Beyond Existing - Beyond the Small Talk
Has life's struggles left you feeling like you were going through your days "just existing?" In this podcast you will hear stories/testimonies from myself and others who have dealt with the struggles life has to offer and getting to that place in which life is being lived "beyond existing." I appreciate all of those who have been willing to "put themselves out there" to open up and share personal information for the betterment of others.
Beyond Existing - Beyond the Small Talk
Chucky and Sandra share Surviving the COVID Delta Variant and What Chucky's Near-Death Taught Them
We trace Chucky’s fight with the COVID Delta variant—from a beach trip to the ICU, 22 days on a ventilator, and a hard reset in rehab—through fear, faith, and the everyday work of recovery. Sandra shares the caregiver’s view: tracking O2, pushing for transfer, and holding the line when things got dark; all while dealing with her own COVID illness.
• early symptoms, falling oxygen, urgent ER decisions
• ICU isolation, chaplain calls, hallucinations and funeral dreams
• ambulance transfer, high-flow oxygen, ventilator and sedation
• “cheated death” conversation with lead physician
• rehab pivot with Tracy, parallel bars, and nine-day breakthrough
• first meals, cravings, and returning to work in a truck
• long COVID realities, diabetes management, energy peaks and valleys
• gratitude practices, compassion for workers, faith and testimony
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Hi, and uh welcome to another episode of uh Beyond Existing podcast. I'm just so excited for who I've got as a guest today. And I can't believe we're finally recording this podcast episode. These are some of my oldest and dearest friends in the whole world. It's Chuck and his wife Sandra. And to me, he's just Chucky. I've known him since probably what first grade, five or six years old.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think. Yeah, so to me he's just Chucky. And he is he and his wife, they were some of the first people that I actually mentioned my dream of starting this podcast. And uh I asked him several years ago to be on and to share his his amazing, miraculous story of surviving COVID. And uh he has agreed and you just wouldn't believe what all we've been through to try to get this recorded. A couple of weeks ago we were gonna do this and I had a pretty bad fall. My nose smacked the ground and I ended up with a mild concussion and and we're here now and I'm just very excited to bring his story to you guys. Chucky and Sandra, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you. I sure appreciate y'all coming on. So, Chucky, I guess we can start with Fernadina Beach in June 2021, how your life completely changed.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. Sandra, as she normally always does, she plans our vacation, so she planned Fernadina Beach. Uh we were there for four or five days, beach house and stuff, went with some friends, some close friends of ours. We did all the beach and uh I'm trying to think of the fancy motel, the Rit Carlton. We went to see that, uh, did a lot of sightseeing, came back home, and within a week I got COVID. And we'll I'll stop right there. I told you all this about this front of Dina Beach by pictures Sandra showed me and what she told me happened, because I have no memory of it. Nothing. So we I reckon a week later, I was feeling bad. And if I remember right, by what me and you talked about, you talked to me on the phone right before I went to the hospital, and you told me I sounded horrible.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, you did. Yeah, yeah, you did. And you couldn't wait to get home and get to your man cave and lay down.
SPEAKER_04:I have no I have no memory of that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I think I called you then too, and I'm like, Chucky, I think you've got COVID because you just you sounded, I mean, it was awful. It was like the worst cold or something, just the way you were talking. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I I believe you. I'm gonna uh the only thing I remember when I got COVID, I remember Cedra was gonna pull right up to the emergency door. And uh I told her not to, that we would walk in.
SPEAKER_01:Well, how'd you even know it was time to go to the hospital?
SPEAKER_04:She would have to explain that to you.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Yeah, back backing it up, and you know Chucky's never been sick. I think he went to the whole high school, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I didn't miss awarded perfect attendance at our graduation.
SPEAKER_00:And I got one. And certainly uh work. He he still never got sick. I was always the one with like um allergies, sinus trouble, sinusitis here and there. Right. Um anyway, so just that was just constant for me, you know, because I have allergies. Um anyway, so he gets COVID first, because I got it from him afterwards. But anyway, so back to him getting it, then every day getting a little bit sicker, you know, a little bit sicker, a little bit and of course he goes to immediate care. They're like, they test you have COVID, just go home and rest. Rest and hike, they gave no medications. So at that time, he had no idea it was new, baby. So we go home and that's what he did. He just rested and hydrated, and like I said, every day a little bit sicker. And I had uh I had one of the um O2 things on that you shake your finger with from my mother being sick years ago. And so I'm like, well, you know, let's check your oxygen level, and it started getting lower. And then whatever, I'm like, well, from I guess it probably dropped about two. It was started out at like 90, just say 94, then it got to like 90, 93, 92. It was just dropped that during that day. And I said, okay, well, by the end of the evening, and it was like down to 90, I said, we're going to the hospital. He's like, no, no, we'll let's see how tomorrow looks. I said, no. I said, you're gonna come get in the car now, or else I'll call the ambulance. Because I, you know, again, I'd seen him drop throughout the day. And uh, and I'd had a friend, and the reason I guess I was really too hypersensitive, I'd had a friend that lost her husband the year before, and it was the same th through COVID, same same situation, you know. He had um but he didn't go to the hospital until it was too late. So anyway, he got in the car, you know, reluctantly, but then then he gets to the hospital, and I'm trying to get him at drop him off that door because I knew he wasn't really able to walk. No, he wanted to walk. He wanted to walk. He barely made it to the door.
SPEAKER_04:Well actually she she kind of helped me into the door. I remember that part. She'll have to fill in the the only thing I remember in the Bullock County Hospital at the lady, she probably didn't, but it felt like it. She stuck that swab way too far up my nose.
SPEAKER_00:Oh Lord, that was she'll have to tell you about the ambulance ride and all that, so I let her Yeah, well they started him off just on normal oxygen, you know, just like the the little the the nasal oxygen. Then then again, even with that on, his oxygen was dropping. So then they had to do the high flow, you know, that covers your whole whole face. So then they went to that, and um, they're still at that point thinking, okay, well, you know, we'll get him on medication. He was on the course, the um, whatever, the um, getting the fluids. They were doing everything they could do right then, and they were like, well, you know, maybe um we'll see how it goes. Because this was about eight o'clock at that point in the evening. They said, Maybe he'll, you know, we can get him okay to go home at some point tonight during the more early hours of the morning, whatever. And I'm like, okay, great. Because by this point I had I had COVID too. I had already developed COVID. I did the same thing. They give me the same thing, go home, rest, hydrate. It's the same thing he had. Yeah, but however, at that point I wasn't as sick as he was. Because I had just it was just recent. I probably had only had it maybe a day or two, or had only known about it maybe. Yeah, also that's were you showing some of the same symptoms that he had. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I was um and yeah, Chucky's fever, his fever had gotten high too. I think it got to like 101. My fever was just creeping up slowly by that point in time. But I knew with him being sick, once I developed a fever, you know, definitely I knew I I better go get checked out to see if I have it. Because I likely had it because we've been together the whole time, the whole trip. And Sandra said we had a beautiful time there. Yeah. So um and coming home and um you don't remember, well, coming home on I-95, we hit um what do you remember hitting something in my car? Yeah, we hit something. A wild hog ran out in the and hit the front of my Camaro.
