April 4, 2024 • 29 mins
In this episode, my special guest, Lori Keesey, shares her story of her life after the death of her son and the life lessons that helped her to overcome grief.
Lori is a writer and author of Always Think of Me, with an exceptional ability to make a difference through her fictional characters. She has enjoyed a 40-plus-year career as a writer and now has time to pursue her childhood dream of writing. She’s written for daily newspapers and trade publications, and her freelance work has appeared in regional and trade magazines, specifically those specializing in space exploration. Yes, Lori was a space junkie, and worked for NASA in public outreach for nearly 20 years. She is an awesome wife to her husband, Kevin Berry, and the mother of three boys and one dog.
Connect with Lori at https://lorikeesey.com
Enter the Giveaway for a free copy of her book, Always Think of Me: Goodreads book giveaway: bit.ly/3P5cx4I
Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lori.keesey.5/ and https://www.facebook.com/ljkeesey Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keesey.lori LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-keesey-4222081/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/LoriKeesey
Lori is a writer and author of Always Think of Me, with an exceptional ability to make a difference through her fictional characters. She has enjoyed a 40-plus-year career as a writer and now has time to pursue her childhood dream of writing. She’s written for daily newspapers and trade publications, and her freelance work has appeared in regional and trade magazines, specifically those specializing in space exploration. Yes, Lori was a space junkie, and worked for NASA in public outreach for nearly 20 years. She is an awesome wife to her husband, Kevin Berry, and the mother of three boys and one dog.
Connect with Lori at https://lorikeesey.com
Enter the Giveaway for a free copy of her book, Always Think of Me: Goodreads book giveaway: bit.ly/3P5cx4I
Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lori.keesey.5/ and https://www.facebook.com/ljkeesey Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keesey.lori LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-keesey-4222081/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/LoriKeesey
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:52):
Hello and welcome to all beautiful soulsout there. You're listening to the Restore
my Soul Podcast with Princess Millin's,your favorite grief coach and emotional wellness specialist.
In this space, we will helpthose who struggle with grief and loss
and have real conversations about how toovercome it in every area of life through
our personal stories, practical information,and wisdom from Princess and her special guests.
(01:19):
We are here to educate, inspire, and empower you with the strategies
you need in your emotional healing journey. We do not offer medical advice,
but we believe that we can alllearn to heal by creating a mindset to
grow, pass our pain and pushtoward our purpose. Our goal is to
remind you that grief is a journeyand you do not have to walk it
(01:40):
alone. No matter what the painor loss is, you can be restored
and live fully in your purpose.But let's push through the pain together as
we share our stories of resilience inone episode at a time. Hey,
Hey, hey everybody, welcome toanother episode of Restore Myself Podcast. Thank
(02:01):
you so much for being here withus today for another week, another push
another way that we can educate andinspire every one of you to be your
best selves and to bounce back inevery area of your life. So I
am Princess Millan's. You know,I'm your host and your favorite grief and
(02:23):
emotional wellness specialist. I am hereto guide you in this conversation. Right,
let's have this conversation today. Andyou know, my feeling is always
that we all have a story.We all have a story, we all
have something to share that's going tohelp somebody else. So we are excited
to be able to do that todaywith my special guest. I am so
(02:46):
excited to have my special guest today. Her name is Loriekeasy, and she
is a writer and an author,right, an awesome writing writer and an
author with an exceptional ability to makea difference through her fictional characters. And
she has enjoyed a forty year careeras a writer and now has time to
(03:12):
pursue her childhood dream right of writing. And so she has written for so
many publications, so many trade publications, and she has done freelance work as
well, and has appeared in alot of regional in trade magazines also and
specifically in those that specialize in spaceexploration. Can y'all believe that? Yes,
(03:36):
Laurie was a space junkie right,and she worked with NASA as well
in public outreach for nearly twenty years. So she is an awesome wife to
her husband, Carrie Kelvin. I'msorry, and who is a mother of
three boys and one dog. AndI'm so excited to welcome to the podcast
(03:58):
today, Sorray. Thank you somuch for being here today. It's gonna
be such an amazing conversation. Ithank you for having me on, Princess.
This is truly a delight to thanksabsolutely absolutely. I know that we're
going to help a lot of peopletoday. You're gonna share with us some
(04:19):
valuable things, and I know youlike to speak in on themes of resilience
and perseverance. So I'm so excitedto get into this conversation. But just
to kind of start off, canyou just share with the audience, you
know, how did you get intothis passion of writing? How did that
(04:41):
that passion of writing come to you? And how did all that all get
started? You know, Princess,I think I was born with it.
When I was a little kid,I loved writing little stories, and so
I would go to my nana's insteadof her her big picnic table in the
back her screening, and my cousinI would write these little stories and we
(05:02):
would illustrate them, and they werepretty horrible. And then I just pursued
it. And I'll tell you,teachers are really really important. My first
grade teacher told my mom that shethought that I had writing talent and that
my mother should encourage me. Andit took. I was off to the
(05:25):
races really after that. I mean, honestly, just oh, yay,
something I'm good at. Okay,I'm going to go with it. And
then when I was in the school, I read to Kill a Mockingbird.
