SPEAKER_02 0:00

Here comes the there comes the thing. Hello, fortitude audience. Thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Heather Kittelson, and I'm your host sitting with my beautiful husband, Amos, who is the co-host. Hello.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

And just a technical note, today we have some background sound effects going on, which is heavy machinery right on the back of the other side of this wall, right here. So apologies in advance if you hear beep beepings. All kinds of interesting things.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

That's right. Forgiveness and grace. And today in our studio, we have Melanie Brown, who is a dear friend of ours. Hi, Melanie.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Good morning.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Melanie and I go back so many years. I want to say it's almost a decade that we crossed each other's paths.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

I think so.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

And since then, I've been in awe of the strength and the love and just everything that you encompass is such a man, anyone who crosses your path. When when people say you shine God's light, I think of you. Or you shine God's joy. There are certain people that just have this exuberance, and you are the example of that and have been an incredible mentor of mine. So having you here today with us is really special.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

Well, it's an honor to be here with both of you.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Yeah. I tell people you can't unmeet Melanie Brown.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

No, you can't. Well, that is just not possible. You can't unmute. Yes. You leave an impression on everyone. And it's it's beautiful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

God does wonderful things.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

He does.

SPEAKER_03 1:56

In and through us.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Well, and he has been working through you in a big, big, mighty way. And so having you in today to speak about um something that you've most recently gone through that's really hard. Um, to have you here today, only four months later, speaking about it is is it it's mind-blowing to me and beautiful. And so if you could, before we jump into that, just explain a little bit of who you are and just who's Melanie Brown.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

Well, thank you so much, Heather and Amos, for having me here this morning. It's a great honor to be with you. And who is Melanie Brown? Well, I'm a country bunkin. I grew up on a farm where we were our own store. Everything we did was something we ate, we drank, we milked cows, we butchered our own cattle and pigs, we raised chickens and we gathered eggs. And um, I just remember one day my dad would always say, You kids can go do whatever you want, but when it's time to get up in the morning, you're gonna fly out of bed. And I'm, okay, dad, I'll do whatever you want us to do. And he was a very um structured person, very great leader, a very God-filled gentleman. But he liked to have fun. So one weekend we went out and we stayed out a little late. And his goal that day was to have a hundred chickens cleaned and packaged and in the freezer by noon. And so, you know, we got home late, snuck upstairs, went to bed, and we flew out of bed that morning because he lit firecrackers and put him in a tin can in the hallway upstairs, and it was like boom. And we literally jumped out of bed and he's down at the end of the stairway going, ha ha ha ha ha, you guys will learn not to stay out anymore. I love that. And so we had to do everything on the farm. Yeah. I always tell my kids if you go out and scoop the crap and butcher the chickens and clean the internal stuff out of the chicken, you'll really know what work means. And you'll really appreciate what's on your table because you created all of that.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Well, and the farmers do all of that. Yeah. That's where we're going wrong, Melanie. We were just saying last night that my the kids, I put a beautiful dinner in front of them, and this is a universal thing with parents and kids, and I don't want to eat that. Ew, that's monks grouse. And I was like, we need to have we need to have them out butchering their own dang dinner. That's what we need, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 4:41

And then they'll have more appreciation. Oh well, and it's it's just good when your hands and your heart are in everything you do. Yeah. And I think that's what the farm does for kids. Absolutely. Really shows them where everything comes from.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Mm-hmm. You come from a very big family. We're talking your dad is how many of my father was from a family of 16.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

Yes. Now the first child passed away on their dining room table because he got caught in a silage cutter. He was out helping his dad. And so after that, they had 15 more children. And he was the first. He was the he would have been the third. Third, okay, but was the second living oldest. And his sister, his oldest sister and him, their name started with V. My father's name was Vincent. Okay. And all the rest of them were Ds. So when those younger ones grew up, the baby of the family grew up, they said, You have to be a D. So they named him Dominique. So anyway, they had a wonderful family. When we all get together, there's 530 some of us. And you know, there's more added as our son is going to have a baby soon. There's more added every time, every day, every month, every year. And just we're one sixteenth of the family, and there's 72 of us in my family of six of us, brothers and sisters.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Do you really get all 500 together?

