Latest / Have A Little Faith with Delilah / Grief Is A Journey
Transcript
- 0:00Delilah: Hello, my friend, Hello, my fellow friends of faith. Hopefully
- 0:06Delilah: you are a friend of faith. If you don't have
- 0:09Delilah: faith and you found this podcast somehow, hopefully your heart,
- 0:14Delilah: your mind, your spirit will be open to the possibility
- 0:20Delilah: that God is real, so very real. Hello to my
- 0:24Delilah: prayer warriors as well. Thank you for joining me for
- 0:27Delilah: another episode of our new podcast, Have a Little Faith.
- 0:32Delilah: If you found me today, then chances are you already
- 0:35Delilah: have that faith. Maybe you found me because you need
- 0:39Delilah: some faith, you feel like there's something missing in your life.
- 0:43Delilah: It's so weird, Like we can acknowledge that we are
- 0:46Delilah: more than the physical body that we walk around in.
- 0:51Delilah: We can acknowledge that we have a mind, that we
- 0:54Delilah: have a heart, that we have a soul. But it's
- 0:57Delilah: very hard for some people to knowledge that they are
- 1:01Delilah: not just physical beings or mental beings, that they are
- 1:05Delilah: also spiritual beings, and they don't know how to connect
- 1:10Delilah: to that part of themselves. So if you are searching
- 1:15Delilah: for faith, for a direction to your spiritual life, welcome aboard.
- 1:22Delilah: I am here to share the very best of me,
- 1:23Delilah: and please understand how much I appreciate you joining me today.
- 1:28Delilah: I've said it before, and I will keep saying it.
- 1:31Delilah: This podcast was created to be a place dedicated to faith.
- 1:39Delilah: I believe with every fiber of my being that there
- 1:43Delilah: is a supreme being, a higher power and almighty. I
- 1:49Delilah: call him God, and I believe that He sent his
- 1:54Delilah: son in the form of Jesus. And I believe that
- 1:59Delilah: through my faith, I will spend eternity in a glorious
- 2:05Delilah: state of being where there is no pain, no death,
- 2:09Delilah: no dying, no separation from the ones I love. That
- 2:14Delilah: is what my faith leads me to believe. That is
- 2:19Delilah: the basis for my life. Do I always follow God's word?
- 2:23Delilah: Of course not. Do I fall short every single day?
- 2:26Delilah: Of course I do. I'm human. But today's podcast is
- 2:31Delilah: about the subject of grief. We need to talk about grief.
- 2:35Delilah: We need to talk about the sadness in our life.
- 2:39Delilah: Our society does not hold space for grief. We don't
- 2:43Delilah: hold space for any big emotions. We really don't or
- 2:47Delilah: any monumental things. In other countries, when women give birth,
- 2:53Delilah: they're given time off to bond with their baby and
- 2:56Delilah: care for the baby. Here, it's like top chop back
- 2:59Delilah: to work, come onsen a few weeks, get back on
- 3:01Delilah: your feet. Same is true with grief. In other cultures,
- 3:06Delilah: in other parts of the world, when somebody that is
- 3:09Delilah: close to you, your parent, or your child, or your
- 3:12Delilah: spouse or your siblings, when they pass you are honored
- 3:16Delilah: and given ways to grieve. Here, you're like, oh, you
- 3:22Delilah: should be over it. It's been a few weeks, hasn't it.
- 3:25Delilah: Grief is a difficult and complex part of our life,
- 3:28Delilah: and as a society, we do not handle grief very well.
- 3:32Delilah: As someone who unfortunately has experienced grief over and over again,
- 3:38Delilah: I was in my thirties when I lost my parents,
- 3:41Delilah: I was in my twenties when I lost my brother,
- 3:44Delilah: and I have buried three sons, my birth son, my
- 3:48Delilah: adopted son, and my step son, and I would like
- 3:52Delilah: to help change the way we deal with and respond
- 3:55Delilah: to grief. I want to start a conversation or join
- 3:59Delilah: a convoy surrounding grief and give you permission to acknowledge
- 4:06Delilah: that your life has just been devastated and you need
- 4:10Delilah: time to cry, to weep, to wail, to mourn, to heal.