For me, it is me themost powerful stories ever written. And that's
when I decided I put it onmy bucket list. I'm going to write
(05:46):
at least one novel. Wow.That novel is coming out April second.
It's called Always Think of Me.I tried many, many, many times
to write a novel. As I'vesaid, the words came, but the
story didn't. And it did takeout a tragedy for the story to take
(06:08):
root. And I guess that's that'swhat we're here to talk about how I
came to this place where I finallyhad a story. Yeah, absolutely absolutely.
I love the way this all gotstarted. It got started about with
a teacher igniting that fire in youto push you to your dream and push
(06:31):
you to your passion that you haveright now, right, I know them
points of that. As a formerI can't say a former educator. I'm
always an educator. I worked inthe school system for twenty years, and
so I know that given a childa dream or hope for a dream is
so important. And I know thatsometimes even in our dreams and our goals
(06:56):
and our aspirations and how we getto something is not as easy at as
many people think it is. Right, No, that's really hard. It's
actually very very hard, and youhave to prepare yourself. You can't just
go out there and say, hey, I'm going to do this, you
know, and I have written mywhole wife, but it was it was
journalistic style writing. So this wholething about writing fiction, I had a
(07:23):
very very steep learning curve and ittook me five years or so to write
this novel. I had to.You know, I've read millions of books.
Honestly, I love fiction, butboy, it's not easy. I
guess it's because you know, Ilike facts. You know, when I
was the journalistic writing, I'm takingother people's information. I'm not making things
(07:45):
up from whole cloth. I useother stories, you know, to write
a story. But to make stuffup it was a little alien to me.
And then and then coming up withwo, how's this character growing?
I never donned. I mean,honestly, I was the first. The
first drift was downright horrific. Itwas direct. So anyway, we're here
(08:07):
now, So I certainly learned alongthe way. Oh absolutely. And you
know we can see this every dayeven when we look at TV shows and
things like that and movies and howthe imagination just run wild. And we
think we were sitting in the audience, we're saying we could have wrote a
(08:28):
better line than that. You know, when we're doing it ourselves, is
the shoe is on the other foot. So I want to talk a little
bit about this novel and this storythat you kind of had to pull out
of your soul, right, andso tell us a little bit about what
the story was. How did youget to to even want to share this
(08:54):
story that you had to put inthis to this book. Well, you
know, it's fun. I musthave been completed, nearly completed the first
draft when I realized that it wasa love story. I didn't realize.
And it's an uncommon love story.And if you don't mind, Princess,
(09:16):
I'll just read a little bit fromthe back, if that's okay. And
it says, sometimes love gives youa second chance, sometimes it doesn't,
and sometimes it returns in a wayyou could never imagine. And it's about
a thirty three year old party boywho is aimless and he meets the woman
(09:37):
of his dreams at an outdoor musicfestival. They forge a very unlikely relationship
that ends abruptly. When she leaves, he thinks he's never going to see
her again, but then he does. He finds himself on an otherworldly mission
to see her again, and throughthis process he must overcome his own fears
(10:01):
and doubts and stop her from doingthe unthinkable. So again, it is
an uncommon love story. There isa there's a supernatural twist to it,
which I hope that people. Ihope that it resonates with people, because
a lot of that even happened tome. Some of some of the things
I don't really want to go intobecause I don't want to have, you
(10:22):
know, spoilers or things like that. But many of the things that are
chronicled in that book, they happened. They happened. It's not all a
biographical it's fiction. And the maincharacter, TC, the Party Boy,
was inspired by my son, whodied nearly it'll be six years in the
(10:46):
end of May, and I decided, no, this, this, this
character isn't him precisely my son,but I wanted to share my son's spirit,
you know, his He was hilarious. He had this zest for life,
and he made friends wherever he went, and I simply wanted to share
(11:11):
that spirit. And I felt likeI was honoring him and also honoring God,
because God created him. I wasjust a mestled through which this little
kid came to be my husband andI. And yeah, we miss him
every day. We miss him everysingle day. And sometimes I think,
(11:33):
with all the craziness in the worldand thinking, oh my goodness, I'm
kind of glad he's not around tosee this. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I know what you mean. Listen, And that's where our stories kind
of overlap, because, as youknow, my son passed away as well
in twenty eighteen in October, soit'll be six years this year in October
(11:56):
for me as well. We doall a lot, Yes we do,
Yes, we do. And soI really understand and that that's kind of
how my first book came about aswell. I was thinking about him and
you know the things that I wentthrough and how I got through it,
and I it started as a journaland I wrote it and start writing things
(12:18):
in my journal and it became abook. So that is just so beautiful
for you know, mothers to wantto you know, write and continue the
legacy, right, continue the legacyeven of our children, even the ones
that we have lost and they've goneon. You know, we want to
keep that memory alive and allow othersappeeking to who they were. Right.
(12:43):
And so you know, talk alittle bit about the process of you going
through to put his spirit into thisbook. What what did it do to
you internally? Because I know forme, I struggled a little bit.
