March 31, 2025 • 49 mins
Gina Economopoulos shares her powerful journey from childhood physical challenges through grief, religious life, and addiction to finding purpose as an author and end-of-life doula. Her story of resilience demonstrates that even in our darkest moments, giving up is never the answer when we have the courage to keep moving forward.
• Born with physical limitations as one of eight children in a loving Italian-Greek family
• Used alcohol to mask insecurities and fit in socially throughout early adulthood
• Experienced profound loss when her mother died of cancer, redirecting her life path
• Spent 12 years in a convent before realizing that path wasn't right for her
• Found herself at rock bottom after her fiancé died a month before their wedding
• Discovered sobriety and healing through Alcoholics Anonymous
• Published bestselling book "Shake the Dust Off Your Feet and Walk" to share her journey
• Now works as an end-of-life doula, helping others through their final transitions
• Spreads a message of hope that "if it could happen to me, it can happen to anyone"
• Encourages others to remember they're not alone in their struggles
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Cassandra (00:18):
Good day out there to all of my listeners and I'd
like to welcome you to Is yourWay In your Way podcast and I'm
your host.
My name is Cassandra CrawleyMayo and, for my new listeners
out there, the name of my bookis titled Is your Way In your
Way.
It's a self-discovery guide forwomen on how to restore
yourself, learn from yourexperiences and be your true
(00:42):
self again.
This podcast is also aboutindividuals who are stuck, that
you know that there's somethingcalling your soul, but you just
can't seem to get to it.
It's kind of like the book Iwrote.
I've been wanting to write abook forever, but I just could
not get to it.
I couldn't write the book.
I was stuck.
Those individuals that want tobe an entrepreneur, you want to
(01:04):
be an author, You like toforgive somebody, you need to
get out of a toxic relationship.
It's just a gamut of thingsthat you aren't able to let go.
Also, in other words, you havewhat I call these self-imposed
barriers.
That's preventing you fromliving your best life on your
(01:25):
terms.
And boy do we have a topictoday, topics related to giving
you an opportunity to do someself-reflection, and the name of
the topic is do not give up.
And who better to talk aboutthat topic is my special guest,
Gina Economopoulos.
Just one moment, listeners.
Economopoulos, I want to keepsaying it.
(01:49):
Economopoulos, I told you I wasgoing to say her name once.
Say it again, gina.
Gina (01:58):
It's Economopoulos.
Cassandra (02:00):
Economopoulos.
Okay, well, welcome to.
Is your Way, in your Way, Gina,and I am looking forward and my
, oh, my goodness, my listenerscannot wait to hear about Do Not
Give Up.
How many times have we wantedto give up on something?
Okay, now, before we delve intoGina's story, I want to tell
(02:23):
you a little bit about herbackground so that you can get a
tidbit of what she's aboutbefore we take our deep dive.
Gina's journey is one ofresilience and purpose.
She was born as the seventh ofeight children in a warm
Italianreek family in Searset,new York.
(02:45):
Gina's path was shaped by love,faith and a series of
life-altering surgeries.
A social science graduate witha background in both social work
and bartending, she foundherself on a profound spiritual
journey after her mother'spassing, spending 12 years in a
(03:06):
convent before dedicatingherself to caring for adults
with disabilities.
Now Gina's also serving as anend-of-life doula, offering
compassion and guidance to thosein their final moments grounded
in her faith and the strengthof her sobriety.
Through Alcoholics Anonymous,through life's highs and lows,
(03:29):
from golf and pool to beach days, gina walks her path with
gratitude, service andunwavering grace.
She is the author of a numberone bestseller Shake the Dust
Off your Feet and Walk.
Wow.
I'm just telling Gina, beforewe got on, I love that title and
I will tell you all later, aswe get into our conversation,
(03:52):
why I love that title, so muchas Gina will tell you why she
came up with that title.
So, gina, tell us a little bitabout your backstory.
Gina (04:03):
Okay, as I'm from Syosset, new York, like you shared, I'm
from one of eight kids I do haveto say I had loving parents,
unconditional love.
I grew up in a real big familyand I mean my parents were so
loving to me and the way theyraised us that as a kid loving
(04:24):
to me and the way they raised usthat as a kid, by the time I
was 18, I wanted to get marriedand have eight kids by the time
I turned 22.
Because I just saw my family.
I just it was just they werejust so good they put my dad was
a hard worker provided for us.
We I mean we learned.
We also learned how to work forourselves, you know.
So we had that kind ofupbringing, yeah.
(04:46):
But, yet at the same time, I,out of the eight children I
happened to be born with a lotof physical problems.
Okay, physical limitations.
I was born.
Six weeks after I was born, mymom noticed I had a hip.
I was always crying and my hipswere out of place and comes to
find out that I had a hipreplacement, so I was in a body
(05:09):
cast.
Of course I don't remember that, but I do believe it's always
in our unconscious mind.
You know, I was in a body castmy first year, just about, and
then at the same time I was sogifted with my father.
My father had these extra bonetumors.
It's a disease calledosteogenic, whatever I mean it's
(05:33):
a long word but I inherited.
So growing up I had a lot ofsurgeries, you know when.
I was maybe first grade, thirdgrade.
I have all these nice scars onme and I say that I was blessed
because nobody in my family gotit, it was just me.
Cassandra (05:52):
It was just you, it was just me.
Gina (05:55):
So I was physically limited growing up.
And my siblings, you know sixolder siblings and one younger
brother.
They were all athletic, allpopular, pretty, and I just I
didn't feel that way because Iwas like a black cloud I felt
like, or the black sheep.
And then also my mom, who Imean loved dearly.
(06:18):
She had my younger brother whenshe was 49 years old six years
after me.
So one would you know thedoctors did say could be, you
know, but he was perfectly fine,perfectly fine.
So I mean, like I said, I wasfilled with love the house, but
I didn't love myself because Icompared myself to people.
I always had a smile.
(06:40):
I was cute.
Everyone called me Gina, lola,brigida, so I'm like yeah.
Absolutely yeah, and I try tokeep up with everyone.
Keep up you know with, whetherit's I couldn't play sports or
I'd be a fan, a cheerleader, orI tried to fit into different
groups.
You know looking for that loveand acceptance, not from my
(07:00):
family but from the.
You know, growing up in the 80s, that's where, you know, I'm
like, yeah, let's.
You know.
Cassandra (07:08):
I want to be popular.
Gina (07:09):
I want to be loved by my friends and and and.
For some reason, I just feltlike I was a unique person.
Cassandra (07:14):
I mean for me.
Gina (07:15):
I was a unique individual.
I didn't really like myself.
I had a low self-esteem.
I just was like insecure.
I felt I would feel inadequate,like if I would wear something
I just Didn't.
I just felt so inadequate.
And you know, as time went on,throughout my Childhood, as well
(07:36):
as Going into high school andto college, that's where alcohol
surfaced, that's where I wasDrinking, because I was drinking
to, to run away to run away,not that I was stuck, I was a
runaway, or you know, I didn'twant to be stuck, so you know to
numb the pain cause.
There was such pain inside mewithout realizing it.
(07:57):
But then I figured every kidgoes through this, you know.
But I don't know you know, I'mnot sure I don't know how it is,
but that's what what I had donethat was.
Cassandra (08:13):
My solution is to okay when I drink the alcohol,
then I'm the life of the party.
I'm this exactly you're popularand yeah, yeah, that's what I
want.
Gina (08:18):
But but yet it was sort of like hard because I had to keep
.
You know, I kept drinking anddrinking and and I would wake up
and I would be the same oldGina.
You know that inside, likereally okay.
Cassandra (08:29):
Yeah, it didn't go away.
Gina (08:31):
It didn't go away, exactly it didn't.
It was like a soul sickness.
I look back in hindsight youknow, today I look back, there
was a soul sickness, there wasan emptiness, there was, you
know, some.
There was a child in there thatwas just covering herself up
the way I see it today.
And then, of course, in college.
My dad was very gracious,hardworking, put us all through
(08:54):
college.
All eight of us and I went awayto school, went to Connecticut.
I wanted to go to a smallschool to have fun.
So that's why I wasn't going tono Ivy League school.
I didn't want to study becauseit was hard for me, I just
wanted to have fun.
Cassandra (09:10):
I wanted to drink and have fun, okay, yeah Right,
hang out and be popular, andeverybody know you and all of
that, wow, yeah.
Let me ask you, though, whenyou were growing up, was there
anything that you dreamed ofdoing, that you wanted to do,
any vocation you had in yourheart?
Gina (09:28):
I wanted to get married and have eight kids and be like
my mother.
That's it, you know be takingcare of the house, taking care
of kids?
Have my husband provide?
I mean, of course, if I had toprovide I would, but that was
that was my first front is to beto be married and have a big
(09:48):
family.
Cassandra (09:50):
Interesting.
That's what I wanted to do.
Gina (09:51):
I wanted to be married with a white picket fence and
have kids yes, yes, exactlybecause also my oldest siblings,
some of them are 10 years older, and I saw then that's what
they did.
So when they went to college,they found the love of their
life and to this day they'restill married and they have kids
and grandkids.
(10:12):
And so when I went into collegeI was like, okay, you know, I
want to find a man, but I wasn'tlike I said.
I was so insecure of myself,like, I would sad to say, like I
wouldn't have a man.
It.
I was so insecure of myself,like I would say, to say, like I
, I wouldn't have a man who'd behere and there, and it was just
like I.
I didn't like myself, I didn'treally respect myself and uh,
and so you know that carried onthroughout college and I did
(10:35):
graduate.
And I graduated with a socialwork degree in sociology,
because to me it was the easiestsubject I thought.
But also, cassandra, I had aheart of service.
I've always had a heart.
I always like to help people onthe streets.
You know, I was always likehelping, helping, helping yeah
(10:57):
so that's what I thought.
Social work oh, I could helppeople people but yet I really
wanted to find a man first, butat the end of my college
graduation.
Yes, I got a degree, and atthis time my parents moved from
Long Island to Pennsylvania.
(11:18):
They retired and my mom says,oh, gina, we have an extra room
for you.
You want to come?
