Ep. 22: Matt Collins

In this episode, we sit down with Matt Collins, co-founder of the Magnolia Foundation, a faith-based nonprofit born out of tragedy. Matt, alongside his wife Macy, shares their heart-wrenching journey of loss and redemption following the devastating tornado that struck Cookeville, TN on March 3rd, 2020.

Their beloved daughter Hattie Jo was tragically taken in the midst of the chaos. Yet, amidst unimaginable grief, Matt and Macy found solace in their faith and a determination to honor Hattie Jo's memory by helping others. The Magnolia Foundation emerged as a beacon of hope, dedicated to providing support, resources, and love to families facing the unexpected death of a child.

Join us as Matt l recounts the raw emotions, challenges, and ultimately, the resilience that fueled their mission. Through their story, we discover the power of faith, community, and the human spirit to triumph over adversity. Prepare to be inspired as we delve into the extraordinary journey of the Collins family and the profound impact of the Magnolia Foundation.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:24):
All right, everybody, welcome to another episode of the Enkido Podcast.
This time I have Esteban otherwise known as Steve with
me today. Hey, Poppy, Hello, He's gonna guide us on
our journey. We are talking with Matt Collins and this one,
you guys better buckle up because this guy not only

(00:44):
has a story to tell, but what they've done from
the tragedy and grief that they've experienced is pretty incredible.
And when Steve brought this to me as a potential
person to interview, I was like, it's gonna be tough,
but I think it's going to be absolutely rewarding to
kind of hear his story, what his family went through,

(01:06):
what they're doing now. And yeah, we'll let him tell
the story. So, Matt, thanks for coming.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
In, Glad to be here. Appreciate it, guys, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah. So just kind of a quick intro. So Matt
along with his wife Macy, right, Macy.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
Yeah, you know, they turned a personal tragedy into a
source of hope and support for others by co founding
the Magnolia Foundation. Magnolia Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to
supporting families dealing with you know, the unimaginable pain of
losing a child, a journey that Matt and Macy unfortunately
know too well after losing their daughter Hattie during the

(01:42):
tornadoes back in twenty twenty that struck Middle Tennessee. Today,
we'll obviously hear their story, like Casey said, and learn
a little bit more about the work that they're doing
and explore how they're helping, you know, hell, the hearts
of other families, man, with the incredible work that they do.
So again, Matt, the same sentiment as Casey did, welcome you.
And and as I told you before, you were one
of my favorite people on the planets. So this is

(02:03):
awesome that you're you're joining us today.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, man, we're glad to be here.

Speaker 4 (02:07):
So let's let's just jump in, you know, let's get
narrow and deep fast. So kind of walked me through
the night of March twenty twenty.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
So, so we've got my wife and I may see
we have three daughters, Hattie, Laneye and Davy h. Davy,
our youngest in twenty twenty, wasn't born yet, so we
had Hattie and Laneye. Uh. Hattie was four and a half,
Lanie was almost one. Her birthdays March to fifth, and
so actually started March that March the second was a

(02:37):
Monday night, and it was I don't know how you
guys do bedtime at home with your kids, you know,
but yeah, yeah right, and uh, anyway you can get
him go to sleep, you get them. And Lane she was,
she was a really great sleeper. She you put in
a crib as she'd be done right. Hattie was never
that way. Hattie was always wanted to be held, had

(02:58):
to be in our bed. So like we light her
pedatrician right, like he's sleeping good, yep, sure, you know whatever.
And so what we would do is we'd you know,
read to him in bed, read to Hattie in bed,
sing to her, let her go to sleep, and then
we crawl out, right, And so on March this second,
it was a very similar night. Every other night before

(03:19):
this time, Macy was doing the bedtime routine with her.
So they're back in in Hattie's room. They're laying down, uh,
read of the storytime books and and sang all the
songs that have ever existed, and Hattie's not falling asleep.
And so as they lay there, Macy keeps telling her, Hey,
you know you need to go to sleep tomorrow. The

(03:41):
next day was Tuesday. It was a school day. She
went to a little mother's day out program. So hey,
it's time to go, time to go sleep, go to
school tomorrow. I got I wake up early. And she
wasn't doing it, and so Mace finally she closed her
own eyes, trying to fake sleep, you know, to get her,
to get.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Her to give it up, and she wouldn't do it.