I struggled a little bit because itwas like I was grieving all over again.
(13:07):
Right, So what what transformation thatyou have to make, uh,
to be even to write this bookand pour your soul out into this character
well, because the the story isn'tabout my son per se, you know,
it's it's his personality and this andthe story. I'll tell you what
(13:33):
happened. I was so bereaved thatI could barely function and I couldn't understand
why God had taken him. Andit took a while for me to sort
of figure it out. And Ididn't figure it out. God kind of
planted it in my heart. Andwhat I what I decided was that,
(13:56):
you know what, we all havea purpose, yes, And God loaned
my son to me for however longhe planned to loan him to me,
and ultimately my son went back tohim and I had to think about,
okay, what was my son's purpose? And that became the crux of this
(14:18):
story. The overall theme is thateveryone has a purpose, ver small,
it doesn't matter, and if youdon't do your purpose, you might prevent
someone else from doing his or herpurpose. And that's how we're linked,
you know, the humankind across allpeople, all economic levels, were all
(14:43):
linked. And our job is tohelp others achieve their purposes. Yeah,
and be able to fulfill and realizetheir dreams as well, you know.
And I just believe that because weall have have a purpose, sometimes when
we don't do our thing and wedon't do our purpose, we are preventing
(15:07):
other people from walking fully into theirpurpose because we are there to serve them
in some way. Right, yes, you, and that's exactly right.
You said it very eloquently. That'sexactly my thinking and what I have discovered
because you know what, you andI aren't the only ones who've lost our
sons. I mean, I knowa lot of people who've lost their children
(15:28):
and it's heartbreaking. And I alsobelieve that, you know, when something
like this happens, you really dohave a choice. You can you can
wallow in your sorrow, or youcan say, Okay, what am I
going to do about this? Whatam I going to do to make this
(15:48):
better? And typically what I havefound in because I am a blogger,
I write the accidental blogger, andI write about people who've overcome adversity.
And many of the people people I'vespoken with, they discovered peace and resilience
when they turned away from themselves andstarted looking outward. Here's one example of
(16:11):
a horrible story. It was awoman who you know, her kid was
eighteen years old, nineteen years old, and he did something really, really
stupid and he got busted. Hethen violated his terms of his parole and
they picked him up and threw himback in jail. This time though,
they took him away from the localjail to a facility farther west. They
(16:36):
live in East Tennessee and more inWest Tennessee. There he was murdered by
another inmate. And can you imagine, I mean, this is beyond comprehension,
But do you know what she andher husband did. They decided that
they would fund the purchase of tabletsso that prisoners could at least hear the
(17:00):
word of the Lord through Oh wow. And I'm not here to prophetize.
It's to me this is how youturn something ugly into something new, because
maybe by participating in a church service, oh yeah, maybe that person's life
will be transformed. And certainly thathas been the case in our church.
(17:22):
I mean we have people who inmates, you've gotten out, and they report
immediately to our church. Yeah yeah, to continue their journey. They know
that where they were was not wherethey were supposed to be, and it
certainly wasn't the purpose in their lives. And I love them, Me too,
Me too. That's such a wonderfulthing. And again, you know,
(17:47):
you're really speaking to how we help, how we continue to help other
people by sharing their our stories,by going back to help and being a
service to someone else, even throughouttragedy. Right, So that now they
can be free and they can walkin their purpose, and they can you
(18:07):
know, live their dreams as well. Right. And I know sometimes it's
hard to live our dreams when we'regrieving. Right, So can you do
you have any thoughts on the relationshipsof our dreams and how our dreams are
affected when we grieve or have lostin our lives. Well, then get
(18:30):
sidetracked, can't they? But it'svery important that you get back on track.
And I took a grieving class andone of the things that really stuck
in my mind was we Americans,Westerners whatever, you know. We know
how to acquire things, we don'tknow how to let things go. Oh
(18:53):
wow. And it is a brokenrelationship, you know, whether it's a
death or it's a divorce, afriend has betrayed you, the list goes
on and on. What it isis a broken relationship and somehow you have
to work past this and heal yourbroken heart. It is a broken heart,
(19:15):
yes, it is. So that'sthat's what I kind of learned,
said, oh this this makes totalsense. And also and what I said
earlier, you know, my relationshipwas lost, but it's not forever lost.
I I will see my son again. You will probably you'll see yours
again. Yeah, So it's it'sit's it's just a little bit of time
(19:40):
where we don't get to be inthe in the flush with with our loved
ones. And and that's okay,that's okay, Yeah, that's okay.
