Steve's NDE During Open Heart Surgery

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Just a little intro before we get going with today's episode. We're going to be

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talking with Steve Childs. He's a former marine, wonderful guy, but I want to give

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you a little bit of a heads up because at first it might be hard to understand

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him. He's had a procedure called a laryngectomy, so he can't talk normally.

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He has a thing called an electric wand that he holds up to his throat so that

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he can speak. We have to listen very closely and really give him some

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grace, give it a little time and a little effort to listen closely. It'll be

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worth it because he just has a beautiful story. Alright, let's jump on into it.

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From the time that they pronounced me deaf was a good 45 minutes. They cut my

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clothes and then they paddled my hocks. My heart had stopped and I could see

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people screaming and crying, but I didn't realize that was actually my physical

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body because I was somewhere else. The only thing that I could feel if you could

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imagine absolute love and peace. There wasn't anything else to be felt. I was

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greeted by people I'd known in the past. I'm back home again. Incredibly safe and

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felt at home.

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Welcome, welcome to Round Trip Death everybody, and welcome to 2025 and

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welcome to our fourth season of Round Trip Death and lastly and bestly.

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Welcome to our special guest today, Steve Childs. How are you Steve?

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I'm good. I know people are gonna be able to understand you even better the more

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that they listen and that it's gonna be worth listening to because you have a

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beautiful story. And before we hop into your near-death experience, Steve, would

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you just tell us a little bit about yourself so we can get to know you?

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Well, I was born in 1950s in northwest Louisiana. I graduated in 11th grade

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during the Marine Wolf. Got out 1970s and was just a pretty normal guy. I was an

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avianic in the military. So I was laid within those reals and droves by old lines.

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Where do you live Steve? I currently live in Missouri. I was born in Missouri.

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So I don't know if our listeners are gonna want to hear about what happened

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to your voice first or your ND either. Actually not related, believe it or not.

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Give us a brief just because I know everyone's gonna be curious and I hope

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you don't mind talking about your medical history just a little bit. But no,

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no. What happened to your voice? Uh, I was a non-hungarian in the Lair and

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Jill Ganzer and had my voice a long removed. And so now I sound like a robot.

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And what do you call that thing that you hold up to your throat? They call it an

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electric wand. Well, it works well. Did it take a lot of practice to learn how to

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use? Well, not really. You'll find out there's new things very important.

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Breathing and communicating. I'm thinking breathing comes first. Absolutely.

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Okay, well let's go back and let's talk NDEs today. We're gonna go back to

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2009. What was going on with your health that led up to the big heart attack that

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day? Well, actually I had a series of pains. One of them was the very, very

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night and my wife's ex-wife. She said, oh, you're probably just having a heart attack here.

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Thank you, Aspern. Believe it or not, that's what saved me. Aspern dilates the pain.

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I had to be more of them over the course of about a week and I had some friends

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that encouraged me to go to the doctor. They said I was a big, real male and so I

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did their advice. Went over to the VA and I can't fail a series of deaths until

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they got to the top of the beat and that's the one where they take the

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measure of your heart internally and they were amazed that I was still alive. I only

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had to have them for them of one artery open. Keep going. So what procedure did

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they do to find out about your heart? Well, I was scheduled eventually for the

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Gathe-Thomas-De-Beat and I didn't make it that day because I was in business with myself and

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there was a big job that day. Well, the next day as I was headed to another job,

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my son was driving, my dad's work was leathered with paperwork and merely a

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little water. The VA appointed my favorite on my and I know that we were the

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red light right in front of him so I noted the full F and I was gonna reschedule it

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in Merzlin. He then just called him like he always do. I said, well, I've been

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missing too many. Let me go in and Merzlin and go on that for a minute. So I started to

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pull around to the emergency room and he did. I ran in, put him to the bed blower,

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I went to the department and showed him the leather and showed him that I was sorry

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that I had missed it again and that I wanted to reschedule. They told me that

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it wasn't a problem because somebody had gambled that day and they could take me

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right now and so I changed. They wheeled me up and they inserted the camera in my leg

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of the bar and when they do the measure they went into manning mode and noted my

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huge and big surgeon down there immediately was alarmed and so in order to

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get cleared or a major operation at the VA it has to be approved through Washington

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that took three days. I remember three days making coffee for the

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five years visiting everybody when they would come in in the morning and then

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they took me by ambulance down the using they told me that there was only a line

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of the Denver's engine something good no wrong I still felt healthy I felt good.

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Well the morning of the surgery they came and meet me up at six in the morning.

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We were one of the first ones major operation for the day. It just me and

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it's a scary situation because I had never been through anything like this.