Speaker 5 (03:58):
And at one point in time, as their kind of
going back and forth, hatt he looks over at Macy
and she says, Mommy, I can I can see Jesus.
And Mace was a little caught off guard, you know,
by the comment. It wasn't that Jesus was an uncommon
topic in our house, right, but the idea of like
looking at him, you know, and I was just kind

(04:20):
of like, okay, it's different. So she said you can
see Jesus, Like what what do you what do you
see or what are you looking at? And she said, yeah,
I can. I can see Jesus. And he's wearing all white.
And she said that I kid you not. She she
settled down and she went to sleep. It was the
last words that she had ever said a few hours later,

(04:45):
she woke up. She walked into our bedroom and got
in our bed, like every other night before, just about
and so she got was in our bed and then
an F four tornado tore right down Hensley Drive in Cookeville, Cookville, Tennessee,
whe where we lived, where we lived, and we had
probably forty five seconds My last phone went off. This

(05:08):
was early morning, March the third of twenty twenty. Whist
phone goes off, tells us that's the tornado warning. Immediately,
I grab Hattie, Mace runs down the hallway, she grabs Laney.
We never made it to a to a room. It
wouldn't have mattered ultimately, but we were in the hallway.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
We got to the ground and that was it. Storm hit.

Speaker 5 (05:38):
Direct, direct hit lost literally everything in in amongst that
was we lost Hattie. She was in our arm, my
arms the whole time. Laney was in Macy's arms the
whole time. Our neighbors found us on the in the
rubble on the ground somewhere, and uh, they took Haddie

(06:01):
and Laney from our arms, and we ended up Hattie
or Laney and and Macy and I ended up in
the hospital.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
For about a week. But Haddie hadd He never never went.

Speaker 5 (06:13):
To the hospital, never had to go to the hospital.
And it's it's as bad as you think it is.
You know, that experience was as bad as you can imagine.
So we in so many ways physically were you know,
we were hurt materially, we we lost literally everything. To

(06:36):
this day, there's there's nothing from the first part of
our life that we have and but but obviously the
most meaningful thing was we lost Hattie and.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
It sucks. It sucks.

Speaker 5 (06:58):
So a few days before that, you know, we we
found we founded the Magnolia Foundation several several years after that.
But but just to give you insight, as says, some
things that were significant to us. When Hattie mentioned seeing Jesus,
Mace came back to the bed and bedroom and she

(07:19):
was like she told, you know, told me that story,
and it was kind of like, that's that's kind of crazy,
you know, like what what's going on. Obviously didn't meet
as much to us in the in the middle of
it as it does now and as it did immediately after.
You know, now, like we believe fully that she did,
you know that she did see him, and but a
few did before the storm hit. They were driving around,

(07:42):
uh cook full Mace was driving around with Hattie with Laney,
and as they were driving, you know, Laney was being
a baby. She was, you know, just kind of hanging
out whatever, and Hattie was asking questions being a four
year old, and she asked Macey, She said, Mammy, can
you show me a magnoia? I want to see a
magnolia tree. And kind of a weird question, we didn't

(08:03):
have at our house. We had a half acre lot,
you know, out outside of of of quote town it's Cookville,
right but outside of cook Fille, and no trees at all.
Very basic, you know, first house we ever bought together,
and and so we didn't have a tree at all.
So Mace was like, yeah, i'll show you one when
we get a chance, but we don't, you know, we
don't have one. But when we see one, I'll show

(08:24):
you a magnolia tree. And storm hits. She never had
the opportunity to show her that. Somebody who we still
don't know, donated four burial plots to our family at
a funeral home in Cookfield.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
We didn't have any, you know, like why why would
you rite? And so.

Speaker 5 (08:47):
We were we were grateful for that. But it not
that it didn't matter. It did, but we were not
we were not in a position to go and check
those out, right, I mean we were in the hospital physically,
we couldn't. So we had some friends that went by
the funeral home and did all the things you have
to do to get those things transferred to our to
our family. And in fact, the four that were donated,

(09:08):
the friends that we had that went, they didn't like
where they were for whatever reason, they didn't like them,
and so they told the funeral director, we don't like
where these are at. We want to trade them for
other ones. And so they did. They traded these four
burial plots with the funeral home back to a different location.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
And so.