And the and think the biggest thingthat we do is we learn how to
persevere. And I love this manthat you said that. And it's true
(20:02):
that we know how to acquire things, but we don't know how to let
them go. And that factors intothe greater the greater spectrum of when we
grieve, of how we're able tobounce back and become resilient in that thing,
right, because I see a lotof people that have gone through the
(20:22):
same things that we have gone through, sometimes worse, and they either bounce
back or they have not for whateverreason. And through this journey, we
learn how to use the strategies andtools that God has given us to be
able to pull ourselves out. Youknow what I'm saying. We have to
(20:45):
we have to have the the strengthto pull ourselves out. We have to
want that. We have to findsomething in life that will light that fire
in us to to make us wantto live again, because sometimes we don't
even want to live right because ofthe things that the people that we lost,
(21:07):
you know. And so it's soimportant, I think, is to
remember remember your dreams, not necessarilyfocus on what you've lost, but remember
your dream, remember your purpose,Remember that your loved one that you lost,
they wouldn't want you to be ina pit somewhere. They wouldn't want
(21:27):
you to be, you know,just overcome and depressed by them no longer
being there. We have to rememberthey're no longer in pain, they're no
longer suffering, they are no longeryou know, have to be and struggle
through the same things that we doin life as we have to right now.
So we have to, you know, think about the things that's going
(21:49):
to bring us joy and that right, that's exactly right. And when when
you're talking, I thought of somethingand now that it has a gap,
meybe because that's the way. I'mso caught up and I think, yeah,
yeah, and I don't want tointerrupt. I don't want to interrupt,
interrupt. Yeah, it's it's terriblewhen when you lose your words.
(22:11):
I'm usually not I can talk,I can talk, yeah, yeah,
yeah. But our dreams are very, very important. So with that being
said, can you give the audiencemaybe some some words of encouragement, some
(22:32):
words of encouragement. What would yousay to that person right now who has
this dream. They might be goingthrough a difficult situation or a difficult relationship,
or whatever the case is. Whatencouragement would you give them today so
that they can stay on the course. And that that was the point I
(22:55):
wanted to make. Maybe they're goingthrough the hardship because they will not be
able to fulfill their dream completely becausethey first had to experience whatever it is
they're going through. I mean,you know, the Bible talks about it
all the time. You know,adversity creates perseverance and all these other gifts,
(23:22):
And sometimes that's why this stuff happens. It's not because God hates you
or someone hates you. It's becausethis is how we learn and we grow
and we're better equipped to relate tosomeone else. So I think my advice
would be is, okay, allright, you're going through this, embrace
(23:45):
it, move through the steps,don't skip the steps. You know the
grieving process. You likely went throughit. You likely experience one of the
emotions many times before you were everto reach acetance. But that's the goal
you need to get to so thatyou don't and if you don't get through
(24:06):
it, if you don't reach acceptanceagain, you'll you'll end up embittered and
then you get nothing done. Infact, people don't even want to be
around you because you're a debbie downer, you know, you know, you
don't see any light in anything,and we're supposed to be the light.
(24:29):
We're supposed to project it out thereand encourage others. Yeah, yeah,
that's so good. That's got sogood. And so what I hear you
saying is just embrace the pain,Just embrace the whole, just embrace the
whole experience. And uh, thatis just so true that sometimes our purpose
(24:55):
is tied to our pains, tiedto the very thing that we don't don't
want to let go of it,to the very journey that we've had to
travel throughout our entire lives has broughtus to this point, and so now
we have to make that decision todo something with it. That's right.
And you know what, I've talkedwith drug addicts. I've talked with all
(25:18):
kinds of people, and you know, this one woman I spoke with,
she was an addict for twenty plusyears. Had she not gone through that,
she would never be doing what she'sdoing now, And that's counseling other
addicts now and giving them hope.They look, if she figures, if
(25:40):
I can do it, you cando it. She was weak, She
was weak and soul and spirit.Terrible things had happened to her that had
driven her, excuse me, tothat point. So just just look at
as maybe that you know the silverlining, to use a cliche in the
(26:02):
cloud, you need that, Yes, yes, absolutely absolutely, this conversation
has been so so so good,Laurie. I hate to try to end
this segment, but I know thatthrough your words and through your encouragement,
(26:23):
I know that many many people willhave hope now. They will have a
place that they could come and listento what you have spoken and be able
to push past their pain and justlike you said, embrace it all.
Embrace it all. And before weget out of here, I want you
to share with everybody how to connectwith you, how to get your books
(26:48):
and anything that you got coming upreal quick. Okay, they can reach
me at my website https lori keithdot com. There you can that.
That's where I house all of mymy accidental blogger posts. I also have
(27:08):
a good Reads book giveaway and Iwould be love to give you that link
if they liked. You got toplay to win if you want to win
one of the three books, andthat is bitly b I, T dot
L Y backslash three capital P fivelowercase C lowercase X four I and that's
(27:36):
also uppercase. So I hope thatI go there win try to win on
free book. Okay, well youheard it from Laurie. Make sure you
go out and follow her, goto her website, participate in the giveaway.
