Latest / Austin Signal / Parents of missing Camp Mystic girl push to prevent camp’s reopening

Transcript

Parents of missing Camp Mystic girl push to prevent camp’s reopening · Austin Signal

0:08
The tragedy that took place during
0:09
deadly flooding at Camp Mystic last
0:11
summer has been a topic of
0:12
discussion this week in a Travis
0:14
County courtroom.
0:15
We're going to have an update from
0:16
the proceedings.
0:18
And Austin voters approved Project
0:20
Connect almost six years ago, and
0:21
while construction has yet to begin,
0:23
there's been plenty of drama around
0:25
the whole thing.
0:26
The latest chapter coming up.
0:28
Plus, an Austin exhibit is bringing
0:30
stories of local overdose victims
0:32
into the light.
0:34
More about these stories coming up
0:36
on today's show.
0:37
The Austin Signal is a production
0:39
of KUT News, hosted by
0:41
Jerry Quijano.
0:42
And it's been more than four decades
0:44
since Texas beat Alabama on their
0:46
way to a college baseball national
0:48
championship.
0:49
The story is being revisited in a
0:50
new ESPN documentary.
0:52
We're going to talk with regional
0:54
MVP Johnny Sutton.
0:55
That is up next here on Austin
0:57
Signal.
1:08
Howdy out there, you are tuning in
1:10
to Austin Signal here on
1:12
community-powered public radio KUT
1:14
News.
1:15
It is Wednesday, April 15th,
1:17
it's tax day, do not forget.
1:19
I'm your host Jerry Quijano,
1:21
thank you for making us part of your
1:23
day.
1:25
More than 130 people died during
1:27
Fourth of July weekend floods when
1:28
the Guadalupe River crested 37
1:31
feet, flattening summer camps,
1:33
mobile home parks and communities
1:34
along It's banks.
1:36
27 people died at Camp Mystic
1:38
in the Texas Hill Country.
1:40
The parents of a girl still missing
1:41
from the camp are asking a judge
1:43
to prevent the camp from reopening
1:45
this summer.
1:47
KUT's Kaylee Hunt has the story.
1:50
More than 130 people died
1:52
on July 4th when the Guadalupe
1:54
River crested 37 feet,
1:56
flattening summer camps, mobile home
1:58
parks, and communities along its
2:00
banks.
2:01
One of the victims was 8-year-old
2:02
Seale Stewart.
2:04
Her body has not been found.
2:06
After court hearing Monday, Seale's
2:08
mother CeCe Stewart told KDFW-TV
2:10
the state should deny the camp's
2:12
application for a license to operate
2:14
this summer.
2:15
I believe now is
2:17
the time for the state of Texas to
2:19
step in and
2:21
deny the license for Camp
2:23
Mystic.
2:24
Last month, a state district judge
2:26
issued a temporary order requiring
2:28
Camp Mystic to preserve damaged
2:30
cabins affected by the floods.
2:32
The stewards are just one of several
2:34
families to sue Camp Mystik.
2:36
They accuse its leaders of
2:37
negligence and argue more could
2:39
have been done to warn the campers
2:41
and counselors and move them to
2:42
safer ground.
2:44
Three of the camp's directors
2:45
testified in court on Monday and
2:47
Tuesday.
2:48
Edward Eastlund, one of the camp
2:50
directors and a defendant in the
2:51
lawsuit, So the camp did not have
2:53
a written evacuation plan, which is
2:55
required by the state.
2:57
Here's an exchange he had in the
2:58
courtroom with the stewards
2:59
attorney, Brad Beckworth.
3:01
Do you wish you had had an
3:02
evacuation plan?
3:04
We had that plan.
3:06
We were implementing that plan
3:08
You wish you had a written
3:09
evacuation plan that everyone was
3:11
trained in.
3:14
I wish we never healthcare.
3:16
That summer.
3:17
On Tuesday, Eastland's wife,
3:19
Mary Liz, who served as the camp's
3:21
chief medical officer, told the
3:23
court she didn't help campers
3:24
because rushing water prevented her
3:26
from reaching their cabins.
3:28
Outside the court on Monday, Seale's
3:30
mother also said that Eastland
3:31
testimony proves the camp is
3:33
not ready to reopen.
3:35
This is the same director
3:37
of Camp Mystic that is asking
3:39
850 students to
3:41
come join him in
3:43
six weeks.
