329
00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:45,960
on the side of the bed.
330
00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:48,040
And I'm looking at this and I said,
331
00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:49,320
what are you doing here?
332
00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:51,320
And in her Norwegian voice says,
333
00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:54,480
Naaman, she says, you need to come visit me.
334
00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:57,640
And I said, well, I know one of these days I'll get time off
335
00:17:57,640 --> 00:17:59,680
and I'll come back home.
336
00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:03,440
No, she says, you need to come visit me now.
337
00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:06,280
The morning I called and I,
338
00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:08,640
Eric, I can't remember it was my mom or my dad.
339
00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:11,560
One of the two answer, I think it was my dad.
340
00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:13,600
And I says, grandma, okay.
341
00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:16,320
And here again, this doctor and he's like, no,
342
00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:18,880
she's in the hospital.
343
00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:22,560
She's had appendix.
344
00:18:22,560 --> 00:18:23,640
We have to take it out.
345
00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:24,880
We don't know what to do.
346
00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:27,200
She's 80 years old.
347
00:18:27,200 --> 00:18:31,920
And so I immediately got a flu back home,
348
00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:33,800
went straight to the hospital.
349
00:18:33,800 --> 00:18:36,200
This is the first time I see my mom.
350
00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:39,720
My mom thinks dad had called me to come there.
351
00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:44,720
And I explained that, no, grandma came and told me
352
00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:47,560
and they were both looking at me like I was,
353
00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:49,920
we were drinking on the plane, watch.
354
00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:52,160
And I said, no, I explained that she had visited me
355
00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:54,560
in the middle of the night and said I had to come visit her.
356
00:18:54,560 --> 00:18:56,440
And then my dad asked who had time was on.
357
00:18:56,440 --> 00:18:59,520
I said, well, it would have been one o'clock your time here.
358
00:18:59,520 --> 00:19:02,880
And he said, grandma had an appendicitis burst last night.
359
00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:07,880
And we at like 1258.
360
00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:12,480
And we thought she had flatlined, she was dead.
361
00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:15,040
And we had to take her in for emergency surgery.
362
00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:17,400
So right as that happened, she came to get me
363
00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:19,640
to come get her, come visit.
364
00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:21,160
It's pretty remarkable.
365
00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:24,080
Lemon grass has a lot of meaning in your life.
366
00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:26,720
Do you have candles that smell like it
367
00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:28,720
or essential oils or anything?
368
00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:32,360
No, but my studio shares with our electric cat box.
369
00:19:32,360 --> 00:19:34,960
And when I went to grab the spray that I just bought,
370
00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:36,160
it is lemon grass.
371
00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:37,320
I'm like, wow.
372
00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:39,000
Okay, here we are again.
373
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:42,680
And one other time was when I was 39, my mother had passed.
374
00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:44,960
I'd been with her at the hospital at Gump Home.
375
00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:46,360
They called and said she passed.
376
00:19:46,360 --> 00:19:49,080
I came back, they had taken all the tubes off
377
00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:51,480
and it was nice and quiet in there.
378
00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:56,480
And I felt this all of a sudden, this warmth from her body
379
00:19:56,600 --> 00:19:58,360
and the smell of lemon grass.
380
00:19:58,360 --> 00:20:02,400
And it was like this white, very light entity
381
00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:06,320
came from her and dissipated.
382
00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:08,360
And I felt this warmth.
383
00:20:08,360 --> 00:20:09,560
I was holding her hand.
384
00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:10,480
It was cold.
385
00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:13,360
She had passed already, but again with the lemon grass.
386
00:20:13,360 --> 00:20:18,080
So it's a touchstone for sure for my heart, my mind
387
00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:21,360
and my soul somewhere along the line that's meaningful.
388
00:20:21,360 --> 00:20:24,480
And you shared that you have it growing around your home.
389
00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:29,440
Well, it wasn't that I have it growing.