- 4:17Delilah: If you are someone who has experienced deep grief, this
- 4:23Delilah: episode is for you. And if you're someone who has
- 4:26Delilah: never experienced deep grief, you will experience deep grief in
- 4:30Delilah: your life, So this episode is for you too. Let
- 4:34Delilah: me start our conversation today by sharing a phone call
- 4:41Delilah: that I took on the air on my radio show
- 4:44Delilah: from a gentleman named Don. Don just lost the love
- 4:49Delilah: of his life, his wife of many many years. His
- 4:53Delilah: story will speak to you, I promise, Don. Thanks, thank
- 5:00Delilah: you for calling. What can I do for you? Tonight
- 5:02Delilah: on the Delilah Show.
- 5:04Speaker 2: Hi, Delilah, I'm finally glad I get to talk to you.
- 5:07Speaker 2: I feel like I've known you for forty years.
- 5:10Delilah: I've been here fifty one.
- 5:12Speaker 2: That's awesome. I just have to tell you. And I
- 5:14Speaker 2: didn't want to have a lot of time, but I've
- 5:17Speaker 2: been listening to you that long and tonight I come
- 5:20Speaker 2: home and sat on the front porch or the patio,
- 5:23Speaker 2: either one, and I'm feeling a little lonely. So I
- 5:27Speaker 2: thought I'm going to see if Delilah's out there. So
- 5:30Speaker 2: you didn't even know you were my girlfriend for years.
- 5:32Speaker 2: But the reason.
- 5:35Delilah: But I was always there, huh. I always showed up
- 5:38Delilah: every night.
- 5:39Speaker 2: Whether it's recorded or not. I know I can find
- 5:41Speaker 2: Delilah if I can't find anybody else. But the reason
- 5:44Speaker 2: I'm calling is if you could play something for my wife.
- 5:48Speaker 2: I lost her this year and it's been a bed here,
- 5:52Speaker 2: real bad. But I got to tell you, the worst
- 5:55Speaker 2: part about losinger is coming home at night and opening
- 5:59Speaker 2: the front door and there is nobody on the other
- 6:01Speaker 2: side of the door. But you know, it was always
- 6:04Speaker 2: there for me, Delilah.
- 6:07Delilah: I was going to say God, because God will be
- 6:10Delilah: there too, but it's hard to hear him sometimes.
- 6:15Speaker 2: I can finally understand now what depression and anxiety is
- 6:19Speaker 2: and be sympathetic to other people for I kind of
- 6:23Speaker 2: neglected to pay attention to what they were saying. But
- 6:26Speaker 2: it's been horrible, and I thank God for you and
- 6:30Speaker 2: what you do. You have your own mission and you
- 6:33Speaker 2: don't know how much it's doing for people. We love you.
- 6:37Delilah: So tell me about your bride.
- 6:39Speaker 2: She passed this year on a We went on a
- 6:42Speaker 2: cruise and she got sick on the cruise and long
- 6:45Speaker 2: story shorted it. Ultimately she ended up with pneumonia. She
- 6:50Speaker 2: was a labor and delivery nurse and I worked for
- 6:53Speaker 2: the airlines, so we were able to change our residences
- 6:56Speaker 2: around the country when we had to just to keep
- 6:59Speaker 2: the job. But she brought more kids into the world
- 7:02Speaker 2: than some of these doctors, because the doctors usually don't
- 7:06Speaker 2: get there on time. So but I miss her an
- 7:10Speaker 2: awful lot. If you could just play something for I'd
- 7:13Speaker 2: appreciate it.
- 7:14Delilah: And Don what's your wife's name?
- 7:16Speaker 2: Her name is Richelle, like Michelle with an R.
- 7:19Delilah: I will play a song to bring her memory. I
- 7:23Delilah: know I can't bring her presence. I wish, I wish
- 7:26Delilah: I could pray and do a miracle like Jesus did
- 7:30Delilah: with Lazareth for you, because I can hear in your
- 7:34Delilah: voice how much you miss your beloved, but I can't.
- 7:38Delilah: I can pray that God will ease the pain and
- 7:43Delilah: give you just a little glimpse into Heaven to give
- 7:48Delilah: you that hope to hang on to.
- 7:51Speaker 2: Thank you for your love and your caring.
- 7:53Delilah: Can I say a prayer for you, don before you
- 7:55Delilah: hang up?
- 7:56Speaker 3: Yes?