3:44
State District Judge Maya Guerra
3:46
Gamble is expected to rule on
3:48
extending the order requiring Camp
3:49
Mystic to preserve damaged cabins
3:51
as evidence within the coming
3:53
days.
3:54
I'm Kaylee Hunt in Austin.
4:00
A private disagreement between local
4:01
officials broke out into the open
4:03
this week when Austin Mayor Kirk
4:04
Watson let it be known he opposes
4:06
a decision by the agency building
4:08
the city's light rail system.
4:10
The Austin Transit Partnership was
4:11
planning to vote today on leasing
4:13
more than 50,000 square feet of
4:14
commercial real estate in a prime
4:16
location, 100 Congress
4:18
Avenue.
4:19
The cost of leasing those two and
4:21
a half floors?
4:22
More than $4 million.
4:23
Tack on to that another $15
4:25
million to outfit and furnish
4:28
the space.
4:28
Watson says ATP should instead
4:30
consider moving into CapMetro's
4:32
headquarters.
4:34
KUT's transportation reporter Nathan
4:35
Bernier has been following this.
4:36
He joins us now. Howdy, Nathan.
4:38
Hey, Jerry.
4:39
So please bring us up to speed, why
4:41
was ATP even considering this
4:43
lease?
4:43
Well, ATP says it needs more office
4:45
space. They say they've outgrown
4:47
their current location at 203
4:49
Colorado.
4:50
They have 200 people now,
4:52
and they're planning to expand
4:54
to around 300 people by the end of
4:55
the year. So they're saying they
4:57
needed this additional
4:59
space. As you said, 50,000
5:02
square feet total.
5:02
It would basically add 15,000
5:06
square feet of space to what they
5:07
currently have.
5:09
And they want
5:11
it to be downtown, they said,
5:12
because they need.
5:13
First of all, they need the room for
5:14
consultants, designers, and
5:16
builders, but also they want it to
5:17
be close to the
5:19
where the light rail is going to go.
5:21
A lot of these people are architects
5:22
and designers and may want to
5:24
just be able to walk out the door
5:26
and be a couple blocks away
5:27
from the
5:30
light rail alignment just to
5:31
understand the environment and
5:33
then go back to the drawing board.
5:35
It's, you know, part of
5:37
the process of designing
5:39
this.
5:40
However, as you said,
5:42
for over $4 million a year.
5:44
This was essentially a seven and a
5:45
half year lease with a total
5:47
amount value of 32
5:49
million plus that 15 million
5:51
to build out in furniture space.
5:53
So this raised a
5:55
bit of a red flag at City Hall.
5:57
Yeah, what was the mayor's
5:59
objection?
6:00
Well, Watson, Mayor Kirk Watson
6:02
said ATP should slow down.
6:05
And look at cheaper alternatives
6:06
first. And something he wrote about
6:07
this on the city council message
6:09
board, something telling, he said in
6:10
this post that he had actually
6:12
approached ATP's executive director,
6:14
Greg Canale, a
6:16
couple of weeks ago and said, hey,
6:17
maybe look at
6:19
moving into the Cap Metro space.
6:22
And apparently that did not
6:24
happen. So Watson went public and
6:26
said I'm now going to oppose this.
6:28
He thinks that first
6:30
of all, he sort of
6:32
painted a picture about the
6:33
political situation.
6:35
He talked about six months ago,
6:36
voters rejecting Prop Q, the
6:38
tax rate increase, we have the
6:40
city of Austin going through hard
6:42
times with their budget, Travis
6:44
County, Austin ISD facing really
6:46
a budget crisis, especially in the
6:48
next fiscal year.
6:50
So he didn't use
6:52
these words, but the implication was
6:54
that this lease at 100 Congress
6:56
Avenue in this downtown,
6:58
Class A office space was
7:00
a little bit politically tone deaf.
7:02
So he's asking for...
7:04
A more thorough analysis of
7:06
alternatives, and he
7:08
says that you
7:10
should not be spending tens
7:12
of millions of dollars in office
7:13
space unless you can clearly show
7:15
why it's necessary.
7:17
Did any other Austin City Council
7:19
members have anything to say about
7:20
this?
7:21
Yeah, council member Mark Duchin,
7:23
he basically backed Watson's
7:25
approach.
7:26
He said ATP manages a lot of
7:28
taxpayer money and should reflect
7:30
the budget pressures that families
7:32
and governments are facing.
7:33
Mayor Pro Tempcito Vela also agreed
7:35
with Watson. Vela is on the CapMetro
7:37
board.
7:38
So he said, you know, co-locating
7:40
makes a lot of sense.