It will be in the uh descriptionsection of this broadcast, so look
(27:56):
down below and make sure that youclick on the link and get get the
free giveaway. Get the free giveaway. I just want to thank you so
much Laurie for being here today,for being a guest for sharing your encouragement,
for sharing your beautiful spirit on thisepisode today. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much. I enjoychuck chatting with you. You take
(28:19):
care of yourself absolutely all right,y'all, this has been a great episode
of Restore My Soul Podcast. Thankyou so much for joining us. And
you heard Laurie say, embrace thatpain so that you can get to the
place of hope that you need topush through to your purpose. You all
(28:40):
remember to follow me at Princess Millionson all social media and my website at
princessmillions dot com. You all knowthat I believe that grief is a journey,
but we don't have to walk italong. We'll walk it together on
every episode and you all make surethat you see me next time in the
(29:00):
next episode of the Restore My SoulPod. Thank you for joining another episode
of Restore My Soul Podcast. Besure to listen and watch each week as
we continue the conversation on how tobounce back from the setback of grief and
loss and to become resilient so thatyou too can thrive in life. Don't
forget to like and subscribe so thatyou don't miss out on any new episodes
(29:23):
and share this with as many peopleas possible so they can be encouraged in
their emotional wellness journey. We inviteyou to follow Princess Milions on all social
media platforms and on the website atPrincessmilins dot com. Thank you for listening,
and we'll see you in the nextepisode of the Restore My Soul podcast
Hello and welcome to all beautiful soulsout there. You're listening to the Restore
my Soul Podcast with Princess Millin's,your favorite grief coach and emotional wellness specialist.
In this space, we will helpthose who struggle with grief and loss
and have real conversations about how toovercome it in every area of life through
our personal stories, practical information,and wisdom from Princess and her special guests.
(01:19):
We are here to educate, inspire, and empower you with the strategies
you need in your emotional healing journey. We do not offer medical advice,
but we believe that we can alllearn to heal by creating a mindset to
grow, pass our pain and pushtoward our purpose. Our goal is to
remind you that grief is a journeyand you do not have to walk it
(01:40):
alone. No matter what the painor loss is, you can be restored
and live fully in your purpose.But let's push through the pain together as
we share our stories of resilience inone episode at a time. Hey,
Hey, hey everybody, welcome toanother episode of Restore Myself Podcast. Thank
(02:01):
you so much for being here withus today for another week, another push
another way that we can educate andinspire every one of you to be your
best selves and to bounce back inevery area of your life. So I
am Princess Millan's. You know,I'm your host and your favorite grief and
(02:23):
emotional wellness specialist. I am hereto guide you in this conversation. Right,
let's have this conversation today. Andyou know, my feeling is always
that we all have a story.We all have a story, we all
have something to share that's going tohelp somebody else. So we are excited
to be able to do that todaywith my special guest. I am so
(02:46):
excited to have my special guest today. Her name is Loriekeasy, and she
is a writer and an author,right, an awesome writing writer and an
author with an exceptional ability to makea difference through her fictional characters. And
she has enjoyed a forty year careeras a writer and now has time to
(03:12):
pursue her childhood dream right of writing. And so she has written for so
many publications, so many trade publications, and she has done freelance work as
well, and has appeared in alot of regional in trade magazines also and
specifically in those that specialize in spaceexploration. Can y'all believe that? Yes,
(03:36):
Laurie was a space junkie right,and she worked with NASA as well
in public outreach for nearly twenty years. So she is an awesome wife to
her husband, Carrie Kelvin. I'msorry, and who is a mother of
three boys and one dog. AndI'm so excited to welcome to the podcast
(03:58):
today, Sorray. Thank you somuch for being here today. It's gonna
be such an amazing conversation. Ithank you for having me on, Princess.
This is truly a delight to thanksabsolutely absolutely. I know that we're
going to help a lot of peopletoday. You're gonna share with us some
(04:19):
valuable things, and I know youlike to speak in on themes of resilience
and perseverance. So I'm so excitedto get into this conversation. But just
to kind of start off, canyou just share with the audience, you
know, how did you get intothis passion of writing? How did that
(04:41):
that passion of writing come to you? And how did all that all get
started? You know, Princess,I think I was born with it.
When I was a little kid,I loved writing little stories, and so
I would go to my nana's insteadof her her big picnic table in the
back her screening, and my cousinI would write these little stories and we
(05:02):
would illustrate them, and they werepretty horrible. And then I just pursued
it. And I'll tell you,teachers are really really important. My first
grade teacher told my mom that shethought that I had writing talent and that
my mother should encourage me. Andit took. I was off to the
(05:25):
races really after that. I mean, honestly, just oh, yay,
something I'm good at. Okay,I'm going to go with it. And
then when I was in the school, I read to Kill a Mockingbird.
For me, it is me themost powerful stories ever written. And that's
when I decided I put it onmy bucket list. I'm going to write
(05:46):
at least one novel. Wow.That novel is coming out April second.
It's called Always Think of Me.I tried many, many, many times
to write a novel. As I'vesaid, the words came, but the
story didn't. And it did takeout a tragedy for the story to take
(06:08):
root. And I guess that's that'swhat we're here to talk about how I
came to this place where I finallyhad a story. Yeah, absolutely absolutely.