And I'm like, okay, I mean itwas the best opportunity then to
go.
So I did and I went.
I was looking for jobs undersocial work you know for the
state and that's how I landed upbartending.
(11:40):
I went to, I started bartendingand I'm like, oh my God, this is
it, this is my major.
I could talk to people, I couldhear their problems.
Cassandra (11:50):
I could share my suggestions.
Gina (11:54):
And then I could leave and that's it, goodbye.
Take their money and I don'thave to deal with government.
I don't have to deal with thelaws or anything like that.
So I felt I mean, and I have apersonality plus, I'm like yeah,
yeah, yeah, you know I alwayssmiled and so, but at the same
time I was still searching.
(12:14):
I know I was still searching.
You know there was like that,like poor, whatever.
And then I remember going intotrying to positive thinking Now
at this time I was raisedCatholic, but by the time I went
into college I just stoppedgoing to church.
It wasn't like I didn't believe, like not that I didn't believe
in God, I didn't need God, youknow, like he's out there and,
(12:40):
granted, my parents were verydevout Catholics to the day they
both died, you know.
And so I'm just like, okay, youknow, I don't need it.
So, and my mother being underher roof, she didn't enforce
going to church.
But she says, oh, it'd be niceyou find a nice man.
I'm like no, I got a bartender.
Cassandra (12:57):
Wow.
Gina (13:00):
So, yeah, so that was that .
So I thought, talking aboutanother dream, you were asking
okay, now, granted, I'm notmarried yet, I don't have eight
kids yet.
My dream was to be to work on alove boat.
Did you remember the love boat,julie McCoy?
I remember that Likehospitality.
Yeah, that's me, you know, havefun, be the center of attention
(13:22):
.
And I said, yeah, that's whatI'm gonna do.
So I had all these uhapplications to carnival, cruise
lines and things like that.
So I'm like this is my dream,this is what I want to do.
I could do it because I I'm apeople pleaser, I'm a people
person too, like, like that andso.
But during that time, my motherwho never gets sick moms never
(13:48):
get sick but she went in forlike a minor back surgery and
she came out and the doctor saidthat she had bone cancer,
terminally ill, and she had fourto six months to live.
And I'm like what to live andI'm like what you know, what is
that?
What is that?
And it happened in August andthe day that we, I remember to
(14:10):
this day that when we were toldthis, the next day my younger
brother, steven, went off tocollege.
So he left for his first yearof going to college.
He just graduated from highschool.
My other siblings are marriedand, you know, have kids and out
of you know, away or wherever,and so it was just my dad and me
(14:31):
.
So those applications neverwent out.
I was like, okay, you know, Ican't do it because my mother,
like I love my mom.
Moms are special, you know andso I took care of my mom with my
dad and, and we were with mymom 24 7.
(14:51):
If I couldn't be there, I wasthere.
Even in the hospital, dad wouldsleep on the floor.
I'd come early morning, get youknow coffee like this.
We never left my mom.
My siblings would come in, youknow, maybe once or twice a
month to help out, but theycouldn't, sometimes couldn't,
couldn't, not say couldn't stand, but it was hard for them to
see my mother in that position,or you know, and for me my mom
(15:15):
always looked great Cassandra, Idon't know what it was, but she
always looked great, even tothe end, when she had her little
hair up, and back then she diddo three treatments but she had
bone cancer.
So I mean back then it's notmaybe today and her cancer was
from.
It's like a childhood cancer itonly appears in children, but,
(15:38):
needless to say, you know.
So now, this time when my momwas diagnosed with cancer.
Okay, let's bring the rosariesout, let's bring the prayers out
.
Okay, god, I'm going to go backto church if you heal my mom.
So that started my relationshipwith God.
Okay, I'm praying all theseprayers, I'm doing this, I'm
doing this, I'm doing this, butultimately, my mom died in those
(16:00):
five months.
Cassandra (16:04):
You know what mom died in those five months like,
uh, you know what it's?
It's when I listen to yourstory and it's it's like you had
trauma.
Not only did your mom pass, youhad a fiancee, you had an
employer, um, uh, that passed,um, you talked, talked about you
(16:25):
had an addiction, you talkedabout you drinking.
I just want to know how did allof this shape your life?
How did you navigate throughthese devastating experiences?
Gina (16:42):
Oh, I have to say it was through God's grace, without me
realizing it.
I have to say that I, to behonest, I, you know what was.
The best thing that helped methrough is breathing and crying.
All I did was cry, cry, cry.
All I did was like move forward, trying to do what's next step
(17:04):
or whatever it may be.
I was simply existing Cassandraduring that time.
Okay, During the sisterhood andeverything, it was sort of like
God was carrying me along.
Cassandra (17:16):
And then when I thought I had a breather like,
ah, I got a breath.
Gina (17:19):
Then something else happens.
Wow Like you said, likesomething else happens.
Okay, this is it, I'm going todo this.
This is great.
Wow, there was really nothingin me to sustain what was going
(17:43):
on in my life.
I don't know if that makessense.
It does.
You were just there.
I was just there.
You were existing.
Yes, I was existing Right.
Cassandra (17:54):
That poem about in the sand.
It was like you were beingcarried.
You saw the footprints but youdidn't see yours.
It was somebody that wascarrying you, wow.
Gina (18:03):
And I didn't see that somebody until years later.
You know, when I came into therooms of AA, that's where I
realized like wow, god wascarrying me and so how did you
find, how did you find yourpurpose, your meaning in life,
like what Something had tohappen.
Cassandra (18:22):
Happen, gina, for you to to overcome and navigate
through all of that.
What, what, what happened?
Gina (18:28):
well that what happened was is that you know I had
joined the convent.
I was there for 12 years.
I got kicked out, I had a lotof pain and suffering in that
and that's where I shook yeah,that's where I shook the dust
off my feet and walk.
It wasn't a happy ending ofleaving.
Cassandra (18:45):
I left Well, excuse me.
So you went to the conventafter your mom and all this
devastation and you felt thatdoing that would help.
Gina (18:56):
Yes, yes, after, after my mom died, I came back to the
Catholic roots.
And then I, in that I, Ithought, I thought I became a
nun.
My vocation.
I joined a convent.
I thought that was my wholelife, my whole life.
I made final vows.
So I was married to the church,married to God and married to
the community, married to thepeople, because we worked with
(19:18):
the poor.
Cassandra (19:19):
For 12 years now, for 12 years I did that for 12
years, now, for 12 years.
Gina (19:24):
I did that for 12 years and then at the end of the last
two years there was a lot ofhardship, a lot of suffering
and'm thinking to myself but God, how could this happen to me?
I'm in a religious you know,religious community.
(19:50):
I was so confused becauseeverybody loved me as a sister I
mean, I was a famous,well-known sister back then.
But the community and onceagain in hindsight it was just,
it was a new community it wassick, they were going in one
direction, my sphere was goingin this direction and it just
didn't clash, you know thecommunity of nuns that you were
(20:13):
in Right Right.
Cassandra (20:15):
So it just as you indicated, it went one way and
you were going another way andyou were going another way.
Yeah, yeah, and so you knew.
It sounded like you knew thiswasn't working for you, right?
It sounded like that.
Gina (20:32):
Yes, I do have to say, during my time as a nun, like
maybe my fifth year in, sixthyear in I would present it to my
I didn't feel right.
I didn't you know, because Iwas full of fear, full of pain.
Things were just going on.
I didn't feel right.
I didn't you know I was cause.
I was full of fear, full ofpain.
Things were just going on.
I was, I was just being hurtand I was like, oh, this is not
meant for me.
So I would talk to my directorand another priest and they kept
(20:55):
saying oh no, you belong here,you belong here.
And I'm like, and I'm thinkingthat's the word of God, okay, I
guess I'm meant to suffer.
That's how I feel.
It continued.
It continued and then it cameto a point where they said you
don't belong here anymore.
Cassandra (21:11):
You know, like I had gone through so much.
Gina (21:13):
It was just a real ugly scene.
It was a very ugly scene that Isee God allowed it and I thank
God today that I did go throughit, because I did persevere.
I mean, there was a point whereI was stuck and there was a
point where I could have easilyleft.
It's like a marriage, you know,a marriage you could just
easily leave.
You know I could have easilyleft, but I knew if I left I
(21:36):
don't know where I would betoday.
I didn't know where, because Iwent to get the help that they
told me to get, and I went fortherapy.
I went all this, and, and I dideverything that they asked me
to do, and, and, and.
At the end they said, well, youdon't belong here anymore.
So you know, let's depart ourways.
And and I was in my forties andI was like, oh my God, what do
I do now?
Cassandra (21:57):
Yeah.
Gina (21:59):
Well, I went to go live with those men with disabilities
.
I was living with adults withdisabilities, down syndrome,
autistic and that's where it wasa transition time because, you
know, in the convent I lived.
I didn't live a worldly life,we lived a very austere life.
Tv.
(22:24):
None of this, none of this.
So I was sort of like you knowwhat do?
I do.
How do I use a phone oranything like that?
So I lived in this.
It was a transition time whereI lived with men with
disabilities as well as women,and all I did was they loved me.
They just loved me.
Like I was so dead at thispoint, but they loved me Right.
Cassandra (22:40):
And that's exactly what I needed.
You know, and.
Gina (22:44):
I and I learned a lot and everything.
So, okay, now, what am I goingto do now?
Two years I did that and I saidyou know what I want to do,
what Gina wants to do you know,and what Gina wanted to do is
another thing.
What Gina wanted to do is go tothe beach and live by the beach,
so that's where I ended up.
Here at the Jersey Shore, I'mlike, yes, I'm at the beach, you
(23:04):
know, because you know, growingup in New York, I grew up with
the beach and and then Gina didnot want to serve anyone.
She didn't want to go intoservice because I was just so
overwhelmed and so, like youknow, I just didn't want to do
it, so I decided to go back tobartending.
Cassandra (23:22):
So I went back to bartending okay, so you just so,
living amongst individuals withdisabilities, you got to a
point where you realized thatwasn't it either for you.
Gina (23:33):
No, okay, all right and meanwhile they thought it was or
they would want it to be,because wherever I go, cassandra
, they all love me.
