September 15, 2023 • 51 mins
This is the first part of a two-part series. It was recorded at midnight on September 1st, 2023 and it marked the beginning of a 24-hour live special.
Feeling helpless as a parent is an unimaginable experience, but it's a reality for those with terminally sick children. In our new season's debut, we're sharing an emotionally charged episode about the Stephanie Shewell Memorial Fund, a charity that provides crucial support to families in their darkest hours. Curt inspires us with the charity’s growth and its profound impact, highlighting the importance of emotional support alongside financial aid.
Curt shares heartwarming and heart-wrenching personal stories. Discussing the difficult struggle of being unable to protect one's child during such trying times and emphasizing the importance of standing together as a family.
You can donate to this fund via Venmo at: @OurAngelSteph
If you enjoy our content, please like, subscribe, and share. You can also catch the show LIVE @ facebook.com/freeforallfriday and make sure you stick around after for "the afterburner"
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Johnny Awesome (00:00):
September 1st 2023.
It was 12 am, seven hoursbefore we officially launched
season four of Free for All.
Friday, kurt Shewell joined usto discuss the Stephanie Shewell
Memorial Fund, a charity thatcomes alongside in AIDS families
as they go through a verydifficult time, by a family that
understands those difficulttimes.
(00:21):
When Jimmy and I made thedecision to do a 24-hour podcast
to celebrate four seasons,jimmy was the one that came up
with the idea to tie it to acharity.
As soon as that idea was born,both Jimmy and I knew exactly
which charity we were going topick.
The following podcast is thevery start of a 24-hour live
podcast that we held.
It is a continuation of KurtShewell's story, but it's also a
(00:44):
story of the legacy left behindby his daughter together now
(01:36):
too.
Jimmy Fantastic (01:36):
So we're next to each other and we'll see him
off.
Johnny Awesome (01:38):
I haven't even broke.
I will say there's one morething coming up that's going to
be really.
I'll just go ahead and announceit now.
Jimmy doesn't even know aboutthis.
I've been, I've been since.
I've been back trying to get myhair cut.
Oh and, as you can see, Ihaven't gotten your hair on yes,
yep.
Yep, I was supposed to get itcut, but it didn't happen, so it
was scheduled for today.
So live today, jimmy will becutting my hair.
Jimmy Fantastic (01:57):
I didn't even know that was happening, but I
don't know.
Curt Shewell (01:59):
But this is how did you get this color?
How did I get?
Johnny Awesome (02:04):
this color yeah, never seen this color on your
head by shaving it and growingit all back out.
Oh yeah, he remembers the goodold days for those of you that
have been with us since the verybeginning, when my hair was
blue, I believe is what you'rereferencing.
Jimmy Fantastic (02:16):
Right, you weren't the XB colors, yeah.
Curt Shewell (02:18):
Yeah, you've had a few different and I don't know
I've ever seen that color Really.
Johnny Awesome (02:23):
Yeah, it's been like this for a while now.
So you say, all right, good,well, we got that situated out.
So, kurt, you know we broughtyou on.
We welcome you, john.
You have a charity that you runthat's near and dear to your
heart.
You're near and dear to ourheart.
I think that this is actually,if it's okay, the first annual.
We'd love to do this again nextyear, really build this up and
(02:44):
continue to do this every year,and so I I'd like you just to
talk a little bit about thecharity that you have, and then
we're going to get theinformation out to folks so that
they can donate throughout theshow.
Curt Shewell (02:55):
But if you would go ahead and chat with us a
little bit, johnny, you guys.
I mean, when, when Jimmy said,hey, by the way, we're doing,
we're doing this telethon and we, we picked your charity as our
charity and I was like, oh well,that's kind of cool, that's
very nice, yeah, and he said, oh, by the way, it starts tonight
at midnight, I'm like, oh,that's cool.
(03:15):
And I said, is that, is thatthe thing Cause Johnny had had
talked to me about I don't know,six, eight weeks ago, something
like that.
I was out of town and you hadcalled me and we talked for
probably half an hour, had agreat conversation.
I mean, anytime you talk toJohnny, you know you start kind
of here and you end up way overhere somewhere and it's like,
wow, every single time and it'spretty neat.
(03:36):
And the way your brain works isis, I think, something really
special.
And I used to think it was like, damn, this guy's weird Me.
Johnny Awesome (03:44):
And then I was like my teachers always said
that too, His brain's prettyspecial.
You're not the first person totell me that.
Curt Shewell (03:50):
I'm a call special if you tell myself.
So it's usually never in a goodway Right.
So it's really neat, cause yourbrain really works and it
clicks, man, when it gets going.
It's a fun place to be andwatch.
And watch your brain work theway it does Like the few times
you and I've interacted inthrough you know interview style
type things you always pullcertain pieces out and it's
(04:13):
interesting to me that you'reable to really do a lot of great
things and you can takesomething and you catch it and
you hear it, and then you'relike wait a minute, where did
this, where did that come from?
Let's go with that.
And you just seem to be able toarticulate the right pieces at
the right times and you can takethings and you've done that to
me a few times where you take meinto really places that that I
(04:37):
honestly don't really talk a lotabout certain things and you
got to get me in these weirdplaces and it's like how the
heck did he get me into that?
Jimmy Fantastic (04:45):
Yeah.
Curt Shewell (04:46):
Yeah, See, Jimmy's really nice.
He never he's like yeah, I'llprobably just divert that, let's
not go there.
Yeah, that's probably not goodwhen Johnny's like let's go
right in that, let's get in thatroom, you know that's you.
So with that, you know, became alot of information about
different things and our charityis something that it's a weird
thing, Real passionate about it,love it.
(05:07):
My son, matt, is the one whostarted it, and the Stephanie
Sheenwell Memorial Fund is whatit's called, and he started it
and it really took off and itbecame a really neat thing and I
struggled with it at first.
The very first year we had agolf outing as a like a charity
event and it was kind of more ofa.
It was designed, let's, youknow, family and friends and
(05:29):
everything, and it was a yearafter Stephanie went to heaven
and it was like, hey, let's justdo something more in her honor
and let's, you know, do a reallykind of cool golf outing which
will end up making a little bitof money probably not much, you
know, a few under bucks orsomething and let's get some
gifts and some prizes and we'lldo that and make it a cool thing
.
Well, all of a sudden,everybody loved that and it
(05:51):
turned into kind of a cool thingthat first year and it was like
, wow, we had like 60, I thinkwe had 64 golfers and we're like
, wow, this is way better thanwe thought and it turned out to
be a pretty cool event and wehad, like, the money we raised
was like $3,000.
And it was like, wow, we madethree grand.
We didn't think we're gonna be$3,300.
(06:13):
And it wasn't about raisingmoney, it wasn't about really
that.
It was more of a feel good andit was kind of a hey, we didn't
forget and we want to honor youknow her that way.
And then we're like Well, whatare you going to do?
And we're like, well, shoot, wecould probably help a few
people with this.
This is pretty cool stuff andit was.
It's interesting because whenyou have a charity and it takes
(06:34):
off and it really grows andpeople really get behind it.
You know, we donated all themoney, we donated all of our
time, we donated everything andpeople were just coming out of
all kinds of places to be partof it and we were getting people
that would tell us you know,this is the coolest.
You know golf hotting we'veever been to and we've gone to a
lot of charity golf hottings.
And because it was, it was justreal and it wasn't.
(06:55):
It was never about driving this, we're gonna hammer for up tons
and tons of money.
And then I had friends who hadbusinesses and stuff, and
friends that have run big eventsand been part of big events,
and it was interesting to me wasthey were like you know, why
aren't you guys bringing in likestupid money?
And we're like it's just, it'snot what we're, we're not trying
to do that.
You know, if we can raise fivegrand or 10 grand or something
(07:18):
would be like amazing, we couldhelp one or two or three
families.
Because when you startrealizing what these families go
through during the time theyhave a kid with cancer and
that's our charity, it's helpinglocal people that have kids
with cancer.
And you know, it's justsomething that we know how to do
.
You know, unfortunately, but weget it and by helping these
people.
(07:38):
There's so much you have to doand there's amazing charities
out there that make a wishfoundation, rainbow connection.
You know these, these companiesare there's so many, are
phenomenal at helping andthey'll give you a trip and
they'll.
You know, hey, you can meet acelebrity or you know, you can
give you a phenomenal memory andyou can't put a price on that.
It's, it's fantastic.
(07:59):
However, no pun intended,that's a dollar, all right, it's
really awesome.
We'll be donating it back.
Yeah, and it's really awesomeAnother dog but what what we
found was that we knew the areasthat they really needed to help
.
And you know, the trips aregreat and I think there's a
(08:19):
there's a place for that and Ithink it's really wonderful.
So I would never want that tostop.
But they go to the trip,they're there for a couple days
or a week or a weekend orwhatever that is, and then they
come home and everything's stillthe same, everything's still
real.
Nothing changed.
Yeah, but they got a greatmemory and when the outcome is
(08:40):
bleak and it's bad, they wantthose memories, because that's
probably the biggest thing.
And I get asked all the timelike, okay, what happens, and
how do you survive?
And like, how do you even go on?
And like, oh my gosh, and thesepeople, their fear is oh my God
, I don't wanna be like you andI don't want that ending.
I want the good ending right,and you have to really embrace
(09:02):
the journey to see what it isthat you're supposed to see.
And that was the thing that Ithink we I got out of it and my
family not all of them got thesame thing, and I think that's a
fair thing and a real thing.
Some of them don't quite see itthe same way I do.
(09:22):
I see the beauty of everythingthat we uncovered with stuff and
we got to see a lot of thingsthat we never would have seen.
We took a lot for granted.
You take life for granted.
We go through things.
Your kids they don't get sick,they don't die.
That's what you see on TV.
That's not real.
So when these people are facedwith this adversity and they're
faced with this possibility thattheir child may not be around,
(09:47):
it's a real, real, scary, tough,difficult thing for a parent to
gather.
You go through a series ofemotions you go through.
Am I a good parent Because Ican't protect my child?
If you're a mother, I think themother's connection typically in
most cases to a child is thatbond that is just like insane
(10:09):
right, everybody you respect andlove your mother.
Your mother loves you likenobody, right, and you can't
compare a mother's love type ofscenario.
But at the same time as a dadand I know it from a dad
perspective, so I'm notsuggesting it's any better or
worse for a dad than it is forthe mom, but the dad you go
through a different series ofemotions when your baby's born
and your children are born andyou guys have kids.
(10:31):
So you have a feeling you can'texplain right, and I'm sure
moms do too but you have thisdad thing and you kicks into
this.
I've got to protect this witheverything.
And like, oh my gosh, you getaway and who's telling you?
And you start kind of goingthrough these weird thoughts.
Are you on the baby's born andyou're like, all right, whoa,
whoa, you're not taking thatthrough the other room, I'm
gonna be watching you.
That's where you switch thebabies.
Johnny Awesome (10:52):
I know where you do this stuff right.
This is where this happens.
Curt Shewell (10:55):
And you go into this Papa Bear thing.
And I know there's a mama bearthing there's a Papa Bear thing
that comes into place and all ofa sudden, you feel this sense
of oh my God, I have to protectsomething.
You're married and you havethat.
This is my wife and I'm gonnatake care of my wife, protect my
wife, and you have this senseof that.
You'd have no idea what that'slike until you have a baby,
Until you have a baby, yeah.
(11:15):
And then it's like all bets areoff.
Okay, everything starts andends right here, nobody's gonna
hurt this baby, nothing gonnahappen to this baby.
And then, all of a sudden, yearsgo on and you're living normal
and you take typical life forgranted and they think to some
extent we still should.
But to really see the thingsthat go on, I think is special,
where people really see thatstuff and I think I was the
(11:35):
normal, I didn't see a lot of itand all of a sudden, one of
your kids is sick, for real, itmakes everything real, and then
it just stops you in your tracksand then you have to really
recognize everything and reallysee it.
Well, you go through this partwhere I'm supposed to protect
this child, right, and there'ssomething beating this child up
or harming this child andultimately, of course, killing
(11:56):
your child, and it's like how doI stop it?
Yeah, right, and as a dad, it'sphysical right, give me
something.
No way I'm gonna let thishappen.
Well, you can't fight somethingthat's inside them that you
can't get to.
And it isn't for the lack oftrying or your will.
I mean, you trade places withthem.
(12:17):
In like eight seconds it'd beall over.
You're like I mean I'm done, Igot it, you're good, I'm out.
You would do that and you'dtrade places, but you can't and
it's not how it works.
So you have to really go toanother place and accept the
greatest failure in your mindthat you could have.
I can't protect my own childand I don't know if there's
(12:39):
something that's harder thanthat.