390
00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:31,320
In this, to let our listeners know,
391
00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:36,160
in our pre-interview, we had this very unusual
392
00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:37,560
I'll call it a coincidence.
393
00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:39,280
You can call it whatever you want it to,
394
00:20:39,280 --> 00:20:43,160
but one of my hobbies is beekeeping.
395
00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:45,040
And there are a couple of things in beekeeping
396
00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:47,480
that we use lemon grass oil for.
397
00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:50,400
And when I got on the phone with you the other day,
398
00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:55,360
I had had a bunch of lemon grass on my hand, oil on my hands
399
00:20:55,360 --> 00:20:58,560
and still smelled like it smelled wonderful.
400
00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:00,760
And you started talking about lemon grass
401
00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:03,600
and here my whole office was smelling like it.
402
00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:05,600
And it was kind of fun.
403
00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:07,680
Kind of an interesting connection.
404
00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:08,720
Wonderful.
405
00:21:08,720 --> 00:21:10,800
And thank you for keeping bees.
406
00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:12,160
They're important to us.
407
00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:14,960
They are very important to us.
408
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:18,120
And we could go on for a million podcasts about beekeeping,
409
00:21:18,120 --> 00:21:20,440
but we'll let the experts do that.
410
00:21:20,440 --> 00:21:23,800
So let's skip forward to the second near-death experience
411
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:27,080
and then maybe we'll fill in some of the blanks in between.
412
00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:32,080
Well, it was the second surgery where I had had an accident
413
00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:36,920
and shattered three of the vertebrae into 32 pieces.
414
00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:39,960
So that was a big surgery.
415
00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:41,520
And I don't need your exact age,
416
00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:44,200
but were you an adult at this point?
417
00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:47,240
Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna say it was 49.
418
00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:48,080
I gotta go back.
419
00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:50,000
Well, let's do the math.
420
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:55,000
That was, yeah, Lucy is tomorrow is 17 years old.
421
00:21:56,280 --> 00:21:58,720
By the way, our listeners didn't hear who Lucy is.
422
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:00,520
We talked about that previously.
423
00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:01,880
You better explain.
424
00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:04,440
Okay, Lucy, after my first accident
425
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:07,800
and I had to have a ladder built in the thoracic,
426
00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:08,720
I named her Lucy.
427
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:10,640
It was my mom's favorite comedian.
428
00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:12,200
And I thought if I had to live with that,
429
00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:14,120
I better have a sense of humor.
430
00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:16,120
So fast forward a couple of years later,
431
00:22:16,120 --> 00:22:17,960
they realized there's still some more damage.
432
00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:20,760
So they wanna make a box for the end of the spine,
433
00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:23,640
like a fusion, to hold everything together.
434
00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:27,200
So, you know, who is Lucy's downstairs neighbor, Ethel?
435
00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:29,240
So I named her Ethel.
436
00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:34,000
When Ethel was installed the first time,
437
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:35,440
there was issues with it
438
00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:38,160
and they couldn't do anything at the weight of year.
439
00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:42,280
So that next year, when they were going to take the screws
440
00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:47,280
out that had broken, they accidentally had torn
441
00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:52,840
or ripped or cut the spinal cord sack.
442
00:22:52,840 --> 00:22:57,840
If part of the fluid comes out, it could cause paralysis.
443
00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:02,360
If all of the fluid comes out, it could cause fatality.
444
00:23:02,360 --> 00:23:03,880
You don't survive.
445
00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:06,440
So I come out of the second surgery
446
00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:09,400
of the part of the third surgery, spine surgery.
447
00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:12,200
And they explained that I'm in a gory,
448
00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:16,400
I have my head in a lock, my arms and legs are strapped down
449
00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:19,560
and they're telling me I can't move for 10 hours.
450
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:21,760
They need that to heal.
451
00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:24,400
They need it to stabilize itself.
452
00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:26,720
So there's no paralysis.
453
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:29,440
So they wheel me into my room
454
00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:31,720
and my husband's there and the nurse
455
00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:34,160
and I'm not feeling well.