You know what it's like.
Oh yeah, you'd be great forhere, you know.
But yet, as much as I love them, but it was like you know what
it's not for me, it's not for me.
So I just wanted to kind oflive a normal life.
Cassandra (23:55):
Like, up until then I didn't yeah, and I didn't To me
.
Gina (23:59):
my normal life is to get like a nine to five job,
whatever, whatever you know likethis.
But I ended up gettingbartending because I didn't have
any really jobs before that.
You know, I was a bartender, asister, and now I'm a bartender.
So I'm like, ok, I'll just getmy feet wet you know, see taste
of the world, or whatever it maybe.
And I'm back in the alcoholscene.
(24:22):
Ok, OK.
And then were you stilldrinking then?
I, yes and no, Not not, as Iwas like.
I was like I was trying not todrink, you know, but I wasn't as
much drinking as I was yearsbefore that, okay.
And and and, but I like to drink.
So I was always there.
You know, I did drink, drink,but I didn't think I had a
(24:43):
problem.
But anyhow, danny came in andwe talked a gentleman and we
just talked, talked, talked andwe went out on a date and I was
like, oh, maybe this is it, youknow, my first relationship, you
know, like okay, granted, Iwon't have eight, eight kids,
but maybe I'll get that whitepicket fence yeah and um, but it
(25:06):
turns out that, uh, he was analcoholic.
It came, you know, I didn'trealize that and he was active.
So I'm like, okay, you know,and he, he encouraged me to go
to Al-Anon, which is a 12-stepprogram for family.
So, yeah, I did and uh, but hewas the problem, I wasn't and.
But then I come to find out inin Al-Anon that, um, yes, I was
(25:30):
part of a problem too, you know.
And I also came into Al-Anonbecause I in Al-Anon, you hear
people sharing their experiencewith families that are in
addiction, growing up, whatever,and my eyes opened up and I
said oh my God, that's how Iexperienced in the convent
without them picking up a drink.
You know, there's manipulation,there's fear, there's like
(25:53):
let's hide this, nobody needs tosay it, you know.
I mean, they weren't drinkers,this is just.
I was in hindsight, I look, Iwas the drinker, but I just felt
like that dynamic, you know inhindsight I look I was the
checker, but I just felt likethat dynamic, you know and
understanding.
Cassandra (26:07):
Okay, so it was time.
Yeah, so let me ask you.
So let's move forward a bit.
Okay, it was something that gotyou to where you are today.
Yes, okay, what in the worldwas that?
Gina (26:23):
What in the world was that ?
Well, danny, he ultimately diedfrom this disease.
I found him dead a month beforeour wedding day, and that was a
moment that I was shocked.
I was not even existing, I wasdead, dead zombie.
And so that happened in indiana.
(26:47):
I came back then I, I, I just Ithat I don't really remember
those, because I was in suchpain and such grief.
And at this point I'm angrywith god because I'm like I
don't understand this, like hereI am.
And so I got to a point,cassandra, where, after danny's
death and coming back to theJersey Shore and realizing,
because his mom died too,danny's mom died too in this
accident.
I mean, it was just trauma.
Cassandra (27:08):
One thing after another.
Gina (27:09):
Exactly.
Then I'm like this is my life,You're talking about my life
Because, Sandra, at that momentmy life was to be miserable.
My life was to be in this darkdungeon within my heart and soul
, in a thick concrete wall withno light and wet you know, cold.
Right, that was it I.
I came to, I mean, but when Icame, wits in.
Cassandra (27:31):
It sounds like you at your wits in, and maybe that's
a lot to do with the title.
Do not give up amen, amen.
Gina (27:39):
So, anyhow, I so when I did come back, I once, once
again, I'm just a zombie, Idon't know I.
Some of the stuff happened inbetween, and then I found myself
going into the rooms of AA, andthat's where alcoholics go in
12 step program.
But I went in there, cassandra,to find out why Danny is dead
(28:03):
and these guys are sober.
I was like I didn't understand,you know, because Danny, I, you
know, I was with him when hewas sober, great, and he did
work a program, but then yet hishe had such a bad accident that
led him to his death and suchas you know.
But anyhow, I was like, why,why?
So I would.
So I was invited to go intothese rooms of AA which I'm not
(28:24):
an alcoholic, not me and so Iwent in and there's like a
tradition saying the desire notto pick up.
So I says, yeah, I'll identifybecause I want to hear.
But at the same time I wantedto kill everyone.
If my eyes could kill, theywould be dead.
And I was just so.
I did that for almost a year,going to this club by me, and
(28:48):
and I was just like moving,moving.
I didn't celebrate holidays, Ididn't, I just was existing,
just yeah me along I, and duringthat time I prayed to god, not
to uh.
I didn't want to wake up thenext morning, but I did, did,
and I just kept going, and Ikept going.
But then it was in the rooms ofAA for me when I realized, on
April 2nd 2015, that I'm analcoholic, and that just was
(29:14):
like oh, my God opened up, butat first, cassandra.
It opened up all the pain thatI stopped, all the pain that I
ran from from a child, from myinsecurities.
It was, it was red, hot fire.
And it's like and then it's the.
Now I say I'm an alcoholic andI'm joining this club here and
(29:36):
I'm like okay, what do I do withit?
I used to go to the alcohol tonumb it, you know, to get rid of
that pain.
I would go or I would go to my,my self-pity couch, be
miserable be like oh, we'll belike this so it's like I had to
learn, and which took a while,you know.
Learn to, you know, live life onlife's terms.
I had to, you know, one day ata time.
(29:56):
So so I really went, I broughtmy, like God did for me what I
couldn't do for myself he keptbringing me into those, even
those meetings, I kept listening, kept listening, and in the
meetings you get a sponsor, youknow somebody else to help you
work the steps as a step programand in that I was like okay,
okay, okay.
And then in that God came backin my life in a powerful way.
Cassandra (30:22):
Wow.
Gina (30:22):
Because I hated God Cassandra, when I went in there,
you were angry.
I was so angry and I had noproblem telling people that
because this is me and of coursepeople meant well and people
will come up to me and say, ohno, god loves you.
I was like no crap, god lovesme.
I was married to him.
We're divorced, I said.
(30:43):
He's just on the couch.
But it was such a learningprocess which, through pain, and
suffering, but at the same timethere was light, because you
know, he came back into my life,I got a new life, a new
relationship.
One day at a time, you know,and work in a program, and, and,
and, and, then bringingscripture back in my life and
(31:04):
bring, you know, just bringinglight and life.
That, that, that concrete wallthat I was stuck in.
Yeah, for a long time.
Eventually, you know some godand you know just kept hammering
it down, hammering it down, andthen there were moments it was
like, oh, oh, my God, there islight.
Cassandra (31:22):
Yeah, oh my.
Gina (31:23):
God, Cassandra, I can be happy.
Cassandra (31:26):
Yeah, that's a blessing.
Oh my God, I can accept.
Gina (31:28):
Yeah, oh no.
You know, at first you want tosabotage.
It's like no, I don't deservethis.
No, I can Wow.
Cassandra (31:36):
I can.
So AA was a blessing, yes, yes,just by being in and also
confessing to yourself I'm analcoholic and also I need help.
And then God's like I thinkshe's ready now, so let me enter
her, enter in her and show herwho I really am.
And what a blessing that youcame back into the fold.
(32:00):
And then, from that point on,you started.
You started writing.
You started writing the book,the title of the book that I
just loved Shake the Dust Offyour Feet and Walk and the
reason that resonated with me,as I shared in the beginning,
before we even got on thispodcast, when I was in
relationships and they didn'twork out and I was like, ok, how
(32:23):
am I going to let go of this?
What am I going to do?
And I felt the spirit tell methat just shake the dust off
your feet and move on.
And that thing right thereresonated with me so much and
that helped me shake the dustand move on.
So what is your story and whydid you select that title?
So what is your story and whydid you?
Gina (32:42):
select that title.
Well, when I left the convent,my spiritual director as I had
to give up everything, which wasanother hard thing, like I had
to give up my habit, I had togive up my identity as a sister
I mean, I was there for 12 yearsand so he had said this one day
where I handed everything in.
He says prior to that he saysjust meditate on that scripture,
(33:04):
shake the dust off your feetand walk, because that's what
Jesus had sent his disciples.
If they don't like you, shakethe dust off, you know, just
move on.
And so, and it just happened,an opportunity when I did, you
know, take off my habit, put ona prayer risk, or whatever I was
on.
I was on the floor where thechapel is, in the convent, where
I was saying my goodbyes.
(33:25):
Nobody was there.
I go into the chapel, I shakethe dust and I said this is for
you, jesus.
And that's where I walked.
And then, and then, you know,as I, like you said, I started
writing, I wrote, I startedwriting this when Danny died.
It was all pain.
And when I wrote out Danny'spain in my situation with Danny.
With that happening, thesister's pain came up.
(33:46):
I held so much and the thingsthat happened and everything
like.
And then it's like how can thisbe, god, how can this be?
I put away 180 pages about 11years ago aside and I continue
my journey.
I held on to those pages andthen, maybe last two years, a
friend of mine was a writer.
Because I'm not a real writer,I never thought I would write a
(34:09):
book.
People said I should, but I'mlike I failed English.
How could I write?
And so, but a friend of minehelped me put it together.
She read it, she goes now startwriting, now Start what
happened in these last 10 years?
And again, and it was.
You know, it started with pain,but it ended up in recovery,
with peace, joyous and happy andfree.
(34:31):
So, yes, I, I did write mystory.
I've shaked the dust off yourfeet and walk right it's a it's
available on amazon.
It's.
I just published it this thispast august and thank you, so
I'm a first-time new-time author.
This is very new to me, yeah.
Cassandra (34:49):
And a bestseller, a number one bestseller, yeah.
Gina (34:56):
It's Amazon seller, yeah, but it's good, I take whatever I
can.
I'm grateful.
I'm so grateful.
Wow, you have every right toAbsolutely.
It's good, I take whatever Ican.
You know, I'm grateful, I am sograteful.
Cassandra (35:05):
Wow, you have every right to be, and I'm so glad.