I love the way this all gotstarted. It got started about with
a teacher igniting that fire in youto push you to your dream and push
(06:31):
you to your passion that you haveright now, right, I know them
points of that. As a formerI can't say a former educator. I'm
always an educator. I worked inthe school system for twenty years, and
so I know that given a childa dream or hope for a dream is
so important. And I know thatsometimes even in our dreams and our goals
(06:56):
and our aspirations and how we getto something is not as easy at as
many people think it is. Right, No, that's really hard. It's
actually very very hard, and youhave to prepare yourself. You can't just
go out there and say, hey, I'm going to do this, you
know, and I have written mywhole wife, but it was it was
journalistic style writing. So this wholething about writing fiction, I had a
(07:23):
very very steep learning curve and ittook me five years or so to write
this novel. I had to.You know, I've read millions of books.
Honestly, I love fiction, butboy, it's not easy. I
guess it's because you know, Ilike facts. You know, when I
was the journalistic writing, I'm takingother people's information. I'm not making things
(07:45):
up from whole cloth. I useother stories, you know, to write
a story. But to make stuffup it was a little alien to me.
And then and then coming up withwo, how's this character growing?
I never donned. I mean,honestly, I was the first. The
first drift was downright horrific. Itwas direct. So anyway, we're here
(08:07):
now, So I certainly learned alongthe way. Oh absolutely. And you
know we can see this every dayeven when we look at TV shows and
things like that and movies and howthe imagination just run wild. And we
think we were sitting in the audience, we're saying we could have wrote a
(08:28):
better line than that. You know, when we're doing it ourselves, is
the shoe is on the other foot. So I want to talk a little
bit about this novel and this storythat you kind of had to pull out
of your soul, right, andso tell us a little bit about what
the story was. How did youget to to even want to share this
(08:54):
story that you had to put inthis to this book. Well, you
know, it's fun. I musthave been completed, nearly completed the first
draft when I realized that it wasa love story. I didn't realize.
And it's an uncommon love story.And if you don't mind, Princess,
(09:16):
I'll just read a little bit fromthe back, if that's okay. And
it says, sometimes love gives youa second chance, sometimes it doesn't,
and sometimes it returns in a wayyou could never imagine. And it's about
a thirty three year old party boywho is aimless and he meets the woman
(09:37):
of his dreams at an outdoor musicfestival. They forge a very unlikely relationship
that ends abruptly. When she leaves, he thinks he's never going to see
her again, but then he does. He finds himself on an otherworldly mission
to see her again, and throughthis process he must overcome his own fears
(10:01):
and doubts and stop her from doingthe unthinkable. So again, it is
an uncommon love story. There isa there's a supernatural twist to it,
which I hope that people. Ihope that it resonates with people, because
a lot of that even happened tome. Some of some of the things
I don't really want to go intobecause I don't want to have, you
(10:22):
know, spoilers or things like that. But many of the things that are
chronicled in that book, they happened. They happened. It's not all a
biographical it's fiction. And the maincharacter, TC, the Party Boy,
was inspired by my son, whodied nearly it'll be six years in the
(10:46):
end of May, and I decided, no, this, this, this
character isn't him precisely my son,but I wanted to share my son's spirit,
you know, his He was hilarious. He had this zest for life,
and he made friends wherever he went, and I simply wanted to share
(11:11):
that spirit. And I felt likeI was honoring him and also honoring God,
because God created him. I wasjust a mestled through which this little
kid came to be my husband andI. And yeah, we miss him
every day. We miss him everysingle day. And sometimes I think,
(11:33):
with all the craziness in the worldand thinking, oh my goodness, I'm
kind of glad he's not around tosee this. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I know what you mean. Listen, And that's where our stories kind
of overlap, because, as youknow, my son passed away as well
in twenty eighteen in October, soit'll be six years this year in October
(11:56):
for me as well. We doall a lot, Yes we do,
Yes, we do. And soI really understand and that that's kind of
how my first book came about aswell. I was thinking about him and
you know the things that I wentthrough and how I got through it,
and I it started as a journaland I wrote it and start writing things
(12:18):
in my journal and it became abook. So that is just so beautiful
for you know, mothers to wantto you know, write and continue the
legacy, right, continue the legacyeven of our children, even the ones
that we have lost and they've goneon. You know, we want to
keep that memory alive and allow othersappeeking to who they were. Right.
(12:43):
And so you know, talk alittle bit about the process of you going
through to put his spirit into thisbook. What what did it do to
you internally? Because I know forme, I struggled a little bit.
I struggled a little bit because itwas like I was grieving all over again.
(13:07):
Right, So what what transformation thatyou have to make, uh,
to be even to write this bookand pour your soul out into this character
well, because the the story isn'tabout my son per se, you know,
it's it's his personality and this andthe story. I'll tell you what
(13:33):
happened. I was so bereaved thatI could barely function and I couldn't understand
why God had taken him. Andit took a while for me to sort
of figure it out. And Ididn't figure it out. God kind of
planted it in my heart. Andwhat I what I decided was that,
(13:56):
you know what, we all havea purpose, yes, And God loaned
my son to me for however longhe planned to loan him to me,
and ultimately my son went back tohim and I had to think about,
okay, what was my son's purpose? And that became the crux of this
(14:18):
story. The overall theme is thateveryone has a purpose, ver small,
it doesn't matter, and if youdon't do your purpose, you might prevent
someone else from doing his or herpurpose. And that's how we're linked,
you know, the humankind across allpeople, all economic levels, were all
(14:43):
linked. And our job is tohelp others achieve their purposes. Yeah,
and be able to fulfill and realizetheir dreams as well, you know.