SPEAKER_03 6:15

Very seldomly anymore. But when our grandparents are were alive and um wow, the crew got together and beautiful pictures. We go to a resort where we can rent cabins that can pull their campers in and all of that. Yes. And we'd have square dance parties because my grand and grandpa called square dances. Oh. And everything. Yeah. What kind of camera do you use to take a picture? Is that like a satellite, satellite photo? It's a wide spectrum. It's a wide spectrum camera.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

Can we be a part of your family? Oh I mean, we kind of are. You are. Yes. Yeah. Because with Jeremy and then my friend Kate, who's a part of my story, that is part of your family. Yes. Which is it's Dorenda. Dorenda is the another offshoot, which is over by us. And it's just crazy. There's just a lot of, I mean, the um what's what's your spater? Yes. Okay, we don't want to need to do names, but so we you have someone in your group that's also connected several ways. Yeah, sorry. There's so many. Yes. Um, Melanie, you so coming from a very large family, the love, the joy, the faith, the thing, the the roots that have been planted inside of you are beautiful. And I believe that that comes, shines through in your character today and what you've passed on. And so you and Dennis, I mean, the way that you've raised your your kids and your grandkids and the joy. I was looking back at pictures and just seeing it, it's it um it's really neat, the generational stuff that you have passed on. And um you four months ago went through a pretty tough time. Um, something that no spouse wants to get a call. And I just want to allow you to take time to just walk us through that day and just share what is, I guess, healthy in your heart.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