Yeah, it sounded like the bookhealed you somewhat.
Yes, by laying it all out andletting go.
Gina (35:16):
And Cassandra, that's exactly I wrote.
The book was for me.
Yeah, I wrote the book for mefor continual healing, healing,
yes, I was healed for thiscontinual healing.
And then I also wrote for amessage of hope and strength for
all those who are going throughany kind of pain, darkness,
stuff, you know not that thereis hope, trust me.
(35:39):
Look at my story.
If it could happen to me, itcould happen to anyone else.
You know it can.
Miracles are in the air.
You know so things.
It's just so.
Right now I'm just trying topromote my book, my
encouragement.
I'm also an end of life doulatoo where I want to talk about
that.
Cassandra (35:56):
But let me ask you this Okay, so, okay.
So now you're an author and Isee that you are a speaker as
well.
Okay, and then you're in thelife doula that I want to talk
about, but what?
So?
Those are the.
Are you bartending?
No, Okay, All right.
So so what are you doing nowand what do you speak about?
(36:22):
What's your title of yourmessage?
Gina (36:25):
Well, it's a message of strength and hope.
I'm trying to promote myselfand putting myself out there.
I spoke a lot when I was asister, so speaking in front of
people it doesn't bother me.
So now I'm trying to findchurches or places that would
want an inspiration speech tosay, hey, don't give up, look at
(36:47):
my story, you know, if you'rein darkness as you know grief I
was in so much grief Grief is mybest friend.
Hey, you know, I know how.
You know this is how I didthrough grief.
Not to say it's your story, butmaybe my story could comfort or
just to exist, keep existing,keep existing until there's that
brightness.
And at the same time I amcertified as an end-of-life
(37:10):
doula.
So when people do it wrong.
Cassandra (37:12):
So did your grief help you get into that, parlayed
into the end-of-life doula.
Gina (37:18):
No, the end-of-life doula came when I was a nun, really.
Cassandra (37:22):
And I didn't realize that I was an end-of-life.
Gina (37:24):
I never heard of end life, doula until two years ago,
because the desire of my heartthat grew as a nun was to be
with people dying.
Because, if remember, when Iwas with my mom, when she was
dying, I had no faith, no hope,no love, no God, and to me I
experienced hell.
That's hell to me on earth.
Fast forward, become a nun,knowing that there's a heaven,
(37:46):
knowing that there.
Forward, become a nun, knowingthat there's a heaven, knowing
that there is a god, knowingthat there's peace.
It's like aha.
So when people are dying, youknow it's like a joy to help
them, to say you're going to abetter place, or peace, or
whatever it may be, becauseeveryone has their different
faiths, different beliefs, but Iknow where they're going in my
heart, and so that seed like forsome.
(38:07):
I don't want to say for somereason, but God had always put
me at many places, when I was anun, where people were dying or
people had died in front of me,people I did not know.
There was a joke, not a joke,but people said don't call
sister death, don't call sisterdeath on me, and so then, you
know, after the nunnery, afterleaving, you know I did not
(38:28):
think, yeah, I didn't mind beingwith a dying and once again God
would put me in places thatfriends, mothers, whatever I
happen to be there, whatever, orpray with them, whatever at the
hospital volunteer, you know.
But I never thought of it untillike about maybe three years
ago.
A friend of mine knows thatthat was a passion says oh no,
can you don't?
(38:48):
You know you could be certifiedas an end of life doula.
I said wow.
Cassandra (38:52):
I said you need to get to do the service and get
paid for it.
Gina (38:58):
I said I would have been rich by now, because I have been
with so many, and so I did getcertified.
I try to promote myself, put myservice out there, uh, and
helping, whether it's thepatient, and, in that, helping
with grief, because I know Imean, I've been there you really
can't say anything about grief.
When somebody's grieving, yougot to let them be and hold
their hands, love them or orwhatever it may be, you know,
(39:20):
just to be a comfort to them.
And so, yes, death and dyingdoes not scare me, I enjoy it.
Cassandra (39:30):
I don't tell many people because it'd be like oh
my God, you know Right, but Iyeah.
What was the most, as you canthink about the most impactful
individual transitioning, thatanything happened that for you
was impactful, not only for theperson transitioning but maybe
(39:51):
for their family.
Gina (39:54):
I would have to say it was my uncle.
Cassandra (39:57):
Okay.
Gina (39:58):
It was my uncle.
It was a very impactfulconversation with him.
Cassandra (40:04):
As he was transitioning.
Gina (40:06):
Yeah, yes, the family did not want me to talk to him about
it, but when we were byourselves like he would say to
me how long has it been withyour mom?
You know, because he knew my mom.
And I said, oh, you're going tosee me.
And I said at that time it wasabout 10 years.
And he said and then he said tome he says I'm going to see her
(40:27):
soon.
I said, yes, uncle, you'regoing to see her soon.
Please give her a big hug fromme.
And then also, when I went tovisit him the last moment, it
happened to be my birthday thenext day and it was the hospital
I was born in.
So I said to him, I said, youknow, uncle Jim, the best gift
you could give me if you want todie on my birthday so that we
(40:48):
share that, you'd be birthedinto eternal life.
And it was the place.
Cassandra (40:52):
I was born.
Gina (40:54):
And sure enough, he took my word and he died the next
morning with his son, mycousin's hands and I happened to
get there right afterwards, soI was able to pray with him
Granted you know his body wasstill warm, but it was to me,
that was a gift and I was themost you know helping someone
you know.
Cassandra (41:14):
Transition from this life to the next yeah, yeah, wow
, definitely you have some somekind of story story, I tell you.
I want you to inspire mylisteners, which you have to
confront their struggles withgrace and resilience and so that
(41:36):
they can emerge on the otherside.
I mean, you've, and many of ushave, been through so much, and
God didn't say life was going tobe easy.
By no means.
So we know that.
So my thing is getting throughit.
Like you said, do not give upbecause you were at a point in
your life you really wanted togive up.
(41:57):
You know, like yeah, um, tosomebody and I'm we didn't talk
about our ages or anything, butwhat would you tell and perhaps
(42:18):
this can be part of theconfronting the listeners that
are struggling what would youtell somebody that's, I would
say, 40 years old, looking backover your life?
What would you tell somebodythat's in their 40s, going to
their 50s?
Gina (42:34):
Wow, the fabulous 40s.
Well, I would tell all thelisteners that are listening now
if you're struggling, yes, ourtheme is do not give up, but
also to remember you're notalone.
Our theme is do not give up,but also to remember you're not
alone.
You are not alone because thereare so many people like you,
(42:56):
like me has gone through it,whether you know it or not, and
the best thing that what I didwas, honestly, I cried all the
time, I shared all the time, Itold strangers about what was
going on and just just justpushing forward.
And there's there's no rightway and there's no wrong way,
that there is a power within us.
You know, my power is God.
(43:17):
I call God, but some of thelisteners may.
Whatever power is in you,that's not you.
It could be, it could bewhatever you want it to be, but
it's not you.
And just know that there issomething in you.
There's that light in you,there's that hope in you that
wants to sprout out, and it willif you just keep reaching out.
(43:37):
If you need to go to differentresources, to talk to someone.
Listen to the podcast over andover and over again.
Listen to it over and over again.
You know, read our stories, Iknow you're something like that
to say, aha, this is going toget me through today because all
we have is today.
Cassandra (43:57):
That's right.
Gina (43:57):
We have is today, so yeah, I do.
And for those in their 40s,really there is life, is life,
there's life after 40s, you know, and in so many ways, and
people struggle, whether it'sthrough marriage or a loss or or
whatever, or not knowing whatthey want to do.
Look at me, I mean, I stillnever had a profession in my
life, you know, I never got anine-to-five job yeah, I never
(44:19):
did.
But here I am, standing withinmyself that I finally became
comfortable with Gina, you knowI came comfortable.
In my own skin, one would say,you know, and prior to that I
was never comfortable.
And honestly, if it couldhappen to me, it can happen to
anyone, because there was.
(44:40):
I keep stressing this, becausethere was a time that I did not
think I would ever be here today, Did not I really it was, would
ever be here?
today Did not, it was in themoment of my mind, grace.
Okay, people are going tosuffer.
Give it to Gina, I'll do it.
I'll suffer.
I'll take that one on you.
I'll take that one on you andnot to say that suffering goes
away once you're in the light.
(45:01):
It's just now.
You know you deal with life onlife's terms.
However, your tools are,whatever you are, whether it's a
prayer, whether it's listeningto Cassandra's podcast, whether
it's, you know, going to churchor going outside, and breathing
the fresh air there is something, something that's greater and
better than us.
That and then we deserve it andit's worth it.
Cassandra (45:23):
Yeah, you definitely.
And, like you said, if youendure if I endured, we say
anybody can do it and it's not acliche, and I love that we are
not.
You are not alone, because whatyou're going through, somebody
else is going through it.
I thought worse, you know.
(45:43):
So, gina, I just want to thankyou so much for your time, your
transparency, just shedding whatyou have been through that
doesn't mean that's who you are.
That's just what you've beenthrough and I appreciate you
being a blessing to my listenersand I will also share, like you
(46:05):
indicated, your listeners getthe support you need.
It is out there and, like yousaid, you can listen to.
Do not give up podcasts overand over and over again, as much
as you need it, because as longas you are here, god has
(46:26):
something for you to do and ifyou're not sure, ask him, and if
you open, he will reveal it toyou.
That I know for a fact.
So, gina, I just want to thankyou again.
I'm grateful for theindividuals that influenced you
on this journey, because I knowthat we cannot do this thing by
(46:48):
ourselves, and I thank you forall the work you're doing and
the speaking, and I encouragethe listeners to get that book.
Shake the Dust Off your Feet,gina.
How my listeners get in touchwith you.
Gina (47:07):
Yes, I do have a website called GinaEconcom.
Cassandra (47:12):
Okay.
Gina (47:12):
And my book is available on Amazon.
But if you go on my website,there is a link to the Amazon.
So, that's where I am right nowOkay, promoting my book and
things like that and also onething I want to share with your
listeners.