456
00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:35,840
I'm very, very nauseous.
457
00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:41,120
And she's trying to keep me as quiet as possible,
458
00:23:41,120 --> 00:23:44,600
but I start going into convulsions.
459
00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:48,920
And the pain was as if there was fire being poured
460
00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:51,600
down my spinal cord.
461
00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:53,880
And they couldn't give me too much medication
462
00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:55,560
because they had to be able to talk to me
463
00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:57,720
and I had to be able to feel where the pain was
464
00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:00,040
and I had to be able to use my legs to tell them
465
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:02,800
if I was feeling paralysis.
466
00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:07,200
And I go into convulsions and it felt like all of a sudden
467
00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:12,200
I was on a surfboard that was on a earthquake
468
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:15,720
that was on a tidal wave, taking me away.
469
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:20,720
And again, the pain of this fire going down my spine
470
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:24,720
and interrupting Lucy terribly causing her issues
471
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:28,520
and the convulsions, which I can't move my head.
472
00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:31,200
And the nurse is trying to catch what's happening
473
00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:34,560
because I'm being sick and I can't keep anything down.
474
00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:40,560
And all of a sudden with the shaking, the pain, the fire,
475
00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:41,720
I'm gone.
476
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:43,440
I'm standing at the end of the bed
477
00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:47,720
and I'm looking at me in this convulsion.
478
00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:51,720
The nurse is trying to keep towels around for what's happening
479
00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:55,200
and my husband is bracing my arm on the one side
480
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:58,280
and the nurse is bracing my arm on the other side
481
00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:00,280
trying to hold me still.
482
00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:03,000
When I talk about this to friends,
483
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:05,120
I try, you know, I'm probably emotional.
484
00:25:05,120 --> 00:25:06,840
So excuse me, just a minute, Eric,
485
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:08,960
it's reliving some of it.
486
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:13,080
It's watching my husband's reaction.
487
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:14,920
And he,
488
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:19,920
yelling for me to stay there and to don't go.
489
00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:23,240
I need you here, please don't leave.
490
00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:28,240
Convulsions, pain, and all of a sudden it's gone.
491
00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:33,040
And the first thing is I feel or it's the smell,
492
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:37,040
lemongrass, I'm standing at the end of the bed watching this
493
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:39,800
and this hatch opens up behind me.
494
00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:41,680
It was round, it was not square.
495
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:43,000
I don't know, whatever it was.
496
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:46,400
And I turned around and like, wow, it's just again,
497
00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:50,200
this beautiful, warm, yellow light.
498
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:53,120
And I'm looking at it and the pain's gone.
499
00:25:53,120 --> 00:25:58,120
I mean, in a nanosecond, I'm like, oh, finally.
500
00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:03,560
And this voice is very loud and very distinct, very calm.
501
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:06,600
And I ask, I'm like, what's gone?
502
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:11,600
And I'm asking him, can I, can I,
503
00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:14,600
can I stay here?
504
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:18,280
And they're like, yes, yes, you're welcome to stay here.
505
00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:22,400
So you're in the hospital room, looking at your body.
506
00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:27,400
There's some kind of hatch portal round behind you.
507
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:30,280
Okay. And you hear the voice again.
508
00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:31,120
Yes.
509
00:26:31,120 --> 00:26:33,320
Is it the same one you heard as a child?
510
00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:35,600
It sounds like it, it does.
511
00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:37,840
Okay. And what does it say this time?
512
00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:41,000
Okay. I'm facing the door and I ask this voice,
513
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:42,120
can I come back?
514
00:26:42,120 --> 00:26:44,840
And it replies, no.
515
00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:47,360
And I'm standing there and I'm halfway looking
516
00:26:47,360 --> 00:26:52,360
at the portal's glow as the door is closing
517
00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:55,240
as if I need to make a decision.
518
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:57,240
I'm like, I can't go back?
519
00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:01,320
No. I want to be in both places and it's telling me I can't.