7:41
He also would like to see that
7:43
rent that ATP is paying go
7:45
to CapMeto, which could then
7:47
be a revenue source that's used to
7:49
help improve transit service rather
7:52
than sending the money to a private
7:53
landlord.
7:54
Austin voters approved the property
7:56
tax to build the light rail system
7:58
back in 2020.
8:00
Where are we at now when it actually
8:02
comes to seeing this be built?
8:03
Well, the building
8:05
has not started, but there has been
8:07
a lot of progress behind the scenes.
8:08
The most notable of
8:11
which is the Austin Transit
8:12
Partnership receiving federal
8:14
clearance for their environmental
8:16
study, essentially this thousands
8:18
of pages report that
8:20
the feds review and then give the
8:22
thumbs up to and say, okay,
8:24
we approve of this.
8:25
However, there's a big hurdle that
8:26
ATP still has to clear, which is
8:28
obtaining federal funding.
8:29
Now this is an $8
8:31
billion project.
8:34
And the the Austin Transit
8:36
Partnership is hoping that the
8:37
federal government will pay for up
8:38
to half of it.
8:40
So that decision is
8:41
probably not going to be for at
8:43
least another year or so.
8:46
And but on paper, the
8:47
projects moving forward.
8:48
In fact, it's even more than just on
8:50
paper because there are starting to
8:51
be property acquisitions.
8:54
In other words, people whose
8:55
property is in the way of the light
8:57
rail line. That's now being the
8:59
process of expropriation through
9:00
eminent domain has begun.
9:02
But the current long-range timeline
9:04
still points to this opening in
9:06
around 2033, at least that's the
9:08
estimate, 2033.
9:10
That's Nathan Bernier.
9:11
He is KUT's transportation reporter.
9:13
Nathan, thank you again for your
9:14
time.
9:15
Thank you, Jerry.
9:16
And we're glad you're spending part
9:17
of your Wednesday here with Austin
9:19
Signal.
9:20
We've got more coming up for you
9:22
after this break.
9:29
This is Austin Signal, welcome back.
9:32
The tale of the 1983 college
9:34
baseball series between the Texas
9:36
Longhorns and the Alabama Crimson
9:38
Tide is the latest story to be
9:39
featured as part of ESPN's
9:42
SEC Stories series.
9:44
That Texas team won the national
9:46
championship that year, and the
9:48
regional MVP was Johnny Sutton,
9:50
who is joining us now on the show to
9:52
talk about his team and the
9:53
documentary which is premiering
9:55
tonight. Mr. Sutton thanks for being
9:56
with us on Austin Signal.
9:58
Thank you very much.
9:59
It's good to be here.
10:00
So what's it been like reliving
10:02
the memories of that 83?
10:03
It's been really fun.
10:06
A lot of us, it's a long time
10:08
ago, so we hadn't thought about it
10:09
much. And because of this movie,
10:11
some of us were interviewed.
10:13
There were six Texas players and six
10:15
Alabama players that were
10:16
interviewed for this documentary.
10:17
So it kind of forced us to go back
10:19
and watch the thing, which a lot
10:21
of had seen in 40 years.
10:24
And it was a little shocking.
10:26
We made more errors than I remember
10:28
us making.
10:30
But no, it was very fun.
10:32
It was a very exciting series,
10:34
a lot of really good teams, a lot a
10:36
future major leaguers.
10:37
So it was fun to reconnect
10:39
with the guys and relive some
10:41
of that fun time.
10:42
So we don't wanna spoil the story
10:44
that's featured in the documentary
10:46
that's premiering tonight.
10:47
So tell us another story about that
10:49
83 team.
10:50
How intense was it?
10:51
What kind of squad did y'all have?
10:52
It was a good team.
10:55
You know, we had some, you know,
10:56
Calvin Charaldi and Roger Clemens
10:58
were, you know future major leaguers
11:00
and, you now, had great careers as
11:02
major league pitchers.
11:03
Jeff Herron, our catcher, went to
11:05
the major leagues.
11:06
Mike Brumley, our shortstop, went to
11:08
the Major Leagues.
11:09
Kirk Killingsworth was, I don't know
11:11
if he was in the majors, but had a
11:12
good pro career.
11:14
I mean, we have at least six players
11:15
off that team. Capel, Mike Capel
11:17
went to the Major Leagues, Jose
11:19
Tolentino, so it was a talented
11:21
team.