It was a day that will forever change my life. Um, I was traveling outside of Sioux Falls because I'm a speaker and a coach, and I was doing a women's retreat that day, and I had called my husband that morning, as I always do at night and in the morning, and wished him a good day and said, I love you. And I said, I'll have my phone off for most of the day because I'm doing this retreat, but I'll call you on my way home. Okay, honey, bye. Love you, love you too. And the retreat started, and we took a break for lunch, and they said, You go first because you need to eat, and we'll be back doing the retreat. And so I was one of the first ones through the line and sat down and was visiting with a woman that sat beside me. And another one came and my phone was on vibrate. And it I just glanced at the number and it looked like my grandson's friend's number, so I just silenced my phone and it immediately rang again, and I silenced it again, and it rang a third time, and I said, ladies, please excuse me. This is the third time in a row. I think I need to take this call. And I took my phone and I went outside with it and um said hello, because I didn't know who it was. I usually say hello, this is Melanie, and she said, Is this Melanie Brown? And I said, Yes, it is. And she said, Are you Dennis Brown's wife? And I said, Yes, I am, and she said, I just need you to know that I'm sitting here with your husband. He's been in an accident. And I interrupted and said, Is he okay? And she said, Yes, Melanie, he's talking to me. And I said, Tell him I love him. How is he doing? And she said, Well, he's talking to me. She said, Do you want to talk to him? And I said, Yes, can I just hear his voice? And um, she gave him the phone and he said, Hi, honey. And then all of a sudden, she took it back and she said that your ambulance is here. We have to let him go. And she said, I'll call you back right away when we get him loaded, and I'll I'll talk to you and answer more of your questions. And she told me her name and and I wrote down this number, and um then I had to go inside. And I walked inside and they said, Are you okay? And I said, No, I need your prayers because my husband was just in an accident. And of course, they had all the questions that I had too. And I said, I really don't know anything. They just were loading him in the air ambulance, and she's gonna call me back. So when she called me back, of course, I asked again, how bad is he? And she said we had to airlift him to the burn unit. And she said, But I want you to know that we got your husband out of the truck before it blew up, and then my body just ran cold. I was just numb. And I just when you're numb, you just shut down, and I couldn't even write. This wonderful lady was with me that was writing everything down, and I just I just started to pray, dear God. Please take him, be with him, guide him, protect him, direct him, and thank you for getting out before the truck blew up. And I just said, I don't know what's wrong, but I know you're with him, I know you're there, I can feel your presence, and I just prayed, please God, take care of him, and then these ladies and everybody wanting to take me back to where I came from in Sioux Falls, and I just said, I just need to be by myself, I need to just be with God, and I so appreciate you wanting to do that, but in a moment where your life is torn apart and it's falling to pieces, you feel like you're standing on sifting sand, and I needed to be with God to find my foundation again. I needed to ground myself in him. Most of the time we pray to our problems, and I wanted to pray to his promises, knowing that he's going to give me strength to get through, knowing that he has his hands all over Dennis, knowing that everything is, he will take care of it all. When it's out of our control, it's always under God's control. And so I just needed to be with him. I needed to talk to him. I needed to ask a lot of questions. And the one thing that I always ask for is God, just please show me signs that we're doing what's good and right for him. Can you please just give me signs all the way? And I just prayed. I just, you know, I just prayed to renew Dennis's strength to heal the brokenhearted. And God, you say you're gonna be there with you. All things are possible. And I just praised him for getting him out of the truck before it blew up because it could have all been over. But we have this opportunity to go see my husband, and it wasn't pretty, right? It was a horrible accident, and his truck did blow up. When you say truck, we're talking a semi, a semi that was loaded. Yes, yes, and it just everything was gone in a second, it was gone. They someone he rear-ended another truck, semi, a semi, and his truck was like an accordion, it just collapsed, and there were flames on the passenger side of his truck. The smoke was so thick inside the truck that it was black and nobody could see him. And people, the traffic was stopping on both sides of the interstate because it was such a horrific accident. And these two ladies went across the unauthorized um approach to get to the other side to help. And what ended up happening was a pickup went across the interstate on both lanes to stop the traffic from behind the trucks because people were still going around the two trucks. And these two ladies that came across interstate got out of their vehicle and walked up by the trucks to see if they could do anything. And they heard Dennis hollering for help, and then she invariably screamed, There's someone in here that's alive. We need to help him. And she just kept screaming and she tried to open the door, but it wouldn't open. And Dennis was unable to do anything inside because his foot was stuck in the accordion in the crash. It was stuck, he couldn't unhook his seatbelt, he couldn't open his door, and then his whole right side is in the fire. And it was like God sent nine angels to the scene, and those angels came bearing. One of them had a box cutter, one of them had a crowbar, and three of them came with fire extinguishers. They didn't ask him if it was Democrat, Republican, black, or white. He didn't care what creed or religion he was, all they knew was there was this fire, and they were gonna save this person inside there. So they were risking their life to save his. Everything in his truck was gone. They would not have known me hadn't Dennis said, her name is Melanie. Here's her phone number, she's my wife, everything just disintegrated in the fire. And so it's when I stop and think about how God's hand was over all of this. It was amazing. It was amazing what God did to save Dennis from the fires of hell.

SPEAKER_02 20:15

It was really special being at Dennis's memorial and the standing ovation that those two ladies got in the church. Uh it was beautiful. Uh-huh. The two ladies that that came and used the crowbar to get that door open. They, yeah, the fact that they were there, they're now a part of your family. Yeah. Very much. You got to Minneapolis, and what was you first see Dennis? What was that reaction or that that reunite like?