SPEAKER_01:Oh so And you don't remember that, Chucky?
SPEAKER_04:No. But I'm not playing, I really don't remember.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my god.
SPEAKER_04:She had to show me pictures of the vacation. I'm not yeah, she had to literally show me everything.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he used my car pretty bad. And I've never seen a wild hog on 995 before, but um Yeah. We hit it. Um but anyway. You said I hit it, though. Yeah, I mean yeah. I don't drive that. Well, he was driving? No. We hit it in the car. She said we hit it. But with all of that going on with the oxygen, his it was his he dropped down in the 80s. So then I'm like, oh geez, when I'm gonna see it on the little screen there, this oxygen's not getting any better. Um, I mean, it's level, the high flu oxygen mask on, it's going back, it's going worse. I'm like thinking, what in the world? And I'm like, this didn't, you know, looking good to myself. I'm thinking so then they come back down there today, well, we're he's gonna have to go to ICU. At that point, yeah, I'm packing my little self up and getting ready to go up with him. They're like, no, you can't go up with him from that point on. He had he was by itself because he you know, went into the ICU unit. So here I am going home with COVID. Just, you know, very fearful, not knowing what's gonna happen next. So then I get home. I mean, by this point, it was probably 2 a.m. by the time all of that happened. By 6 a.m., then I get a phone call from the hospital saying, Oh, well, we're gonna, we're going to have to put him on the ventilator. And I'm like, what? I'm just blown away. Had no clue that that was even gonna ever be an option. And so I said, Well, um, I'm gonna need to call you back because I'm thinking, what in the world? So I'm calling my best friend Deedra, who's a nurse, and I'm thinking, you know, what what am you know, whatever, what am I gonna do? She calls, talks with the nurse, and so we ended up deciding to transfer him to Augusta. The Karen Augusta is just world renowned. Well it's phenomenal, right? You know, based on her her knowledge, and after talking with the nurse there, that's what we ended up doing. I go back to the hospital to see him before he leaves. And at that point, there well, they were supposed to have flew him out, but the weather was it was too foggy, they couldn't fly out. They were like, gonna have to go by ambulance. So at that point they were stacking the um oxygen tanks into the ambulance as as they were having to do get having their calculators figured out how many tanks they would need based on how fast he was using it. So anyway, they were just they were getting getting everything ready. They got him there safely. Thank goodness he was able to you know had enough in there. Um because yeah, it was it was a trying time because it from Statesworth to Augusta is a good little ride. Oh yeah, what an hour and a half? Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04:Um Cedra did tell me this, because I don't remember this. I remember the reason they were stacking them tanks, the ambulance I was in did not have the permanent built-in tank. Like the newer ambulance had like I think like a huge oxygen tank built in it. Sandra said they had told cause he was freaking out why they were just putting all them tanks and the nurse explained toward the ambulance I was in didn't have the built-in oxygen tank. Mm-hmm. That's why they had to put canister tanks in there.
SPEAKER_01:So you got an hour and a half ride, how many tanks of oxygen did you go through?
SPEAKER_00:You know, I don't know at that point how many he put in there. I was just beside myself, really. I just saw what they were doing and just upset. Because at this point, within a few hours, we went from, okay, you're, you know, you're just probably gonna go up there and get some medicines, come back home, to okay, you're going to ICU, then you're going to be on a ventilator. All that happened so quickly, then I'm just thinking at this point, okay, well what's gonna happen next? How bad how how bad is this gonna really get?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Because nothing was getting good, and you know, there's nothing positive happened. So I'm it was just a state of shock. It's like honestly, I was just in shock.
SPEAKER_01:So Chucky, you go, they get you to Augusta. Uh how many days how many days did you spend in ICU?
SPEAKER_04:I've been over 30. I was on the vent for 22 days. Oh my gosh. And I spent an ICU. How long when I got out of ICU and they put me in the private room, you still couldn't come see me, right?
SPEAKER_00:They had a certain number of days. Yeah. And I have COVID even at this point. So it doesn't matter. There was a certain number of days that he could have no visitors at all.
SPEAKER_04:And understand the the part of ICU I was in, I was isolated, but I was where they could see me. I could see in the corner the nurses station and like most of that. But I'm assuming I was near a cargo elevator because I kept hearing a door like slam, slam. That messed me up a little bit on my nightmares and my dreams we'll get into. Like slamming that door. All my machines were outside this big plexiglass looking thing in front, and you know, it had like the rubber gaskets with the hoses and the wires run through it, and it ran into me. I remember that part of ICU. Had no TV, no no clock, and didn't need it within the condition I was in. About ICU, that's about the only things I could really tell you. When I did come to and they did come in there, it was like something in a sci-fi movie. They would literally come in with the suits on. They I couldn't tell who they were.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, it could have been you in there, and I really probably couldn't have made out your facial because they had the screen, the glass thing, and everything. The man like Marty McFly Back to the Future when he's like that movie Outbreak. It was like that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean so. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:When they came in there, you didn't see nothing. And understandably so, I did find out through my doctor when I first got there for a little while, probably a couple of hours, I was freaking them out because they thought the Delta variant had mutated with me.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, I could do anything. Now all of a sudden I'm laying there dying. So for probably a little while until they got my blood work done and everything, he told me they were kind of freaking out about me. They thought this thing was really gonna kill everybody.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But oh I know. I had the regular Delta variant, um, just like other people had. Sandra with her expertise and getting what she wants and getting things done. Uh I'll let her explain. You had a nurse or a preacher go in there and FaceTime.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we just had a the chaplain offered to FaceTime and um and so Shannon and I got to see be on there with him. Mm-hmm. He just showed us in the room and we talked to him through his phone.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Hoping he would hear our voices and that he would be able to I guess hear us. I don't know, but uh we were hoping hoping for that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But anyway. And you I mean, you know, you never know what they're able to um respond to.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right.