- 7:56Delilah: Please, thank you Father God. I thank you Lord for
- 7:59Delilah: letting this gentleman get through on the phone lines tonight.
- 8:03Delilah: I thank you God for allowing me the honor and
- 8:06Delilah: the privilege to speak with him and to pray with
- 8:09Delilah: him as well as be with him on the air
- 8:11Delilah: each night. Lord, I don't know why you called Rochelle home.
- 8:16Delilah: I don't understand, Lord, God, why such good people are
- 8:23Delilah: taken from us way too soon. But I do know,
- 8:27Delilah: Lord God, that you say that all of our days
- 8:30Delilah: are numbered before a single one comes to pass, you
- 8:33Delilah: know exactly when you're going to call me home. That
- 8:36Delilah: day has already been determined long before I came to
- 8:39Delilah: this world. And I pray, Lord God, that you would
- 8:44Delilah: sustain this gentleman and give him everything that he needs
- 8:49Delilah: to carry on each day. Lord, when you say the
- 8:52Delilah: two shall become one flesh, it's true. When we love
- 8:56Delilah: our spouse so much, we become one where they finish
- 9:01Delilah: our sentences, they know what we're thinking. We have code
- 9:04Delilah: words with the ones that we love. We have we
- 9:07Delilah: don't even have to say things. We can just look
- 9:09Delilah: at each other and know what the other is thinking.
- 9:13Delilah: I have that with my husband, and it's such a gift.
- 9:16Delilah: I pray, Lord God, that you would be there for
- 9:20Delilah: this gentleman as he tries to wrap his head around
- 9:23Delilah: the fact that half of him is missing, but he
- 9:27Delilah: still has to get up and get dressed and breathe
- 9:30Delilah: and carry on. I pray God you would show him
- 9:33Delilah: why he's still here. There is a story that is
- 9:37Delilah: left unwritten that he needs to finish before he gets
- 9:41Delilah: to join you in glory. Show him what that purpose is,
- 9:45Delilah: Show him exactly why he is still here. Show him
- 9:49Delilah: what it is that you want him to do to accomplish.
- 9:53Delilah: Who it is that you want him to love to
- 9:56Delilah: reach out to. I pray God that right now you
- 10:00Delilah: would just be with him in such a tangible way,
- 10:03Delilah: such a real way. He will feel your presence, feel
- 10:08Delilah: your hug, feel your love, and know how much you
- 10:14Delilah: love him and his beloved. I asked this in your
- 10:18Delilah: precious and your holy name. Amen.
- 10:21Speaker 2: I'll say, man, thank you very much, Delilah.
- 10:24Delilah: There is something that is still unwritten that you're to finish.
- 10:29Delilah: I don't know what it is. I don't know who
- 10:31Delilah: it is, but there's somebody that needs a touch from
- 10:36Delilah: the Lord, and you're the one that is going to
- 10:40Delilah: be impacting their life for all eternity.
- 10:43Speaker 2: I've prayed about it, and I don't know what the
- 10:45Speaker 2: purpose is, but I agree with you there's something there.
- 10:49Speaker 2: Because we both retired at the same time and all
- 10:53Speaker 2: we want to do is grow all together, and we
- 10:55Speaker 2: didn't get to do that. So hold your loved ones
- 10:58Speaker 2: close because that extra time you don't spend with them
- 11:02Speaker 2: you'll regret it.
- 11:03Delilah: Amen, God, bless you.
- 11:05Speaker 2: Thank you. I'm glad I got through listen to you
- 11:08Speaker 2: a long time.
- 11:09Delilah: Me too, good night, I love you.
- 11:12Speaker 2: Thank you.
- 11:13Delilah: Don's call broke my heart. I know full well what
- 11:17Delilah: it feels like to walk into the empty room. I
- 11:20Delilah: think we all do. This silence is deafening, opening the
- 11:25Delilah: door to a now empty house, a bedroom, a closet,
- 11:31Delilah: top drawer of the chester drawers, the drawer that was
- 11:34Delilah: once filled with evidence of a life being lived, so
- 11:41Delilah: very hard, so very lonely. If you're listening right now,
- 11:46Delilah: send on a prayer, Send a prayer to God and say,
- 11:49Delilah: please comfort this man. Trust me. Prayer is a very
- 11:53Delilah: powerful thing. I would not be alive today if it
- 11:57Delilah: weren't for the prayers of so many people who have
- 12:00Delilah: lifted me up during the darkest hours. The next call
- 12:08Delilah: I want to share with you is from a young
- 12:10Delilah: lady named Caitlin, a very sweet young lady who recently
- 12:14Delilah: lost her mama now finds herself dealing with her own
- 12:18Delilah: serious health concerns. Caitlyn's call coming up next. Hello, good evening.