Because you look at yourselfinternally of I am failing in
the most important piece I couldever have and I'm failing
miserably because I can't stopthis.
I can't help them and they'relooking at you for that.
Make it go away, make it stopright.
And you're just like.
I am trying desperately and Ican't do it and it's a really
(13:02):
tough thing.
But I can relate to theseparents going through this and I
can understand where they'recoming from and what happens is
people try to help people allthe time and I think people are
inherently good and I thinkpeople are inherently wonderful
and beautiful people and theywanna help and they do all the
right things.
The problem is you don't knowwhat to say and so you say what
(13:22):
you think that person wants tohear, or you say it from your
heart.
Jimmy gosh, I feel I understandhow you've, I know how you've,
I'm right here with you andyou're like you have no clue the
depths of how I feel right now.
So when you say that, you makeme so angry.
Jimmy Fantastic (13:37):
And I'll say this too, like on that note like
I don't wanna know you knowwhat I mean.
Like I don't wanna know howthat feels I don't you know what
I mean.
Johnny Awesome (13:44):
Like it's selfishly.
Maybe that's me, but I it's notselfish.
Jimmy Fantastic (13:48):
Some people don't say that.
Won't say that out loud, I will.
I don't wanna fucking know.
Curt Shewell (13:52):
Right, no, and you're really.
Johnny Awesome (13:55):
We're all Friday's five second late delay.
Curt Shewell (13:58):
We beeped him we beeped him and you don't right.
So, and to say that to peoplesometimes like shocks him a
little bit or get some angry andyou tell him listen, when you
tell somebody that you knowthey're like, yeah, but I really
do feel it.
And there are people who do,and they're you know, they're
close to you and your otherfamily members, oh, my God, you
(14:19):
know, because they're feelingpain.
They're feeling something alongthe lines of what you're
feeling, it's just at adifferent depth.
So they still feel the samepains.
They're still feeling the law.
They're feeling all these, allthese emotions, and their heart
is bleeding for you and bleedingfor the child and they're
trying to figure out how theycan help.
Well, you can't help.
(14:40):
How can they right?
It's a really tough thing andyou go through it.
So they say these things andwhat it does.
It angers you and it gets youmore charged because you're
grasping for anything.
And these other people?
Well, I know you feel youhaven't got a clue how I feel.
I am so destroyed right now.
I'm trying to keep it togetherand I'm trying to do these
things and I gotta figure thisout because you still have that.
(15:01):
I gotta figure it out.
Johnny Awesome (15:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Curt Shewell (15:04):
No, it ain't in your hands and this is the first
part where you have to getyourself there.
So this charity is really aboutunderstanding that and I hope I
didn't bore people with that,but that's where we go and
that's where we start.
The money's great and it canhelp in so many ways, but we're
not looking to give somebody atrip.
(15:25):
We've done a few things similarto that on a couple cases, but
it's been 16 years.
So 15 years in the charity andwhat we've been able to do is
give them more specifics sothey've been able to help them
with their.
The child if, for lack of abetter way to put it becomes a
(15:47):
child with some very specialneeds.
So people like think you have aspecial needs child, it could
mean a lot of things and peopletypically go down.
They were born with some typeof disadvantage or a handicap or
something like that.
No, they become very specialneeded because there's so many
things they can't do anymore.
There's so many things thatthey can't go down the path that
(16:08):
they did.
There's so many things theycan't do, so many things they
have to change, so many thingsthey have to learn and with our
case, with brain tumors andbrain surgeries.
The minute they go in and crackinto your brain and they start
messing around with stuff,something's going to come out
different, right?
You can't mess with your brain,you can't mess with your spine
without something changing.
(16:29):
So you're gonna have we'll callit side effects, but you're
gonna have fallout or residualthings that happen from these
things and when that happens youneed a lot of other things that
you never had to need.
So, for example, a lot of timesin these, in a lot of houses,
what we would be able to do ishelp out a lot just with putting
railings, hand rails and thingslike that in the bathrooms, in
(16:50):
the showers, and then change theshower adapters for them and
get hand tools and such.
So the child, depending ontheir age, they can still wash
themselves and stuff, becausesometimes they don't have the
use of both their hands anymore.
They don't have the ability todexterity to do certain things
and we experienced all thosethings.
So the child has a lot of othertough things.
(17:10):
Stephanie, for example hershe's right-handed but yet after
the first brain surgery it wasthe very first one and she had
four, but after the very firstone, what ended up happening was
her right side didn't work theright way anymore.
So she had to go throughphysical therapy to kind of do
these things, and it was a verybig struggle.
Well, she had to learn how toright-left-handed.
(17:31):
She had to learn how to doeverything left-handed.
When she first came out of herfirst brain surgery, her face
didn't work anymore, so shecouldn't close her eyes, she
couldn't close her mouth, shecouldn't feed herself.
It was a really difficult thingand eventually half of her face
woke up.
The other half didn't.
So you go through thesedifferent things and then it's
(17:54):
not even so much the cosmeticsof how it looks, it's what they
are able or not able to do,right, right, and your kids will
blow your mind at how resilientthey are, how smart they are
and how quickly they adapt andthey change and adjust, and it's
just awesome, tragic at thesame time, horrible and
(18:15):
beautiful.
So when you see these things,you start realizing okay, this
is where you can help them,because we didn't know either
and I was trying to do differentthings.
Jimmy Fantastic (18:22):
Yeah, I mean, this is how you end up in real
estate, right?
Curt Shewell (18:25):
She's the reason I'm in real estate, yeah, and
it's a crazy path, but here I amall these years later and it's
like wow.
So when she got sick, you'vegotta figure things out.
So I went a year withoutworking and trying to find a
miracle cure and all this kindof stuff.
And it's not about me you dowhat you gotta do.
(18:48):
Problem is I have four otherkids.
Jimmy Fantastic (18:49):
It goes back to being the dad mode, right, you
bad.
You just flipped that your dadmode, you bad.
Switch goes on, you bad.
Curt Shewell (18:56):
Yeah.
I'm gonna fix this freakingthing no matter what you bad, I
will find an answer for it.
Right and you go through.
I mean you turn every rock andevery stone you can and try to
figure it out and you're pushingdoctors to their limits.
Oh yeah, and you get to a pointwhere some of these doctors
don't wanna talk to you anymore,right.
Right, because you find out howhuman the doctors are and
(19:17):
that's alarming to you becauseyou need them to be.
They have a God complex andstuff and you need those doctors
, right, and you need them tosay that.
But when they can't deliver onit, you're like listen, you, son
of a gun, you told me, you saidyou could do this and you can't
.
And then you see when they'refrustrated and you see when
(19:38):
they're at their wits and like Ididn't work, like what do you
mean?
It didn't work, it's not anoption.
Didn't work is not in thisconversation.
What am I paying you for?
Yeah, so you go through thatstuff, and it's crazy.
So, with the families that aregoing through this stuff,
they're fearful of all thesethings, and we went through a
(19:58):
path that went more on thetougher, negative side, so we
saw that.
So I can quickly see whenthey're getting better news and
things are going in a betterdirection.
It's really great, so you cankind of relate to them.
What you have to be careful of,though, too, is they look at
you and they're looking for theanswers.
They want you to provideanswers.
What I give them is the answerof why it happened to them, and
(20:24):
it was probably the best thing Iwas able to be able to figure
out during that journey to helpothers later on.
And what I mean is this andI'll share it with you guys it's
this simple.
It's not an easy task, but it'sthis simple.
People always want to know whyme, why my child, why us, why
(20:44):
did this happen?
And you have to understand thisis so much bigger than you, and
if you don't have any belief inanything, you better find one,
because you better believe insomething.
They agree.
Yeah, we're making sure.
Johnny Awesome (21:03):
Maybe my wife out there honking at me Like hey
pick it up, let's go, pal, it'sgetting late.
So because our mics are realgood I don't know if you guys
were able to hear that butbecause we are live and we are
in the window.
We have fans that are drivingby and honking and honking yeah
it's pretty cool so hey.
Curt Shewell (21:22):
So that was the other guys starting to hear my
wife yelling at me like heybecause I know she's listening
to this, right, so I'm like,don't forget to tell them this
part.
Jimmy Fantastic (21:30):
Would you?
Curt Shewell (21:31):
stop rambling and just get to the point.
So when they go through it,they all want to know why did
this happen?
How did this happen?
Those kinds of things.
And I think what's really greatis we're able to give them the
answer to that.
And the answer is really it'syou were chosen to go through
(21:52):
this your child's special forreal.
Because you got this handed toyou, this horrific challenge,
this horrible thing because theperson next door, your sister,
your brother, your cousin, yourparents, your whoever else they
wouldn't be able to handle itRight.
And you can.
And that's the first thing thatI talk to them about is listen.
(22:16):
The why is you were chosen for areason.
I don't know the reason youwere chosen, but what I do know
is you were chosen because youcan do this.
You can get through this, nomatter which way, what direction
this goes, you can do this andyou're not alone.
And the hardest part at thebeginning is give me an answer.
(22:38):
Give me an answer.
Give me an answer and you'rewhy, why, why, why, why.
So if we can get the why out ofthere real quick and get them
to look inward and go, okay, Ihave to step up to this, because
people, so many people, oh myGod, I could never.
I would die.
There's just no way.
I couldn't do it.
I could not do it.
And they're serious and theybelieve that and I tell them you
could if you had to.
You're amazing what you can doif you have to.
Jimmy Fantastic (23:00):
Yeah, like you said, there's a why, right, and
you're searching for the why andthere really probably isn't one
.
You know what I mean?
Oh, I think there is.
I think it's.
Curt Shewell (23:08):
you were chosen to go through it.
Somebody has to go through it.
Yeah, somebody has to gothrough it, right?
So you're gonna go through itbecause he knows you can do this
, because you're not alone.
And if you understand that,even when it goes not the way
you want, if you can see theincredible little wins and
there's so many of them it wasamazing when Steph couldn't use
her right hand.
(23:29):
It was amazing to watch her useher left hand and then, when she
couldn't swallow, to watch hertake a straw, hold the thing.
A cup in her hand was achocolate milk carton and for
her to take the straw with herhand.
She could do this with it, keepit in there, but she couldn't
do this.
So what she did was she tookthe carton, switched hands, put
(23:50):
it in her right hand so shecould just hold her hand, just
to hold it against her body, putthe straw in her mouth with her
left hand that she could use.
She put, looped the strawbetween her fingers and grabbed
her lips and pulled them closedbecause she couldn't close her
mouth around the straw so shecould suck.
And she sucked down that carton, literally just gone, and
(24:12):
literally took the carton,tossed it and went like that and
I was like, cause she couldn'ttalk, so she can't talk, she
can't tell you anything.
And she put her hand out foranother one, like let's go,
let's go, I got this and if youcan picture the scene it started
I was doing, the only thing Icould think of was put the straw
in the chocolate milk.
(24:33):
Put your finger on the top ofthe straw, you know it captures
a little bit of the air and thenI'm putting in her mouth and
like, and it's just the smallestlittle amounts, and she's
getting frustrated and she'sgetting sangr and she's because
she can't talk.
Jimmy Fantastic (24:45):
And that was really frustrating, more
frustrating, right, right, right.
Curt Shewell (24:48):
So she was getting more angry cause she couldn't
talk.
And then she just took it fromme.
And then, when I watched her dothis and she put it, I mean
we're adults, we're supposed tobe the smart ones?
Jimmy Fantastic (24:58):
We're supposed to be the smart ones?
Yeah, we're totally not.
Curt Shewell (25:00):
And she figured out.
So it's things like that and Iremember and recall so many of
these things and it's, you know,you're trying to figure it out
and sometimes you're like, okay,so we got a little experience,
we can figure some shit out.
But at the end of the day, whenthey do these remarkable things
and you see them, and then yousee them proud of themselves and
then you're like, okay,thinking proud of yourself.
One of the you know, one of themost amazing parts and I'm not
(25:24):
saying I was like a Jerry Lewistelethon to tug on your
heartstrings, but if you reallyyou know to understand some of
this stuff one of the mostbeautiful moments was probably
about probably about what's thebetter about?
Maybe six months in and we hadgone through different
(25:46):
treatments and radiations andchemotherapy drugs and they said
, okay, this one's gonna whereshe's gonna lose all her hair
and everything.
So just so many beautiful thingshappen in this.
First, we knew this was gonnahappen, so we had to get your
hair cut shorter.
So her hair was already short,so we thought, okay, that'll
help from the shock and I'lljust got this gorgeous,
(26:08):
beautiful hair down.
You know that would pass hershoulders and we're like, okay,
we got to cut her hair short sothat way it doesn't look so
traumatic when it's such crap.