11:22
But there was a lot of adversity
11:24
that year. We lost a lot more games
11:26
than we usually did.
11:28
The record of that team was 66 and
11:30
14. In fact, I
11:32
don't think there will ever be
11:33
another college team that ever plays
11:34
80 games.
11:35
That's what I was thinking right now
11:37
I mean, we played a
11:39
doubleheader 11
11:41
days in a row over spring break.
11:44
We played 22 games in 11 days.
11:47
But we had a lot of adversity.
11:49
We beat a lot of good teams, but we
11:50
lost to teams we shouldn't have lost
11:51
to. And I think that cost
11:53
a little of Coach Gus's hair
11:55
was left, probably was taken away.
11:58
But in the end, we got hot at
12:00
the right and and
12:02
spoiler-lark we want it
12:05
Well, you're wearing your national
12:06
championship ring here in the studio
12:08
with us today.
12:09
You told me that you don't wear
12:11
it often.
12:12
So I wanna ask, what do you cherish
12:14
most from the memories of that
12:16
83 season, of that 93 team
12:18
and the time you spent with your
12:19
teammates and with your coach?
12:20
Yeah, I mean, I think the best
12:22
memories are the friendships,
12:24
and, you know, it was interesting
12:26
playing at UT in the 80s,
12:28
because, and of course, I came
12:30
from SMU, and I did not have to sit
12:32
out a year since the program folded,
12:34
and Larry Long and I both had played
12:36
there and both came over, and we
12:38
were accepted right away.
12:40
But at UT, we would
12:42
practice six or seven hours a day,
12:43
often seven days a week, and
12:45
we'd do three hours of batting
12:47
practice and infield and outfield
12:48
practice, and then We'd have a
12:49
14-inning.
12:50
Inner squad game with full umpires,
12:52
with full scorekeeping, very
12:54
competitive.
12:56
And I learned early
12:58
on in that process,
13:00
I got pretty hot, I was
13:02
hitting well, I hit a few gappers
13:04
off this pitcher.
13:05
For some doubles.
13:06
And my next time up, I had a 90
13:08
mile an hour, very close
13:10
to my head.
13:11
And this was a guy that was, he
13:13
was one number away.
13:14
So we sat next to each other in the
13:16
locker room. I said, I said what the
13:17
heck, man? What are you doing
13:18
throwing at my head in the
13:20
intersquad game?
13:21
And he said, Hey, this is Texas.
13:22
You hit two balls off the wall on
13:24
me. You're going down the third
13:25
time. And it just made me realize
13:27
this is serious business and
13:29
sort of how you came out in that
13:31
ninja squad game.
13:33
Might have determined whether you
13:34
got to play that weekend.
13:36
So how can people watch the
13:37
documentary?
13:39
It is airing tonight,
13:41
the premieres tonight in the United
13:42
States, nationwide
13:44
at 7 p.m.
13:46
Central on the SEC Network.
13:48
I think that's part of ESPN,
13:50
but it's an SEC channel.
13:52
So I think it's gonna run tonight at
13:54
7p.m Central.
13:55
So if you've got the SEC network,
13:57
which I think most people are
13:59
watching UT Baseball, I think,
14:00
that's where you can see it.
14:02
And Mike Brumley, who is our
14:03
All-American shortstop and a dear
14:05
friend of mine.
14:06
When we did the filming of this, we
14:08
did it at my house,
14:09
went all day, and then
14:11
tragically, three weeks later, he
14:13
was killed in a car wreck, which was
14:15
just unbelievable, unbelievable
14:16
tragedy. I still have not quite
14:18
gotten over that.
14:19
I probably never will, because he
14:21
was one of my dearest friends,
14:23
but it's just a miracle.
14:25
He got, he's gonna be in this movie,
14:27
and they, you know, I don't wanna
14:28
give away too much, but they
14:30
dedicated little stuffs to him, and.
14:32
But I think it's worth watching.
14:34
I think It'll be fun.
14:35
You'll learn a lot about the World
14:36
Series.
14:37
The Barry Bonds was in that World
14:39
Series, Barry Larkin is in the
14:41
movie. I'm giving away too
14:43
much here, but I think its worth
14:45
watching for sure.
14:46
All right, we have been speaking
14:47
with Johnny Sutton, regional MVP
14:49
and national champion on that 1983
14:52
Texas team.
14:53
Mr. Sutton it's been great chatting
14:54
with you.
14:55
Thank you so much.
14:56
I appreciate the opportunity.