- 12:25Delilah: You've called Delilah, who is on the phone line with me.
- 12:29Speaker 4: Hey, Delilah, my name is Caitlyn. I'm so so happy
- 12:32Speaker 4: to be talking to you.
- 12:33Delilah: Hi, Caitlin. You have a great voice too. You have
- 12:36Delilah: a like raspy radio voice.
- 12:39Speaker 4: Thank you. I appreciate that more than you know.
- 12:42Delilah: What can I do for you? How can I make
- 12:44Delilah: your night better?
- 12:45Speaker 2: Oh?
- 12:45Speaker 4: Actually, just being able to connect with you has honestly
- 12:49Speaker 4: made my night better. I'm actually going right now into
- 12:52Speaker 4: the hospital to get my brain.
- 12:54Speaker 5: Am I done?
- 12:55Speaker 4: Because I'm going through diagnostic process for multiple square fists?
- 13:00Speaker 4: But the real reason I'm calling is actually because my
- 13:04Speaker 4: mom had passed away two years ago this month, and
- 13:08Speaker 4: just I don't know, I asked her for a sign
- 13:11Speaker 4: tonight and I was listening to you a whole two
- 13:13Speaker 4: hour right up here, and I feel like just kind
- 13:17Speaker 4: of being able to get onto your line is that
- 13:20Speaker 4: sign for me? Because you are an impossible woman to
- 13:23Speaker 4: get a hold of.
- 13:25Delilah: Well, God knew you needed to get through tonight. And
- 13:28Delilah: your mom was like, Lord, could you just got her
- 13:31Delilah: a break here? Just I can't be there to wrap
- 13:34Delilah: my arms around her. Could you let another mama tell
- 13:36Delilah: her how much I love her?
- 13:38Speaker 4: And then thank you?
- 13:40Delilah: So you're going in tonight for an MRI. You have
- 13:43Delilah: like a procedure schedule. Late.
- 13:45Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm walking from the parking garage. I'll read to
- 13:48Speaker 4: my MRI now, So I think I made it a
- 13:49Speaker 4: minute early.
- 13:50Delilah: Wow. Wow, Well, can I say a prayer for you quick?
- 13:54Delilah: Since I got a minute?
- 13:55Speaker 4: Absolutely? I would love that.
- 13:57Delilah: Father, God, I thank you for letting Caitlin get through
- 13:59Delilah: on the phone lines tonight. I pray God that this
- 14:03Delilah: test would not be too nerve wracking, that the noise
- 14:06Delilah: would not be jarring, that she would be able to
- 14:09Delilah: relax and not get claustrophobic. I pray God that it
- 14:13Delilah: would go quickly and smoothly and not be too uncomfortable.
- 14:17Delilah: I pray Lord that the results would show that she
- 14:20Delilah: does not have anything that is going to slow her down,
- 14:24Delilah: that she does not have any issue that's going to
- 14:27Delilah: impede her reaching her goals and her dreams. I pray
- 14:32Delilah: Lord that your holy spirit would be upon her. I
- 14:35Delilah: pray God, from the top of her head to the
- 14:36Delilah: bottom of her feet right now, she would feel you,
- 14:40Delilah: that you would do a miraculous work God, that you
- 14:42Delilah: would put everything into perfect order. I pray God for peace,
- 14:47Delilah: the peace that surpasses all understanding. And I pray for
- 14:51Delilah: a supernatural healing. Amen.
- 14:54Speaker 4: Amen, thank you so so much Forlilah.
- 14:57Delilah: What's mama's name, Eileen? And was mama when God called
- 15:01Delilah: her home?
- 15:02Speaker 4: She was fifty eight years young.
- 15:04Delilah: You had your mama one year more than I had mine,
- 15:06Delilah: And I know how much I miss her to this day.