We convinced ourselves thatthat was gonna be better, right,
but but cutting it certainlyhelped.
Well, what was needed was herbrother.
Jamie said, okay, I'm gonna,I'm gonna cut my hair short too.
And then when she went in tohave the hair cut we had, you
(26:33):
know, the stylist came to thehospital, did it in the hospital
room, which was such a greatthing it was, and we made it
like a really fun event so thatway cuz she was definitely
freaking a little about, no, myhair is gonna be really short,
right, you know it's gonna beabout this long and then.
So Jamie's like a buzz, mineright now.
So he did the military cut itshorter than yours.
I mean, he cut it short and shewas like, oh my god, like Jamie
(26:55):
, what are you doing?
And you know, and you know, thekids are close and the kids are
like the peak kids.
Jimmy Fantastic (27:02):
Yeah, I know right, honk when you drive by.
Help, you can't even drive.
I just honk South Old Woodwardin Birmingham.
Just honk when you by Johnny,that wave all day tomorrow no,
not only that, but don't forgetit's open.
Johnny Awesome (27:15):
Roll call the door is welcome to walk in at
any point in time, any pointthere is sleep, walking and wait
.
Curt Shewell (27:22):
They're like what happened when.
Jimmy Fantastic (27:24):
I tap on there's.
There's coffee, there's someenergy drinks, there's some
Celsius.
Curt Shewell (27:28):
I got some stuff I gotta I gotta deli tray with
two different meats cheese, twocheeses and crackers.
Awesome, if you guys some ofthe nibble on and sometimes it
helps, right, oh yeah, and thenI've got you guys some cool
little desserts and stuff oh,thank you, thank you figured.
The sugarbuzz will help to yeahyeah, I like these are pretty
good hey out but it was.
(27:49):
It was like moments like thatthat everybody rallies and then
all sudden, jamie's tell youhe's like I'm gonna cut my hair
because it'll make her know thatshe's not alone.
And you're like this is one ofyour other kids, you know, and
you're just like, wow, this isreally cool stuff.
And you hear stories like thata lot.
Yeah, and it's beautiful to seeand you know, when you hear
these things, I relate to themvery well.
(28:10):
And what's neat is when thenight her hair came out
completely, I was ready for I'mlike, okay, I got this and she
started to brush her hairgetting ready to go to bed and
she had taken a shower gettingready to bed and she started a
brush and it literally cameright out like like, literally
(28:31):
like a movie or a cartoon whereyou think like this and it's
like rips the entire hair rightout, right, not rips, it sounds
dramatic, but it just comesright out very easily.
Yeah, and she had the brush.
She's like oh, oh.
And I looked and I'm likewhat's up, honey?
And we are all kind of like, oh, what's up?
And she's like look, I think myhair is coming out.
And we're like, oh, okay, andI'm like got this dad to the
(28:54):
rescue, right?
I got this and I'm like okay,yeah, a little bit of hair and,
well, a lot of it here.
Well, there's a clump of hairlike that I'm like oh, look,
it's yeah okay, and she's likealright, you want me to help you
, and she's like mmm, and youcan see that she's like like
this is a really big moment andit is for her.
This ain't about you, it's abouther, yeah, and I'm like got you
(29:17):
and I'm looking in the mirrorand my wife's right here their
brothers is this is right hereand I'm freaking, go like this
with the first brush and it justlike literally makes like a
lane right, just a little skull.
There's no, nothing, there'sjust all I right and I'm doing
like one row, but this wide andI can't breathe and I am like,
(29:44):
oh my god, and I'm looking inthe mirror and she's looking at
me and I'd made her a deal.
You never have to worry, nomatter who's in the room crying,
no matter who gets upset.
You know if it's your momgetting upset or if it's, you
know, sherry mom getting upset,or if it's your brothers or
sisters, your grandmothers, yourgrandpa's, everybody your hands
like they're all gonna cryevery time they see you.
So don't worry about it.
(30:05):
I said, if you ever want toknow, you look at me and I ain't
worried, you ain't worried.
Not a cure.
What the doctors say, I don'tcare.
When anybody say, fine, youmean I got you.
So she would look all the time.
Right, yeah, we're good, we'regood, we're good.
And there would be times, too,where somebody comes, like in
the hospital rooms or whatever,and you see them and it was like
, oh, I know that one's gonnaget me, so then I would go and
(30:26):
meet them on the other side ofthe curtain so she couldn't ever
see me and I would make sureshe couldn't hear me and you
know I've balled a million timesbut she just never seen it.
So I literally couldn't breathewith the brush in my hair.
And my wife was staying rightthere and she saw me and she's
like, oh shit, kurt's losing itand I was literally this close
(30:49):
to just losing it and I'm likebreathe, I can't.
If I breathe, it's coming out.
Yeah, mom, that's, the faucetsare going.
I can't do this.
Oh, my god, I'm freezing hereand my wife just crushed give me
that this is a girl, this isnot a boy thing.
What is your dad think he'sdoing is she's left and she's
like, yeah, and I'm like, great.
(31:09):
And my wife just grabbed thebrush right out of my hand and
she's like get out of here andlike turned me quickly because I
was just about to lose it.
And I go right into my roombecause she was in our bedroom.
Yeah, I go through the doorhere and out the other door that
goes out into the hallway.
And yeah, man, so she and I hadto run downstairs and just bury
my face on a pillow so she canhear me.
(31:29):
And I was dying.
I could.
It was.
It was dramatic for her.
Here I am the one falling apart, right, and you in.
This happens.
And I counsel and talk to theparents about this kind of stuff
and share the story.
So they got it and what hadhappened and you know, share
brush all around, stuff wasgreat with it and so after was
(31:50):
all all all good or done orwhatever, and they brought me
back in the room.
I was allowed to come back in,right, and I'm like, okay, and
so I was.
I was just like, hey, I lovethis.
You know I'm just kissing herhead and you know I was already
crying out.
So I was good, I was like Ithink I'm good and it was great,
(32:12):
and she's like my daddy, it'sreally a listen and I'm like, oh
, yeah, you know.
So we made it like a cool thing, yeah, and I'm like, and I
asked my wife how did you dothat?
She's like that's because youcouldn't tell my.
Okay, you're right, you'reright, thank God, right, you
can't do any of this stuff alone.
You really need your help, youneed your people.
So then went in a bathroom andwe sleep in bed that night and
(32:33):
stuff slept with us that night.
So it's staff, my wife, me, sostuff sharing me in that order.
And where our bed waspositioned, our bedroom we had a
big dresser with those you know, the giant mirror things.
You know, old bedroom sets, youknow, with a huge everything's
mirrors.
So we're laying there and inthe morning my wife I'm laying
there, sleeping, kind of youknow.
(32:53):
We're stacked in a row and sheelbows me love the horns.
She elbows me she freaking,elbows me and wakes me, you know
, I'm like, and then I'm lookingin the mirror and I'm looking
at the three of us, boom, boom,boom and stuff's like literally
looking in the mirror and she'skind of like turn, it had a
(33:14):
little and and she's liketouching her head and she's
looking in the mirror.
So I'm laying where I couldjust see over my wife's head and
see the mirror and I can see mywife looking in the mirror at
me and looking at her and I'mlooking at her and I'm looking
at her, my wife and I'm like, oh, wow, okay, cuz stuff's really
looking at her head and we'reand I'm thinking, oh god, I fell
(33:35):
apart yesterday last night.
I'm like, oh my gosh, I can'teven imagine.
She's thinking and all of asudden she goes, she looks, she
looks up and sees that we'relooking, you're watching, yeah,
so she knows we're watching andshe goes.
She's laser just had done thepillow.
She goes.
You know what?
She's right behind her andshe's what, honey, she goes.
I look really good bald, don'tI?
(33:56):
And she goes, I think.
So she goes.
I'm actually really pretty.
I'm like, ah, ah, I'm losing itagain.
Shit, I can't wear it on my face.
I'm like dying.
And it was the most beautiful,wonderful thing that she said.
You know I'm really pretty bald.
Yeah, I got this and it wasjust so enlightening, so
(34:18):
wonderful, and I'm trying tokeep it together, you know.
So I just got to reach over andgive them the hugs so I can put
my head beyond my wife's head.
So I'm like God, I suck at this, like I'm supposed to be this
tough guy and doing all thisstuff.
And he was like but these arethese moments that are so
incredible.
And had I missed that out ofanger, if had I missed that out
(34:40):
of being?
You know why me and why her andwhy us?
And it's never been about usand it wasn't, and I was as
normal as anybody else.
Like I said, it took everythingfor granted and you really get
stopped in your tracks and itchanges the way you see things
and it changes how you react tothings and when it's up
happening is you overcompensatein so many ways on different
(35:01):
things and then you go the otherway in so many other things.
You're too lenient on stuff,you're too over the top on other
stuff, and I became the guythat took a million pictures
because I wanted to, you know,photograph and video every
second of everything, in casethis goes, you know, bad in my
mind.
You know I don't want tochronicle everything and you
know it's interesting.
Over the years I've got acollection of pictures and
(35:23):
videos that you ain't.
I don't know any child and in athree year period of time has
got more pictures or videos ofthem.
And I took her during that timeinto my other kids and what the
reality is.
I have this many pictures ofher as non-sick, you know, up
till she was eight years oldwhen she ate, when she got sick,
11 when she went to heaven, andthen I've got this many for
(35:44):
those three years of the sick.
So my wife had asked me a fewyears ago she goes, she goes,
why don't you?
I'm going to put a littlecollage thing together.
These are Steph's birthday,which is April 30th, or it was
her birthday when she went toheaven, which is in August, and
it was just last week.
And so I'm like, okay, I said,what do you, what do you, what
(36:08):
do you try to do?
Which I want to put a littlepicture collage together.
She goes, but I don't want anywhen she was sick.
I want pictures that she whenshe wasn't sick.
And I'm like, okay, I startgoing through my computer and
I'm looking up and I startedrealizing how many I had of the
sick versus the non.
I'm like, wow, you know.
And you start looking at thoseand you're like, okay, you know,
(36:31):
and it's a really thing,because you, you have so much
memory and so much, becauseyou're so locked in from the
time she was sick versus beforethat, and there was so many
incredible memories before that.
But you get hung up on theseones and I think that was
therapeutic to me and that wasabout five years ago, and I
think that helped me a ton.
(36:52):
So, therapy wise, maybe I needa shrink, I don't know, but that
was a very big aha moment forme.
And then I started, you knowwhat.
I got to stop rememberingeverything just when she was
sick, because there was so manygreat things and I focused on
those, which is good, but at thesame time, you got to make sure
you've got the rest and youknow and really enjoy that piece
(37:12):
, Because eight years, yeah,because that's what the other
kids remember too right, and soit's a really interesting thing.
So when I talk to these parents,I ask a lot of much better
questions.
I'm getting way better atasking the right questions now
with that, so to help them, out.
Jimmy Fantastic (37:28):
You should almost you should almost start
teaching people how to askquestions.
Curt Shewell (37:31):
You would think that and you know it's funny,
right?
Real estate what do we teachall the time?
I'm the king of ask the rightquestions.
I'm very scripted and objectionhandling and you know that way,
as you guys, as you are and youare and we all, you know, do
this and coach and teach, trainagents and it has a lot to do
with this stuff.
Right, and this is part of ourevolution and all my successes
(37:53):
it's.
I can relate in my career today.
I can relate to a lot of itcoming from that.
So when we talk about it in theTV show and all this stuff that
you know, all this incrediblesuccess that I've been fortunate
and so crazily blessed to havein real estate these last you
know we'll have for many yearsnow is crazy good.
But I look at it from that allthe time and it's like man, it's
(38:18):
amazing.
So, to help these otherfamilies in a way that you can
really help them, you know, yeah, we give them money, yeah, we
pay for a lot of things.
You know it's great when we canmake sure that we focus a lot
too.
And if there's a sick kid andthere's brothers or sisters, we
focus on them.
So, because they get, they getforgotten, they get left behind.
Everybody comes over to thehouse to see the family, to see
(38:39):
the parents, to see the sick kid, and everybody brings a gift,
everybody brings something forthat sick child and it's very
beautiful and it's wonderful andplease do that.
However, don't forget the otherkids resent that and they get
upset about it and they'll startasking questions, like one of
ours did oh hey, how old am Iwhen I'm gonna get my cancer?
And we're like what?
(38:59):
And you're about to fall offyour chair when they say that
you can't breathe, like what?
And then you want to grab themand shake them and like you're
not gonna have that, that's notgonna happen, and you're really
freaking out about it.
And then you got to stop for asecond.
Well, what do they see Right?
And they're like, yeah, becauseshe gets all kinds of gifts and
everybody comes over and givesher all these wonderful things
and you're like, oh, my God, weneed to focus.