If nobody told you that theylove you, today we do, cassandra
(47:34):
and Gina loves you.
Yes, yes, I aspire to say that.
Cassandra (47:38):
Yeah, thank you so much.
Yes, indeed, we love you andagain, my listeners, as I always
say.
Bye for now, and you know thatmy podcast goes live every
Wednesday at 1 pm and if youmiss it, it's on all podcast
platforms.
(47:58):
Gina, thanks again, it was mypleasure.
Thanks for being on my show andbye for now my listeners.
God bless, thank you.
Good day out there to all of my listeners and I'd
like to welcome you to Is yourWay In your Way podcast and I'm
your host.
My name is Cassandra CrawleyMayo and, for my new listeners
out there, the name of my bookis titled Is your Way In your
Way.
It's a self-discovery guide forwomen on how to restore
yourself, learn from yourexperiences and be your true
(00:42):
self again.
This podcast is also aboutindividuals who are stuck, that
you know that there's somethingcalling your soul, but you just
can't seem to get to it.
It's kind of like the book Iwrote.
I've been wanting to write abook forever, but I just could
not get to it.
I couldn't write the book.
I was stuck.
Those individuals that want tobe an entrepreneur, you want to
(01:04):
be an author, You like toforgive somebody, you need to
get out of a toxic relationship.
It's just a gamut of thingsthat you aren't able to let go.
Also, in other words, you havewhat I call these self-imposed
barriers.
That's preventing you fromliving your best life on your
(01:25):
terms.
And boy do we have a topictoday, topics related to giving
you an opportunity to do someself-reflection, and the name of
the topic is do not give up.
And who better to talk aboutthat topic is my special guest,
Gina Economopoulos.
Just one moment, listeners.
Economopoulos, I want to keepsaying it.
(01:49):
Economopoulos, I told you I wasgoing to say her name once.
Say it again, gina.
Gina (01:58):
It's Economopoulos.
Cassandra (02:00):
Economopoulos.
Okay, well, welcome to.
Is your Way, in your Way, Gina,and I am looking forward and my
, oh, my goodness, my listenerscannot wait to hear about Do Not
Give Up.
How many times have we wantedto give up on something?
Okay, now, before we delve intoGina's story, I want to tell
(02:23):
you a little bit about herbackground so that you can get a
tidbit of what she's aboutbefore we take our deep dive.
Gina's journey is one ofresilience and purpose.
She was born as the seventh ofeight children in a warm
Italianreek family in Searset,new York.
(02:45):
Gina's path was shaped by love,faith and a series of
life-altering surgeries.
A social science graduate witha background in both social work
and bartending, she foundherself on a profound spiritual
journey after her mother'spassing, spending 12 years in a
(03:06):
convent before dedicatingherself to caring for adults
with disabilities.
Now Gina's also serving as anend-of-life doula, offering
compassion and guidance to thosein their final moments grounded
in her faith and the strengthof her sobriety.
Through Alcoholics Anonymous,through life's highs and lows,
(03:29):
from golf and pool to beach days, gina walks her path with
gratitude, service andunwavering grace.
She is the author of a numberone bestseller Shake the Dust
Off your Feet and Walk.
Wow.
I'm just telling Gina, beforewe got on, I love that title and
I will tell you all later, aswe get into our conversation,
(03:52):
why I love that title, so muchas Gina will tell you why she
came up with that title.
So, gina, tell us a little bitabout your backstory.
Gina (04:03):
Okay, as I'm from Syosset, new York, like you shared, I'm
from one of eight kids I do haveto say I had loving parents,
unconditional love.
I grew up in a real big familyand I mean my parents were so
loving to me and the way theyraised us that as a kid loving
(04:24):
to me and the way they raised usthat as a kid, by the time I
was 18, I wanted to get marriedand have eight kids by the time
I turned 22.
Because I just saw my family.
I just it was just they werejust so good they put my dad was
a hard worker provided for us.
We I mean we learned.
We also learned how to work forourselves, you know.
So we had that kind ofupbringing, yeah.
(04:46):
But, yet at the same time, I,out of the eight children I
happened to be born with a lotof physical problems.
Okay, physical limitations.
I was born.
Six weeks after I was born, mymom noticed I had a hip.
I was always crying and my hipswere out of place and comes to
find out that I had a hipreplacement, so I was in a body
(05:09):
cast.
Of course I don't remember that, but I do believe it's always
in our unconscious mind.
You know, I was in a body castmy first year, just about, and
then at the same time I was sogifted with my father.
My father had these extra bonetumors.
It's a disease calledosteogenic, whatever I mean it's
(05:33):
a long word but I inherited.
So growing up I had a lot ofsurgeries, you know when.
I was maybe first grade, thirdgrade.
I have all these nice scars onme and I say that I was blessed
because nobody in my family gotit, it was just me.
Cassandra (05:52):
It was just you, it was just me.
Gina (05:55):
So I was physically limited growing up.
And my siblings, you know sixolder siblings and one younger
brother.
They were all athletic, allpopular, pretty, and I just I
didn't feel that way because Iwas like a black cloud I felt
like, or the black sheep.
And then also my mom, who Imean loved dearly.
(06:18):
She had my younger brother whenshe was 49 years old six years
after me.
So one would you know thedoctors did say could be, you
know, but he was perfectly fine,perfectly fine.
So I mean, like I said, I wasfilled with love the house, but
I didn't love myself because Icompared myself to people.
I always had a smile.
(06:40):
I was cute.
Everyone called me Gina, lola,brigida, so I'm like yeah.
Absolutely yeah, and I try tokeep up with everyone.
Keep up you know with, whetherit's I couldn't play sports or
I'd be a fan, a cheerleader, orI tried to fit into different
groups.
You know looking for that loveand acceptance, not from my
(07:00):
family but from the.
You know, growing up in the 80s, that's where, you know, I'm
like, yeah, let's.
You know.
Cassandra (07:08):
I want to be popular.
Gina (07:09):
I want to be loved by my friends and and and.
For some reason, I just feltlike I was a unique person.
Cassandra (07:14):
I mean for me.
Gina (07:15):
I was a unique individual.
I didn't really like myself.
I had a low self-esteem.
I just was like insecure.
I felt I would feel inadequate,like if I would wear something
I just Didn't.
I just felt so inadequate.
And you know, as time went on,throughout my Childhood, as well
(07:36):
as Going into high school andto college, that's where alcohol
surfaced, that's where I wasDrinking, because I was drinking
to, to run away to run away,not that I was stuck, I was a
runaway, or you know, I didn'twant to be stuck, so you know to
numb the pain cause.
There was such pain inside mewithout realizing it.
(07:57):
But then I figured every kidgoes through this, you know.
But I don't know you know, I'mnot sure I don't know how it is,
but that's what what I had donethat was.
Cassandra (08:13):
My solution is to okay when I drink the alcohol,
then I'm the life of the party.
I'm this exactly you're popularand yeah, yeah, that's what I
want.
Gina (08:18):
But but yet it was sort of like hard because I had to keep
.
You know, I kept drinking anddrinking and and I would wake up
and I would be the same oldGina.
You know that inside, likereally okay.
Cassandra (08:29):
Yeah, it didn't go away.
Gina (08:31):
It didn't go away, exactly it didn't.
It was like a soul sickness.
I look back in hindsight youknow, today I look back, there
was a soul sickness, there wasan emptiness, there was, you
know, some.
There was a child in there thatwas just covering herself up
the way I see it today.
And then, of course, in college.
My dad was very gracious,hardworking, put us all through
(08:54):
college.
All eight of us and I went awayto school, went to Connecticut.
I wanted to go to a smallschool to have fun.
So that's why I wasn't going tono Ivy League school.
I didn't want to study becauseit was hard for me, I just
wanted to have fun.
Cassandra (09:10):
I wanted to drink and have fun, okay, yeah Right,
hang out and be popular, andeverybody know you and all of
that, wow, yeah.
Let me ask you, though, whenyou were growing up, was there
anything that you dreamed ofdoing, that you wanted to do,
any vocation you had in yourheart?
Gina (09:28):
I wanted to get married and have eight kids and be like
my mother.
That's it, you know be takingcare of the house, taking care
of kids?
Have my husband provide?
I mean, of course, if I had toprovide I would, but that was
that was my first front is to beto be married and have a big
(09:48):
family.
Cassandra (09:50):
Interesting.
That's what I wanted to do.
Gina (09:51):
I wanted to be married with a white picket fence and
have kids yes, yes, exactlybecause also my oldest siblings,
some of them are 10 years older, and I saw then that's what
they did.
So when they went to college,they found the love of their
life and to this day they'restill married and they have kids
and grandkids.
(10:12):
And so when I went into collegeI was like, okay, you know, I
want to find a man, but I wasn'tlike I said.
I was so insecure of myself,like, I would sad to say, like I
wouldn't have a man.
It.
I was so insecure of myself,like I would say, to say, like I
, I wouldn't have a man who'd behere and there, and it was just
like I.
I didn't like myself, I didn'treally respect myself and uh,
and so you know that carried onthroughout college and I did
(10:35):
graduate.
And I graduated with a socialwork degree in sociology,
because to me it was the easiestsubject I thought.
But also, cassandra, I had aheart of service.
I've always had a heart.
I always like to help people onthe streets.
You know, I was always likehelping, helping, helping yeah
(10:57):
so that's what I thought.
Social work oh, I could helppeople people but yet I really
wanted to find a man first, butat the end of my college
graduation.
Yes, I got a degree, and atthis time my parents moved from
Long Island to Pennsylvania.
(11:18):
They retired and my mom says,oh, gina, we have an extra room
for you.
You want to come?
And I'm like, okay, I mean itwas the best opportunity then to
go.
So I did and I went.
I was looking for jobs undersocial work you know for the
state and that's how I landed upbartending.
(11:40):
I went to, I started bartendingand I'm like, oh my God, this is
it, this is my major.
I could talk to people, I couldhear their problems.
Cassandra (11:50):
I could share my suggestions.
Gina (11:54):
And then I could leave and that's it, goodbye.
Take their money and I don'thave to deal with government.
I don't have to deal with thelaws or anything like that.