- 15:10Delilah: And it's so unfair. It's so and people don't understand
- 15:15Delilah: when you're an adult and you're an orphan. Everybody's like, oh,
- 15:19Delilah: I'm sorry, but you want to scream. No, you don't
- 15:22Delilah: understand at all. I need my best friend here to
- 15:28Delilah: guide my steps. I need her here. I need her hugs,
- 15:31Delilah: I need her laughter, I need her sense of humor.
- 15:34Delilah: I need her recipes. I need her when I've had
- 15:36Delilah: a bad day. I need her when I've had a great.
- 15:38Speaker 4: Day, everything in between. You know, she sends me signs
- 15:42Speaker 4: really often to let me know that she's here. But
- 15:45Speaker 4: I think that people don't understand until they lose their
- 15:47Speaker 4: best friend that it's the physical things that you really
- 15:51Speaker 4: miss most, you know, hearing their laugh and feeling their.
- 15:54Delilah: Touch and having her drive you to an MRI that
- 15:57Delilah: you really don't want to have.
- 15:59Speaker 4: Right exactly exactly because I know that she would be
- 16:02Speaker 4: here with me otherwise, so.
- 16:04Delilah: Well, I'm glad that she had me pick up the
- 16:06Delilah: phone me too.
- 16:08Speaker 4: Thank you, Delilah, Thank you so much.
- 16:10Delilah: You're just going to pretend when you go into that
- 16:12Delilah: MRI that I'm there holding your hand and waiting on
- 16:15Delilah: the other side when you get out. Okay, Thank you, Delilah.
- 16:19Speaker 4: I really appreciate that more more than you know.
- 16:22Delilah: You are not alone.
- 16:24Speaker 4: I'm giving you a big, big hug right now.
- 16:26Delilah: You are not alone.
- 16:28Speaker 3: Thank you.
- 16:29Speaker 4: No idea how much I needed to hear that.
- 16:31Delilah: Yeah, I do. And I believe in you, and your
- 16:33Delilah: mama believed in you so much, and you're going to
- 16:36Delilah: get through this and you're going to come out victorious.
- 16:39Speaker 4: Absolutely.
- 16:40Delilah: Thank you, all right, good luck. I am so glad
- 16:44Delilah: that Caitlin was able to get through on my phone lines.
- 16:47Delilah: I really do believe her mom made that happen. I
- 16:50Delilah: believe that. I believe that actually God made it happen
- 16:55Delilah: so that there could still be a connection. If any
- 16:59Delilah: of you out there know a young person who has
- 17:01Delilah: lost a parent or the one person who loved them unconditionally,
- 17:06Delilah: please know that they need you. They won't ever say it,
- 17:10Delilah: they won't ever ever be able to say there is
- 17:14Delilah: a huge void in my life. My heart is shattered.
- 17:20Delilah: I need you to stand with me and love me
- 17:24Delilah: through it. I need you to help me cry. Those
- 17:27Delilah: are words we are not able to say. I wasn't
- 17:31Delilah: I don't know why. But we're not taught that grief
- 17:37Delilah: is okay, and that when our heart is shattered. We
- 17:40Delilah: need people not to come along and say trite things
- 17:44Delilah: or foolish things, or minimize our pain or tell us
- 17:47Delilah: we'll get through it. Just come and stand beside us
- 17:50Delilah: and help us cry. Every night I come into the
- 17:53Delilah: studio and I open up the phone lines so that
- 17:57Delilah: I can find out what's going on in your heart
- 18:01Delilah: and your world, who you love and why you love them.
- 18:05Delilah: But we can't ignore what's going on in the world
- 18:08Delilah: around us. This is a place to come and let
- 18:12Delilah: your heart beat freely and share love. But sometimes issues
- 18:18Delilah: going on are so overwhelming that we have to acknowledge
- 18:25Delilah: the hearts that are breaking. And so it is with
- 18:28Delilah: the flooding in Texas. We've had wildfires, we've had landslides,
- 18:35Delilah: we've had floods this year, crazy things going on around
- 18:39Delilah: the world, and it's getting crazier. And the floods that
- 18:42Delilah: happened last weekend in Texas were so crazy. A wall
- 18:48Delilah: of water came rushing through entire communities and now lives, homes,
- 18:57Delilah: camps have been washed Awayildren are still missing and our
- 19:02Delilah: prayers go out to them. And just a minute, I'm
- 19:05Delilah: going to talk to Randy, who's been trying all night
- 19:08Delilah: to get through to say a prayer for the people
- 19:11Delilah: in Texas. Stay tuned for that call coming up next. Hi, Randy,
- 19:16Delilah: how is your summer twenty twenty five going?