(39:21):
So you play defense andeverything, cause it's coming at
you and you're just learning.
So now I'm really good again athelping them ask themselves the
right questions and are youdoing this or are you doing that
?
Is this happening yet?
Is this happening yet, becauseyou've got to pay attention to
stuff.
So we're really good at doingthings to help the other kids.
What's really cool, too, iswhen it's Christmas, holidays,
(39:44):
birthdays, whatever have you.
The sick kid doesn't get toparticipate in a lot of things
go shopping and stuff like that,depending on how sick they are
at the times.
So what we do, too, is we helpthem with.
We get a list from them of whatdo they want to buy their
parents for Christmas, and thenwe get it for them and give it
to them.
So all the people that donateand share.
These are different things thatwe do, and then we do tons of
(40:06):
things throughout the year withthem.
We had one family that wesponsored that he was a.
He was actually a junior inhigh school, going into his
senior year, and he got leukemiaand he was the hockey captain
of the hockey team and he wasthe goalie for the hockey team
and amazing family and he had anolder brother, younger sister.
He was the middle of the threeand, as I can see him, since he
(40:28):
couldn't play and he was ourcaptain, they came to his house
every single day after practice.
Well, every day they come over.
Well, you got, you know, 14kids showing up your house, a
lot of food, teenage boys.
Johnny Awesome (40:39):
They each out of house in the Gatorades.
Curt Shewell (40:41):
So we literally were stacking, like you see, all
those cases you guys got back.
We would literally bring everymonth.
We would bring cases ofGatorades, all the flavors, and
drop those off from.
We would bring huge boxes ofthe Frito LA chips and we would
bring just as many as we couldpossibly get our hands on to
these guys because there wasnever enough.
(41:02):
And Then we would bring hugethings of this is back before
COVID, right.
So we would bring huge thingsof disinfectant, wipes and
Sanitizers, because you've gotto do all this stuff so, but all
this stuff costs a lot of money.
Yeah, you start talking abouthundreds of dollars, hundreds of
dollars, hundred, you know.
Jimmy Fantastic (41:18):
Three hundred dollars a month's no big deal
until it's a year, you knowyou're like holy shit, you know,
and that's one of the things Ithink that is is so important
about about this charity andlike Getting it out there is is
like it's the little things thatpeople don't count on, right,
it's that.
It's that it's like you spokeabout it this morning on the on
the 730 call this morning whenit was like you know, it's
(41:39):
people everybody's coming overmy house to visit which is great
.
But now I got to put snacks outand I got to put food out and I
got to put drinks out.
I got it, you know.
And I got to clean the house,and I got it.
Hmm, plus, I still have to takecare of the sick child on top
of all those other stuff.
Curt Shewell (41:52):
Can't tell me how many times they come over right
at dinner time too, and you guysgot to eat.
You got to feed your kids, yeah, and they're there, and they
want to be there and you can'tgo.
Hey, let's think, and youbetter pretend 15.
Can you leave for like an hourand come back?
I got to feed my kids, yeah, oh, they're ants.
Oh, it's okay, we'll eatanything.
Oh, yeah, I know you will, butI Gotta buy two pizzas now.
I gotta buy four pizzas andit's like you know, I can't
(42:15):
afford four pizzas every night.
I can't afford two buckets ofchickens versus the one show,
you know, and you start the food, the, and I people don't
understand.
The food bill runs through thethousands of dollars in a
month's time and it's crazy.
And when the family stuck inthis, kids, you know the
hospital, because they're sick,and when you kids are that sick
(42:36):
they're constantly spending, youknow, days, in weeks in the
hospital, at time when thathappens.
So what's crazy about it is,you know, so, what we would do
and we would, you know, try to,you know, transfer off.
So you know who says at thehospital time.
Well, you know, when we weredoing this, my wife, like, okay,
you're gonna be.
I was the night guy, so I wouldstay through the whole night.
Well, I'm there.
So at dinnertime, if we're gonnaeat as a family, just bear.
(42:58):
I got four of the kids.
Well, my wife would grab thekids, bring up to the hospital
and pick up.
You know, can take my chickenor pick up tacos or pick up
whatever and bring the food.
Well, when you're eating outevery single night and you money
doesn't mean they got to gopick this stuff up and then
bring it you start adding thisstuff up.
It's crazy, it's crazy, crazy.
(43:19):
So, you know, we help, you know, people even with the gas cards
, and we help them with theparking at these parking
structures, you know.
Johnny Awesome (43:25):
And just all the little things that you never
think about.
Right until nickel and dimenever thought about that.
Jimmy Fantastic (43:30):
The parking itself, which is not expensive
right on top of all the otherstuff.
Curt Shewell (43:34):
It is like you're there for six weeks in two days
which we spent those, and youhave one car and they'll even
give you, like, a pass orsomething.
Yeah but they don't give youthe pass for the other car when
your spouse comes.
So now you still got to pay itright, it's only three dollars a
day, yeah, times, you know.
Six weeks in two days, all of asudden.
Well, you just spent a couplehundred bucks in parking, right,
(43:55):
and then I got to eat out of avending machine and I get it out
of a cafeteria every day.
Well, okay, good news, it'sonly five bucks.
Seven bucks, ten bucks, twelvebucks a day a day, right, do
that for six weeks, you know,and you start going holy smokes
and I'm only gonna have a pop,right, well, pops, three bucks
out of the vending machine, yeah, good thing, I'm only gonna
have three of those, right, forthese eight, nine, ten, twelve,
(44:16):
fourteen hours, right, okay,well, that's nine bucks for
three pops, you know.
So you don't realize it.
So when we give them thevouchers, we give them all these
different things, it helps themso much.
It's unreal.
And you know, you start lookingat all the different things you
can do and then you startfixing things to their houses
and putting in Ramps and we'vedone ramps for houses.
(44:38):
We've done, you know.
We've changed the bedrooms,we've changed doors, we've
replaced doors, we've got themspecial doors that can open and
close.
We've we hit a button Automateddoors.
We've given them.
You know, buddy, mine owns oneof the biggest retirement home
communities in the country andthey get the, you know the, the
(44:58):
chairs, that that you know, theshower, shower chairs.
So they go through a lot ofthem because people in the old
folks homes, you know, othertimes sometimes is short and
they end up with a lot of thesechairs and they'll donate these
chairs to us and then we couldget these chairs to these people
and it's amazing how much thathelps.
So you start realizing thesethings.
And then the wheelchairs, andthen he gets a lot of that stuff
(45:20):
.
So we could pick these thingsup, you know, because when
they're really sick, a lot oftimes that they need a
wheelchair for short Interimsand that maybe not all the time
and some of them end up needinga wheelchair, you know, and you
gotta be able to have thesethings and to be able to help
them in those kind of ways iscrazy.
And then when the family's got,you know, like kids really sick,
and they're out of town or theygo to st Jude and if they have
to go to st Jews or JohnsHopkins, these other places and
(45:41):
we've been to these placesYou're gone for chunks of time.
Well, in the winter Michiganyou need somebody to shovel your
snow, so we take care of that,and then in the summertime, they
don't need to concentrate orworry about cutting their ass.
They need to know that it'sjust handled.
So right can focus on the stuffthat really matters and you
don't think of these things.
So what?
(46:02):
What happened with us?
Right, people did these thingsfor us and people Surprised us
with these things, or these arethe things that were struggles,
and what I help a lot of thesepeople do too, is just lay out a
plan and find that person.
Who's that?
You know it's a brother, is ita sister?
Is it who's the champion foryou?
Right?
Is it your best friend?
Is it, you know, a cousin?
Is it a neighbor?
Who is that person that's gonnastep up for you and that can
(46:22):
really help, because everybodywants that, but I believe in
their true, in their heart thatthey do so.
What happens is these people goto step up and when you can
tell them hey, listen, writedown a list of every single
thing that you do that you justdon't have time to do right now,
hmm, and Somebody to come inonce a week just to clean their
house.
Yeah right, little Molly madetype scenario.
(46:43):
Yep, give it to that person.
Here's the list, here'severything I need, because
everybody said what can I do tohelp?
Just let me know, call me, callme, johnny, let me know.
I'm not gonna call you and sayget you know what would be great
if you could want you know, ifyou could more of a cut my
laundry.
They'd be really great.
Johnny Awesome (46:58):
Of course.
Well, you're not even thinkingof it at that point and you're
not, and you're not bold enoughto ask somebody.
Curt Shewell (47:03):
Do these things and you think you feel foolish
to even ask.
So then it's not that I don'thave a million needs, but I
don't even want to ask.
And then the bigger problem isthe person who's in that
position.
Remember the dad thing?
Yeah, you do have a littlepride.
Yeah, and your pride will getin your way.
Johnny Awesome (47:19):
And it'll hurt you, your ego's messed up.
Curt Shewell (47:20):
Yep.
So what happens is you don'twant to, you don't want to admit
to yourself that you need thatmuch help.
You certainly don't want toadmit you need financial help
and you're in big trouble andyou can't afford to pay your
bills.
And it gets tough and peopledon't understand that.
Like well, you know insurancecovers this and that covers
almost everything, right?
Well, it does almost everything.
Well, when the bills arehundreds of thousands of dollars
(47:42):
, millions of dollars, almost,this is really great.
But there's a piece that's not.
And then you know, even whenthey cover these great things
and doing me wrong, there's alot of places are phenomenal.
St Jude will cover it.
Well, they'll cover it for oneparent to come and the child.
They'll cover your flight,which is amazing Long as the
other parent doesn't want to bethere right.
(48:02):
You gotta pay for that, right,and you get that.
Hey, you got to be heretomorrow.
You're on a plane and they'llbook your flights.
Boom, well, it's the otherparent coming or not.
And if they're flying, well, doyou have enough for a plane
ticket?
And if they're not, are theydriving?
And then if you have asituation where the parents
aren't married anymore, oh,who's going, who's not?
(48:23):
and, trust me, neither one's notgoing right, but one of them's
paying on their own.
Yeah, and we know which onethat it's gonna be, yeah, so
that's how that plays out, andit gets expensive.
Jimmy Fantastic (48:34):
Yeah, and again , like you said, on top of
parking and on top of this, andon top of that and on top of the
food, and that's our takingtrips to Memphis to go to st
Jude?
Yeah you know it's it's an11-hour drive.
Curt Shewell (48:44):
Know that drive really well, right, because only
one of you gets the flight.
The other one's got to driveand do it yourself and pay for
it and you start adding it up.
And then you've got to get yourown hotel because there's only
one room paid for and you can'tstay in the same room because
you guys.
Jimmy Fantastic (49:00):
That's not a yeah, that ain't gonna work out.
Curt Shewell (49:02):
An option so now you've got, how long are you
there?
Oh, hopefully you're only therefor four or five days.
Maybe you're there for four orfive weeks.
Okay, good news, it's only youknow, hundred bucks a night, 200
bucks a night.
Great news, great news, yep,hey.
So you start going holy smokesand it's financially Devastated,
(49:22):
and not to mention when you godo.
That means you're not workingRight, and that's how I got into
that miracle job and that'swhat real estate became to me.
Yeah, it's been amazing.
So there's so many things youcan do to help people, but you
have to really understand theirjourney and what stuff they're
running and going through.
So when you start, you startbeing able to help them in these
ways and you know they're gonnago here and if you can
(49:43):
understand what their dynamic is, everybody's story is different
.
You know everybody's got oneand you got to find out what
their story is and that's reallywhat we concentrate on.
And then, when you have theother kids, okay, you guys go
here and let's say they'remarried couple, things are good,
st Jude, lets them go.
What?
Somebody's got to take care ofthese other kids and somebody's
got to make sure that they'regetting to their practices and
somebody's got to make sure thatthey're playing their sports.
Yeah, but like we can't affordto buy him a new baseball bat,
(50:05):
it's baseball season for thebrother who's not sick right.
Well, now he really hates hisbrother because he's not sick.
Brother is or sister iswell, you got to make sure so we
take care of those things, andbut you got to give them the
money for it right, and to takecare of that stuff.
So, you know, raising a littlebit of money is never a bad
thing if you know where to applyit or how to help.
(50:25):
And that's what we focus ondoing and it's been the most
incredible Journey, because wehelp in so many different ways.
You know, we don't buy him apool, we don't send him to
Disneyland and we don't call upcelebrities and ask him to you
know, Do a video or sign anautograph, right, do that stuff.
Not that that stuff's not great, but that's what these other
charities will do.
Let them do that, because thoseare incredible memories.
(50:47):
We'll stay in the trenches andlet's let's help them for the
long haul.
And you know some of thesefamilies.
You know you never, ever getrid of them and they stay in
your life for a long time andhopefully you get that
opportunity right.