SPEAKER_03 20:52

It was very special. You had spent nine hours in the emergency room. Nine hours he was in the emergency room. And so you can imagine going from being a strong man to having everything stripped away from you. They had to cut his clothes off. They they just took everything away from him and he lay there naked and afraid. But when I saw him, he was like powered by God. He did not cry, he did not feel sorry for himself, he never complained about any pain or anything. He was just like, wow, I'm still here. Is this really you? And I said, Yeah. I'm so glad to see you, honey. And you don't know. Love is until you lose someone you've been with for forty-one years. It's that moment that we saw each other was heavenly. And just to be able to lean into each other. And I couldn't touch because he was so wrapped up. His whole right side was wrapped up, and his chest was wrapped up, and his head was all wrapped up. But you could feel his heart. You can feel his heart. And you could see the glory in his eyes and the light that was shining through him. And going back to what God did once again. And when the gentleman from the emergency room called and said he's in stable condition for the condition he was in, they had him stabilized. And he said he's talking and he's alert. And he said he's a strong man because he they had to let him free fall out of the truck, right? And my husband was 79 and a half years old. And any 79-year-old that falls that far, it's like seven feet that he fell, usually breaks bones in their body. He said, Your husband has no broken bones in his body, he only has a fracture in his ankle because of the pressure from the accident. It took off the top layer of his foot because of how hard they had to pull him out. He had steel toed shoes on that were shredded. Had steel toed shoes on that were shredded. And he said, Your husband has no smoke inhalation damage, and we can't believe it. He was in a truck that was burning for at least five minutes, inhaling all that black, thick smoke that nobody could see him. And he had no smoke inhalation damage, no damage to his eyes, his nasal passages, his esophagus, nothing. There was nothing in his lungs. There was nothing in his lungs. It's like God put a smoke filter over his face. He had the armor of God on the top. Totally. Totally. So God sent us many signs. And then the gentleman from the emergency room said, You will go to the purple door to come in. And you know me, I love purple. Purple is your color. Purple. And I'm like, oh my God, we are in the right place. And then they said, you will go upstairs to the fourth floor, which is the burn unit. And it's the purple wing that you will go to. And all I could think about was, thank you, God, thank you, God, thank you, God. And when Dennis and I saw each other for the first time that night, he remembered the purple wing. And he too said, God's got this because we're in your purple world. And I said, Yeah, and that's gonna make you sick, isn't it? And we just we laughed, but it's we are so connected yet today that I can hear his voice in your heart. You just hear things, and sometimes he says, What in the world are you doing that for? And we I just laugh and I can hear him laugh. And so it's that moment that we first connected again was was just a precious moment. And I thank God for that all the time because he was alert, he was very badly injured, but you wouldn't have known that because of his the way he was his strength, his courage, his awe of still being there carried him. He, of course, was in shock, but he never he never complained. And so people say, How how can you do this? How do you have the strength to do this? It's not me, it's God.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

And the strength being, you're you're still out, Melanie. You're do you're I was just at a retreat that you did to 50, 60, 70 women. Like you are not taking this lying down.

SPEAKER_03 27:32

No, no, it's it goes back to what God tells us to do to pray to his promises. If I look at myself and poor me, it doesn't feel good. It it's a horrible thing to have happen. We I always thought, you know, we're just gonna live forever, right? And I told Dennis, God saved you from burning in that fire. You can do anything, and I just felt like he would make it through it all in my heart of hearts. But a burn is a horrible injury to your body, and on his right side, it was just all most of his skin was pretty much gone. Yeah, and so the hardest part about a burn victim is to have skin grafting, and Dennis never complained about a thing until the second skin graft surgery. He had four surgeries, and the first two they removed all the dead skin, of course, and then the second two they do the skin grafting, and after those surgeries, the only thing that wasn't covered up on his body was his left arm, and then then they were scheduled to do two more surgeries to his head because that was burnt the worst, and they would have to do special surgeries for his face and the back of his head. So I was there for most of the time when they took the bandage off, they took all the dressings off. I wanted to be there so I could feel his pain. I wanted to see his body, I wanted him to know that I cared. And I used to be a nurse a long, long time ago when our kids were firstborn, but I've never seen a burn victim that bad. I saw a lot of things, but I never saw a burn victim that bad. And you have to know who my husband was before this happened. He had a wonderful career as a truck master. We call him because he also served in the army and was a truck master in the service. He put on five and a half million miles in the decades of his service to being a truck master. He trucked for over 60 years, put on five and a half million miles. He had never been in an accident, and he never ever had a speeding ticket.

unknown 30:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 30:44

And he never ever showed up anywhere late.