520
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:03,000
I have to decide.
521
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:04,760
It just simply says no.
522
00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:08,480
So I choose to stay.
523
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:11,160
The light, the portal closes behind me.
524
00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:13,880
There's a moment where all of a sudden I'm starting to feel
525
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:18,120
sick to my stomach again and I am immediately back
526
00:27:18,120 --> 00:27:22,440
into that bed and the convulsions stop.
527
00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:25,000
I smell a little bit of lemongrass.
528
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:30,000
All of a sudden I'm extremely cold, but I'm there again.
529
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:34,040
They get me situated and after my 10 hour time and whatever
530
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:36,400
and they can medicate me and they take me out of the head
531
00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:39,640
and they unstrap me and they get me cleaned up
532
00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:42,000
and everything and my husband has to get out of there.
533
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:44,360
He just has to go take a walk and this nurse stayed
534
00:27:44,360 --> 00:27:47,560
with me for the night and somewhere along the line,
535
00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:52,400
she explained that she thought she was holding a corpse.
536
00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:54,000
She couldn't feel the pulse.
537
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:56,280
My body went extremely cold.
538
00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:00,760
Anything on my face, she said, you look,
539
00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:02,280
your lips were purple.
540
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:05,040
You looked as if you were dead.
541
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:06,400
And she said, I want you to know,
542
00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:08,960
I heard you negotiating with somebody.
543
00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:10,320
I said, what do you mean?
544
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:11,440
Wow.
545
00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:16,440
She says, I could hear you ask, can I stay?
546
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:21,080
And somebody in a man's voice said, no.
547
00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:24,280
This is the next thing your body started going
548
00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:26,920
through a gentle release of the convulsion.
549
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:29,000
I'm like, ooh.
550
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,480
She's like, she said that was kind of weird.
551
00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:35,160
Yeah, it doesn't happen every day.
552
00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:37,640
Did your husband hear any of that?
553
00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:41,680
When I asked him about it, he says he was in the moment.
554
00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:44,960
He was concerned about me, but he did talk about me
555
00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:48,400
feeling that I was cold and I was no longer there.
556
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:50,160
He thought I had died.
557
00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:52,800
Yeah, and you went through trauma and he did too,
558
00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:54,200
having to witness it.
559
00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:56,000
Yes, that's it.
560
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:57,680
Wow, okay.
561
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:00,120
I love that.
562
00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:03,800
Anything more that you want to tell us about that experience?
563
00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:07,800
I think it was the having the nurse when she shared
564
00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:10,120
that she felt like she was holding a corpse,
565
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:11,640
cold at the touch.
566
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:13,840
And during the incident, looking at my husband,
567
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:16,680
why they held me down, she felt his strength
568
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:20,360
and determination and she wasn't going to let me go.
569
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,480
Yeah, I assume that helped it become all more real.
570
00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:26,120
Yeah, this is it.
571
00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:28,800
And I'm just going through,
572
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:31,840
they've told me they don't think I'm going to be paralyzed.
573
00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:35,840
Some dealing mental gymnastics is going through
574
00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:37,880
the second surgery with the same,
575
00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:42,800
to fix what was wrong the year before.
576
00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:45,720
And all of these three spine surgeries,
577
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:47,240
my question is always going to be,
578
00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:48,680
am I going to be paralyzed?
579
00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:51,760
Because I really want to be up and about.
580
00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:54,080
I live a healthy life.
581
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:57,520
And when I was talking, when I was standing there
582
00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:01,200
and the portal was there and I felt the strength,
583
00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:02,920
I'm never going to be paralyzed.
584
00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:04,240
I'm going to be okay.
585
00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:07,760
And coming back and going through that pain again,
586
00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:10,320
that just kept thinking on that other side,
587
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:11,920
I'm going to be okay.
588
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:14,440
The voice said I was going to be okay.
589
00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:16,200
I just couldn't be in two places
590
00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:18,080
and I chose to be where I'm going to be.