Yeah, because the other answeris not so great.
Johnny Awesome (51:02):
Yeah, well, kurt , I you came in.
It's been night, I don't knowhow long you're playing on
staying, but if you could stay alittle bit longer, I'd give you
the.
You want to know what thecharity's about that's.
Curt Shewell (51:13):
The charity's about it's about me, it's about
the charity and I love that youguys picked.
Our charity is a charity, sohopefully those stories kind of
hope you guys understand the waywe approach.
September 1st 2023.
It was 12 am, seven hoursbefore we officially launched
season four of Free for All.
Friday, kurt Shewell joined usto discuss the Stephanie Shewell
Memorial Fund, a charity thatcomes alongside in AIDS families
as they go through a verydifficult time, by a family that
understands those difficulttimes.
(00:21):
When Jimmy and I made thedecision to do a 24-hour podcast
to celebrate four seasons,jimmy was the one that came up
with the idea to tie it to acharity.
As soon as that idea was born,both Jimmy and I knew exactly
which charity we were going topick.
The following podcast is thevery start of a 24-hour live
podcast that we held.
It is a continuation of KurtShewell's story, but it's also a
(00:44):
story of the legacy left behindby his daughter together now
(01:36):
too.
Jimmy Fantastic (01:36):
So we're next to each other and we'll see him
off.
Johnny Awesome (01:38):
I haven't even broke.
I will say there's one morething coming up that's going to
be really.
I'll just go ahead and announceit now.
Jimmy doesn't even know aboutthis.
I've been, I've been since.
I've been back trying to get myhair cut.
Oh and, as you can see, Ihaven't gotten your hair on yes,
yep.
Yep, I was supposed to get itcut, but it didn't happen, so it
was scheduled for today.
So live today, jimmy will becutting my hair.
Jimmy Fantastic (01:57):
I didn't even know that was happening, but I
don't know.
Curt Shewell (01:59):
But this is how did you get this color?
How did I get?
Johnny Awesome (02:04):
this color yeah, never seen this color on your
head by shaving it and growingit all back out.
Oh yeah, he remembers the goodold days for those of you that
have been with us since the verybeginning, when my hair was
blue, I believe is what you'rereferencing.
Jimmy Fantastic (02:16):
Right, you weren't the XB colors, yeah.
Curt Shewell (02:18):
Yeah, you've had a few different and I don't know
I've ever seen that color Really.
Johnny Awesome (02:23):
Yeah, it's been like this for a while now.
So you say, all right, good,well, we got that situated out.
So, kurt, you know we broughtyou on.
We welcome you, john.
You have a charity that you runthat's near and dear to your
heart.
You're near and dear to ourheart.
I think that this is actually,if it's okay, the first annual.
We'd love to do this again nextyear, really build this up and
(02:44):
continue to do this every year,and so I I'd like you just to
talk a little bit about thecharity that you have, and then
we're going to get theinformation out to folks so that
they can donate throughout theshow.
Curt Shewell (02:55):
But if you would go ahead and chat with us a
little bit, johnny, you guys.
I mean, when, when Jimmy said,hey, by the way, we're doing,
we're doing this telethon and we, we picked your charity as our
charity and I was like, oh well,that's kind of cool, that's
very nice, yeah, and he said, oh, by the way, it starts tonight
at midnight, I'm like, oh,that's cool.
(03:15):
And I said, is that, is thatthe thing Cause Johnny had had
talked to me about I don't know,six, eight weeks ago, something
like that.
I was out of town and you hadcalled me and we talked for
probably half an hour, had agreat conversation.
I mean, anytime you talk toJohnny, you know you start kind
of here and you end up way overhere somewhere and it's like,
wow, every single time and it'spretty neat.
(03:36):
And the way your brain works isis, I think, something really
special.
And I used to think it was like, damn, this guy's weird Me.
Johnny Awesome (03:44):
And then I was like my teachers always said
that too, His brain's prettyspecial.
You're not the first person totell me that.
Curt Shewell (03:50):
I'm a call special if you tell myself.
So it's usually never in a goodway Right.
So it's really neat, cause yourbrain really works and it
clicks, man, when it gets going.
It's a fun place to be andwatch.
And watch your brain work theway it does Like the few times
you and I've interacted inthrough you know interview style
type things you always pullcertain pieces out and it's
(04:13):
interesting to me that you'reable to really do a lot of great
things and you can takesomething and you catch it and
you hear it, and then you'relike wait a minute, where did
this, where did that come from?
Let's go with that.
And you just seem to be able toarticulate the right pieces at
the right times and you can takethings and you've done that to
me a few times where you take meinto really places that that I
(04:37):
honestly don't really talk a lotabout certain things and you
got to get me in these weirdplaces and it's like how the
heck did he get me into that?
Jimmy Fantastic (04:45):
Yeah.
Curt Shewell (04:46):
Yeah, See, Jimmy's really nice.
He never he's like yeah, I'llprobably just divert that, let's
not go there.
Yeah, that's probably not goodwhen Johnny's like let's go
right in that, let's get in thatroom, you know that's you.
So with that, you know, became alot of information about
different things and our charityis something that it's a weird
thing, Real passionate about it,love it.
(05:07):
My son, matt, is the one whostarted it, and the Stephanie
Sheenwell Memorial Fund is whatit's called, and he started it
and it really took off and itbecame a really neat thing and I
struggled with it at first.
The very first year we had agolf outing as a like a charity
event and it was kind of more ofa.
It was designed, let's, youknow, family and friends and
(05:29):
everything, and it was a yearafter Stephanie went to heaven
and it was like, hey, let's justdo something more in her honor
and let's, you know, do a reallykind of cool golf outing which
will end up making a little bitof money probably not much, you
know, a few under bucks orsomething and let's get some
gifts and some prizes and we'lldo that and make it a cool thing
.
Well, all of a sudden,everybody loved that and it
(05:51):
turned into kind of a cool thingthat first year and it was like
, wow, we had like 60, I thinkwe had 64 golfers and we're like
, wow, this is way better thanwe thought and it turned out to
be a pretty cool event and wehad, like, the money we raised
was like $3,000.
And it was like, wow, we madethree grand.
We didn't think we're gonna be$3,300.
(06:13):
And it wasn't about raisingmoney, it wasn't about really
that.
It was more of a feel good andit was kind of a hey, we didn't
forget and we want to honor youknow her that way.
And then we're like Well, whatare you going to do?
And we're like, well, shoot, wecould probably help a few
people with this.
This is pretty cool stuff andit was.
It's interesting because whenyou have a charity and it takes
(06:34):
off and it really grows andpeople really get behind it.
You know, we donated all themoney, we donated all of our
time, we donated everything andpeople were just coming out of
all kinds of places to be partof it and we were getting people
that would tell us you know,this is the coolest.
You know golf hotting we'veever been to and we've gone to a
lot of charity golf hottings.
And because it was, it was justreal and it wasn't.
(06:55):
It was never about driving this, we're gonna hammer for up tons
and tons of money.
And then I had friends who hadbusinesses and stuff, and
friends that have run big eventsand been part of big events,
and it was interesting to me wasthey were like you know, why
aren't you guys bringing in likestupid money?
And we're like it's just, it'snot what we're, we're not trying
to do that.
You know, if we can raise fivegrand or 10 grand or something
(07:18):
would be like amazing, we couldhelp one or two or three
families.
Because when you startrealizing what these families go
through during the time theyhave a kid with cancer and
that's our charity, it's helpinglocal people that have kids
with cancer.
And you know, it's justsomething that we know how to do
.
You know, unfortunately, but weget it and by helping these
people.
(07:38):
There's so much you have to doand there's amazing charities
out there that make a wishfoundation, rainbow connection.
You know these, these companiesare there's so many, are
phenomenal at helping andthey'll give you a trip and
they'll.
You know, hey, you can meet acelebrity or you know, you can
give you a phenomenal memory andyou can't put a price on that.
It's, it's fantastic.
(07:59):
However, no pun intended,that's a dollar, all right, it's
really awesome.
We'll be donating it back.
Yeah, and it's really awesomeAnother dog but what what we
found was that we knew the areasthat they really needed to help
.
And you know, the trips aregreat and I think there's a
(08:19):
there's a place for that and Ithink it's really wonderful.
So I would never want that tostop.
But they go to the trip,they're there for a couple days
or a week or a weekend orwhatever that is, and then they
come home and everything's stillthe same, everything's still
real.
Nothing changed.
Yeah, but they got a greatmemory and when the outcome is
(08:40):
bleak and it's bad, they wantthose memories, because that's
probably the biggest thing.
And I get asked all the timelike, okay, what happens, and
how do you survive?
And like, how do you even go on?
And like, oh my gosh, and thesepeople, their fear is oh my God
, I don't wanna be like you andI don't want that ending.
I want the good ending right,and you have to really embrace
(09:02):
the journey to see what it isthat you're supposed to see.
And that was the thing that Ithink we I got out of it and my
family not all of them got thesame thing, and I think that's a
fair thing and a real thing.
Some of them don't quite see itthe same way I do.
(09:22):
I see the beauty of everythingthat we uncovered with stuff and
we got to see a lot of thingsthat we never would have seen.
We took a lot for granted.
You take life for granted.
We go through things.
Your kids they don't get sick,they don't die.
That's what you see on TV.
That's not real.
So when these people are facedwith this adversity and they're
faced with this possibility thattheir child may not be around,
(09:47):
it's a real, real, scary, tough,difficult thing for a parent to
gather.
You go through a series ofemotions you go through.
Am I a good parent Because Ican't protect my child?
If you're a mother, I think themother's connection typically in
most cases to a child is thatbond that is just like insane
(10:09):
right, everybody you respect andlove your mother.
Your mother loves you likenobody, right, and you can't
compare a mother's love type ofscenario.
But at the same time as a dadand I know it from a dad
perspective, so I'm notsuggesting it's any better or
worse for a dad than it is forthe mom, but the dad you go
through a different series ofemotions when your baby's born
and your children are born andyou guys have kids.
(10:31):
So you have a feeling you can'texplain right, and I'm sure
moms do too but you have thisdad thing and you kicks into
this.
I've got to protect this witheverything.
And like, oh my gosh, you getaway and who's telling you?
And you start kind of goingthrough these weird thoughts.
Are you on the baby's born andyou're like, all right, whoa,
whoa, you're not taking thatthrough the other room, I'm
gonna be watching you.
That's where you switch thebabies.
Johnny Awesome (10:52):
I know where you do this stuff right.
This is where this happens.
Curt Shewell (10:55):
And you go into this Papa Bear thing.
And I know there's a mama bearthing there's a Papa Bear thing
that comes into place and all ofa sudden, you feel this sense
of oh my God, I have to protectsomething.
You're married and you havethat.
This is my wife and I'm gonnatake care of my wife, protect my
wife, and you have this senseof that.
You'd have no idea what that'slike until you have a baby,
Until you have a baby, yeah.
(11:15):
And then it's like all bets areoff.
Okay, everything starts andends right here, nobody's gonna
hurt this baby, nothing gonnahappen to this baby.
And then, all of a sudden, yearsgo on and you're living normal
and you take typical life forgranted and they think to some
extent we still should.
But to really see the thingsthat go on, I think is special,
where people really see thatstuff and I think I was the
(11:35):
normal, I didn't see a lot of itand all of a sudden, one of
your kids is sick, for real, itmakes everything real, and then
it just stops you in your tracksand then you have to really
recognize everything and reallysee it.
Well, you go through this partwhere I'm supposed to protect
this child, right, and there'ssomething beating this child up
or harming this child andultimately, of course, killing
(11:56):
your child, and it's like how doI stop it?
Yeah, right, and as a dad, it'sphysical right, give me
something.
No way I'm gonna let thishappen.
Well, you can't fight somethingthat's inside them that you
can't get to.
And it isn't for the lack oftrying or your will.
I mean, you trade places withthem.
(12:17):
In like eight seconds it'd beall over.
You're like I mean I'm done, Igot it, you're good, I'm out.
You would do that and you'dtrade places, but you can't and
it's not how it works.
So you have to really go toanother place and accept the
greatest failure in your mindthat you could have.
I can't protect my own childand I don't know if there's
(12:39):
something that's harder thanthat.
Because you look at yourselfinternally of I am failing in
the most important piece I couldever have and I'm failing
miserably because I can't stopthis.
I can't help them and they'relooking at you for that.
Make it go away, make it stopright.
And you're just like.
I am trying desperately and Ican't do it and it's a really
(13:02):
tough thing.
But I can relate to theseparents going through this and I
can understand where they'recoming from and what happens is
people try to help people allthe time and I think people are
inherently good and I thinkpeople are inherently wonderful
and beautiful people and theywanna help and they do all the
right things.