Speaker 5 (09:27):
Unbeknownst aught to us, and so the first time we
show up to Hattie's grave was the day of the burial,
so we had we had the funeral, and so we
go to the graveside with everybody else. And Uh, if
you've been to a graveside service, you know you go
and you drive to the tent, right, I mean, that's
what you're looking for. We didn't know where it was,

(09:47):
and so we're just driving to the tent and May's
Macy's dad's driving. Mom's in the front seat. Macey and
I are sitting right behind them in the first row.
And I'll never forget. As we're pulling up to the tent, immediate,
I mean immediately, Macy, she kind of like points my
attention towards where the tents at, and there's a magnolia

(10:09):
tree right next to the tent. And in fact, there
are from that location. There are about four that you
can see, but one is right there. It's like a
shade tree, you know. And I mean immediately, that's the
first thing that Mac noticed. Was like, Hey, that's a
that's a magnolia tree. They had just talked about magnolia

(10:31):
trees or wanted to see a magnolia tree.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
And so.

Speaker 5 (10:35):
Man, that from that moment that became really important for us,
became really a symbol for us of Pattie.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
So when we rebuilt.

Speaker 5 (10:46):
Our home a different location, but whenever we built the
house again, we planted a magnolia tree in the front yard.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
We've got magnoia flowers like pictures framed in our house.
Are young guest.

Speaker 5 (11:00):
Her name is Davy, but I tell people before she
had a first name, she had a middle name, you know,
and so her name is Davey Magnolia and uh, and
so before this foundation or any of that, you know,
we've really held on to a couple of things, the
first being that she she saw Jesus and and the

(11:22):
second being what we what we have come to appreciate
is really a gift, which is the Magnolia tree. And
so doesn't make anything any easier, doesn't make it any better,
but we've needed those things, you know, and uh, and
have found have found those to be really important to us.

(11:46):
So yeah, that's I mean, that's as far as that day,
that's that's kind of what what happened. There's I mean,
there's a host of details that you know, that that
I remember and a host that I really don't. You know,
there was a period of time that we were both
kind of blacked out. Both of us sustained pretty significant

(12:09):
injuries and don't remember a whole lot about some of it.
And there's a lot that I do remember as well.
But it's as bad as you think it is.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
You know.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
That's kind of what I what I've always come back
to talk to.

Speaker 4 (12:21):
Me a little bit, you know, about the days leading
up to Hattie's funeral, and then even just the weeks after,
because you know, the one thing that I always hope
that we get out of these.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
Is that somebody finds this, right, who finds this.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
Podcast, and maybe they're going through the same situation or
something very similar and kind of what you went through,
and then ultimately, like what you cling to, you know,
ultimately to come out the other side, you know, with
the strength and the courage you have to just talk
openly about it.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (12:54):
Man, the that time was so I mean, our experience
was probably probably unique to a lot of a lot
of families that lose a child because of how we
lost Hattie, right, because we didn't just lose Hattie, but
we lost everything else as well, And so we we
had nowhere to go, and so we moved in with

(13:17):
with my in laws because that's you know, what else
do you do? Right, And so we were able to
experience our grief with our family in a really unique
way just being surrounded by them all of the time.
There are so many things that we didn't have to

(13:38):
do that I really am thankful for. We didn't have
to go back and look through Hattie's room, we didn't
have to go back through a clothes or through toys.
I mean maybe maybe we would have wanted to, Maybe
we wouldn't have wanted to. I don't really know. We
never had to make that choice. My thought is we
probably wouldn't have wanted to do that. And so, you know,

(14:02):
but that that time period specifically.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Really hard.

Speaker 5 (14:09):
But there are parts of that time period that were beautiful.
You know, we've said before, like that was Hattie's Hattie's
loved her family, I mean more than anything else, like
little kids do. Right, But if you would have told
Hattie that we're gonna go stay with your grandparents for
weeks and weeks and weeks that turned into months, and

(14:32):
that would have been her dream, you know, I mean,
to like live with their grandparents for a little while,
like come on, dude, you know. And so we were,
we were literally, in some ways living the very thing
that Hattie would have wanted to do, which was wild.
The storm came right on the brink of COVID and

(14:53):
so literally, you know, like our church made the decision
to go online in the parking lot of Hattie's funeral,
Like that's the time period that we're in, you know,
and so so much shut down, which for us was
incredible because you know, when our world shut down, sort