SPEAKER_04:Uh When I was in the ICU, I did come to like gang conscious. The only thing I remember there was a nurse, like, and this is and we'll go on into the story about how weak I got, but at this point I'm not weak. I'm still, you know, real strong. I had a nurse laying over me. I had the doctor like pushing down on me, and I remember he was just yelling at me. He kept saying, She knows where you're at, she knows where you're at, stop, stop. So assuming when I came to, I was screaming her name out, trying to get out of there. So anyway, they had to uh pretty much tell me after that, when I came to, they had to tell me what happened. I didn't know. I didn't know if I'd had a heart attack, been abducted by aliens.
SPEAKER_01:You told me, I know you told me you thought you had wrecked your truck. Because Chucky drives the semi daily.
SPEAKER_04:When I had all I had all, and I remember it, I think it was in my nose cavity or my throat, but when I did my head, I felt something like a tube. And that when I laid back down, I started feeling around, and I they got my hand kind of restrained from the side of the bed because I'm assuming I'm at this point I'm starting to come tooth. That's the first thing that hit. I said, Oh my god, I've done had a wreck in my truck.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. No, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I still knew I was a truck driver.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But once I came to, and once I got my my breathing and opening my eyes, I um they asked me out, they asked me who the president was. They asked me about Sandra and the boys. I got a little confused. Both my parents had done passed on. Thank God they didn't have to go through. Oh, isn't that the truth? It killed my daddy.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So thank goodness he'd lived his life and moved on. Um, so you know, I was kind of aware of that. I was a little confused about which dogs I had. Well, I had named some dogs that had already deceased. Rather than that, it was I knew I lived in Statesboro, I knew of the truck driver, knew I built grills.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:They had asked me several questions trying to figure out how much brain damage I had had. Mm-hmm. So it didn't I didn't have no brain damage, it just part of it got blacked out. I just don't I just don't remember it.
SPEAKER_01:Kind of like amnesia, maybe. Oh yeah. So Sandra, I want to kind of review. So you're at home this whole time. Who's taking care of you?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I I was I was it was a struggle. I like I you know I and that's the funny thing. I don't even remember a lot of what I did at that time. I mean, I was just focused. I mean, I was on the phone every day, calling the hospital two or three times a day, honestly. And of course, Deeja would call to check, you know, medically to get her medical terms and figure stuff like that out too. Um, I had friends come by Sally, the Yeah, our our good friend Sally that we graduated with. Yeah. Your high school friend Sally would come. Um Lily Jane, they came and brought supplies. Um Deedra and Cameron, Deedra's dollar Cameron came and brought some food as well. And they would leave it at the door, of course, because I didn't want anybody to come in. I I wouldn't even let the boys come in because I'm like, my gosh, you know, I don't I didn't know how sick I really was, but which I did get sicker. You know, again, day by day when I got sicker. So then I'm calling the hospital. Well, actually, I went to the ER and they're saying the same old thing. You just gotta wear it out. I'm like, look, I'm getting sicker. I told them about what had happened to Chucky. And see, I would typically at least get bronchitis once a year. So I explained that. So the doctor says, Well, well, wait a minute. He goes out because back in about 10 minutes later, he said, Well, he hands me this paperwork, and it was a treatment called the BAM, BAM, the BAM infusion. So he's like, Well, read this. If you're interested, come back up here in the morning, and you'll you can get this on Outpatient. I go home, I read about it, you know, just so I went back up there the next day and got it. I think it took about three hours, um, and it was just an infusion. It made me sick as a dog. But like for 24 hours, literally thought I was gonna die. I mean, I just really went from the couch to the bed. I was it kind of made me sickery. But after 24 hours was up, it was almost right at 24 hours on the dot, I started feeling better. You know, so I was able to get up, eat and drink a little bit. I slowly got better at that point. I was to to I guess to do a little bit more, but um I'm thinking I don't even remember ever watching TV or anything. I and I had people calling and texting and things like that. It was just a matter of just you know, I still was just in shock over not what was gonna happen. You know, and the end result, was he gonna come home? It was I was just in fear this whole time.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I know you had to have been. I mean, you're all by yourself and your husband's in the hospital, you don't know if he's gonna make it or not. And why both of y'all were covered in so much prayer.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we were, and that was that we'll back up, but no, Sandra showed me all y'all texts and and everything, and it really made me feel good.
SPEAKER_01:That's what got us three. And uh I got the best birthday present ever because you were you were in the hospitals for all we knew you weren't gonna make it, and I just remember praying to God, God, for my birthday, please just let Chucky get out of ICU and go to a regular room. And sure enough, on July 6th, got the news that you were gonna go from ICU to a regular room, and I was just so thankful, so grateful.
SPEAKER_04:Well, see, that called um I went in the hospital right at the first of June. So, yeah, that's been about 30 days I was in there, if you remember when I went to a private room. I reckon we need to get into um because we said we're going to, we'll tell some stories since I was heavily medicated about the dreams and the hallucinations.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I I do want to say this. So I was just recently I was listening to a podcast, and this guy was retelling his story of being in the hospital just like you, and I see you, and he was hit really hard with that Delta variant. And Chucky, he talked about his dark dreams as well, and his dreams were so similar to what you had.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, well.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And those were some of the first dreams. I'll go into the dream that I died. I was at a funeral. When I came to, I realized right then it was a dream. But um most people won't know this. But um my uncle owns a bunch of property right across from the Savannah River and Augusta and Beach Isla. I had a beautiful home there. So I had dreamed that's where they were gonna bury me in my Uncle Jack's, at my Uncle Jack's house in New York. Billy Chapman was over my funeral, and him and Sandra and Shannon, my my Uncle Jack, was talking about what how they were gonna do the funeral and everything, and Billy was asking them because he lived right on the Savannah River and his house is covered by uh a dike.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Oh, we need to tell people. So Billy is the funeral director in our hometown of Swainsburg. And then Shannon is Chucky's brother. Go ahead, Chucky. Sorry.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, no, I fine. Um I didn't explain that. So he was having a concern about if that if that place ever flooded, he told him, he said, that casket's gonna come out of the ground once that water comes up. And Uncle Jack was assuring him that, you know, he had lived there 50 something years, nothing like that's ever happened. He personally built them terrace and dikes and stuff that would hold the water. The funeral star, when they started with them meeting all of a sudden I'm in the casket. I can look straight up. Oh my gosh, I can hear I can hear the the funeral going on. I can hear music. And just as the m the music started playing like a organ music, and it was like church music. And then all of a sudden, right at the end, it got real sinister organ playing, kinda. And then I heard three like loud thumps, and I think that was that cargo elevator that I was right beside. And I heard boom, boom, boom, and when I heard that third boom, that casket door shut, and then I woke up. Oh wow. Because I had so many people act that were you were so close to dying, and what did you do you have vivid dreams of dying? Those were the that was the only dream I had of actual death.