So I felt I mean, and I have apersonality plus, I'm like yeah,
yeah, yeah, you know I alwayssmiled and so, but at the same
time I was still searching.
(12:14):
I know I was still searching.
You know there was like that,like poor, whatever.
And then I remember going intotrying to positive thinking Now
at this time I was raisedCatholic, but by the time I went
into college I just stoppedgoing to church.
It wasn't like I didn't believe, like not that I didn't believe
in God, I didn't need God, youknow, like he's out there and,
(12:40):
granted, my parents were verydevout Catholics to the day they
both died, you know.
And so I'm just like, okay, youknow, I don't need it.
So, and my mother being underher roof, she didn't enforce
going to church.
But she says, oh, it'd be niceyou find a nice man.
I'm like no, I got a bartender.
Cassandra (12:57):
Wow.
Gina (13:00):
So, yeah, so that was that .
So I thought, talking aboutanother dream, you were asking
okay, now, granted, I'm notmarried yet, I don't have eight
kids yet.
My dream was to be to work on alove boat.
Did you remember the love boat,julie McCoy?
I remember that Likehospitality.
Yeah, that's me, you know, havefun, be the center of attention
(13:22):
.
And I said, yeah, that's whatI'm gonna do.
So I had all these uhapplications to carnival, cruise
lines and things like that.
So I'm like this is my dream,this is what I want to do.
I could do it because I I'm apeople pleaser, I'm a people
person too, like, like that andso.
But during that time, my motherwho never gets sick moms never
(13:48):
get sick but she went in forlike a minor back surgery and
she came out and the doctor saidthat she had bone cancer,
terminally ill, and she had fourto six months to live.
And I'm like what to live andI'm like what you know, what is
that?
What is that?
And it happened in August andthe day that we, I remember to
(14:10):
this day that when we were toldthis, the next day my younger
brother, steven, went off tocollege.
So he left for his first yearof going to college.
He just graduated from highschool.
My other siblings are marriedand, you know, have kids and out
of you know, away or wherever,and so it was just my dad and me
(14:31):
.
So those applications neverwent out.
I was like, okay, you know, Ican't do it because my mother,
like I love my mom.
Moms are special, you know andso I took care of my mom with my
dad and, and we were with mymom 24 7.
(14:51):
If I couldn't be there, I wasthere.
Even in the hospital, dad wouldsleep on the floor.
I'd come early morning, get youknow coffee like this.
We never left my mom.
My siblings would come in, youknow, maybe once or twice a
month to help out, but theycouldn't, sometimes couldn't,
couldn't, not say couldn't stand, but it was hard for them to
see my mother in that position,or you know, and for me my mom
(15:15):
always looked great Cassandra, Idon't know what it was, but she
always looked great, even tothe end, when she had her little
hair up, and back then she diddo three treatments but she had
bone cancer.
So I mean back then it's notmaybe today and her cancer was
from.
It's like a childhood cancer itonly appears in children, but,
(15:38):
needless to say, you know.
So now, this time when my momwas diagnosed with cancer.
Okay, let's bring the rosariesout, let's bring the prayers out
.
Okay, god, I'm going to go backto church if you heal my mom.
So that started my relationshipwith God.
Okay, I'm praying all theseprayers, I'm doing this, I'm
doing this, I'm doing this, butultimately, my mom died in those
(16:00):
five months.
Cassandra (16:04):
You know what mom died in those five months like,
uh, you know what it's?
It's when I listen to yourstory and it's it's like you had
trauma.
Not only did your mom pass, youhad a fiancee, you had an
employer, um, uh, that passed,um, you talked, talked about you
(16:25):
had an addiction, you talkedabout you drinking.
I just want to know how did allof this shape your life?
How did you navigate throughthese devastating experiences?
Gina (16:42):
Oh, I have to say it was through God's grace, without me
realizing it.
I have to say that I, to behonest, I, you know what was.
The best thing that helped methrough is breathing and crying.
All I did was cry, cry, cry.
All I did was like move forward, trying to do what's next step
(17:04):
or whatever it may be.
I was simply existing Cassandraduring that time.
Okay, During the sisterhood andeverything, it was sort of like
God was carrying me along.
Cassandra (17:16):
And then when I thought I had a breather like,
ah, I got a breath.
Gina (17:19):
Then something else happens.
Wow Like you said, likesomething else happens.
Okay, this is it, I'm going todo this.
This is great.
Wow, there was really nothingin me to sustain what was going
(17:43):
on in my life.
I don't know if that makessense.
It does.
You were just there.
I was just there.
You were existing.
Yes, I was existing Right.
Cassandra (17:54):
That poem about in the sand.
It was like you were beingcarried.
You saw the footprints but youdidn't see yours.
It was somebody that wascarrying you, wow.
Gina (18:03):
And I didn't see that somebody until years later.
You know, when I came into therooms of AA, that's where I
realized like wow, god wascarrying me and so how did you
find, how did you find yourpurpose, your meaning in life,
like what Something had tohappen.
Cassandra (18:22):
Happen, gina, for you to to overcome and navigate
through all of that.
What, what, what happened?
Gina (18:28):
well that what happened was is that you know I had
joined the convent.
I was there for 12 years.
I got kicked out, I had a lotof pain and suffering in that
and that's where I shook yeah,that's where I shook the dust
off my feet and walk.
It wasn't a happy ending ofleaving.
Cassandra (18:45):
I left Well, excuse me.
So you went to the conventafter your mom and all this
devastation and you felt thatdoing that would help.
Gina (18:56):
Yes, yes, after, after my mom died, I came back to the
Catholic roots.
And then I, in that I, Ithought, I thought I became a
nun.
My vocation.
I joined a convent.
I thought that was my wholelife, my whole life.
I made final vows.
So I was married to the church,married to God and married to
the community, married to thepeople, because we worked with
(19:18):
the poor.
Cassandra (19:19):
For 12 years now, for 12 years I did that for 12
years, now, for 12 years.
Gina (19:24):
I did that for 12 years and then at the end of the last
two years there was a lot ofhardship, a lot of suffering
and'm thinking to myself but God, how could this happen to me?
I'm in a religious you know,religious community.
(19:50):
I was so confused becauseeverybody loved me as a sister I
mean, I was a famous,well-known sister back then.
But the community and onceagain in hindsight it was just,
it was a new community it wassick, they were going in one
direction, my sphere was goingin this direction and it just
didn't clash, you know thecommunity of nuns that you were
(20:13):
in Right Right.
Cassandra (20:15):
So it just as you indicated, it went one way and
you were going another way andyou were going another way.
Yeah, yeah, and so you knew.
It sounded like you knew thiswasn't working for you, right?
It sounded like that.
Gina (20:32):
Yes, I do have to say, during my time as a nun, like
maybe my fifth year in, sixthyear in I would present it to my
I didn't feel right.
I didn't you know, because Iwas full of fear, full of pain.
Things were just going on.
I didn't feel right.
I didn't you know I was cause.
I was full of fear, full ofpain.
Things were just going on.
I was, I was just being hurtand I was like, oh, this is not
meant for me.
So I would talk to my directorand another priest and they kept
(20:55):
saying oh no, you belong here,you belong here.
And I'm like, and I'm thinkingthat's the word of God, okay, I
guess I'm meant to suffer.
That's how I feel.
It continued.
It continued and then it cameto a point where they said you
don't belong here anymore.
Cassandra (21:11):
You know, like I had gone through so much.
Gina (21:13):
It was just a real ugly scene.
It was a very ugly scene that Isee God allowed it and I thank
God today that I did go throughit, because I did persevere.
I mean, there was a point whereI was stuck and there was a
point where I could have easilyleft.
It's like a marriage, you know,a marriage you could just
easily leave.
You know I could have easilyleft, but I knew if I left I
(21:36):
don't know where I would betoday.
I didn't know where, because Iwent to get the help that they
told me to get, and I went fortherapy.
I went all this, and, and I dideverything that they asked me
to do, and, and, and.
At the end they said, well, youdon't belong here anymore.
So you know, let's depart ourways.
And and I was in my forties andI was like, oh my God, what do
I do now?
Cassandra (21:57):
Yeah.
Gina (21:59):
Well, I went to go live with those men with disabilities
.
I was living with adults withdisabilities, down syndrome,
autistic and that's where it wasa transition time because, you
know, in the convent I lived.
I didn't live a worldly life,we lived a very austere life.
Tv.
(22:24):
None of this, none of this.
So I was sort of like you knowwhat do?
I do.
How do I use a phone oranything like that?
So I lived in this.
It was a transition time whereI lived with men with
disabilities as well as women,and all I did was they loved me.
They just loved me.
Like I was so dead at thispoint, but they loved me Right.
Cassandra (22:40):
And that's exactly what I needed.
You know, and.
Gina (22:44):
I and I learned a lot and everything.
So, okay, now, what am I goingto do now?
Two years I did that and I saidyou know what I want to do,
what Gina wants to do you know,and what Gina wanted to do is
another thing.
What Gina wanted to do is go tothe beach and live by the beach,
so that's where I ended up.
Here at the Jersey Shore, I'mlike, yes, I'm at the beach, you
(23:04):
know, because you know, growingup in New York, I grew up with
the beach and and then Gina didnot want to serve anyone.
She didn't want to go intoservice because I was just so
overwhelmed and so, like youknow, I just didn't want to do
it, so I decided to go back tobartending.
Cassandra (23:22):
So I went back to bartending okay, so you just so,
living amongst individuals withdisabilities, you got to a
point where you realized thatwasn't it either for you.
Gina (23:33):
No, okay, all right and meanwhile they thought it was or
they would want it to be,because wherever I go, cassandra
, they all love me.
You know what it's like.
Oh yeah, you'd be great forhere, you know.
But yet, as much as I love them, but it was like you know what
it's not for me, it's not for me.
So I just wanted to kind oflive a normal life.
Cassandra (23:55):
Like, up until then I didn't yeah, and I didn't To me
.
Gina (23:59):
my normal life is to get like a nine to five job,
whatever, whatever you know likethis.
But I ended up gettingbartending because I didn't have
any really jobs before that.