- 19:19Speaker 3: So far? So good?
- 19:21Delilah: What's been the best part so far?
- 19:23Speaker 3: Being able to drive again?
- 19:26Delilah: You had lost that ability, lost that privilege.
- 19:29Speaker 3: Yes, I had a seizure two days before Christmas and
- 19:32Speaker 3: I just started driving the last Friday of June.
- 19:37Delilah: And what can I do for you tonight?
- 19:40Speaker 3: I was wondering if we could spend our love and
- 19:45Speaker 3: our prayers to the families in the Texas that have
- 19:48Speaker 3: lost their children.
- 19:50Delilah: And do you have family in the Texas area or
- 19:54Delilah: your heart's just breaking like those of us that have
- 19:56Delilah: watched the horror unfold and just shake our heads, going God,
- 20:01Delilah: what is going on?
- 20:03Speaker 2: Lord?
- 20:03Speaker 3: God put it on my heart to call you. So
- 20:06Speaker 3: I've been calling for two hours and I finally got through.
- 20:10Delilah: I'm so glad you got through. Do you want to
- 20:12Delilah: say a prayer with me for them?
- 20:15Speaker 3: Yes, ma'am.
- 20:16Delilah: Father God, I thank you Lord for allowing Randy to
- 20:19Delilah: get through on the phone lines. I thank you God
- 20:21Delilah: for his heart, for his tender, tender heart. I praise
- 20:26Delilah: you God that you quickened his heart to call, and
- 20:29Delilah: that you quicken my heart to answer this line. Father,
- 20:32Delilah: we lift up everybody in Central Texas, everybody that has
- 20:37Delilah: been affected by the flooding. We lift them up and
- 20:40Delilah: we pray Lord, God, your hand upon them. The families
- 20:44Delilah: who lost children, especially over eighty people, are gone, God,
- 20:50Delilah: and lives have been destroyed. Families have been devastated. The
- 20:56Delilah: whole area. God, in the blink of an eye, happen
- 21:00Delilah: in less than an hour. Father, I pray that they
- 21:04Delilah: would be able to find more survivors, that they would
- 21:08Delilah: be able to bring peace to the families that are
- 21:12Delilah: looking for their loved ones. God, that you would help
- 21:15Delilah: them to find them. I pray you would help them
- 21:18Delilah: to find them alive. God. I pray Lord that your
- 21:21Delilah: arms would wrap around the whole community and give comfort
- 21:26Delilah: to those who are grieving. God, you are our shelter.
- 21:31Delilah: In the storms of life, and we will praise you
- 21:35Delilah: even in the midst of the crushing storms. God, we
- 21:38Delilah: praise you through all of this. We praise your Holy name. Amen. Amen,
- 21:44Delilah: you have a tender heart, Randy. I love that. Thank
- 21:47Delilah: you for calling.
- 21:48Speaker 3: You're welcome. God Bless you, God.
- 21:50Delilah: Bless you. The last call I want to share with
- 21:53Delilah: you today is from Angie. She has an incredible testimony
- 21:58Delilah: to share about one of her favorite friends friends, and
- 22:00Delilah: I'm going to share this beautiful call with you right now. Angie. Hi,
- 22:06Delilah: good evening, Welcome to the Delilah Show. Tell me who
- 22:10Delilah: is on your heart tonight and how I can bring
- 22:13Delilah: a little more hope to your life.
- 22:17Speaker 5: Oh, thank you to Alilah so much. Tonight. I have
- 22:20Speaker 5: a very very special friend on my heart. I've known
- 22:25Speaker 5: her for twenty years. We recently lost her this week.
- 22:30Speaker 5: She had a traumatic brain episode and she currently was
- 22:39Speaker 5: living in Virginia. She's a pastor's wife. They've adopted twelve children,
- 22:44Speaker 5: and she worked in the adoption world. Is where I
- 22:47Speaker 5: met her, as I have four of my own that
- 22:49Speaker 5: are adopted. She's matched hundreds of families all over the US,
- 22:54Speaker 5: brought people together. Just an amazing incredible human people. Up
- 23:02Speaker 5: until the day she passed. She donated her her workins
- 23:05Speaker 5: donated just absolutely incredible and her family was very unexpected.