SPEAKER_01:Well, there's also something about the number three as well.
SPEAKER_04:Oh yeah. I I'm you know, it just I'll never forget it. I mean it was very loud, very distreet. I remember the music, the organ music, changing tunes, like to more of a sinister tune right at the end. And then them you know the and then the casket door when the casket door shut I came too.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And then you know, quickly realize it took me a second or two, you know, but I realized it it was a dream. Or go to the next dream and then when we get through I'll tell you the w that I'll end with the most funniest dream, and y'all all get a kick out of that one, which you done heard. The second bad dream I would say is uh I was in like this I would say padded room. And uh the padding black kind of not leather, but it was it like black and padded. One half of the room all kind of against the wall, but one ha the other half of the room was dark. You couldn't see it. Couldn't see it at all. And uh this lady who her bottom part was like a snake, and her top part was like she was like obese with a lot of scars on her, like deep cut, deep scars. And she had like real, real sharp canine teeth and just black, you know, black matted hair. And her body, she had on like a like a leather strap across her breast. You can see her belly. She would slither up to me and she would do like this, she'd be like, a penny for your soul.
SPEAKER_01:Mm-hmm. Kind of rubbing her finger and her thumbnail.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, she's rubbing her fingers like that. She'd get right up in my face and say, a penny for your soul. And I I tell her, I was like, I ain't got a pen, I don't have a penny, and I'm not giving you my soul. She would like hiss at me and then slither back into the dark. I'm trying to get out of the room, but I don't know where to go. And then she did you know, she did that about three times and she'd slither back.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And that same dream. One good dream I had, and I'm called the lady comes back into a good dream. She she she's not just in one dream. She goes.
SPEAKER_01:The serpent lady comes back again in another dream.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Really? I had this dream, and it was a good dream. I dreamed Trevor would always come pick me up and get me out of the hospital. When he would bring me home, Chet would always have some kind of contraption build up where he is trout ice cold ring water. And me and the lab would go to that contraption, whatever he had built, and drink that ice cold water. So that's a tie-in when I was in ICU and even in the private room, I always felt like a dinosaur. The last dream I had of that, all of a sudden I start hearing three big loud beats, boom. With me in the lab, they're drinking the water.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Chet and Trevor standing by us laughing. Hear three beats, boom, boom, boom. And I look up, I'm like, I've heard the beats before. In the dream, I'm sitting there going, I've heard that beep. All of a sudden I see this cloud coming. It's in my yard here. This dark cloud coming in this yard. And she slithers out of that cloud. And she like doing like this. In the dreams, she thinks nobody can see her but me. But for some reason it wasn't Chet, it was Trevor. Trevor's.
SPEAKER_01:Your two boys are Chet and Trevor.
SPEAKER_04:I remember I remember Trevor grabbing he grabbed something like a handle or something. He was saying, like, what the bleak you doing here? And I all of a sudden it's in my head, I'm like, oh my God, he can see her. Well, when she realized he could see her, she freaked out. You know, she she was even asking him, How can you see me? He's saying something like, Well, you know, that doesn't matter or whatever. You know, what are you doing here? So she slithered back into the mist. I never had to dream again. Always had, didn't have any. a dream you know about the dogs or about the the lady but uh had the dream about her doing that the penny for your soul I think I'll probably that was probably in the you have a dream like that I imagine I was about as close to death as you could get probably and probably on some good medication too that's right um now and if you had a fever you're gonna have them now I will tell y'all the funny dream that tickled the toe out of my wife and my brother-in-law and to this day I still can't say it really didn't happen. So that felt unreal I'm in ICU and I dream Sandra comes marching up there with a bunch of papers demanding that they release me and let she let she want me to go home with her. The dream she's done figured out that they're never gonna release me. They're keeping me there for research now this is just a dream and I can hear her in there hollering at the doctor you know y'all never gonna release him I've done caught on to y'all y'all not trying to get him well y'all just trying to keep him sedated so y'all can do your research she's like I'm taking him home so they're arguing back into then the security comes and she's fighting with security she's fighting with the nurses you know she's gonna get me out of there. I literally see them having her in handcuffs they're like dragging her little feet you know how you know when you get drugged to jail or whatever it's just like that. And I can hear her screaming to the top of the lungs this ain't over with I'm coming back. He's coming home with me and I'm like screaming you know please don't lock her up you know she don't mean nothing by me but that dream was so real when you want to tell when the first when we first met what I asked you? Okay. When I finally got to see her the first thing I asked her and I asked Shannon how the world did you get out of jail and that dog's head just looked like what are you talking about? Oh gosh I just told I said and I told them the dream and they was like that never happened that never happened you thought they were out partying while you were I know depending for your life might have been they were partying or doing something but that didn't go to them Oh gosh wait and now I've got on my notes that you had a dream about Trevor in an Orange Lawrence County prison van. Yeah I did forget that but I when I woke up I didn't know that was just a dream. I have a cousin that's a county commissioner and I have a lot of family in Lawrence County. I dreamed that uh my cousin had set up for Trevor to get a Lawrence County prison van. They took the seats out of course and he and the lamb came and got me I was still bedridden because understand when I got out of nowhere hospital I was still bedridden. They loaded me up in the van, uh took me home and it was that same situation we'd drive up at the house Chet would have something on the roof like some stainless steel tank or something trapped rainwater to understand about the rain water and stuff like that. I know why I dreamed that because I was constantly thought I was thirsting to death. Oh that makes sense for I could drink water I think I'll let Sandra tell because they kept saying I couldn't pass a swallow test. But I I had the sensation I was always thirsty and about the thirst to death.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So I'm that would be why them them dreams happened.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:So you weren't worried about catching water in a rain barrel for your garden or anything about me in the lab you know about me in the lab he'd have he'd have some kind of stainless steel pipe that you drink out of or trough or mainly it was a trough. We don't by being them labs you start drinking out of that trough.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah that is something that is something just being that thirsty oh I was gonna say you told me you couldn't shake that feeling of dying no I could understand and I think you know this and you know I'm telling the truth.