You know, I was a bartender, asister, and now I'm a bartender.
So I'm like, ok, I'll just getmy feet wet you know, see taste
of the world, or whatever it maybe.
And I'm back in the alcoholscene.
(24:22):
Ok, OK.
And then were you stilldrinking then?
I, yes and no, Not not, as Iwas like.
I was like I was trying not todrink, you know, but I wasn't as
much drinking as I was yearsbefore that, okay.
And and and, but I like to drink.
So I was always there.
You know, I did drink, drink,but I didn't think I had a
(24:43):
problem.
But anyhow, danny came in andwe talked a gentleman and we
just talked, talked, talked andwe went out on a date and I was
like, oh, maybe this is it, youknow, my first relationship, you
know, like okay, granted, Iwon't have eight, eight kids,
but maybe I'll get that whitepicket fence yeah and um, but it
(25:06):
turns out that, uh, he was analcoholic.
It came, you know, I didn'trealize that and he was active.
So I'm like, okay, you know,and he, he encouraged me to go
to Al-Anon, which is a 12-stepprogram for family.
So, yeah, I did and uh, but hewas the problem, I wasn't and.
But then I come to find out inin Al-Anon that, um, yes, I was
(25:30):
part of a problem too, you know.
And I also came into Al-Anonbecause I in Al-Anon, you hear
people sharing their experiencewith families that are in
addiction, growing up, whatever,and my eyes opened up and I
said oh my God, that's how Iexperienced in the convent
without them picking up a drink.
You know, there's manipulation,there's fear, there's like
(25:53):
let's hide this, nobody needs tosay it, you know.
I mean, they weren't drinkers,this is just.
I was in hindsight, I look, Iwas the drinker, but I just felt
like that dynamic, you know inhindsight I look I was the
checker, but I just felt likethat dynamic, you know and
understanding.
Cassandra (26:07):
Okay, so it was time.
Yeah, so let me ask you.
So let's move forward a bit.
Okay, it was something that gotyou to where you are today.
Yes, okay, what in the worldwas that?
Gina (26:23):
What in the world was that ?
Well, danny, he ultimately diedfrom this disease.
I found him dead a month beforeour wedding day, and that was a
moment that I was shocked.
I was not even existing, I wasdead, dead zombie.
And so that happened in indiana.
(26:47):
I came back then I, I, I just Ithat I don't really remember
those, because I was in suchpain and such grief.
And at this point I'm angrywith god because I'm like I
don't understand this, like hereI am.
And so I got to a point,cassandra, where, after danny's
death and coming back to theJersey Shore and realizing,
because his mom died too,danny's mom died too in this
accident.
I mean, it was just trauma.
Cassandra (27:08):
One thing after another.
Gina (27:09):
Exactly.
Then I'm like this is my life,You're talking about my life
Because, Sandra, at that momentmy life was to be miserable.
My life was to be in this darkdungeon within my heart and soul
, in a thick concrete wall withno light and wet you know, cold.
Right, that was it I.
I came to, I mean, but when Icame, wits in.
Cassandra (27:31):
It sounds like you at your wits in, and maybe that's
a lot to do with the title.
Do not give up amen, amen.
Gina (27:39):
So, anyhow, I so when I did come back, I once, once
again, I'm just a zombie, Idon't know I.
Some of the stuff happened inbetween, and then I found myself
going into the rooms of AA, andthat's where alcoholics go in
12 step program.
But I went in there, cassandra,to find out why Danny is dead
(28:03):
and these guys are sober.
I was like I didn't understand,you know, because Danny, I, you
know, I was with him when hewas sober, great, and he did
work a program, but then yet hishe had such a bad accident that
led him to his death and suchas you know.
But anyhow, I was like, why,why?
So I would.
So I was invited to go intothese rooms of AA which I'm not
(28:24):
an alcoholic, not me and so Iwent in and there's like a
tradition saying the desire notto pick up.
So I says, yeah, I'll identifybecause I want to hear.
But at the same time I wantedto kill everyone.
If my eyes could kill, theywould be dead.
And I was just so.
I did that for almost a year,going to this club by me, and
(28:48):
and I was just like moving,moving.
I didn't celebrate holidays, Ididn't, I just was existing,
just yeah me along I, and duringthat time I prayed to god, not
to uh.
I didn't want to wake up thenext morning, but I did, did,
and I just kept going, and Ikept going.
But then it was in the rooms ofAA for me when I realized, on
April 2nd 2015, that I'm analcoholic, and that just was
(29:14):
like oh, my God opened up, butat first, cassandra.
It opened up all the pain thatI stopped, all the pain that I
ran from from a child, from myinsecurities.
It was, it was red, hot fire.
And it's like and then it's the.
Now I say I'm an alcoholic andI'm joining this club here and
(29:36):
I'm like okay, what do I do withit?
I used to go to the alcohol tonumb it, you know, to get rid of
that pain.
I would go or I would go to my,my self-pity couch, be
miserable be like oh, we'll belike this so it's like I had to
learn, and which took a while,you know.
Learn to, you know, live life onlife's terms.
I had to, you know, one day ata time.
(29:56):
So so I really went, I broughtmy, like God did for me what I
couldn't do for myself he keptbringing me into those, even
those meetings, I kept listening, kept listening, and in the
meetings you get a sponsor, youknow somebody else to help you
work the steps as a step programand in that I was like okay,
okay, okay.
And then in that God came backin my life in a powerful way.
Cassandra (30:22):
Wow.
Gina (30:22):
Because I hated God Cassandra, when I went in there,
you were angry.
I was so angry and I had noproblem telling people that
because this is me and of coursepeople meant well and people
will come up to me and say, ohno, god loves you.
I was like no crap, god lovesme.
I was married to him.
We're divorced, I said.
(30:43):
He's just on the couch.
But it was such a learningprocess which, through pain, and
suffering, but at the same timethere was light, because you
know, he came back into my life,I got a new life, a new
relationship.
One day at a time, you know,and work in a program, and, and,
and, and, then bringingscripture back in my life and
(31:04):
bring, you know, just bringinglight and life.
That, that, that concrete wallthat I was stuck in.
Yeah, for a long time.
Eventually, you know some godand you know just kept hammering
it down, hammering it down, andthen there were moments it was
like, oh, oh, my God, there islight.
Cassandra (31:22):
Yeah, oh my.
Gina (31:23):
God, Cassandra, I can be happy.
Cassandra (31:26):
Yeah, that's a blessing.
Oh my God, I can accept.
Gina (31:28):
Yeah, oh no.
You know, at first you want tosabotage.
It's like no, I don't deservethis.
No, I can Wow.
Cassandra (31:36):
I can.
So AA was a blessing, yes, yes,just by being in and also
confessing to yourself I'm analcoholic and also I need help.
And then God's like I thinkshe's ready now, so let me enter
her, enter in her and show herwho I really am.
And what a blessing that youcame back into the fold.
(32:00):
And then, from that point on,you started.
You started writing.
You started writing the book,the title of the book that I
just loved Shake the Dust Offyour Feet and Walk and the
reason that resonated with me,as I shared in the beginning,
before we even got on thispodcast, when I was in
relationships and they didn'twork out and I was like, ok, how
(32:23):
am I going to let go of this?
What am I going to do?
And I felt the spirit tell methat just shake the dust off
your feet and move on.
And that thing right thereresonated with me so much and
that helped me shake the dustand move on.
So what is your story and whydid you select that title?
So what is your story and whydid you?
Gina (32:42):
select that title.
Well, when I left the convent,my spiritual director as I had
to give up everything, which wasanother hard thing, like I had
to give up my habit, I had togive up my identity as a sister
I mean, I was there for 12 yearsand so he had said this one day
where I handed everything in.
He says prior to that he saysjust meditate on that scripture,
(33:04):
shake the dust off your feetand walk, because that's what
Jesus had sent his disciples.
If they don't like you, shakethe dust off, you know, just
move on.
And so, and it just happened,an opportunity when I did, you
know, take off my habit, put ona prayer risk, or whatever I was
on.
I was on the floor where thechapel is, in the convent, where
I was saying my goodbyes.
(33:25):
Nobody was there.
I go into the chapel, I shakethe dust and I said this is for
you, jesus.
And that's where I walked.
And then, and then, you know,as I, like you said, I started
writing, I wrote, I startedwriting this when Danny died.
It was all pain.
And when I wrote out Danny'spain in my situation with Danny.
With that happening, thesister's pain came up.
(33:46):
I held so much and the thingsthat happened and everything
like.
And then it's like how can thisbe, god, how can this be?
I put away 180 pages about 11years ago aside and I continue
my journey.
I held on to those pages andthen, maybe last two years, a
friend of mine was a writer.
Because I'm not a real writer,I never thought I would write a
(34:09):
book.
People said I should, but I'mlike I failed English.
How could I write?
And so, but a friend of minehelped me put it together.
She read it, she goes now startwriting, now Start what
happened in these last 10 years?
And again, and it was.
You know, it started with pain,but it ended up in recovery,
with peace, joyous and happy andfree.
(34:31):
So, yes, I, I did write mystory.
I've shaked the dust off yourfeet and walk right it's a it's
available on amazon.
It's.
I just published it this thispast august and thank you, so
I'm a first-time new-time author.
This is very new to me, yeah.
Cassandra (34:49):
And a bestseller, a number one bestseller, yeah.
Gina (34:56):
It's Amazon seller, yeah, but it's good, I take whatever I
can.
I'm grateful.
I'm so grateful.
Wow, you have every right toAbsolutely.
It's good, I take whatever Ican.
You know, I'm grateful, I am sograteful.
Cassandra (35:05):
Wow, you have every right to be, and I'm so glad.
Yeah, it sounded like the bookhealed you somewhat.
Yes, by laying it all out andletting go.
Gina (35:16):
And Cassandra, that's exactly I wrote.
The book was for me.
Yeah, I wrote the book for mefor continual healing, healing,
yes, I was healed for thiscontinual healing.
And then I also wrote for amessage of hope and strength for
all those who are going throughany kind of pain, darkness,
stuff, you know not that thereis hope, trust me.
(35:39):
Look at my story.