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I'd always been real healthy when they are recording you or legal purposes.

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They asked me I know I was and all that and I remember telling them like the

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drill's origin is everybody on Dr. Gaines and they all answered in unison.

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Just there and they gave me a no-word. Well the first thing I heard was Dr. Dew in my

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right ear and he was telling the other surgeon that it was worse than he thought

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he would move to Grable or my anesthesiologist was only 30 years old so

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he was very young but a great kid I knew he was trying to miss everything went

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okay in the first surgery and they wheeled me out. They were down with my

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family everything was okay I even gave my son a thumb up and then they do me

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as I knew as I recovered something went wrong and I got nailed by the doctors

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constantly there constantly with bring they kept changing something out it was

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blood bank I would use them blood leaking blood very bad along 20 minds

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though they don't something had ruptured and they was me fighting the surgery as

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they were bringing me out I felt them blood my chest back open all over

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bank and then I woke up when they had my heart in their hands a second time.

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Okay hold on hold on hold on I want to just catch up and make sure that I'm

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understanding everything so first of all was this a bypass surgery?

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Absolutely dribble. Okay triple bypass they do the surgery you're recovering

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something's going wrong you have a ton of internal bleeding right right 20

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units of blood so they open you back up did they just not put you all the way

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under this time? You know Aaron I don't know what the problem was but after my

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near-death experience I was so grumpy and I'm told that I didn't tell them

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anything went wrong. Okay wow okay so you wake up I woke up as clearly as I'm

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looking at you right now it was not a drug in days it was not a loopy I was

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done completely 100% not just a great and my eyes open they stopped in terror I

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looked at each one of them and they wouldn't go back to work so I wouldn't

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be one of them and close by so they would go back to work. Oh my gosh and then I

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woke up when they were enabling by jazz made together a lot of things I heard I

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listened to and that's how I know they longed me and I heard all the bells and

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whistles going off in the arms. I heard people panic I heard somebody say we're

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losing we're losing and they slowly faded out when they faded out that's when

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this incredible unbelievable I can't even just dreaded enough feeling of love

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enveloped me and then it was just like a large set of hands with love

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they gently figure me up as I was flying through the universe I remember

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looking at the measurement of the stars and the planets as they were going by and

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my last dying thought was wow but suddenly I had a overwhelming feeling of

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disappointment and I had to go back as it hurts and I heard the doctor now the

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nurses the patient is stable and then began the long journey back and as in

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when I never was a really overly religious person but I know without a

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doubt now love that does happen when we die as that feeling of love I think you

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get that old Bible and if you usually read the words in red that one downs love

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love is so powerful unbelievable I want to make sure that I'm completely clear

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here so these were kind of two different things happened one was you woke up

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during surgery but that was still Steve in your body right then after they

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finally put you under it sounds like all the way that's when you had this

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experience of leaving your body traveling filling this love right those are

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two separate things they never did with me all the way out I'm not always

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here talking it may fade in and out but I never had a deep level of unknowing

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just a deal when I noted everything went away your violence and love and

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feeling of love was unbelievable is there any way that you can describe it that

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we can understand it how much you love your bird baby and how much you love

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your wife and how much you are magnified unbelievably times a million the power I

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felt like I was dumb and into the presence of a power that we can't even

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buy them with Jesus is we're like land grains of land on the beach we're away

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losing and that my friend it was just it's something you have to experience

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and you'll get your dance right along with everybody else but I do tell people

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that I don't fear death as much as I did at all I just know I did what he wanted

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me to do and I did it right do you feel like you came back for a reason or a

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purpose absolutely what is that my daughter had gotten involved with a DEA

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rebird drug the same and my first grandchild would have went into the

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city and I was able to rescue him and raise him and I feel that was God's in

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me back for have you had a chance to speak about this publicly first time I

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used it for about five or ten years I'm not nobody at all I was a dark and

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crying now I'm much stronger now I'm closer to the end and I believe it's a

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message that I must share with everybody and you're dumb and do a type guy that

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doesn't like to get involved in some low G's below the radar but I was then the

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brown lens like this there is a God and you know how you get to him through love

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and I know there's a big bang now tell me a little bit more about what it looked

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like you mentioned flying through stars and planets can you give us more

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description just like one of these animated films it didn't appear to be our

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galaxy but it was like I was in the middle of it all I moved my head left and

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I moved my head right and I was in just amazing much of what was going on I

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felt like I was going somewhere I was definitely headed somewhere and I feel

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like it was I was headed to judgment I didn't build no bear no bear whatsoever I