SPEAKER_04:When I was at 50 years old I was in the prime of my life I mean I could work I could do anything I was fairly fit you know I could run jump I like even I don't have knee problem back problems and um I was in shape at 50 years old. Sandra would you know would be a little bit y'all were going to the gym regularly right? Yeah yeah uh that some yeah there was nothing I couldn't do and then all of a sudden you go blink of an eye and you lay over 30 days flat on your back or no sixty days almost flat on your back it changes your view of the world. Yeah but I will tell anybody that Pendrican yeah will tell you I'm living proof that if God decides you're not gonna die, you're not gonna die. There's no cancer there's no virus there's nothing that can kill you if he decides God decided that I wasn't gonna die. Can you tell us a little bit about the um the doctor from India that treated you one that said I cheated death? Yes yeah yeah me and him got to be good friends he was infatuated with me because um he I'm assuming they I don't I mean I know they got a different r religion but uh he didn't believe in God. He didn't say that and I could tell he didn't because he kept telling me you know well he had that thick Indian accent you know asked me how you feel how you do you know do you know how close you came to dying I like yeah yeah he like you you you cheated death like I can't believe that he um one time man these papers flipped through him he like thank so and so your your your blood is this your oxygen is you know your thing is this you don't die he like normal man die and he flipped like you know day 18 you know you're this you're the he's like normal normal human die you don't die you cheat death you know I did they say I just told him I was kind of tired very uh the whole time I was very tired I was like isn't that what God would do and he poking in my chest no no there's something in you when normal human normal human die you don't die he like it's something in you right here something in you not the one that created you but yeah it it was he was uh he was a he helped save my life not that he disagreed but he proud of myself he told me to my face a normal a normal human being would not have survived it but God did put something special in me I don't mind saying it yeah but uh he didn't see it that way he saw it more as science there was something in my DNA or whatever genetics which he probably was right about genetics because you know how the Masons are we do live forever. Oh you do yes yeah because you're how old was your daddy when he passed away I think your daddy was 90 how old was your dad 90 passed he was almost 91 yeah your uncle Jack was almost a hundred she ain't like much ninety nine but most of my aunts and uncles lived up in their 80s and 90s and oh you know yeah I just had my uncle Jack he was 95 I think uh 94 94 when he passed yeah but I think my uncle Jack was actually still driving up to his like 91 he had not they had not taken the keys from him for long now let me tell you what went on in the hospital I probably stayed in that ICU the way we figured it out the way you said about your birthday I probably was in that ICU at least 30 days flat on my back. They get me to a private room and I'm still flat on my back. Sandra and them get to see me and um see I think you and Shannon and Trevor and Chet would come then she's calling me and she's I'm assuming you help set this up I'm leaving the hospital and I'm going to Walton rehab rehabilitation or rehab I'm still bed ripped. I I can't do nothing. Mm-hmm Oh we'll stop right here we gotta back up about the about when they thought I had a tumor in my eye. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I'll let you explain it was really due to the the oxygen he had had to have so over his face like the high flow oxygen. He'd had to have that for so long it ended up like one of his pupils was larger than the other one. And so they weren't sure what what they just had to like exhaust all options. So he had to have a CT scan. Well he ends up thinking he was gonna die by by you know having the CT scan. So every day you know when I called I'm like okay so what were the results? Um well he wouldn't do it. So then game next day call he wouldn't do it. Third day I he I said put him on the phone please so then I'm telling him like you are not going to get out of his place until you do the CT scan.
SPEAKER_01:You know because I mean that was they had to see you know what what it was I mean you know because anyway so people like different sizes or he was dilated or what okay.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah so it but anyway and he and the thing was it was a whole which he'll have to explain how they were trying to move him and he did feel he was losing his breath and feeling like he was gonna die, you know. But he had never done one of those I said Chucky I've had those done numerous times.
SPEAKER_04:Your children have had them had them done you know yeah yeah but you talking to somebody that's never seen the inside of a hospital before yes that's true.
SPEAKER_01:You've cheated death I think you can do a CT scan.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah it was all scary to me they would make there was enough room for them to slide where my bed was there was enough room for them to slide the bed side to me and they wouldn't help me scoot over onto the other bed. I had no energy or no strength so by the time sounds real simple I um scoot over to the bed other bed I mean I'm exhaust I feel like I'm about to die like I mean I can't really see good I'm blurry vision I mean I'm huffing and puffing for breath even though I got an oxygen thing. But also found out something else and most people will know this if they did have COVID. If you can't breathe and you can't get oxygen in you can't do much of nothing Lisa. Uh-huh that was it uh I would freak out and you know when I start doing this you know the big round thing they start trying to put me in that and I'm freaking out I mean I'm just like no no no I'm dying I'm dying or I felt like I was oh I know yeah so you're just you've laid there in the bed for 60 days so your muscles have atrophied and you haven't been able to get oxygen to your cells like you needed to so I can't imagine how weak you were yeah and that was another thing I was noticing because when Sandra and them would come I was telling them try to get me up well they tried to set me up I couldn't set up I I felt like all my insides were just dropping I was in pain but I noticed I like raised my arm up I could see my arm is flab and like my arm was muscular and like my forearm was flab. There was no there was no muscle tone to it and I was telling them I'm like y'all got to get me out of here I'm uh they're gonna let me just die in this bed if y'all don't get me out of here. This is when I'm in my private rooms and understand you lay there a long a lot a long time by yourself your imagination and your brain will play tricks on you. One thing I did find out I am definitely mentally tough. Sedger told me she said there's no way I could lay because you won't like with the ICU thing you want find out how tough you are laying a bed for 30 days and don't get out of it. Don't talk to nobody. You'll find out real quick how mentally tough you are and it was almost like that when I was in my private room because bless her heart she had just gone back to school you're a teacher you know how when you go back to school at first days and planning and everything it's so hectic for y'all. Y'all gotta put stuff together so quick.
SPEAKER_01:And Georgia starts back so early those teachers go back at the end of July and so Sandra's having to go back to work and and then you start your rehab right yeah and um that was a blessing blessing blessing just go to show you when you're down and out sometime the perfect person will come into your life that you never met before and help you.