unknown 30:48

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 30:49

And so I'm just so proud of the person that he was. And people would say to me, Melanie, he was 79 years old. How come he didn't retire? And I said, You don't know my dentist. Yeah. And I told him, even the doctors, that he has scheduled appointments for next year already in 2024 to get his CDL because he was a little perturbed that they couldn't get him in when he thought he should get in because they were so far scheduled out. So he said, I'm gonna make appointments before I leave this time. So I'm gonna have him for 2024. I said, Well, good for you. And I thought to myself, oh dear Lord, he's gonna be 80. Is he not gonna retire? And he always said, I need to have a purpose. Yeah. Yeah. And that was his purpose. And he loved it. He loved to meet people, he loved to go to different places. And he just did it for two and a half days every week.

SPEAKER_02 31:52

And he was there for your grandkids' stuff, he was there for your kids' stuff. He did everything. He was a great dad. Yes, husband. He was.

SPEAKER_03 32:01

We would go to the kids' games when they were in high school, and um, we took care of, we'd have parties for the football team and for the basketball team and for the cheerleaders. And one time we were um the football team was in the last um game before the end of the season to get into the championship, and it was way out west. We had to drive seven and a half hours to get there. So we were the chaperones for the cheerleaders, which our daughter was a cheerleader. And oh my gosh, those girls would woo over him and just, and so we have a picture where they won the game, and this team that they played had never lost on their home field, ever. And they were the first team to beat this team to get into the championship game. And so there was quite a celebration at the end of the game, and um we have a picture of all of the cheerleaders, and Dennis is on the ground and they have their little arms and their elbows on top of him and just smiling, and he's just grinning, just like, here's my girls. But they he was a dad to all of them because some of them were from divorced families and dads that weren't there. And so they always came over to our house and he he took care of all those kids, boys and girls. Our son's football team and basketball team, we did the same thing. We had lots of parties before the games. We served spaghetti dinners, we had pizza dinners. Yeah, we had the celebration afterwards, homecoming, and our son was homecoming king, and our daughter was homecoming queen. So we had a lot of good years of cheering him on and a lot of great celebrations in Dennis's life. So he was 80 years young, young. He was young at heart and a kid at heart.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

When you two you guys show up. That's that's how I picture the two of you. Everywhere you enter into a door and you show up and you're present and you're there. And Dennis just, I mean, I can just see him up in heaven being like, I'm here. What's up, God? Like, what do you want? Put me to work. Because you were in that, so you were at the burn unit or at the hospital in Minnesota, up in Minneapolis area. And how many days were you got to spend with Dennis?

SPEAKER_03 34:30

Um, we had 14 good days with him, and then two that were not so good. But when I first arrived, I had said to the nurse, where's a good place to go stay? And she said, Well, there's hotel rooms all around the hospital. And she gave us a couple numbers for the hotel rooms, and then she said, Tomorrow, Melanie, we're gonna introduce you to a gentleman named Jake, because they had told us that we would probably be there for three to six months. And I just was like, oh my goodness. But you just take one day at a time. You just take one day at a time and don't worry about what's gonna happen after that. And so we went and stayed at a hotel room, and then the next day we met this phenomenal young man named Jake. And he took us into this place called Firefighters for Healing. And when he opened the door to that place, I could just feel that it was full of God's amazing grace. And he walked us down the hallway and opened the door, and he said, Here's your apartment, just for you. And of course, I just crumbled. I just was like, Oh my gosh, you are really gonna give me an apartment. And Jake said, Yes, this is yours for as long as you need it. And how many people will open their heart and their door to you and say, you can stay here for as long as you need to. And he showed us around the apartment, and and then he said, Here's some special things for you. And there was a special red backpack, and he said, It's full of goodies just for you. And you can take everything that you need, and what you don't use here, you can take home with you. And remember, I asked God for signs that we were in all the right places, doing all the right things. And of course, the grandchildren were with me that afternoon that he showed us the apartment and they were looking through the backpack, and they pulled out a blanket that nobody knew we were coming there. Nobody knew anything. It was already in the room. Guess what color the blanket was? Purple. Was purple. It was purple, it was purple. And so it's just, I just felt like God's hand was everywhere we went, his protection was wrapped around us every day. And the song that we kept playing all the time was The Goodness of God by Cece Wynance. And it's a beautiful song, and it's it's the perfect song for us because there's one of the first verses she sings is your voice led me out of the fire. Yeah. And so that was kind of our theme song for the whole stay there. And I would just stick my phone in my pocket because I don't wear earbuds or have anything else, and I would just walk up and down the halls when Dennis was sleeping, or they did a dressing change, and I left early, and I would just have that song singing all the time. It was in my pocket, and I just felt like God was with us everywhere we went, He was always there.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