15:04
If you're going to be visiting the
15:05
UT School of Social Work soon,
15:08
you'll find the walls hung with
15:09
portraits of Central Texans who
15:11
lost their lives to drug addiction.
15:14
The exhibit is called Into
15:16
Light, and it's intended to
15:17
fight stigma and humanize the
15:19
victims of overdoses from opioids
15:21
and other substances.
15:23
KeyUT's Olivia Aldridge visited
15:25
the exhibit with two women whose
15:27
children were among the portraits.
15:30
On the second floor of Walter Webb
15:32
Hall, pencil drawings of nearly
15:34
three dozen people line the walls.
15:36
Among them are Josh Bell,
15:38
a 33-year-old with soulful eyes,
15:41
and Brandon Lash, a 27-year
15:43
old with a broad smile.
15:45
Josh and Brandon never knew each
15:47
other, but now their moms
15:48
do.
15:49
It's a different loss than my
15:51
child died to cancer.
15:52
People are more afraid to talk to
15:54
us than there would be
15:57
another mother that maybe lost her
15:59
child to a different disease.
16:01
That's Annie Hernandez.
16:03
She's Josh's mom, and originally
16:05
from Ireland, if you couldn't guess,
16:07
she met Lisa Lash through an
16:09
overdose loss group at the Christie
16:10
Center, an organization that
16:12
provides grief support for Central
16:14
Texans.
16:15
Lisa says hearing stories like hers
16:17
and her son Brandon's has helped
16:19
her navigate his loss.
16:21
There's some kind of comfort in
16:22
knowing you're not the only one.
16:24
That's part of why Annie and Lisa
16:25
submitted their sons' stories to the
16:27
Into Light project.
16:29
Since losing Josh and Brandon to
16:31
overdoses, the mothers have been
16:33
working to raise awareness about
16:35
what opioid addiction looks like,
16:37
and to show that addiction can
16:38
happen to anyone — sons,
16:40
daughters, parents, friends.
16:43
Next to each portrait is a written
16:45
narrative about the person's life.
16:47
Annie and Lisa submitted a detailed
16:49
application that a professional
16:51
writer used to paint a picture of
16:52
their sons with words.
16:55
And Lisa says reliving all those
16:56
memories wasn't easy.
16:58
It was very intense.
17:00
I had to step away from it for
17:02
a couple weeks.
17:03
And I'm like, I'm not sure I can do
17:05
this.
17:06
But she did.
17:07
The narrative next to her son
17:08
Brandon's portrait forms an
17:10
impression of a sensitive and
17:12
charismatic young man,
17:14
an animal lover, with a way for
17:15
words who could always be counted on
17:17
to correct his friends' spelling and
17:19
grammar.
17:20
Much like Lisa describes Brandon,
17:23
Annie remembers her son Josh as
17:25
a bright and charismatic person
17:27
who never met a stranger.
17:29
He loved sports and cheered
17:30
especially hard for the Patriots.
17:33
He was dedicated to his family.
17:35
Oh man, that child
17:37
had my heart.
17:38
The minute he was born.
17:40
I have four children,
17:42
but this one knows exactly how
17:44
to get whatever
17:47
he wants.
17:47
For years, Josh continued to show up
17:49
for family events and seemed like
17:51
his normal self.
17:53
No one realized he was struggling
17:54
with addiction behind the scenes for
17:56
a long time.
17:57
It started with taking opioids that
17:59
were prescribed after he was in a
18:01
car accident.
18:01
From there...
18:03
Things snowballed.
18:04
I didn't realize he was
18:06
not taking two a day, he was taking
18:08
24 a day.
18:09
So to get the other 22,
18:11
he had to buy them on the street.
18:13
And then, like so many
18:15
stories that equates to
18:18
can't afford this anymore, can't
18:19
hide it from my wife anymore, can,
18:21
you know, so you go to something
18:22
cheaper, which was heroin.
18:24
Josh underwent
18:25
treatment for his addiction, but
18:26
he died of an overdose in 2019.
18:30
Annie believes a pill laced with
18:31
fentanyl was responsible.
18:33
Today, Annie's an outspoken advocate
18:35
for addiction treatment, harm
18:37
reduction, and education,
18:39
but at first she struggled to know
18:40
how to talk about losing Josh.
18:42
There was just so much stigma about
18:44
addiction.
18:45
You know, people might have an idea
18:47
in their mind what a drug addict is,
18:50
right? I mean, I was
18:52
no different.
18:55
A million, million reasons
18:57
I would think my son would die would
18:58
never be of drugs.