The problem is you don't knowwhat to say and so you say what
(13:22):
you think that person wants tohear, or you say it from your
heart.
Jimmy gosh, I feel I understandhow you've, I know how you've,
I'm right here with you andyou're like you have no clue the
depths of how I feel right now.
So when you say that, you makeme so angry.
Jimmy Fantastic (13:37):
And I'll say this too, like on that note like
I don't wanna know you knowwhat I mean.
Like I don't wanna know howthat feels I don't you know what
I mean.
Johnny Awesome (13:44):
Like it's selfishly.
Maybe that's me, but I it's notselfish.
Jimmy Fantastic (13:48):
Some people don't say that.
Won't say that out loud, I will.
I don't wanna fucking know.
Curt Shewell (13:52):
Right, no, and you're really.
Johnny Awesome (13:55):
We're all Friday's five second late delay.
Curt Shewell (13:58):
We beeped him we beeped him and you don't right.
So, and to say that to peoplesometimes like shocks him a
little bit or get some angry andyou tell him listen, when you
tell somebody that you knowthey're like, yeah, but I really
do feel it.
And there are people who do,and they're you know, they're
close to you and your otherfamily members, oh, my God, you
(14:19):
know, because they're feelingpain.
They're feeling something alongthe lines of what you're
feeling, it's just at adifferent depth.
So they still feel the samepains.
They're still feeling the law.
They're feeling all these, allthese emotions, and their heart
is bleeding for you and bleedingfor the child and they're
trying to figure out how theycan help.
Well, you can't help.
(14:40):
How can they right?
It's a really tough thing andyou go through it.
So they say these things andwhat it does.
It angers you and it gets youmore charged because you're
grasping for anything.
And these other people?
Well, I know you feel youhaven't got a clue how I feel.
I am so destroyed right now.
I'm trying to keep it togetherand I'm trying to do these
things and I gotta figure thisout because you still have that.
(15:01):
I gotta figure it out.
Johnny Awesome (15:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Curt Shewell (15:04):
No, it ain't in your hands and this is the first
part where you have to getyourself there.
So this charity is really aboutunderstanding that and I hope I
didn't bore people with that,but that's where we go and
that's where we start.
The money's great and it canhelp in so many ways, but we're
not looking to give somebody atrip.
(15:25):
We've done a few things similarto that on a couple cases, but
it's been 16 years.
So 15 years in the charity andwhat we've been able to do is
give them more specifics sothey've been able to help them
with their.
The child if, for lack of abetter way to put it becomes a
(15:47):
child with some very specialneeds.
So people like think you have aspecial needs child, it could
mean a lot of things and peopletypically go down.
They were born with some typeof disadvantage or a handicap or
something like that.
No, they become very specialneeded because there's so many
things they can't do anymore.
There's so many things thatthey can't go down the path that
(16:08):
they did.
There's so many things theycan't do, so many things they
have to change, so many thingsthey have to learn and with our
case, with brain tumors andbrain surgeries.
The minute they go in and crackinto your brain and they start
messing around with stuff,something's going to come out
different, right?
You can't mess with your brain,you can't mess with your spine
without something changing.
(16:29):
So you're gonna have we'll callit side effects, but you're
gonna have fallout or residualthings that happen from these
things and when that happens youneed a lot of other things that
you never had to need.
So, for example, a lot of timesin these, in a lot of houses,
what we would be able to do ishelp out a lot just with putting
railings, hand rails and thingslike that in the bathrooms, in
(16:50):
the showers, and then change theshower adapters for them and
get hand tools and such.
So the child, depending ontheir age, they can still wash
themselves and stuff, becausesometimes they don't have the
use of both their hands anymore.
They don't have the ability todexterity to do certain things
and we experienced all thosethings.
So the child has a lot of othertough things.
(17:10):
Stephanie, for example hershe's right-handed but yet after
the first brain surgery it wasthe very first one and she had
four, but after the very firstone, what ended up happening was
her right side didn't work theright way anymore.
So she had to go throughphysical therapy to kind of do
these things, and it was a verybig struggle.
Well, she had to learn how toright-left-handed.
(17:31):
She had to learn how to doeverything left-handed.
When she first came out of herfirst brain surgery, her face
didn't work anymore, so shecouldn't close her eyes, she
couldn't close her mouth, shecouldn't feed herself.
It was a really difficult thingand eventually half of her face
woke up.
The other half didn't.
So you go through thesedifferent things and then it's
(17:54):
not even so much the cosmeticsof how it looks, it's what they
are able or not able to do,right, right, and your kids will
blow your mind at how resilientthey are, how smart they are
and how quickly they adapt andthey change and adjust, and it's
just awesome, tragic at thesame time, horrible and
(18:15):
beautiful.
So when you see these things,you start realizing okay, this
is where you can help them,because we didn't know either
and I was trying to do differentthings.
Jimmy Fantastic (18:22):
Yeah, I mean, this is how you end up in real
estate, right?
Curt Shewell (18:25):
She's the reason I'm in real estate, yeah, and
it's a crazy path, but here I amall these years later and it's
like wow.
So when she got sick, you'vegotta figure things out.
So I went a year withoutworking and trying to find a
miracle cure and all this kindof stuff.
And it's not about me you dowhat you gotta do.
(18:48):
Problem is I have four otherkids.
Jimmy Fantastic (18:49):
It goes back to being the dad mode, right, you
bad.
You just flipped that your dadmode, you bad.
Switch goes on, you bad.
Curt Shewell (18:56):
Yeah.
I'm gonna fix this freakingthing no matter what you bad, I
will find an answer for it.
Right and you go through.
I mean you turn every rock andevery stone you can and try to
figure it out and you're pushingdoctors to their limits.
Oh yeah, and you get to a pointwhere some of these doctors
don't wanna talk to you anymore,right.
Right, because you find out howhuman the doctors are and
(19:17):
that's alarming to you becauseyou need them to be.
They have a God complex andstuff and you need those doctors
, right, and you need them tosay that.
But when they can't deliver onit, you're like listen, you, son
of a gun, you told me, you saidyou could do this and you can't
.
And then you see when they'refrustrated and you see when
(19:38):
they're at their wits and like Ididn't work, like what do you
mean?
It didn't work, it's not anoption.
Didn't work is not in thisconversation.
What am I paying you for?
Yeah, so you go through thatstuff, and it's crazy.
So, with the families that aregoing through this stuff,
they're fearful of all thesethings, and we went through a
(19:58):
path that went more on thetougher, negative side, so we
saw that.
So I can quickly see whenthey're getting better news and
things are going in a betterdirection.
It's really great, so you cankind of relate to them.
What you have to be careful of,though, too, is they look at
you and they're looking for theanswers.
They want you to provideanswers.
What I give them is the answerof why it happened to them, and
(20:24):
it was probably the best thing Iwas able to be able to figure
out during that journey to helpothers later on.
And what I mean is this andI'll share it with you guys it's
this simple.
It's not an easy task, but it'sthis simple.
People always want to know whyme, why my child, why us, why
(20:44):
did this happen?
And you have to understand thisis so much bigger than you, and
if you don't have any belief inanything, you better find one,
because you better believe insomething.
They agree.
Yeah, we're making sure.
Johnny Awesome (21:03):
Maybe my wife out there honking at me Like hey
pick it up, let's go, pal, it'sgetting late.
So because our mics are realgood I don't know if you guys
were able to hear that butbecause we are live and we are
in the window.
We have fans that are drivingby and honking and honking yeah
it's pretty cool so hey.
Curt Shewell (21:22):
So that was the other guys starting to hear my
wife yelling at me like heybecause I know she's listening
to this, right, so I'm like,don't forget to tell them this
part.
Jimmy Fantastic (21:30):
Would you?
Curt Shewell (21:31):
stop rambling and just get to the point.
So when they go through it,they all want to know why did
this happen?
How did this happen?
Those kinds of things.
And I think what's really greatis we're able to give them the
answer to that.
And the answer is really it'syou were chosen to go through
(21:52):
this your child's special forreal.
Because you got this handed toyou, this horrific challenge,
this horrible thing because theperson next door, your sister,
your brother, your cousin, yourparents, your whoever else they
wouldn't be able to handle itRight.
And you can.
And that's the first thing thatI talk to them about is listen.
(22:16):
The why is you were chosen for areason.
I don't know the reason youwere chosen, but what I do know
is you were chosen because youcan do this.
You can get through this, nomatter which way, what direction
this goes, you can do this andyou're not alone.
And the hardest part at thebeginning is give me an answer.
(22:38):
Give me an answer.
Give me an answer and you'rewhy, why, why, why, why.
So if we can get the why out ofthere real quick and get them
to look inward and go, okay, Ihave to step up to this, because
people, so many people, oh myGod, I could never.
I would die.
There's just no way.
I couldn't do it.
I could not do it.
And they're serious and theybelieve that and I tell them you
could if you had to.
You're amazing what you can doif you have to.
Jimmy Fantastic (23:00):
Yeah, like you said, there's a why, right, and
you're searching for the why andthere really probably isn't one
.
You know what I mean?
Oh, I think there is.
I think it's.
Curt Shewell (23:08):
you were chosen to go through it.
Somebody has to go through it.
Yeah, somebody has to gothrough it, right?
So you're gonna go through itbecause he knows you can do this
, because you're not alone.
And if you understand that,even when it goes not the way
you want, if you can see theincredible little wins and
there's so many of them it wasamazing when Steph couldn't use
her right hand.
(23:29):
It was amazing to watch her useher left hand and then, when she
couldn't swallow, to watch hertake a straw, hold the thing.
A cup in her hand was achocolate milk carton and for
her to take the straw with herhand.
She could do this with it, keepit in there, but she couldn't
do this.
So what she did was she tookthe carton, switched hands, put
(23:50):
it in her right hand so shecould just hold her hand, just
to hold it against her body, putthe straw in her mouth with her
left hand that she could use.
She put, looped the strawbetween her fingers and grabbed
her lips and pulled them closedbecause she couldn't close her
mouth around the straw so shecould suck.
And she sucked down that carton, literally just gone, and
(24:12):
literally took the carton,tossed it and went like that and
I was like, cause she couldn'ttalk, so she can't talk, she
can't tell you anything.
And she put her hand out foranother one, like let's go,
let's go, I got this and if youcan picture the scene it started
I was doing, the only thing Icould think of was put the straw
in the chocolate milk.
(24:33):
Put your finger on the top ofthe straw, you know it captures
a little bit of the air and thenI'm putting in her mouth and
like, and it's just the smallestlittle amounts, and she's
getting frustrated and she'sgetting sangr and she's because
she can't talk.
Jimmy Fantastic (24:45):
And that was really frustrating, more
frustrating, right, right, right.
Curt Shewell (24:48):
So she was getting more angry cause she couldn't
talk.
And then she just took it fromme.
And then, when I watched her dothis and she put it, I mean
we're adults, we're supposed tobe the smart ones?
Jimmy Fantastic (24:58):
We're supposed to be the smart ones?
Yeah, we're totally not.
Curt Shewell (25:00):
And she figured out.
So it's things like that and Iremember and recall so many of
these things and it's, you know,you're trying to figure it out
and sometimes you're like, okay,so we got a little experience,
we can figure some shit out.
But at the end of the day, whenthey do these remarkable things
and you see them, and then yousee them proud of themselves and
then you're like, okay,thinking proud of yourself.
One of the you know, one of themost amazing parts and I'm not
(25:24):
saying I was like a Jerry Lewistelethon to tug on your
heartstrings, but if you reallyyou know to understand some of
this stuff one of the mostbeautiful moments was probably
about probably about what's thebetter about?
Maybe six months in and we hadgone through different
(25:46):
treatments and radiations andchemotherapy drugs and they said
, okay, this one's gonna whereshe's gonna lose all her hair
and everything.
So just so many beautiful thingshappen in this.
First, we knew this was gonnahappen, so we had to get your
hair cut shorter.
So her hair was already short,so we thought, okay, that'll
help from the shock and I'lljust got this gorgeous,
(26:08):
beautiful hair down.
You know that would pass hershoulders and we're like, okay,
we got to cut her hair short sothat way it doesn't look so
traumatic when it's such crap.
We convinced ourselves thatthat was gonna be better, right,
but but cutting it certainlyhelped.
Well, what was needed was herbrother.
Jamie said, okay, I'm gonna,I'm gonna cut my hair short too.
And then when she went in tohave the hair cut we had, you
(26:33):
know, the stylist came to thehospital, did it in the hospital
room, which was such a greatthing it was, and we made it
like a really fun event so thatway cuz she was definitely
freaking a little about, no, myhair is gonna be really short,
right, you know it's gonna beabout this long and then.