And I just believe that because weall have have a purpose, sometimes when
we don't do our thing and wedon't do our purpose, we are preventing
(15:07):
other people from walking fully into theirpurpose because we are there to serve them
in some way. Right, yes, you, and that's exactly right.
You said it very eloquently. That'sexactly my thinking and what I have discovered
because you know what, you andI aren't the only ones who've lost our
sons. I mean, I knowa lot of people who've lost their children
(15:28):
and it's heartbreaking. And I alsobelieve that, you know, when something
like this happens, you really dohave a choice. You can you can
wallow in your sorrow, or youcan say, Okay, what am I
going to do about this? Whatam I going to do to make this
(15:48):
better? And typically what I havefound in because I am a blogger,
I write the accidental blogger, andI write about people who've overcome adversity.
And many of the people people I'vespoken with, they discovered peace and resilience
when they turned away from themselves andstarted looking outward. Here's one example of
(16:11):
a horrible story. It was awoman who you know, her kid was
eighteen years old, nineteen years old, and he did something really, really
stupid and he got busted. Hethen violated his terms of his parole and
they picked him up and threw himback in jail. This time though,
they took him away from the localjail to a facility farther west. They
(16:36):
live in East Tennessee and more inWest Tennessee. There he was murdered by
another inmate. And can you imagine, I mean, this is beyond comprehension,
But do you know what she andher husband did. They decided that
they would fund the purchase of tabletsso that prisoners could at least hear the
(17:00):
word of the Lord through Oh wow. And I'm not here to prophetize.
It's to me this is how youturn something ugly into something new, because
maybe by participating in a church service, oh yeah, maybe that person's life
will be transformed. And certainly thathas been the case in our church.
(17:22):
I mean we have people who inmates, you've gotten out, and they report
immediately to our church. Yeah yeah, to continue their journey. They know
that where they were was not wherethey were supposed to be, and it
certainly wasn't the purpose in their lives. And I love them, Me too,
Me too. That's such a wonderfulthing. And again, you know,
(17:47):
you're really speaking to how we help, how we continue to help other
people by sharing their our stories,by going back to help and being a
service to someone else, even throughouttragedy. Right, So that now they
can be free and they can walkin their purpose, and they can you
(18:07):
know, live their dreams as well. Right. And I know sometimes it's
hard to live our dreams when we'regrieving. Right, So can you do
you have any thoughts on the relationshipsof our dreams and how our dreams are
affected when we grieve or have lostin our lives. Well, then get
(18:30):
sidetracked, can't they? But it'svery important that you get back on track.
And I took a grieving class andone of the things that really stuck
in my mind was we Americans,Westerners whatever, you know. We know
how to acquire things, we don'tknow how to let things go. Oh
(18:53):
wow. And it is a brokenrelationship, you know, whether it's a
death or it's a divorce, afriend has betrayed you, the list goes
on and on. What it isis a broken relationship and somehow you have
to work past this and heal yourbroken heart. It is a broken heart,
(19:15):
yes, it is. So that'sthat's what I kind of learned,
said, oh this this makes totalsense. And also and what I said
earlier, you know, my relationshipwas lost, but it's not forever lost.
I I will see my son again. You will probably you'll see yours
again. Yeah, So it's it'sit's it's just a little bit of time
(19:40):
where we don't get to be inthe in the flush with with our loved
ones. And and that's okay,that's okay, Yeah, that's okay.
And the and think the biggest thingthat we do is we learn how to
persevere. And I love this manthat you said that. And it's true
(20:02):
that we know how to acquire things, but we don't know how to let
them go. And that factors intothe greater the greater spectrum of when we
grieve, of how we're able tobounce back and become resilient in that thing,
right, because I see a lotof people that have gone through the
(20:22):
same things that we have gone through, sometimes worse, and they either bounce
back or they have not for whateverreason. And through this journey, we
learn how to use the strategies andtools that God has given us to be
able to pull ourselves out. Youknow what I'm saying. We have to
(20:45):
we have to have the the strengthto pull ourselves out. We have to
want that. We have to findsomething in life that will light that fire
in us to to make us wantto live again, because sometimes we don't
even want to live right because ofthe things that the people that we lost,
(21:07):
you know. And so it's soimportant, I think, is to
remember remember your dreams, not necessarilyfocus on what you've lost, but remember
your dream, remember your purpose,Remember that your loved one that you lost,
they wouldn't want you to be ina pit somewhere. They wouldn't want
(21:27):
you to be, you know,just overcome and depressed by them no longer
being there. We have to rememberthey're no longer in pain, they're no
longer suffering, they are no longeryou know, have to be and struggle
through the same things that we doin life as we have to right now.
So we have to, you know, think about the things that's going
(21:49):
to bring us joy and that right, that's exactly right. And when when
you're talking, I thought of somethingand now that it has a gap,
meybe because that's the way. I'mso caught up and I think, yeah,
yeah, and I don't want tointerrupt. I don't want to interrupt,
interrupt. Yeah, it's it's terriblewhen when you lose your words.