591
00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:21,320
And that is here on this side for now.
592
00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:22,800
Well, you look super healthy.
593
00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:26,240
So did you have a good recovery here able to walk
594
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:28,120
and hike and...
595
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:28,960
That's it.
596
00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:30,880
In fact, after the first spine surgery,
597
00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:35,160
I'm a former fundraiser and nonprofit consultant.
598
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:40,160
I became a aqua fitness coach instructor.
599
00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:42,520
And I have just come back
600
00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:47,520
getting my certification in ACHI for physical therapy
601
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:52,640
and also my aquatic rehab physical therapy certification.
602
00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:55,560
I think water is the belt in the youth.
603
00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:57,480
Yeah, I'd agree with that.
604
00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:02,480
Yeah, I teach hydropilates at a healing center here in Tupac.
605
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:06,960
Okay, I want to hear more about your life growing up.
606
00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:10,040
Okay, because there are not a lot of 11 year olds
607
00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:14,040
that have an NDE experience something like this.
608
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:17,680
How do you think it made you or did it make you different
609
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:21,480
than other soon to be teenagers
610
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:24,160
and as you were going through all those adolescent years
611
00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:26,680
and early 20s and things like that.
612
00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:29,480
Were you different than everybody else in a way?
613
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:33,680
I felt that and I always have that there's a purpose
614
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:38,480
and that whatever comes in front of you, just deal with it.
615
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:41,200
Don't run away from it, don't coward from it.
616
00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:44,480
And I think I'd mentioned when I was 18 months old
617
00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:47,600
and incident where I'd fallen off the dock
618
00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:48,680
and they couldn't find me.
619
00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:53,680
And when they did, I was facedown basically pronounced dead
620
00:31:53,720 --> 00:31:55,520
and they brought me back.
621
00:31:55,520 --> 00:32:00,520
And I've survived 10 years being a warrior of cancer
622
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:03,360
and also at age 27, I was in an airplane.
623
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:05,680
And I thought about this after you and I had talked to Eric
624
00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:08,760
because there are any other time I've heard that voice.
625
00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:10,640
And when the plane was going down,
626
00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:12,960
it was the night of the San Francisco earthquake
627
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:15,080
during the World Series.
628
00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:17,920
So there were guest pilots on our plane
629
00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:20,800
and we're going from Minneapolis to Arizona
630
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:24,120
for the National Make-A-Wish Convention,
631
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:27,320
which I was their state president at the time.
632
00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:32,320
And the plane was being driven by a pilot
633
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:34,520
that was new into the industry
634
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:38,000
and a pilot that had retired and came back.
635
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:43,000
The retired pilot was taking a nap and at 35,000 feet,
636
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:48,000
the new pilot, the younger pilot had accidentally turned off
637
00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:53,880
the generator, he saw a generator went out,
638
00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:56,640
but he turned off the generator that was working.
639
00:32:56,640 --> 00:33:00,320
And at 35,000 feet, you can't restart a generator.
640
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:02,120
It has to be less than 30,000.
641
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:06,280
So the plane went from flying to nose dive immediately
642
00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:08,640
and went into a spin.
643
00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:12,920
Gratefully, there were visiting pilots
644
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:16,440
that took over the cockpit, basically piracy,
645
00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:17,520
went over and went over
646
00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:21,720
and they were able to get it to at least level out.
647
00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:24,400
And in between the mountains of Pueblo, Colorado
648
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:28,800
and Montevisto, they found a little landing strip this big.
649
00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:30,360
We needed this big.
650
00:33:30,360 --> 00:33:33,480
So we hit the ground about 400 miles an hour,
651
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:35,800
but it was as this is happening,
652
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:39,480
immediately my background, I was a lifeguard in high school
653
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:43,720
and my background told me, go into safety.
654
00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:44,600
What can you do?
655
00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:48,840
Because the staff is told not to do anything.
656
00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:50,200
That's something you know for sure.