So Jamie's like a buzz, mineright now.
So he did the military cut itshorter than yours.
I mean, he cut it short and shewas like, oh my god, like Jamie
(26:55):
, what are you doing?
And you know, and you know, thekids are close and the kids are
like the peak kids.
Jimmy Fantastic (27:02):
Yeah, I know right, honk when you drive by.
Help, you can't even drive.
I just honk South Old Woodwardin Birmingham.
Just honk when you by Johnny,that wave all day tomorrow no,
not only that, but don't forgetit's open.
Johnny Awesome (27:15):
Roll call the door is welcome to walk in at
any point in time, any pointthere is sleep, walking and wait
.
Curt Shewell (27:22):
They're like what happened when.
Jimmy Fantastic (27:24):
I tap on there's.
There's coffee, there's someenergy drinks, there's some
Celsius.
Curt Shewell (27:28):
I got some stuff I gotta I gotta deli tray with
two different meats cheese, twocheeses and crackers.
Awesome, if you guys some ofthe nibble on and sometimes it
helps, right, oh yeah, and thenI've got you guys some cool
little desserts and stuff oh,thank you, thank you figured.
The sugarbuzz will help to yeahyeah, I like these are pretty
good hey out but it was.
(27:49):
It was like moments like thatthat everybody rallies and then
all sudden, jamie's tell youhe's like I'm gonna cut my hair
because it'll make her know thatshe's not alone.
And you're like this is one ofyour other kids, you know, and
you're just like, wow, this isreally cool stuff.
And you hear stories like thata lot.
Yeah, and it's beautiful to seeand you know, when you hear
these things, I relate to themvery well.
(28:10):
And what's neat is when thenight her hair came out
completely, I was ready for I'mlike, okay, I got this and she
started to brush her hairgetting ready to go to bed and
she had taken a shower gettingready to bed and she started a
brush and it literally cameright out like like, literally
(28:31):
like a movie or a cartoon whereyou think like this and it's
like rips the entire hair rightout, right, not rips, it sounds
dramatic, but it just comesright out very easily.
Yeah, and she had the brush.
She's like oh, oh.
And I looked and I'm likewhat's up, honey?
And we are all kind of like, oh, what's up?
And she's like look, I think myhair is coming out.
And we're like, oh, okay, andI'm like got this dad to the
(28:54):
rescue, right?
I got this and I'm like okay,yeah, a little bit of hair and,
well, a lot of it here.
Well, there's a clump of hairlike that I'm like oh, look,
it's yeah okay, and she's likealright, you want me to help you
, and she's like mmm, and youcan see that she's like like
this is a really big moment andit is for her.
This ain't about you, it's abouther, yeah, and I'm like got you
(29:17):
and I'm looking in the mirrorand my wife's right here their
brothers is this is right hereand I'm freaking, go like this
with the first brush and it justlike literally makes like a
lane right, just a little skull.
There's no, nothing, there'sjust all I right and I'm doing
like one row, but this wide andI can't breathe and I am like,
(29:44):
oh my god, and I'm looking inthe mirror and she's looking at
me and I'd made her a deal.
You never have to worry, nomatter who's in the room crying,
no matter who gets upset.
You know if it's your momgetting upset or if it's, you
know, sherry mom getting upset,or if it's your brothers or
sisters, your grandmothers, yourgrandpa's, everybody your hands
like they're all gonna cryevery time they see you.
So don't worry about it.
(30:05):
I said, if you ever want toknow, you look at me and I ain't
worried, you ain't worried.
Not a cure.
What the doctors say, I don'tcare.
When anybody say, fine, youmean I got you.
So she would look all the time.
Right, yeah, we're good, we'regood, we're good.
And there would be times, too,where somebody comes, like in
the hospital rooms or whatever,and you see them and it was like
, oh, I know that one's gonnaget me, so then I would go and
(30:26):
meet them on the other side ofthe curtain so she couldn't ever
see me and I would make sureshe couldn't hear me and you
know I've balled a million timesbut she just never seen it.
So I literally couldn't breathewith the brush in my hair.
And my wife was staying rightthere and she saw me and she's
like, oh shit, kurt's losing itand I was literally this close
(30:49):
to just losing it and I'm likebreathe, I can't.
If I breathe, it's coming out.
Yeah, mom, that's, the faucetsare going.
I can't do this.
Oh, my god, I'm freezing hereand my wife just crushed give me
that this is a girl, this isnot a boy thing.
What is your dad think he'sdoing is she's left and she's
like, yeah, and I'm like, great.
(31:09):
And my wife just grabbed thebrush right out of my hand and
she's like get out of here andlike turned me quickly because I
was just about to lose it.
And I go right into my roombecause she was in our bedroom.
Yeah, I go through the doorhere and out the other door that
goes out into the hallway.
And yeah, man, so she and I hadto run downstairs and just bury
my face on a pillow so she canhear me.
(31:29):
And I was dying.
I could.
It was.
It was dramatic for her.
Here I am the one falling apart, right, and you in.
This happens.
And I counsel and talk to theparents about this kind of stuff
and share the story.
So they got it and what hadhappened and you know, share
brush all around, stuff wasgreat with it and so after was
(31:50):
all all all good or done orwhatever, and they brought me
back in the room.
I was allowed to come back in,right, and I'm like, okay, and
so I was.
I was just like, hey, I lovethis.
You know I'm just kissing herhead and you know I was already
crying out.
So I was good, I was like Ithink I'm good and it was great,
(32:12):
and she's like my daddy, it'sreally a listen and I'm like, oh
, yeah, you know.
So we made it like a cool thing, yeah, and I'm like, and I
asked my wife how did you dothat?
She's like that's because youcouldn't tell my.
Okay, you're right, you'reright, thank God, right, you
can't do any of this stuff alone.
You really need your help, youneed your people.
So then went in a bathroom andwe sleep in bed that night and
(32:33):
stuff slept with us that night.
So it's staff, my wife, me, sostuff sharing me in that order.
And where our bed waspositioned, our bedroom we had a
big dresser with those you know, the giant mirror things.
You know, old bedroom sets, youknow, with a huge everything's
mirrors.
So we're laying there and inthe morning my wife I'm laying
there, sleeping, kind of youknow.
(32:53):
We're stacked in a row and sheelbows me love the horns.
She elbows me she freaking,elbows me and wakes me, you know
, I'm like, and then I'm lookingin the mirror and I'm looking
at the three of us, boom, boom,boom and stuff's like literally
looking in the mirror and she'skind of like turn, it had a
(33:14):
little and and she's liketouching her head and she's
looking in the mirror.
So I'm laying where I couldjust see over my wife's head and
see the mirror and I can see mywife looking in the mirror at
me and looking at her and I'mlooking at her and I'm looking
at her, my wife and I'm like, oh, wow, okay, cuz stuff's really
looking at her head and we'reand I'm thinking, oh god, I fell
(33:35):
apart yesterday last night.
I'm like, oh my gosh, I can'teven imagine.
She's thinking and all of asudden she goes, she looks, she
looks up and sees that we'relooking, you're watching, yeah,
so she knows we're watching andshe goes.
She's laser just had done thepillow.
She goes.
You know what?
She's right behind her andshe's what, honey, she goes.
I look really good bald, don'tI?
(33:56):
And she goes, I think.
So she goes.
I'm actually really pretty.
I'm like, ah, ah, I'm losing itagain.
Shit, I can't wear it on my face.
I'm like dying.
And it was the most beautiful,wonderful thing that she said.
You know I'm really pretty bald.
Yeah, I got this and it wasjust so enlightening, so
(34:18):
wonderful, and I'm trying tokeep it together, you know.
So I just got to reach over andgive them the hugs so I can put
my head beyond my wife's head.
So I'm like God, I suck at this, like I'm supposed to be this
tough guy and doing all thisstuff.
And he was like but these arethese moments that are so
incredible.
And had I missed that out ofanger, if had I missed that out
(34:40):
of being?
You know why me and why her andwhy us?
And it's never been about usand it wasn't, and I was as
normal as anybody else.
Like I said, it took everythingfor granted and you really get
stopped in your tracks and itchanges the way you see things
and it changes how you react tothings and when it's up
happening is you overcompensatein so many ways on different
(35:01):
things and then you go the otherway in so many other things.
You're too lenient on stuff,you're too over the top on other
stuff, and I became the guythat took a million pictures
because I wanted to, you know,photograph and video every
second of everything, in casethis goes, you know, bad in my
mind.
You know I don't want tochronicle everything and you
know it's interesting.
Over the years I've got acollection of pictures and
(35:23):
videos that you ain't.
I don't know any child and in athree year period of time has
got more pictures or videos ofthem.
And I took her during that timeinto my other kids and what the
reality is.
I have this many pictures ofher as non-sick, you know, up
till she was eight years oldwhen she ate, when she got sick,
11 when she went to heaven, andthen I've got this many for
(35:44):
those three years of the sick.
So my wife had asked me a fewyears ago she goes, she goes,
why don't you?
I'm going to put a littlecollage thing together.
These are Steph's birthday,which is April 30th, or it was
her birthday when she went toheaven, which is in August, and
it was just last week.
And so I'm like, okay, I said,what do you, what do you, what
(36:08):
do you try to do?
Which I want to put a littlepicture collage together.
She goes, but I don't want anywhen she was sick.
I want pictures that she whenshe wasn't sick.
And I'm like, okay, I startgoing through my computer and
I'm looking up and I startedrealizing how many I had of the
sick versus the non.
I'm like, wow, you know.
And you start looking at thoseand you're like, okay, you know,
(36:31):
and it's a really thing,because you, you have so much
memory and so much, becauseyou're so locked in from the
time she was sick versus beforethat, and there was so many
incredible memories before that.
But you get hung up on theseones and I think that was
therapeutic to me and that wasabout five years ago, and I
think that helped me a ton.
(36:52):
So, therapy wise, maybe I needa shrink, I don't know, but that
was a very big aha moment forme.
And then I started, you knowwhat.
I got to stop rememberingeverything just when she was
sick, because there was so manygreat things and I focused on
those, which is good, but at thesame time, you got to make sure
you've got the rest and youknow and really enjoy that piece
(37:12):
, Because eight years, yeah,because that's what the other
kids remember too right, and soit's a really interesting thing.
So when I talk to these parents,I ask a lot of much better
questions.
I'm getting way better atasking the right questions now
with that, so to help them, out.
Jimmy Fantastic (37:28):
You should almost you should almost start
teaching people how to askquestions.
Curt Shewell (37:31):
You would think that and you know it's funny,
right?
Real estate what do we teachall the time?
I'm the king of ask the rightquestions.
I'm very scripted and objectionhandling and you know that way,
as you guys, as you are and youare and we all, you know, do
this and coach and teach, trainagents and it has a lot to do
with this stuff.
Right, and this is part of ourevolution and all my successes
(37:53):
it's.
I can relate in my career today.
I can relate to a lot of itcoming from that.
So when we talk about it in theTV show and all this stuff that
you know, all this incrediblesuccess that I've been fortunate
and so crazily blessed to havein real estate these last you
know we'll have for many yearsnow is crazy good.
But I look at it from that allthe time and it's like man, it's
(38:18):
amazing.
So, to help these otherfamilies in a way that you can
really help them, you know, yeah, we give them money, yeah, we
pay for a lot of things.
You know it's great when we canmake sure that we focus a lot
too.
And if there's a sick kid andthere's brothers or sisters, we
focus on them.
So, because they get, they getforgotten, they get left behind.
Everybody comes over to thehouse to see the family, to see
(38:39):
the parents, to see the sick kid, and everybody brings a gift,
everybody brings something forthat sick child and it's very
beautiful and it's wonderful andplease do that.
However, don't forget the otherkids resent that and they get
upset about it and they'll startasking questions, like one of
ours did oh hey, how old am Iwhen I'm gonna get my cancer?
And we're like what?
(38:59):
And you're about to fall offyour chair when they say that
you can't breathe, like what?
And then you want to grab themand shake them and like you're
not gonna have that, that's notgonna happen, and you're really
freaking out about it.
And then you got to stop for asecond.
Well, what do they see Right?
And they're like, yeah, becauseshe gets all kinds of gifts and
everybody comes over and givesher all these wonderful things
and you're like, oh, my God, weneed to focus.
(39:21):
So you play defense andeverything, cause it's coming at
you and you're just learning.
So now I'm really good again athelping them ask themselves the
right questions and are youdoing this or are you doing that
?
Is this happening yet?
Is this happening yet, becauseyou've got to pay attention to
stuff.
So we're really good at doingthings to help the other kids.
What's really cool, too, iswhen it's Christmas, holidays,
(39:44):
birthdays, whatever have you.