So you and Jeremy and your daughter, and was everybody around Dennis when he took his last breath? Was everyone in the room?

SPEAKER_03 38:23

Yes, we were all there.

SPEAKER_02 38:24

Okay. What was that like, Melanie?

SPEAKER_03 38:28

It was two days prior to that. Um they did a dressing change, and it was just it overcome Dennis's body. He had had four surgeries, and now, like I said, his whole body was wrapped up. And doing a dressing change was just it was a big, it was a big thing for a burned patient. And after that, he just his body just kind of gave out. His breathing got really rapid, and so we had to put a ventilator in. And that morning was the best morning I'd ever seen him after his first surgery. I'd taken a picture and called the kids and said, wow, dad looks great, even after the fourth surgery. And so everything can change really fast because the whole body is, you know, working so hard to heal that part. And his whole body needed to be healed. And as you know, we sent a lot of messages out on Facebook. I've never done that before to really lay our life out on Facebook and be so vulnerable. But we just asked that people would pray for his ultimate healing. God, please, please give Dennis the ultimate healing that only you can do. Lay your hands on him. And two days later, on July 28th, we remove the ventilator, which is very hard to do. And we just ask God to walk him into the gates of heaven. And you just that's the true meaning of letting go and letting God do everything he knows how to do. And Dennis never cried to anything that they did to him there. But as he was taking his last breath, the tears rolled down the cheeks of his face, and I knew he had met Jesus and his family, and his daughter had gone to heaven about a year and a half before this, or two years, and his younger brother had just passed a year before, and I just saw in those tears that he saw the glory and the family in front of him. And there again, you just have to say thank you, God. You saved him from the fires of hell, so you could walk him into the gates of heaven. And there's nothing more beautiful than that.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

When someone when someone passes, for those that are not believers, and I think about our audience and those that are listening, um, you and I have had a lot of deep conversations about the mourning process and about when you lose someone you love, you can go one way or the other. And it's that I am so mad at God for taking Dennis. You could have gone that direction, or you could say, I am so grateful. And you have lived on the latter side of that, lived in the the peace and the knowing that he is in heaven with God. He did receive the ultimate healing. Your prayer was that. And as much as you do not want to live without Dennis, that gives you peace. And every day you wake up and you're just charging out into the world and you're showing up for you and for Dennis. And I just I think it is so, it's just mighty. It's really mighty, Mel. And ooh, that might be a new name for you. Mighty Mel. Like you just you just you you do it so beautifully and gracefully, and you've had your moments, and you've kicked and screamed and cried and all of it, and yet you even show up here today, four months after Dennis walked through the gates of heaven. And I, and it's it's it's you. It's Dennis. You're carrying your memory and his memory of it all. And I'm just so grateful for you to do that.