657
00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:53,920
If you're ever in a plane incident, follow staff.
658
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:57,400
So the lights go black, we have no air conditioning.
659
00:33:57,400 --> 00:34:00,960
There's, it's completely black and the plane is circling,
660
00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:02,520
but there was a full moon out.
661
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:03,720
So I could see what they were doing.
662
00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:04,640
It was coming through.
663
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:08,240
So I jumped out of the seat I was at
664
00:34:08,240 --> 00:34:09,200
and started to help.
665
00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:13,240
There was a family there that was an elderly family.
666
00:34:13,240 --> 00:34:14,920
And then there's a family that had a baby
667
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:16,680
and they couldn't get the baby to quit crying.
668
00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:20,000
And anyway, when we were going down,
669
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:21,800
right before I got out of my chair,
670
00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:24,200
there was a moment that I was extremely scared
671
00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:25,160
like anybody else.
672
00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:27,680
I think, okay, we're going down, we're going down fast.
673
00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:29,480
We're going down like this.
674
00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:31,560
The air in the plane is like,
675
00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:36,560
it feels like it's 180 degrees and I heard this voice
676
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:38,600
and it said, you're going to be okay.
677
00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:40,840
Your life guard, you're going to be okay.
678
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:44,080
I got up and started helping where I could.
679
00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:47,440
And that transpired throughout the rest of the incident
680
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:49,760
because we were stuck up there for a day or two
681
00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:54,680
and snow and no suitcases and trying to figure out what to do.
682
00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:56,040
But you were alive.
683
00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:56,880
It was.
684
00:34:56,880 --> 00:35:00,600
And I feel that when our time's up, it's up.
685
00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:01,720
I truly believe that.
686
00:35:01,720 --> 00:35:05,160
I'm not saying I drive down the road 110 miles an hour
687
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:09,680
trying to tempt fate, but I truly believe that.
688
00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:10,960
We have a purpose.
689
00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:13,040
We need to be in touch with what it is,
690
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:16,840
find out what it is and don't be afraid of it.
691
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,680
Open it up, see what happens.
692
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,160
In fact, you're writing a book about all this, aren't you?
693
00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:23,000
I am.
694
00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:24,480
You want to talk about that at all?
695
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:26,520
I know it's not done yet, is it?
696
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:27,640
It is.
697
00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:28,800
Oh, okay.
698
00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:30,240
Tell us about that real quick.
699
00:35:30,240 --> 00:35:33,240
Without making it a big sales pitch for everybody.
700
00:35:33,240 --> 00:35:34,400
Exactly.
701
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:37,120
It is the story of, and it's called,
702
00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:39,320
the title is stolen from death,
703
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:43,080
how obstacles help clear a path for a better life.
704
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:44,400
It's Nietzsche.
705
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:47,080
And talk about these different experiences.
706
00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:50,840
And after each chapter, it ends with what I learned from it,
707
00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:52,320
how life changed.
708
00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:55,120
It even deals with bad divorce,
709
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:58,920
deals with breaking up with family members.
710
00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:01,360
It talks about the bumps we have in life
711
00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:03,040
and what you take with it.
712
00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:06,360
You can either be happy or mad.
713
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:08,800
The choice is up to the individual.
714
00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:11,640
Nobody is on this earth to make us happy.
715
00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:13,680
It's how you approach it.
716
00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:16,840
And I hope that it's inspirational to people.
717
00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:18,600
And things happen.
718
00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:20,960
You get dealt something, deal with it.
719
00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:25,240
So you mentioned a minute ago about finding one's purpose.
720
00:36:25,240 --> 00:36:27,440
Have you found your purpose?
721
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:30,160
Yeah, it is on twofold,
722
00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:33,760
having this aquatic background now.
723
00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:38,600
I've been a certified international aqua instructor, coach.
724
00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:41,360
And the people's lives that I see, I teach hydropilates.
725
00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:44,760
And during the people down here are retired.
726
00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:47,520
Some have had some injuries as yourself.