If it could happen to me, itcould happen to anyone else.
You know it can.
Miracles are in the air.
You know so things.
It's just so.
Right now I'm just trying topromote my book, my
encouragement.
I'm also an end of life doulatoo where I want to talk about
that.
Cassandra (35:56):
But let me ask you this Okay, so, okay.
So now you're an author and Isee that you are a speaker as
well.
Okay, and then you're in thelife doula that I want to talk
about, but what?
So?
Those are the.
Are you bartending?
No, Okay, All right.
So so what are you doing nowand what do you speak about?
(36:22):
What's your title of yourmessage?
Gina (36:25):
Well, it's a message of strength and hope.
I'm trying to promote myselfand putting myself out there.
I spoke a lot when I was asister, so speaking in front of
people it doesn't bother me.
So now I'm trying to findchurches or places that would
want an inspiration speech tosay, hey, don't give up, look at
(36:47):
my story, you know, if you'rein darkness as you know grief I
was in so much grief Grief is mybest friend.
Hey, you know, I know how.
You know this is how I didthrough grief.
Not to say it's your story, butmaybe my story could comfort or
just to exist, keep existing,keep existing until there's that
brightness.
And at the same time I amcertified as an end-of-life
(37:10):
doula.
So when people do it wrong.
Cassandra (37:12):
So did your grief help you get into that, parlayed
into the end-of-life doula.
Gina (37:18):
No, the end-of-life doula came when I was a nun, really.
Cassandra (37:22):
And I didn't realize that I was an end-of-life.
Gina (37:24):
I never heard of end life, doula until two years ago,
because the desire of my heartthat grew as a nun was to be
with people dying.
Because, if remember, when Iwas with my mom, when she was
dying, I had no faith, no hope,no love, no God, and to me I
experienced hell.
That's hell to me on earth.
Fast forward, become a nun,knowing that there's a heaven,
(37:46):
knowing that there.
Forward, become a nun, knowingthat there's a heaven, knowing
that there is a god, knowingthat there's peace.
It's like aha.
So when people are dying, youknow it's like a joy to help
them, to say you're going to abetter place, or peace, or
whatever it may be, becauseeveryone has their different
faiths, different beliefs, but Iknow where they're going in my
heart, and so that seed like forsome.
(38:07):
I don't want to say for somereason, but God had always put
me at many places, when I was anun, where people were dying or
people had died in front of me,people I did not know.
There was a joke, not a joke,but people said don't call
sister death, don't call sisterdeath on me, and so then, you
know, after the nunnery, afterleaving, you know I did not
(38:28):
think, yeah, I didn't mind beingwith a dying and once again God
would put me in places thatfriends, mothers, whatever I
happen to be there, whatever, orpray with them, whatever at the
hospital volunteer, you know.
But I never thought of it untillike about maybe three years
ago.
A friend of mine knows thatthat was a passion says oh no,
can you don't?
(38:48):
You know you could be certifiedas an end of life doula.
I said wow.
Cassandra (38:52):
I said you need to get to do the service and get
paid for it.
Gina (38:58):
I said I would have been rich by now, because I have been
with so many, and so I did getcertified.
I try to promote myself, put myservice out there, uh, and
helping, whether it's thepatient, and, in that, helping
with grief, because I know Imean, I've been there you really
can't say anything about grief.
When somebody's grieving, yougot to let them be and hold
their hands, love them or orwhatever it may be, you know,
(39:20):
just to be a comfort to them.
And so, yes, death and dyingdoes not scare me, I enjoy it.
Cassandra (39:30):
I don't tell many people because it'd be like oh
my God, you know Right, but Iyeah.
What was the most, as you canthink about the most impactful
individual transitioning, thatanything happened that for you
was impactful, not only for theperson transitioning but maybe
(39:51):
for their family.
Gina (39:54):
I would have to say it was my uncle.
Cassandra (39:57):
Okay.
Gina (39:58):
It was my uncle.
It was a very impactfulconversation with him.
Cassandra (40:04):
As he was transitioning.
Gina (40:06):
Yeah, yes, the family did not want me to talk to him about
it, but when we were byourselves like he would say to
me how long has it been withyour mom?
You know, because he knew my mom.
And I said, oh, you're going tosee me.
And I said at that time it wasabout 10 years.
And he said and then he said tome he says I'm going to see her
(40:27):
soon.
I said, yes, uncle, you'regoing to see her soon.
Please give her a big hug fromme.
And then also, when I went tovisit him the last moment, it
happened to be my birthday thenext day and it was the hospital
I was born in.
So I said to him, I said, youknow, uncle Jim, the best gift
you could give me if you want todie on my birthday so that we
(40:48):
share that, you'd be birthedinto eternal life.
And it was the place.
Cassandra (40:52):
I was born.
Gina (40:54):
And sure enough, he took my word and he died the next
morning with his son, mycousin's hands and I happened to
get there right afterwards, soI was able to pray with him
Granted you know his body wasstill warm, but it was to me,
that was a gift and I was themost you know helping someone
you know.
Cassandra (41:14):
Transition from this life to the next yeah, yeah, wow
, definitely you have some somekind of story story, I tell you.
I want you to inspire mylisteners, which you have to
confront their struggles withgrace and resilience and so that
(41:36):
they can emerge on the otherside.
I mean, you've, and many of ushave, been through so much, and
God didn't say life was going tobe easy.
By no means.
So we know that.
So my thing is getting throughit.
Like you said, do not give upbecause you were at a point in
your life you really wanted togive up.
(41:57):
You know, like yeah, um, tosomebody and I'm we didn't talk
about our ages or anything, butwhat would you tell and perhaps
(42:18):
this can be part of theconfronting the listeners that
are struggling what would youtell somebody that's, I would
say, 40 years old, looking backover your life?
What would you tell somebodythat's in their 40s, going to
their 50s?
Gina (42:34):
Wow, the fabulous 40s.
Well, I would tell all thelisteners that are listening now
if you're struggling, yes, ourtheme is do not give up, but
also to remember you're notalone.
Our theme is do not give up,but also to remember you're not
alone.
You are not alone because thereare so many people like you,
(42:56):
like me has gone through it,whether you know it or not, and
the best thing that what I didwas, honestly, I cried all the
time, I shared all the time, Itold strangers about what was
going on and just just justpushing forward.
And there's there's no rightway and there's no wrong way,
that there is a power within us.
You know, my power is God.
(43:17):
I call God, but some of thelisteners may.
Whatever power is in you,that's not you.
It could be, it could bewhatever you want it to be, but
it's not you.
And just know that there issomething in you.
There's that light in you,there's that hope in you that
wants to sprout out, and it willif you just keep reaching out.
(43:37):
If you need to go to differentresources, to talk to someone.
Listen to the podcast over andover and over again.
Listen to it over and over again.
You know, read our stories, Iknow you're something like that
to say, aha, this is going toget me through today because all
we have is today.
Cassandra (43:57):
That's right.
Gina (43:57):
We have is today, so yeah, I do.
And for those in their 40s,really there is life, is life,
there's life after 40s, you know, and in so many ways, and
people struggle, whether it'sthrough marriage or a loss or or
whatever, or not knowing whatthey want to do.
Look at me, I mean, I stillnever had a profession in my
life, you know, I never got anine-to-five job yeah, I never
(44:19):
did.
But here I am, standing withinmyself that I finally became
comfortable with Gina, you knowI came comfortable.
In my own skin, one would say,you know, and prior to that I
was never comfortable.
And honestly, if it couldhappen to me, it can happen to
anyone, because there was.
(44:40):
I keep stressing this, becausethere was a time that I did not
think I would ever be here today, Did not I really it was, would
ever be here?
today Did not, it was in themoment of my mind, grace.
Okay, people are going tosuffer.
Give it to Gina, I'll do it.
I'll suffer.
I'll take that one on you.
I'll take that one on you andnot to say that suffering goes
away once you're in the light.
(45:01):
It's just now.
You know you deal with life onlife's terms.
However, your tools are,whatever you are, whether it's a
prayer, whether it's listeningto Cassandra's podcast, whether
it's, you know, going to churchor going outside, and breathing
the fresh air there is something, something that's greater and
better than us.
That and then we deserve it andit's worth it.
Cassandra (45:23):
Yeah, you definitely.
And, like you said, if youendure if I endured, we say
anybody can do it and it's not acliche, and I love that we are
not.
You are not alone, because whatyou're going through, somebody
else is going through it.
I thought worse, you know.
(45:43):
So, gina, I just want to thankyou so much for your time, your
transparency, just shedding whatyou have been through that
doesn't mean that's who you are.
That's just what you've beenthrough and I appreciate you
being a blessing to my listenersand I will also share, like you
(46:05):
indicated, your listeners getthe support you need.
It is out there and, like yousaid, you can listen to.
Do not give up podcasts overand over and over again, as much
as you need it, because as longas you are here, god has
(46:26):
something for you to do and ifyou're not sure, ask him, and if
you open, he will reveal it toyou.
That I know for a fact.
So, gina, I just want to thankyou again.
I'm grateful for theindividuals that influenced you
on this journey, because I knowthat we cannot do this thing by
(46:48):
ourselves, and I thank you forall the work you're doing and
the speaking, and I encouragethe listeners to get that book.
Shake the Dust Off your Feet,gina.
How my listeners get in touchwith you.
Gina (47:07):
Yes, I do have a website called GinaEconcom.
Cassandra (47:12):
Okay.
Gina (47:12):
And my book is available on Amazon.
But if you go on my website,there is a link to the Amazon.
So, that's where I am right nowOkay, promoting my book and
things like that and also onething I want to share with your
listeners.
If nobody told you that theylove you, today we do, cassandra
(47:34):
and Gina loves you.
Yes, yes, I aspire to say that.
Cassandra (47:38):
Yeah, thank you so much.
Yes, indeed, we love you andagain, my listeners, as I always
say.
Bye for now, and you know thatmy podcast goes live every
Wednesday at 1 pm and if youmiss it, it's on all podcast
platforms.
(47:58):
Gina, thanks again, it was mypleasure.
Thanks for being on my show andbye for now my listeners.
God bless, thank you.
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