- 23:11Speaker 5: They are, you know, of course hurting, and just there's
- 23:15Speaker 5: so many people that loved her. She was a comedy
- 23:18Speaker 5: and heart. She would just make everybody that came in
- 23:20Speaker 5: contact with her laugh, and she was a jokester, but
- 23:24Speaker 5: she was also a servant. And she is just one
- 23:27Speaker 5: of the most incredible humans I probably ever met. And
- 23:30Speaker 5: we are very sad that we have we have lost
- 23:33Speaker 5: or so seen.
- 23:34Delilah: And what's your friend's name?
- 23:36Speaker 5: Claudia Fletcher and she they currently are pastoring her husband's
- 23:42Speaker 5: pastoring in a church in Virginia.
- 23:44Delilah: And they've adopted how many kids?
- 23:47Speaker 5: They have adopted twelve of their own, mostly from the
- 23:51Speaker 5: foster care system. And she also has worked in the
- 23:54Speaker 5: adoption world for many many years, matching many families with
- 24:01Speaker 5: children and making families come together.
- 24:05Delilah: So did she help you facilitate your adoptions or you
- 24:08Delilah: just met her because you both were adoptive moms.
- 24:12Speaker 5: Well, she did not match me with my children. However,
- 24:16Speaker 5: we both lived in another state at the time, and
- 24:20Speaker 5: she would have adoption family weekends where families would come
- 24:26Speaker 5: with their children, and she had all these activities and
- 24:30Speaker 5: they would just you know, a chance for adoptive parents
- 24:33Speaker 5: and families to get together and meet each other and
- 24:36Speaker 5: just and have a nice, relaxing, fun weekend. And from
- 24:42Speaker 5: the first time I met her, she of course you
- 24:45Speaker 5: just can't help but love her. But she's just one
- 24:47Speaker 5: of the funniest people I think I've ever met, and
- 24:51Speaker 5: just was always there for anybody who needed anything, and
- 24:56Speaker 5: volunteered so many hours I can't even begin to tell you.
- 25:00Speaker 5: She worked for an adoption vagency, and she also volunteered
- 25:03Speaker 5: with one, matching families to children and foster heres that
- 25:06Speaker 5: were ready for adoption. Of course, her husband's a pastor,
- 25:10Speaker 5: and you know, there's so many things that go along
- 25:12Speaker 5: with that volunteering. You know, lots of time.
- 25:15Delilah: I think when you're married to a pastor, it's volunteerlding.
- 25:19Delilah: It's not volunteering, it's volunteerding. It kind of goes with
- 25:22Delilah: the territory. It goes with the territory that the three
- 25:26Delilah: am hysterical calls because somebody's in jail, because somebody's pregnant,
- 25:31Delilah: because somebody's in the hospital, because somebody ran out of
- 25:34Delilah: diapers because somebody needs prayer. It's kind of volunteering. Yeah,
- 25:39Delilah: you're right, but she did it with a smile and
- 25:42Delilah: made you laugh the whole time.
- 25:44Speaker 5: Always, always, yes, always the servant's heart.
- 25:47Speaker 1: You know why this makes me sad? This conversation makes
- 25:50Speaker 1: me sad, Angie, Why because I'm going to have to
- 25:54Speaker 1: wait until God calls me home before I get to
- 25:56Speaker 1: meet this angel.
- 25:58Speaker 5: Yes, and you will know her on YouTube.
- 26:02Speaker 3: She is.
- 26:03Speaker 5: Oh, she's just amazing.
- 26:06Delilah: I have never heard of another person. And I'm not
- 26:10Delilah: patting myself on the back, but I have twelve adopted
- 26:12Delilah: children and I've never heard of anybody who is that insane.
- 26:18Delilah: And now I could have met her and said, wow,
- 26:21Delilah: how do you do it? Because I'm not sure how
- 26:23Delilah: I'm going to keep doing it. My youngest is nine,
- 26:27Delilah: and she can't tell me that now because she's busy
- 26:31Delilah: dining with the King of Kings.