SPEAKER_03 43:16

Thank you. It's just when I watched my husband go through what he did and the strength and the courage and the perseverance that he had, I have to tell myself every day, you need to carry on. You need to tell a story because I can't focus so much on poor me, because then I just muddle in the, I call it the pity potty of life. It's poor me. What am I gonna do? How am I going to survive? And it's hard to not have him there. We are married for almost 41 years. It's very hard. You feel like your right arm has been cut. Off. And for me, I just had to create this new vision for my life. I had to see my husband in a different light where he is. Right now, when we understand that, it's beautiful. And he sent me the most amazing sign that everything is okay. I went to the Lord's house one day where this beautiful woman prays over you because I just needed to have that peace and calm inside of me. And someone wanted to take a picture. There were four of us women traveling together, and we got out of the car, and the one lady said, Just stand there. Girls, I'm going to take a picture of you. And we're like, no, get in it. And she said, no, just do it. We'll have another one. And so she took this picture. And when I looked at the picture on my shirt, I had this kind of a royal blue shirt on. And there's white angel wings going across my chest. And I just thought, wow. Thank you so much, Dennis, for letting me know that everything's okay. It was this beautiful light. And if you look at the picture, there's no light anywhere else. It's it's sun shining out, but there's no light anywhere else on the picture. And so it's like after he gave me that sign, and then I had a dream that he was running through the green meadows, and it was so beautiful to see him running. Because one of the things he said is, I just want to stand up and give you a hug and a kiss. And I said, You can just be right there and do that. It's okay. And he and I said, You'll be standing soon and running again. And so it was so good to see him in that in that dream that he had these special shoes on. And he was running. And I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't come over beside me. And I was like, wow, what happened? Where what what did I do wrong? And I was trying to figure it all out. And then I woke up and I'm like, oh, he's in heaven. He's in heaven. And he just waved at me before I woke up. And and so I've had those signs from him. And I don't know. Every day when I get up, I always pray for his strength to carry me through and God to show me the way and to guide me and protect me and direct me because I get lost. I get lost. I go to the wrong door, right? I go to the wrong door. And sometimes I don't know where or how to do it, but I don't concentrate on the problem. I just pray on the promises of what God says to trust and to obey and to allow him to renew my strength. He can't do it for me. He can do it with me and through me, but I have to also be a part of that. I can't lay there and say, oh my gosh, what am I going to do? I have to get up and be who God's created me to be and do what Dennis did. I need to carry his courage. I need to carry his strength and I need to persevere through this and be the light that he was in our family and the life that he had with us. I want to keep that light shining. Those people that came to help him that day were the angels. And it's all happened because he was the angel to many people while he was on this earth. And one in particular that I remember is we always ate out at a local restaurant, and we noticed that the young busboy that busted and cleaned up all the tables and stuff was his shoes were his toes were popping through his shoes. They were old and crumpled shoes. And he didn't know our names, but he always came over and gave us a hug and he'd smile and pat our backs. And his he was just an amazing young gentleman. And so we decided that we were going to get him a new pair of shoes for Christmas. And we were going to take him out for breakfast. And how could we do this? Because he lives in a special unit for these young adults. And um so we asked the gentleman that was the head of the restaurant, like, how can we do this for him? And so he told us what we needed to do was to call the place in which he lived and asked the person that was in charge if we could take him out for breakfast. And we did all of that, and that was right before Christmas. So we took a picture of him with Santa Claus. And you would not believe the beauty that's in that picture, all because Dennis cared enough. Dennis cared enough to make a difference in someone else's life. And he's the silent angel. If we saw a young person sitting by themselves, we would usually buy or pay for their meal. If we saw an older gentleman or woman sitting by themselves, we would do the same. And we would always tell the waiter or waitress, please don't tell them who it is. Just tell them their meal is paid for and we would like to pick up their ticket. And so it's all of those things that Dennis did along the way that kind of paved the way for how his life ended here on earth and began in heaven and his eternal home.

SPEAKER_02 50:29

Oh, Melanie. So if anybody in the audience um got anything from this, it is that to not pray, how did you say that? To pray, pray for the promise, not the problem. Right. And to go out into the world and live like Dennis. That's that's the message that I hear today is go live like Dennis. Love on others, selflessly, and with all your heart. And don't accept the credit. I mean, like, just just do it. Do be the hands and feet of God. Oh, Mel. Thank you so much for being here today.

SPEAKER_03 51:12

Well, thank you so much for having me. It was an honor and a privilege. It's really special to share Dennis's story and his legacy that will live on forever. It will in our hearts. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 51:26

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SPEAKER_02 51:39

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