(22:11):
I'm usually not I can talk,I can talk, yeah, yeah,
yeah. But our dreams are very, very important. So with that being
said, can you give the audiencemaybe some some words of encouragement, some
(22:32):
words of encouragement. What would yousay to that person right now who has
this dream. They might be goingthrough a difficult situation or a difficult relationship,
or whatever the case is. Whatencouragement would you give them today so
that they can stay on the course. And that that was the point I
(22:55):
wanted to make. Maybe they're goingthrough the hardship because they will not be
able to fulfill their dream completely becausethey first had to experience whatever it is
they're going through. I mean,you know, the Bible talks about it
all the time. You know,adversity creates perseverance and all these other gifts,
(23:22):
And sometimes that's why this stuff happens. It's not because God hates you
or someone hates you. It's becausethis is how we learn and we grow
and we're better equipped to relate tosomeone else. So I think my advice
would be is, okay, allright, you're going through this, embrace
(23:45):
it, move through the steps,don't skip the steps. You know the
grieving process. You likely went throughit. You likely experience one of the
emotions many times before you were everto reach acetance. But that's the goal
you need to get to so thatyou don't and if you don't get through
(24:06):
it, if you don't reach acceptanceagain, you'll you'll end up embittered and
then you get nothing done. Infact, people don't even want to be
around you because you're a debbie downer, you know, you know, you
don't see any light in anything,and we're supposed to be the light.
(24:29):
We're supposed to project it out thereand encourage others. Yeah, yeah,
that's so good. That's got sogood. And so what I hear you
saying is just embrace the pain,Just embrace the whole, just embrace the
whole experience. And uh, thatis just so true that sometimes our purpose
(24:55):
is tied to our pains, tiedto the very thing that we don't don't
want to let go of it,to the very journey that we've had to
travel throughout our entire lives has broughtus to this point, and so now
we have to make that decision todo something with it. That's right.
And you know what, I've talkedwith drug addicts. I've talked with all
(25:18):
kinds of people, and you know, this one woman I spoke with,
she was an addict for twenty plusyears. Had she not gone through that,
she would never be doing what she'sdoing now, And that's counseling other
addicts now and giving them hope.They look, if she figures, if
(25:40):
I can do it, you cando it. She was weak, She
was weak and soul and spirit.Terrible things had happened to her that had
driven her, excuse me, tothat point. So just just look at
as maybe that you know the silverlining, to use a cliche in the
(26:02):
cloud, you need that, Yes, yes, absolutely absolutely, this conversation
has been so so so good,Laurie. I hate to try to end
this segment, but I know thatthrough your words and through your encouragement,
(26:23):
I know that many many people willhave hope now. They will have a
place that they could come and listento what you have spoken and be able
to push past their pain and justlike you said, embrace it all.
Embrace it all. And before weget out of here, I want you
to share with everybody how to connectwith you, how to get your books
(26:48):
and anything that you got coming upreal quick. Okay, they can reach
me at my website https lori keithdot com. There you can that.
That's where I house all of mymy accidental blogger posts. I also have
(27:08):
a good Reads book giveaway and Iwould be love to give you that link
if they liked. You got toplay to win if you want to win
one of the three books, andthat is bitly b I, T dot
L Y backslash three capital P fivelowercase C lowercase X four I and that's
(27:36):
also uppercase. So I hope thatI go there win try to win on
free book. Okay, well youheard it from Laurie. Make sure you
go out and follow her, goto her website, participate in the giveaway.
It will be in the uh descriptionsection of this broadcast, so look
(27:56):
down below and make sure that youclick on the link and get get the
free giveaway. Get the free giveaway. I just want to thank you so
much Laurie for being here today,for being a guest for sharing your encouragement,
for sharing your beautiful spirit on thisepisode today. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much. I enjoychuck chatting with you. You take
(28:19):
care of yourself absolutely all right,y'all, this has been a great episode
of Restore My Soul Podcast. Thankyou so much for joining us. And
you heard Laurie say, embrace thatpain so that you can get to the
place of hope that you need topush through to your purpose. You all
(28:40):
remember to follow me at Princess Millionson all social media and my website at
princessmillions dot com. You all knowthat I believe that grief is a journey,
but we don't have to walk italong. We'll walk it together on
every episode and you all make surethat you see me next time in the
(29:00):
next episode of the Restore My SoulPod. Thank you for joining another episode
of Restore My Soul Podcast. Besure to listen and watch each week as
we continue the conversation on how tobounce back from the setback of grief and
loss and to become resilient so thatyou too can thrive in life. Don't
forget to like and subscribe so thatyou don't miss out on any new episodes
(29:23):
and share this with as many peopleas possible so they can be encouraged in
their emotional wellness journey. We inviteyou to follow Princess Milions on all social
media platforms and on the website atPrincessmilins dot com. Thank you for listening,
and we'll see you in the nextepisode of the Restore My Soul podcast
Popular Podcasts
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com