SPEAKER_04:Mm-hmm I'm bedridden I'm at Walden Rehab my head physical therapist her name I don't know her last name but her name first name was Tracy she was a year younger than me and she had told we had talked a lot she had told me her husband was um the same age as me. Now he was a big guy she told me he was about six three, six four pretty built guy but she said he had bad asthma and she told me that he probably wouldn't have made what I went through with an asthma him being a big man like he was. Now she was about five four very petite in shape and while I mean in shape she could literally get me up out of that bed with her own strength because I would not help her I had no strength to help her right she was a very pretty lady but she was a pit bull and a drill sergeant and she was just what I needed because mentally I checked out on the side is she the one that knew is she the one that knew your uncle Jack yep she went to church with my uncle Jack and Aunt Ann she knew Stuart she knew the um little Jack Morgan she was tough very tough very if she would hurt your feelings she did not mind doing that and she was just what I needed I needed you gotta understand I'd been there so long not saying checked out but I'm ready to go home. Get me a bed get me a wheel just get me home that's what I want and Sandra was having to explain to me no need to go to this rehab these people know what they're doing they're gonna get and I'm like no I just no just get me a bed get me get me back home and then which is not the right thing to do met Tracy and uh she helped me and helped me and helped me and I remember we go in this gymnasium say I understand I'm 50 years old was in the prime of my life I'm in a wheelchair can barely hold my head up I mean seriously I can't move it on my own power. I'm helpless she sets me and I'm watching and she she did it on purpose and she had a purpose for it. I see probably this lady probably 80 in her high 70s she's had one leg completely shattered she got pins in this thing and she's on them you know how you walk on them the rails that go you know how you hold yourself up. Yeah she's holding herself up on these reels I mean tears coming out of her eyes she's in pain she's giving it all she got never will forget Tracy King she literally got right in my face we were like nose to nose I'll never forget what she told me she said have you seen enough and I said yeah I've definitely seen enough I said she can do it I can do it yeah because I looked around most of these people like I said I'm 50 years old most of these people 70 80 years old they've had heart you know heart surgery um liver transplant knee surgery neck surgery here I am you know I'm in the prime of my life I'm barely holding my head up I I was the most embarrassed and humiliated I'd ever been in my life I'd I was just so much humiliation. Yes go through to realize I hadn't not given up but just not thinking there was something better. Mm-hmm took my head out of nowhere real quick and uh put it where it was supposed to go. And um when she would lay me on them tables like stretching my legs and there I mean she was just she was no whole bar. She you'd have tears coming out of your eyes she didn't care. She make you do it.
SPEAKER_01:That tough love that's what you needed.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah I the insurance only paid for 10 days I was there nine we probably had about three days left and I remember she came in there in my room um not really smile dead serious once again she gets right pretty much in my face and she tells me she's like Mr. Mason you gotta put on your big boy pants and you gotta put them on right now. By this time I you know kind of get off the bed a little bit heck I I'm thinking I'm doing good I mean it was just six days ago out of bedridden I wasn't going as far as she wanted me to go you know and so I was like okay I'm gonna I'm gonna give it all I got this time and she's looking at no it's got to happen today got to put on your big boy pants. So I reckon I did I I you know I had ten days I got out of there in nine can't believe you gained that much strength in nine days yeah she was a godsend she was sent there for a purpose my purpose yeah she got me main thing she got got me not to thinking that I can just go home helpless and everything will be okay. Yeah she she got me back to where you know you're gonna do all the stuff you've always done.
SPEAKER_01:You mentioned to me that you had discouraged Sandra from coming to see you during rehab.
SPEAKER_00:Well th actually they did. I mean the uh Oh they did okay in some place um because when I was when I went to see him yeah I went to see him every day in rehab but they were but they would tell me what time they were gonna do the actual therapy and that I couldn't be a part of that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um I guess I was just assuming that I might that I would be a distraction because he would need to be focused on what he was doing. So I would go in the mornings.
SPEAKER_04:I want to give this shout out um Deedre and Cameron had see me I see Turkey and dressings. They brought me turkey and dressings. They brought turkey and dressings and Cameron is too both of them are fabulous cooks. Get out of rehab and I reckon when I was in my private room kind of in and out of it real weak because I did have a TV in there. For some reason they probably ran way too many McDonald commercials. During rehab when I got out and got in the car with Sandra I was already pestered her I like get to a McDonald's I got to get a double quarter pounder meal.
SPEAKER_01:And she's like okay and we're like headed toward the McDonald and she's like there's a Zaxby I'm like I don't want that quarter pounder yeah because we we would be talking on the phone this is before you got sick and you would want you would be pulling into a Zaxby's and you could tell me which Zaxby's was better than the other yeah uh when I was on the road um I I lived in some Zaxby's now I l I lived Zaxby sauce but when I was laying there going to sleep I reckon McDonald commercials were running I couldn't eat enough double quarter pounders and frick shot and when you came to the house that's what y'all want to when I came to visit you when you got home yep I probably told you not to come in the house if you didn't have it did I No you didn't I was going to surprise you and um he he needed to eat Elisa he did need to eat and I think Luke took part of your fries probably yeah I look I was very unhealthy when I came out I look I looked bad had one major doctor tell me you know I literally cheated death I don't I don't deny it one thing kind of proud of it a lot of people accomplish a lot of things in life but yeah I'm the one thing I did accomplish and you know when it was pretty much my time to die I didn't die.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah and I had a lot to do with the man upstairs like I told you if he decides you're it's not your time you're not dying.
SPEAKER_00:It wasn't your time had to suffer through it and thank God you did.
SPEAKER_01:How long was it before you could start driving a truck again?
SPEAKER_04:I got in it fairly quick didn't I would say three weeks. Yeah about a month maybe about a month the only thing that I struggled with I couldn't that first step going up on the fuel tank was high. I had to literally have my hand and peek my leg up on the fuel tank. But once I did that off I I mean I had enough arm streaks to pull myself up into the cab um that probably went on about a week and a half it didn't you know I I constantly got better stronger yeah yeah and well hang on show you something oh you also told me that Sandra was a drill sergeant when you got home uh she's always a drill sergeant she's always a drill sergeant yeah that never even when you're well but I'm sure she was cause yeah I'm sure she agreed with me to get back to work.
SPEAKER_01:Can you this is my first pick can you make that out no I cannot see what that is on your iPhone.