The sick kid doesn't get toparticipate in a lot of things
go shopping and stuff like that,depending on how sick they are
at the times.
So what we do, too, is we helpthem with.
We get a list from them of whatdo they want to buy their
parents for Christmas, and thenwe get it for them and give it
to them.
So all the people that donateand share.
These are different things thatwe do, and then we do tons of
(40:06):
things throughout the year withthem.
We had one family that wesponsored that he was a.
He was actually a junior inhigh school, going into his
senior year, and he got leukemiaand he was the hockey captain
of the hockey team and he wasthe goalie for the hockey team
and amazing family and he had anolder brother, younger sister.
He was the middle of the threeand, as I can see him, since he
(40:28):
couldn't play and he was ourcaptain, they came to his house
every single day after practice.
Well, every day they come over.
Well, you got, you know, 14kids showing up your house, a
lot of food, teenage boys.
Johnny Awesome (40:39):
They each out of house in the Gatorades.
Curt Shewell (40:41):
So we literally were stacking, like you see, all
those cases you guys got back.
We would literally bring everymonth.
We would bring cases ofGatorades, all the flavors, and
drop those off from.
We would bring huge boxes ofthe Frito LA chips and we would
bring just as many as we couldpossibly get our hands on to
these guys because there wasnever enough.
(41:02):
And Then we would bring hugethings of this is back before
COVID, right.
So we would bring huge thingsof disinfectant, wipes and
Sanitizers, because you've gotto do all this stuff so, but all
this stuff costs a lot of money.
Yeah, you start talking abouthundreds of dollars, hundreds of
dollars, hundred, you know.
Jimmy Fantastic (41:18):
Three hundred dollars a month's no big deal
until it's a year, you knowyou're like holy shit, you know,
and that's one of the things Ithink that is is so important
about about this charity andlike Getting it out there is is
like it's the little things thatpeople don't count on, right,
it's that.
It's that it's like you spokeabout it this morning on the on
the 730 call this morning whenit was like you know, it's
(41:39):
people everybody's coming overmy house to visit which is great
.
But now I got to put snacks outand I got to put food out and I
got to put drinks out.
I got it, you know.
And I got to clean the house,and I got it.
Hmm, plus, I still have to takecare of the sick child on top
of all those other stuff.
Curt Shewell (41:52):
Can't tell me how many times they come over right
at dinner time too, and you guysgot to eat.
You got to feed your kids, yeah, and they're there, and they
want to be there and you can'tgo.
Hey, let's think, and youbetter pretend 15.
Can you leave for like an hourand come back?
I got to feed my kids, yeah, oh, they're ants.
Oh, it's okay, we'll eatanything.
Oh, yeah, I know you will, butI Gotta buy two pizzas now.
I gotta buy four pizzas andit's like you know, I can't
(42:15):
afford four pizzas every night.
I can't afford two buckets ofchickens versus the one show,
you know, and you start the food, the, and I people don't
understand.
The food bill runs through thethousands of dollars in a
month's time and it's crazy.
And when the family stuck inthis, kids, you know the
hospital, because they're sick,and when you kids are that sick
(42:36):
they're constantly spending, youknow, days, in weeks in the
hospital, at time when thathappens.
So what's crazy about it is,you know, so, what we would do
and we would, you know, try to,you know, transfer off.
So you know who says at thehospital time.
Well, you know, when we weredoing this, my wife, like, okay,
you're gonna be.
I was the night guy, so I wouldstay through the whole night.
Well, I'm there.
So at dinnertime, if we're gonnaeat as a family, just bear.
(42:58):
I got four of the kids.
Well, my wife would grab thekids, bring up to the hospital
and pick up.
You know, can take my chickenor pick up tacos or pick up
whatever and bring the food.
Well, when you're eating outevery single night and you money
doesn't mean they got to gopick this stuff up and then
bring it you start adding thisstuff up.
It's crazy, it's crazy, crazy.
(43:19):
So, you know, we help, you know, people even with the gas cards
, and we help them with theparking at these parking
structures, you know.
Johnny Awesome (43:25):
And just all the little things that you never
think about.
Right until nickel and dimenever thought about that.
Jimmy Fantastic (43:30):
The parking itself, which is not expensive
right on top of all the otherstuff.
Curt Shewell (43:34):
It is like you're there for six weeks in two days
which we spent those, and youhave one car and they'll even
give you, like, a pass orsomething.
Yeah but they don't give youthe pass for the other car when
your spouse comes.
So now you still got to pay itright, it's only three dollars a
day, yeah, times, you know.
Six weeks in two days, all of asudden.
Well, you just spent a couplehundred bucks in parking, right,
(43:55):
and then I got to eat out of avending machine and I get it out
of a cafeteria every day.
Well, okay, good news, it'sonly five bucks.
Seven bucks, ten bucks, twelvebucks a day a day, right, do
that for six weeks, you know,and you start going holy smokes
and I'm only gonna have a pop,right, well, pops, three bucks
out of the vending machine, yeah, good thing, I'm only gonna
have three of those, right, forthese eight, nine, ten, twelve,
(44:16):
fourteen hours, right, okay,well, that's nine bucks for
three pops, you know.
So you don't realize it.
So when we give them thevouchers, we give them all these
different things, it helps themso much.
It's unreal.
And you know, you start lookingat all the different things you
can do and then you startfixing things to their houses
and putting in Ramps and we'vedone ramps for houses.
(44:38):
We've done, you know.
We've changed the bedrooms,we've changed doors, we've
replaced doors, we've got themspecial doors that can open and
close.
We've we hit a button Automateddoors.
We've given them.
You know, buddy, mine owns oneof the biggest retirement home
communities in the country andthey get the, you know the, the
(44:58):
chairs, that that you know, theshower, shower chairs.
So they go through a lot ofthem because people in the old
folks homes, you know, othertimes sometimes is short and
they end up with a lot of thesechairs and they'll donate these
chairs to us and then we couldget these chairs to these people
and it's amazing how much thathelps.
So you start realizing thesethings.
And then the wheelchairs, andthen he gets a lot of that stuff
(45:20):
.
So we could pick these thingsup, you know, because when
they're really sick, a lot oftimes that they need a
wheelchair for short Interimsand that maybe not all the time
and some of them end up needinga wheelchair, you know, and you
gotta be able to have thesethings and to be able to help
them in those kind of ways iscrazy.
And then when the family's got,you know, like kids really sick,
and they're out of town or theygo to st Jude and if they have
to go to st Jews or JohnsHopkins, these other places and
(45:41):
we've been to these placesYou're gone for chunks of time.
Well, in the winter Michiganyou need somebody to shovel your
snow, so we take care of that,and then in the summertime, they
don't need to concentrate orworry about cutting their ass.
They need to know that it'sjust handled.
So right can focus on the stuffthat really matters and you
don't think of these things.
So what?
(46:02):
What happened with us?
Right, people did these thingsfor us and people Surprised us
with these things, or these arethe things that were struggles,
and what I help a lot of thesepeople do too, is just lay out a
plan and find that person.
Who's that?
You know it's a brother, is ita sister?
Is it who's the champion foryou?
Right?
Is it your best friend?
Is it, you know, a cousin?
Is it a neighbor?
Who is that person that's gonnastep up for you and that can
(46:22):
really help, because everybodywants that, but I believe in
their true, in their heart thatthey do so.
What happens is these people goto step up and when you can
tell them hey, listen, writedown a list of every single
thing that you do that you justdon't have time to do right now,
hmm, and Somebody to come inonce a week just to clean their
house.
Yeah right, little Molly madetype scenario.
(46:43):
Yep, give it to that person.
Here's the list, here'severything I need, because
everybody said what can I do tohelp?
Just let me know, call me, callme, johnny, let me know.
I'm not gonna call you and sayget you know what would be great
if you could want you know, ifyou could more of a cut my
laundry.
They'd be really great.
Johnny Awesome (46:58):
Of course.
Well, you're not even thinkingof it at that point and you're
not, and you're not bold enoughto ask somebody.
Curt Shewell (47:03):
Do these things and you think you feel foolish
to even ask.
So then it's not that I don'thave a million needs, but I
don't even want to ask.
And then the bigger problem isthe person who's in that
position.
Remember the dad thing?
Yeah, you do have a littlepride.
Yeah, and your pride will getin your way.
Johnny Awesome (47:19):
And it'll hurt you, your ego's messed up.
Curt Shewell (47:20):
Yep.
So what happens is you don'twant to, you don't want to admit
to yourself that you need thatmuch help.
You certainly don't want toadmit you need financial help
and you're in big trouble andyou can't afford to pay your
bills.
And it gets tough and peopledon't understand that.
Like well, you know insurancecovers this and that covers
almost everything, right?
Well, it does almost everything.
Well, when the bills arehundreds of thousands of dollars
(47:42):
, millions of dollars, almost,this is really great.
But there's a piece that's not.
And then you know, even whenthey cover these great things
and doing me wrong, there's alot of places are phenomenal.
St Jude will cover it.
Well, they'll cover it for oneparent to come and the child.
They'll cover your flight,which is amazing Long as the
other parent doesn't want to bethere right.
(48:02):
You gotta pay for that, right,and you get that.
Hey, you got to be heretomorrow.
You're on a plane and they'llbook your flights.
Boom, well, it's the otherparent coming or not.
And if they're flying, well, doyou have enough for a plane
ticket?
And if they're not, are theydriving?
And then if you have asituation where the parents
aren't married anymore, oh,who's going, who's not?
(48:23):
and, trust me, neither one's notgoing right, but one of them's
paying on their own.
Yeah, and we know which onethat it's gonna be, yeah, so
that's how that plays out, andit gets expensive.
Jimmy Fantastic (48:34):
Yeah, and again , like you said, on top of
parking and on top of this, andon top of that and on top of the
food, and that's our takingtrips to Memphis to go to st
Jude?
Yeah you know it's it's an11-hour drive.
Curt Shewell (48:44):
Know that drive really well, right, because only
one of you gets the flight.
The other one's got to driveand do it yourself and pay for
it and you start adding it up.
And then you've got to get yourown hotel because there's only
one room paid for and you can'tstay in the same room because
you guys.
Jimmy Fantastic (49:00):
That's not a yeah, that ain't gonna work out.
Curt Shewell (49:02):
An option so now you've got, how long are you
there?
Oh, hopefully you're only therefor four or five days.
Maybe you're there for four orfive weeks.
Okay, good news, it's only youknow, hundred bucks a night, 200
bucks a night.
Great news, great news, yep,hey.
So you start going holy smokesand it's financially Devastated,
(49:22):
and not to mention when you godo.
That means you're not workingRight, and that's how I got into
that miracle job and that'swhat real estate became to me.
Yeah, it's been amazing.
So there's so many things youcan do to help people, but you
have to really understand theirjourney and what stuff they're
running and going through.
So when you start, you startbeing able to help them in these
ways and you know they're gonnago here and if you can
(49:43):
understand what their dynamic is, everybody's story is different
.
You know everybody's got oneand you got to find out what
their story is and that's reallywhat we concentrate on.
And then, when you have theother kids, okay, you guys go
here and let's say they'remarried couple, things are good,
st Jude, lets them go.
What?
Somebody's got to take care ofthese other kids and somebody's
got to make sure that they'regetting to their practices and
somebody's got to make sure thatthey're playing their sports.
Yeah, but like we can't affordto buy him a new baseball bat,
(50:05):
it's baseball season for thebrother who's not sick right.
Well, now he really hates hisbrother because he's not sick.
Brother is or sister iswell, you got to make sure so we
take care of those things, andbut you got to give them the
money for it right, and to takecare of that stuff.
So, you know, raising a littlebit of money is never a bad
thing if you know where to applyit or how to help.
(50:25):
And that's what we focus ondoing and it's been the most
incredible Journey, because wehelp in so many different ways.
You know, we don't buy him apool, we don't send him to
Disneyland and we don't call upcelebrities and ask him to you
know, Do a video or sign anautograph, right, do that stuff.
Not that that stuff's not great, but that's what these other
charities will do.
Let them do that, because thoseare incredible memories.
(50:47):
We'll stay in the trenches andlet's let's help them for the
long haul.
And you know some of thesefamilies.
You know you never, ever getrid of them and they stay in
your life for a long time andhopefully you get that
opportunity right.
Yeah, because the other answeris not so great.
Johnny Awesome (51:02):
Yeah, well, kurt , I you came in.
It's been night, I don't knowhow long you're playing on
staying, but if you could stay alittle bit longer, I'd give you
the.
You want to know what thecharity's about that's.
Curt Shewell (51:13):
The charity's about it's about me, it's about
the charity and I love that youguys picked.
Our charity is a charity, sohopefully those stories kind of
hope you guys understand the waywe approach.
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