- 26:33Speaker 5: Yes she is, Yes, she is. She's probably telling jokes,
- 26:37Speaker 5: I'm sure right now. Yeah, and all of her children,
- 26:42Speaker 5: so you know, they live in different parts of the country,
- 26:44Speaker 5: and most of the children got to come and sayk
- 26:48Speaker 5: avised her, which was very special. Yeah, she's just anything,
- 26:52Speaker 5: and she I'm not even I can't even know account
- 26:55Speaker 5: of grandchildren at this point that they have. So wait,
- 26:57Speaker 5: let's tell all years get older and then you start
- 26:59Speaker 5: having all the to go along.
- 27:01Delilah: Well, I've got twenty three so far, and only half
- 27:05Delilah: of my children are partnered and you know, married off
- 27:09Delilah: or have a partner and kids. So I am the
- 27:13Delilah: old woman who lives in a shoe.
- 27:16Speaker 5: Wow, that's amazing.
- 27:20Delilah: Is there a song that you can think of that
- 27:23Delilah: I might have in my collection that would celebrate the
- 27:27Delilah: life of this phenomenal, beautiful, amazing, loving giving woman. That is,
- 27:37Delilah: like I said, now dining with the King of Kings.
- 27:41Speaker 5: You're the professional. I think you will pick out the
- 27:43Speaker 5: perfect song. So I'm going to leave that.
- 27:45Speaker 4: Up to you.
- 27:46Delilah: I think we need to celebrate the fact that Claudia
- 27:49Delilah: had love and she gave it all away. And I
- 27:52Delilah: am going to find a song and play a song
- 27:55Delilah: that celebrates when you give it away, when you give
- 27:58Delilah: the love away.
- 28:00Speaker 5: I love that. That's perfect.
- 28:02Delilah: I love Angie that you called thank you, thank you
- 28:05Delilah: for sharing this this person. And I will make a
- 28:08Delilah: mental note that when God calls me home, one of
- 28:10Delilah: the first people I'm going to look for. Well, after
- 28:13Delilah: I see my folks and my kids that are there.
- 28:16Delilah: This is going to be your friend, Claudie. And I'm
- 28:18Delilah: going to say, Claudia, you don't know me, but Angie
- 28:20Delilah: told me all about you.
- 28:25Speaker 5: What she say, Yes, that'll be wonderful.
- 28:30Delilah: I'm sorry for your loss. I'm sorry for the world's loss. Yeah,
- 28:34Delilah: sounds like she's got left some big shoes that you're
- 28:37Delilah: gonna you're gonna need to step into.
- 28:41Speaker 5: Yes, that is true. That is true.
- 28:44Delilah: Keep that legacy of love alive. Yes, absolutely, thank you,
- 28:49Delilah: Thank you, Thank you, Angie. Your faith just resonated with me.
- 28:54Delilah: I need to be reminded of that as much as
- 28:57Delilah: you do. You just helped illuminate a point that I
- 29:00Delilah: really want to make. When we grieve deeply, it's because
- 29:05Delilah: we love deeply. The deeper the love, the deeper that bond,
- 29:10Delilah: the stronger that bond, the harder it is to get
- 29:15Delilah: through the pain.
- 29:16Speaker 5: Thank you so much.
- 29:18Delilah: When it comes to grief, words are never enough, But
- 29:22Delilah: you know it is holding someone's hand, listening, even if
- 29:27Delilah: they share the same story over and over and over again, listening,
- 29:33Delilah: taking a walk, holding space for them. You can be
- 29:37Delilah: a witness who testifies to love. You can be a
- 29:41Delilah: witness who stands in the gap for someone who needs
- 29:48Delilah: a touch from God. Thank you to Don and Caitlin
- 29:52Delilah: and Angie for sharing your stories with me and with
- 29:55Delilah: all of us and speaking of that. If you have
- 29:59Delilah: something you would like like to share, something you'd like
- 30:02Delilah: to respond to, If you need prayer, if you want
- 30:07Delilah: to rejoice, if you want to testify to love, call
- 30:10Delilah: me in the evenings Monday through Friday one eight eight, eight, six,
- 30:16Delilah: three three five four five two. Follow and subscribe right
- 30:20Delilah: now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
- 30:25Delilah: listen to your podcast, and I'll be waiting for you
- 30:29Delilah: until we meet again. Until next time, do me a favor.
- 30:33Delilah: Remember to have a little faith, Be love,