SPEAKER_04:That's a plate full of eggs you don't remember giving me them egg it looks yes I remember bringing you eggs for my chickens I forgot about that here it is August the 19th 2021 and you brought me them eggs and I told y'all that's right I had forgotten about bringing you eggs yeah no I can't I keep that picture and I was trying to see that protein was good for him all right let's see if this it was the eggs brought you back can't even make that out can you see it's glaring it's glaring yeah that was me in the truck that was my first day first what day is that Sean no that couldn't have been my first day September 17th or what yeah yeah that meant about right maybe oh man so when you started recovering you were recovering really quickly yes I know that you told me your perceptions have kind of changed a little bit after this as far as um well you have a heightened I don't know it's pretty neat what you shared with me the other day about your heightened sensitivity to people. Walking me about feeling people out yeah yeah oh yeah yeah I totally heightened after that I observe people a lot a lot more now I'm very observing in a room now remember things that people would not even care about.
SPEAKER_01:But I remember you told me that it's like this compassion that you kind of developed I mean you've always been a compassionate person but it's like you have this you can sense when somebody's having trouble.
SPEAKER_04:Oh yeah yeah can you see it on their face if you look hard enough their face won't lie their their body actions won't lie.
SPEAKER_01:Mm-hmm. So that was just something that stood out to me when you were talking about the girl who worked at Walmart and you can you share that story thanking her for bringing it No that wasn't Walmart that was at Dollar General. Oh that was at Dollar General?
SPEAKER_04:Okay that was at our Dollar General just um it kind of made me mad probably a lady in her thirties it's it's probably about seven or eight o'clock at night she's in there trying to run the cash register and try to stomp that whole store right by herself. Mm-hmm yeah um that much money that company got that they're gonna work that lady to death like that. I mean she needs to be told to her face thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. 'Cause I thank her. I mean look up to her just you know I don't know just kind of hack me off you know big company do somebody like that. But they can and they will Yeah yeah what was her reaction when you told her that she'll flabbergaster never drink because she uh she knew she don't know me but she can tell by the way I was gripped she knew I live in a upper middle class neighborhood. I I'm not broke. How the hell would I acknowledge her? But it totally threw her back that I did. Because I do. Even though we have done very well anybody that knows me will tell you I'm a working man and I'm for the working man. Mm-hmm. You give me a choice to be at a a an elite golf course country club or working on an old car or an old truck I'm doing that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Even though I got you know got the money to do it. So it's not my thing. I don't do that. I don't I I don't know how to relate to people like that so there's no need me around them.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah do you feel like COVID kind of helped bring more of that out in you? Yeah I'm way bigger of a a-hole now than I've ever been and God knows it He's gonna deal with me He's gonna deal with you he he never stops does he?
SPEAKER_04:I'm way more opinion uh Fedre would do it I'm way more opinionated now than I've ever been. Oh are you probably wasn't opinionated at all was I no you always had your opinions okay I really got 'em now you're just always real sweet about 'em though. Yeah I try to be sweet. Um but no just um you know like the lady at the dollar store instant you know just see stuff like that it sets me off. Just cause you can do something like that don't mean you got to. But um oh we'll tell you this um just a small footnote and it still happens every morning I do it. I think it'll be with me till I die. I think I always feel this way. Every time I put on my socks in the morning I relive what I went through because there was a time I couldn't put on my sock.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But it's kind of weird when I go to put them socks on like that I'm like it hits me. morning. You couldn't do that. It was about thir it was about sixty days, uh seventy days. There'll no way in the world you could do that.
SPEAKER_01:Uh-huh. Well Sandra, I know that uh Chucky is very appreciative of you and what all you done for him and how you were right there with him even though you were really, really sick as well.
SPEAKER_00:Well, yes, it's th I'm just thankful he it all came through like it did and everyone prayed for um because, you know, like I said, I'm a firm believer it's you're not gonna go until your your written Lamb's Book of Life, you know you're till it's your time. Just hate that he had to go through those trials like he did.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But um but thankfully he got through it and yeah it makes you more thankful, more I guess more grateful might be a good word to use. Um grateful like I said every day when he puts on his socks because that's a very simple thing that you just take for granted. Everybody takes for granted. You know you sit down on your socks. Something that he couldn't do and every day grateful that he can get up.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. So much you don't take for granted anymore.
SPEAKER_04:And I will say this after my experience a lot of my friends who were kind of rough around the edges like I was if they didn't believe in God then they believed in God after I got out of that hospital and told them. So I think that was a good thing. That was a good testimony to a lot of people I was close to that probably believed in God but didn't pay him attention. Yeah, they didn't pay him attention. Mm-hmm but um after I got out they started paying attention.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. You share your testimony pretty regular don't you with people?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah I do. Yeah I do. Uh you know not all the time but yeah when I get a chance I do. Uh we just had a real good friend have three stints put in his heart and uh he went through kinda like what I did a lot quicker though. A near death experience. 'Cause when we get together I love to talk to him see what his see what his outlook on life is like now. 'Cause it's got to be different.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Got to be.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but I'm so glad you're there to be able to share it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Mm-hmm. Yes, ma'am. It was a it was a horrible thing to go through, but I'm glad I went through it because up till that point I I thought I was Superman. Thought I could do anything. And with me never being in a hospital, me getting sick was the last thought on my mind. So I don't think that way no more. With all the my people that had COVID and went through a bad time with COVID, maybe you'll get some comment. When you get it, you have a lot of side effects. I'm a diabetic now. I have to you know watch my blood sugar.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Don't have the energy level I once had. Nowhere near the energy level. Comes and goes and like what you call peats and valleys.
SPEAKER_01:You got that long COVID.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So and the doctors told me that, especially with the energy thing, that was gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Sandra, are you the same way? No.
SPEAKER_04:No, she's the energizer bunny. I'll never slow down.
SPEAKER_00:I didn't, you know, I don't because he was on the vent or I don't I don't I just don't know what well now he had COVID pneumonia. And see I didn't get the COVID pneumonia. I just had COVID. Yeah. And I that you know, and I do believe that BAM saved me. Now now I asked them why couldn't Chucky have gotten the BAM and they said he had already gone too far. Oh okay. The BAM was only good for before you get it so bad. If he could have gotten on the BAM save a couple of days before he went to the hospital, you know, that that may have saved him. But see, we had no idea about BAM um you know at all. I was just fortunate I went in and explained um how sick he was and yeah, I told the doctor I said, you know, I have a history of just getting worse um respiratory. Yeah, I have respiratory but had I not gone and basically pushed for it, I wouldn't have gotten it either. And I do think that saved me from getting sicker.
SPEAKER_03:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. I mean I I spent 24 hours, like I said, just basically um I mean just in the bed, but it but it saved me from, I'm sure, being hospitalized.