19:00
Reducing stigma and spreading
19:01
awareness about addiction were key
19:03
goals of the Into Light Project's
19:05
founder, Theresa Clower.
19:08
After Clower's son Devin died of an
19:10
overdose in 2018,
19:11
she drew a portrait of him as a way
19:13
of processing her grief.
19:15
For three days, Clower put pencil
19:17
to paper, studying each tiny
19:19
detail of her late son's face.
19:22
A few days later, I signed
19:24
my name and that was
19:26
my goodbye to Devin.
19:27
It was goodbye, but it was also
19:30
a beginning.
19:31
Afterward, Clower was surprised by a
19:33
desire to draw portraits of everyone
19:35
she met, from her grandchildren
19:36
to people on the street.
19:38
She had the idea to give her passion
19:40
a purpose.
19:42
What if she could use portraits to
19:43
connect with other people who had
19:45
lost a loved one to drug overdose?
19:47
The first exhibit was held in
19:49
Maryland, Devin's home state, in
19:51
2019.
19:52
In the early days, Clower drew many
19:54
portraits herself, but she
19:56
hired other artists as the project
19:58
grew. Each brings their
20:00
own style.
20:01
But every portrait is rendered as a
20:03
simple black and white graphite
20:04
drawing.
20:05
We're all made up of light and dark.
20:08
No one should be defined by their
20:09
darkest moments.
20:11
We focus on the whole person very
20:13
intentionally because we all are
20:15
made up of lots
20:17
of different parts.
20:18
And, you know, my own son, Devin,
20:21
he had a tremendous
20:23
personality and
20:25
he was addicted to drugs.
20:26
34 individuals memorialized
20:29
at the Texas Into Light Exhibit
20:31
represent a small fraction of
20:33
addiction-related deaths that have
20:35
taken place in recent years.
20:37
Drug poisoning deaths skyrocketed by
20:39
68 percent statewide between
20:41
2019 and 2024.
20:44
But we've started to see signs of
20:46
improvement.
20:47
Last year, local officials announced
20:49
drug-related death in Travis County
20:51
had decreased by 22%
20:53
between 2023 and
20:55
2024.
20:56
Claycee Claiborne, the director of
20:58
UT's Addiction Research Institute,
21:00
credits this to widespread
21:01
distribution of the overdose
21:03
reversing treatment naloxone,
21:05
from local law enforcement to bar
21:07
owners to regular joes.
21:09
Three years ago, the public had
21:11
no idea how dangerous the drug
21:12
supply is, and it's
21:15
continuing to be dangerous.
21:17
However, we have trained
21:19
everyday citizens
21:21
across central Texas to
21:23
actually be first responders.
21:24
However, Claiborne says we're still
21:26
in a dangerous phase of the opioid
21:28
crisis with only around 20%
21:30
of Americans with a substance abuse
21:32
disorder getting treatment.
21:34
She wants to see more work done to
21:36
prevent relapse and get people into
21:38
treatment sooner.
21:39
She also wants to seek more support
21:41
for the families and loved ones of
21:43
people who struggle with addiction.
21:45
Overdose impacts the entire family
21:47
system. It impacts so many people.
21:49
That's where grief groups like the
21:51
one Annie and Lisa joined come in.
21:53
The women have found vital support
21:55
through the group, and have provided
21:56
it, shepherding other members
21:58
through the Into Light exhibit on
22:00
campus.
22:01
Lisa says supporting each other
22:03
through their shared tragedies has
22:04
led to a real bond.
22:06
We've become very good friends.
22:08
When Brandon died, he left Lisa
22:10
behind a tiny French bulldog
22:12
pug mix named Jellyfish.
22:14
Sometimes Annie helps out by dog
22:16
sitting. Other times, Annie and Lisa
22:18
get together and Jellyfish weaves
22:20
through the legs of Annie's large
22:22
dogs.
22:23
It's not always easy to laugh,
22:25
but it's easier with a hapless mutt
22:27
named Jelly fish around.
22:29
I'm Olivia Aldridge in Austin.
22:33
That is it for today's show.
22:35
We're gonna have more in the podcast
22:37
show notes and as always over
22:39
at kut.org
22:42
slash signal.
22:44
Kristen Cabrera is our managing
22:45
producer. Special thanks to Rene
22:47
Chavez for his help.
22:48
I'm Jerry Kihannel.
22:50
Austin Signal will be back at the
22:51
same time tomorrow.
22:53
We'll talk to you then.