727
00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:49,120
I'm dealing with a woman right now
728
00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:51,840
who had knee surgery and for two years didn't do anything.
729
00:36:51,840 --> 00:36:54,120
She doesn't know why her knee doesn't bend.
730
00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:57,560
So we're working on getting that knee to bend.
731
00:36:57,560 --> 00:37:01,280
We say in the industry, motion is lotion to the body,
732
00:37:01,280 --> 00:37:02,720
oilier is daily.
733
00:37:02,720 --> 00:37:04,840
So being in the water, doing something,
734
00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:07,720
keeping yourself healthy.
735
00:37:07,720 --> 00:37:11,160
I like when I introduce myself and somebody asks how old I am.
736
00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:12,840
And I don't want to make them guess.
737
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:14,960
I just tell them and then I get this, really?
738
00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:16,760
You don't look that old.
739
00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:17,880
It's like, well, good.
740
00:37:17,880 --> 00:37:19,080
I believe it's our spirit.
741
00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:22,200
I believe it's what we carry with us.
742
00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:27,880
And I also very much have looked for inspiration
743
00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:34,840
in various healers and inspirational people.
744
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:38,400
And I followed Tich Nac Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist,
745
00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:44,560
and was in 2017, went to Stonehill College in Boston
746
00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:48,080
and was ordained as a peace maker, a Buddhist peace maker.
747
00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:53,920
So I like to shine that light is that we care about your environment.
748
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:55,560
You carry about people.
749
00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:59,160
You carry about yourself and our world.
750
00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:02,320
It's a nice line to be in, I believe.
751
00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:05,600
And these experiences have all brought me there.
752
00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:07,440
Beautifully said.
753
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:09,000
And that was a pretty good summary.
754
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:10,840
But I'm going to ask you one more thing.
755
00:38:10,840 --> 00:38:14,520
And that is, OK, you've got a lot of people out there listening
756
00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:15,400
to you right now.
757
00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:18,520
You've got a forum, you've got the floor.
758
00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:21,840
One last thing that can help everybody.
759
00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:24,280
What have you learned from all this?
760
00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:27,640
And I said it to myself when I was 21 years old.
761
00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:29,320
I don't know if you want to hear the situation.
762
00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:32,040
I can make it short, but I don't have to.
763
00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:32,760
Go ahead.
764
00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:33,680
OK.
765
00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:36,680
General Motors is just transforming Southern California.
766
00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:40,120
I was in my new apartment looking over the ocean.
767
00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:42,600
And I was going to go to Catalina Island for the day
768
00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:44,960
to celebrate my 21st birthday.
769
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:47,720
I'm listening to NPR and La Cappuccino.
770
00:38:47,720 --> 00:38:51,400
And I hear Natalie Wood has drowned in Catalina Island.
771
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:53,080
I'm like, well, there goes my day.
772
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:55,400
So I went and got a bottle of wine.
773
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:57,240
And I sat overlooking the ocean.
774
00:38:57,240 --> 00:38:59,760
I was on the cliff of the ocean.
775
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:03,640
And I thought, what can I live with that I know now
776
00:39:03,640 --> 00:39:05,360
that I can live with for the rest of my life?
777
00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:06,640
And it's still true.
778
00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:10,000
What doesn't work, quit doing it.
779
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:14,360
Whether it's a relationship, a job, a place,
780
00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:17,320
a creative something, if it's not working.
781
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:18,640
And that includes family.
782
00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:21,080
I've had to break up with family and friends.
783
00:39:21,080 --> 00:39:24,280
If it's not working, quit doing it.
784
00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:27,680
That seems so obvious and such common sense.
785
00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:29,640
But it's not always that easy.
786
00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:33,520
We sometimes feel stuck in these ruts.
787
00:39:33,520 --> 00:39:36,240
And in relationships, I was the youngest of seven.
788
00:39:36,240 --> 00:39:38,080
It was a blended family.