SPEAKER_04:And I'm sure that was a not only a rough 24 hours for her, but a horrible 24 hour. Could you imagine being night sick and your husband's in the hospital and you don't know what's going on? I'm sure the thought was in her head, am I gonna be in the hospital?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Or who's gonna check on me to take me to the hospital.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So thank god thank goodness she was strong enough to get through it.
SPEAKER_00:During that twenty-four hours, I really wasn't even able to to text I'd answer the phone and talk just a few little minutes to when people would call, but uh, you know, I've gotta get over this. So uh yeah, I just I had to spend at least that time just resting. Mm-hmm. I would drink a little bit. I couldn't even drink much, I drank a little bit. So I didn't have to go to the bathroom much because I wasn't you know, I wasn't hydrating at that time. So I just just laid there and it was just crazy. Had a fever, you know, I I was just like I said, that was just dog, dog, dog sick for that that 24 hour period, but thank God it didn't last uh longer than that. Um like I said, I would not let the boys come in at all. I said, I'm not about to let you any possibility of getting sick. And you know, I and I wasn't hungry, you know, even I mean I'm like there's nothing I I I couldn't eat. If somebody had brought me something to eat to my mouth, I couldn't eat, you know, I was just too sick to eat. Honestly too sick to drink during that time. Now, when I got over that, it was just amazing. Like after 24 hours was okay, I feel like I can eat something. And it was like jello. It wasn't like I'm not gonna go eat a a Big Mac, but you know, I started eating like jello. I you know, drink a little bit of Gatorade, you know, slowly got back to uh I guess what you might call an appetite.
SPEAKER_01:Um So no McDonald's for you.
SPEAKER_00:No. No, she wasn't crazy.
SPEAKER_04:No fries of not listening to the McDonald's commercial. I still can feel that craving. And she'll dip when I got out of that hospital. I I would like to get me to a McDonald's.
SPEAKER_00:I'm thinking he's gonna want a steak. You know, I've still left a longhorns. And he's like, McDonald's is crazy serious.
SPEAKER_01:Give me that quarter pounder.
SPEAKER_04:Him commercial the magic. Crazy when you're about half dead. And I mean half alive.
SPEAKER_00:He has spent so long not eating, you know. I mean, I mean, yeah, he ate in the in the rehab. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Probably, but but all that time in the hospital, you know, he couldn't eat. I told him he needed that salt. I think he's craving salt. That's right.
SPEAKER_04:Um salty fried. But now I'm a diabetic. I don't need it now. No, Lord.
SPEAKER_00:No, it's not that. He's having now to struggle really daily with that with the blood sugar. I'm a big bit. Giving up on Dr. Peppers.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, uh, she'll know. Tired, tired. You know, I've had a bad sugar day, I reckon. Her life says she loved to just go, go, go. So you know, she won't she won't push for me to go. She she can tell.
SPEAKER_01:Well, she's got that car that go go. She's got that Camaro.
SPEAKER_00:I tell Jackie, I just feel like, you know, we just turned 55. I don't want to sit home until I have to sit home.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I'm to the feeling, you know, that we're I mean, I work, I get tired, you know, I'll come home and rest, but I do I go after work. I'm usually go and go and go until dark. Again, I'm feeling like I'm gonna go as long as I can go. Because you never know. Y'all learn that. You never know. That's right. Absolutely. I said we'll sit home and and watch TV when when we can't get up and go anymore. Oh goodness. But anyway, we you know, we have so many things to do here. Yeah, there's yeah, there's so many options and just things to get out and and I you know, I like to socialize with them and I you know, you know, where I work, obviously I have to talk a lot, but I'm like, I like that's with students. I like to go talk to adults, you know, when I get off work. So there's different events we go to and um And you both have motorcycles. That's right. Yeah. And we love to ride. That's yeah, we both like that. Motorcycles, that's a the good what they call wind therapy. Mm-hmm. It's uh better than anything. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I appreciate y'all so much just sharing your stories. There's any last thing you want to share before we go?
SPEAKER_04:I think we covered everything. I hope people will definitely get some meaning and some feel better about themselves about this. Just um be thankful for everything you got and everything will go right. Keep a positive attitude. Um we'll say one thing, um, and I especially do this now, and Sandra can bounce for this. I wake up every morning happy. I I have a positive attitude. Some days I may not get much done, some days I may move the world, but I'm I'm always gonna be happy.
SPEAKER_00:Thanking God. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And she'll tell you sometimes we'll be riding in the car and I'll just hold my hand up. Thank you, Jesus. It should look like I don't know, I just felt like I needed to think.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So I I do that again.
SPEAKER_01:It's wonderful. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But um thank y'all, especially you. Um, which you know, and Sandra already well, I think of you as like a first cousin. I've never thought of you as a friend. I never thought of Alf as a friend.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Um y'all always the Wimberleys have always seemed like part of the Mason family. Like we're kind of together.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I've never thought of you as a friend. I thought I think of you more as family. Yeah, I know, I hope we'll get the word out and maybe some of our classmates and stuff will see this. Um love films.
SPEAKER_01:Um, that's what we were supposed to do. Yeah, before this Delta variant, that's what we were gonna do was have our class reunion.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and let me ask this. What were you telling me? Uh, wasn't it you and Lynn and Ivy? If y'all had not heard from me from the hospital, y'all were gonna try to plan a way to go see me or something?
SPEAKER_01:I think so. Yeah. Yeah, we were.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I thought you said Ivy's alive. We just can't sit here and do nothing. We got to find out whether he's alive or what. Oh my god, I think he put in jail.
SPEAKER_01:That's right.
SPEAKER_04:I made me feel good that had a lot of friends. Thank God on old Sandra girl here, she's not a jealous woman. I I had a bunch of female classmates and female friends, you know, worried to death about me.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_04:So um a lot of good friends, and you know, it's good to know that. I'm not much of a socialite, except when except when I'm with Sandra and she makes me be a more I'm way more introverted than I am a socialite. Where she's the opposite. So I reckon you can say we're opposite attract.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Balance each other out. That's right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well thank you, Alisa, for for doing this. And uh Yeah, thank you very much. Like Chucky said, hopefully that it'll bring a little meaning to for someone else, and uh, but we appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Well, I appreciate you coming on here and and just going public with your testimony. Thank you so much for the interview. Hey listener, before you go, would you please open your podcast app, scroll to Beyond Existing, Beyond the Small Talk, and tap follow and leave a five star rating or a quick review to help this podcast grow. Also, you can go to the episode's description to send me a text if you would like to share how this episode impacted you, or if you would like me to share a message with my guest. Thank you for listening.