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felt number didn't what else did you feel like you learned

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flying in your dead as long we're on the air for your now enjoy into the fullest

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urge all your little do they'll be dying or to one another one day we will answer

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brawl this that's what I've learned and I never did practice that and I would

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not with them now you show me somebody that says they would never go back and

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change anything they did and I was your move you also mentioned feeling

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disappointed that you came back explain that some more well then me when

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though love thank me some words all the wonderful feelings I feel like now I had

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to return to the pledge and there's a lot of suffering in the place and I knew

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I had to go back we speak with word there and dodging within the you instantly

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know what he's at you and let me know what he wanted and there will be no

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doubt in your mind it is Romeo I learned a lot of things with that in the main

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one that's a lot to absorb that's a lot to I don't know to process and you came

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back and you had a lot of physical recovery to go through I'm sure and

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we'll talk about that in just a minute but there's emotional that goes along

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with it because of what you have now been through and experience talk about

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the ups and downs the joy of the love and then the disappointment of coming

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back how did you process all this and it really have enjoyed it just happened

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it was a long time like I said before I didn't think about it it was no

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personal I had just been through but I had her bringing to me since I was a

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kid and you never really know if it's true or not God told me it was true I

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was very fortunate how has this changed your life and a lot more understanding

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I'm a lot more patient I'm a lot more forgiving that's for your I'm trying to

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yell my fellow human being more love I try not to write the judge but not

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everybody's going through something we don't know about it made me a better

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person all right go ahead and tell us about the physical recuperation were

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you in the hospital for a long time even with complications I ended up getting

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out two days early fatal rapid recovery but did you done with my business for a

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few more years it dealt with I plus for every year it brought state cancer

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during the during the clarion Jill cancer during the 23 and right now I have no

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signs of cancer fudging the old warranty on the hard is about over well and maybe

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that's why I love a well they'll mother Dory you know what I mean yeah I do and I

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know it's really an effort for you to talk and I appreciate what you're doing

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for us and with us today and for trusting us to talk about it here first I

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feel like there's more you want to share just go ahead tell us what else is on

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your mind if I could really talk I could tell you done more like you said

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it's difficult I'm thankful that God gave me the chance is where my story with

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people ever give up I might have got that from the Marine Corps but never give

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up I'm so grateful I wake up every morning and give

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them good I used to complain about my problems for the day I break for another

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day with problems it's a it's a learning experience going through this life

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there was another time I didn't share with you I was nine years old this is

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where my belief in God came from I live the way out the country nine years old

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I had a young gun a brand new young gun and I was going to war on my myself I

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find out I'm wandering around and I never saw it's a world though I looked up at

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this guy through and door and I said if there really is a guy let me take up the

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world I won't even do them but you'll show me there's a good world I will buy

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new you not of me the only who do big old bottom world staying down the tree

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right beside me under the nutshell the more more dads work there was a double

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more were all around me and I didn't do them and I knew it then boy there was a

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guy now I didn't always obey and for that I'm regretful but I did you want

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air cop your learn the blesses though he is real I was glad I wrote that article

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responding to that near-death experience article and I don't know why I'm not

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the night to do that but I felt it blinded year when I read a lot of the

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responses I started crying again but sometimes I had brought people the mode

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as low you're living with their life and I'm going to very rewarding that was a

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beautiful story this show is all about hope and before I let you go I'd love

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to give you a chance to just give us a message of hope you know you you talked

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about how you used to wake up complaining about the day and hey

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there's somebody out there having a really rough day today what do you have

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to say to that person I'm a deli person don't give up guys watching a lot of

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those troubles or drum hails do make us stronger I would tell that person to

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believe because when we die something does happen and we have to answer we're

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all that so I'm trying to rectify my rendered right now if I can and I should

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get everybody else do the same but I'm a deli person no matter how fatty things

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you got it or you got it there's somebody that's not in that thousand

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times the wars my mother you did tell me something when I was young I'm right

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because I had no use and then I was all a man with no feet and I gave that a lot

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of thoughts growing up no matter how mad you think you've got it there's a

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mighty war deserving than me that as it were so you have to remain great board

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of God and take it as a gum if you have down brain I don't think I really

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Breyer I never went dog and do them now well Steve I appreciate you so very

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very much for taking the time today I appreciate being here and then you were

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giving me a chance to hear that message and I want to thank you so very much for

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listening right now while you're thinking of it please hit that subscribe

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or follow button and if you want to know when the new episodes go live go over

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to roundtripdeath.com and sign up for our email newsletter until then I wish you

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every good thing that you're looking for in this life and the next

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you