789
00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:40,800
And I remember coming home somewhere around 10 o'clock,
790
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:43,880
or 10 years old or so, or somewhere in that area.
791
00:39:43,880 --> 00:39:45,720
And my mom, we were doing our homework,
792
00:39:45,720 --> 00:39:48,440
had to do it in the kitchen so she knew we were doing it.
793
00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:52,320
And asked what my essay was going to be.
794
00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:54,640
She said, well, what do you want to be when you grow up?
795
00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:57,880
And I named a couple of family members.
796
00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:00,360
It's just, what are you talking about?
797
00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:03,760
And I shared what I saw, what they were doing wrong
798
00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:05,080
with their lives.
799
00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:06,360
And I said, I don't want to do that.
800
00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:07,360
I don't want to go that path.
801
00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:08,240
I don't want to be that.
802
00:40:08,240 --> 00:40:09,800
I don't want to be that.
803
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:12,000
And I think it was having that responsibility.
804
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:13,600
And then as my parents got older,
805
00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:14,800
I became the caretaker.
806
00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:19,680
And this just came to me listening to a podcast yesterday.
807
00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:23,040
When we grow up, we sometimes get into these relationships
808
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:25,080
and we think we have to be that person.
809
00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:27,760
So I became the caretaker for the family.
810
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:30,560
And as I'm getting older, and I've had all these situations,
811
00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:32,120
I should be taking care of myself.
812
00:40:32,120 --> 00:40:34,080
Everybody was asking me to take care of them.
813
00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:37,760
And when I got to the point of understanding to live that,
814
00:40:37,760 --> 00:40:40,080
this isn't working for me.
815
00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:41,600
I can't do this anymore.
816
00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:43,560
My life has become easier.
817
00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:46,440
I've made space for better people in my life.
818
00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:48,400
I have better quality of life.
819
00:40:48,400 --> 00:40:50,080
I don't have trauma.
820
00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:51,800
I don't have drama.
821
00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:54,520
It is, I mean, things happen.
822
00:40:54,520 --> 00:40:57,960
But again, if it's not working, regardless of what it is,
823
00:40:57,960 --> 00:40:59,440
quit doing it.
824
00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:01,640
Do you have any fear of death at this point?
825
00:41:01,640 --> 00:41:03,080
I don't.
826
00:41:03,080 --> 00:41:03,840
I don't.
827
00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:05,920
I have a surgery coming up in two weeks
828
00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:09,200
and the doctor's going, oh my god, what else can happen?
829
00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:11,960
It'll be surgery number 29.
830
00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:13,760
It's like, yeah, the oddest things.
831
00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:14,440
And here I go.
832
00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:15,920
It's like, OK.
833
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:17,640
That is really a lot of surgeries.
834
00:41:17,640 --> 00:41:19,160
I wish you well.
835
00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:20,600
I hope it goes great.
836
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:22,080
I'm sure it will.
837
00:41:22,080 --> 00:41:23,240
You're a healthy person.
838
00:41:23,240 --> 00:41:25,760
You're going to continue to be so I can tell.
839
00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:26,600
Thank you.
840
00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:29,560
I want to be about 100 so I can keep giving advice.
841
00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:33,680
All right.
842
00:41:33,680 --> 00:41:35,960
Skylin, thanks a lot for being with us.
843
00:41:35,960 --> 00:41:39,520
Thank you for your time and the voice
844
00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:41,240
to being able to share this.
845
00:41:41,240 --> 00:41:44,560
And I appreciate what your interest is
846
00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:46,440
and your depth experiences.
847
00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:52,040
Thanks again for listening.
848
00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:55,400
And remember to share this podcast to be notified
849
00:41:55,400 --> 00:41:57,200
when the next episode goes live.
850
00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:01,400
Follow us on your podcasting app or click over to roundtripdeath.com
851
00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:04,000
and sign up for our email newsletter.
852
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:06,400
Until then, I wish you everything good
853
00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:11,360
that you're looking for in this life and the next.