(15:17):
did everything else. And so you know, for us, like
Macon and I both like we lost all pressure. We
would have had to come back to work immediately, right,
that was kind of taken out of our hands, and
we would have been given, you know, maximum flexibility, I'm sure,
but we never had to put pressure on ourself to
get right and get back, you know. And so for us,

(15:40):
COVID was a real blessing. I know it wasn't for
a lot of people, but for us it really was
because we could just be together. But man, it was
really really hard. It was really hard. You know, a
lot of tears, a lot of tears, and just I

(16:04):
mean I just think back to you know, just just
feeling like it and even today, like it just doesn't
feel real. You know, it just feels like it was
a different lifetime ago. But it also feels like it
never happened, and then it happened just five seconds ago.
I mean, it's all all of those things. It's hard

(16:24):
to even like articulate. So when when COVID came down,
our our brother in law and sister in law, my
sister in law, my wife's sister. They moved in with
us too, and so they had no they were in
Murpho's Borough. They had no real loss as far as
their home goes, all right, but we needed help physically,

(16:45):
We needed help, you know. And so I mean, I
think about times where you can, I don't know if
you can imagine your father in law helping you in
the shower.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
Right, But that's the situation.

Speaker 5 (16:55):
That I was in, you know, And and like we
needed help just to get around and uh and just
to do basic things like put the odorant on and
you know, like all of those things and so and
so for for us, we needed our family to just
to just carry us. And we were we were, you know,

(17:18):
blessed to have a family that that supported us, and
obviously still does. But in that immediate aftermath, we had
a lot of we had a lot of needs physically.
Laney was in a neck brace for a month, you know,
and we we couldn't do a whole lot for her,
you know, and so we needed people to help us.

(17:38):
And so during that time period, you know, we we
were really taken care of and loved don by our family,
but by people, you know, and but man.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
It.

Speaker 5 (17:52):
So there are parts that are beautiful, but there. It's
it's awful. It's awful.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
It was awful, you know it still is.

Speaker 4 (17:58):
Yeah, Well, at the time you were working you're a
youth minister right at the time, right, and I'm sure
your church was heavily involved and just kind of supporting you.
I know.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
I know Matt through Church.

Speaker 4 (18:14):
Had the pleasure of knowing him as a as a
really young man back in junior high at Mount Juliet
Church of Christ.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
And just talk about those folks, you know, whether if it.

Speaker 4 (18:24):
Was the church you were working at or Mount Juliet Church,
I know, there was just a lot of people praying
and supporting you guys through that whole thing.

Speaker 5 (18:33):
Yeah, you know, we were supported by church people almost exclusively.
I mean, we certainly had some we had some community
support from Cookville because it was a Cookville tragedy. There
were nineteen families that lost to someone, nineteen people passed
away in the storm, and it was the most significant
event as far as a disaster in the history of Cookville.

(18:56):
And so we were supported by the by the community,
by the city certainly, but but really almost hands on
support was was from was from our church. You know,
we never and we can get do this in a
little while, but we never interacted with any kind of
organization that supports families you've lost kids. So it was

(19:17):
it was all church people for us, I mean, really
it was. I mean I was a youth minister at
a church that is a pretty significant size, had been
a youth minister for a couple of other churches also
of size, come from a church of a pretty significant size,
and so just our our connection to people was was

(19:37):
pretty wide arranging in the church communities.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
You know.

Speaker 5 (19:42):
I had a lot of friends in college that went
into ministry and so their churches from all over, you know,
because they were administry at these other churches, and so
they connected with us. And so really our support came
from from church people, and and it was we had

(20:04):
so much of what we needed, you know, a place
to live obviously was our family. But after that, when
it was time to move back to Cookville, we moved
back to Cookville with a place to live while we
built a house. Because of church people, you know, we
had clothes. We lost every stitch of clothing, and so

(20:25):
people were bringing us clothes and bringing us shoes and
all the things that we don't think about needing, you know,
all these people showed up with, right, I mean, from
as little as a toothbrush and deodorant to you know,
something to wear to the funeral. People said, we we
know they don't have it, so let's go. Let's go

(20:46):
make sure we get it for them. And so all
of the practical things that that we needed, especially in
the immediate aftermath. I mean, it was it was always
right there, you know, it was always right there. We
turn around and and there'd be somebody at the door
with a with a box of clothes, or a box
of shoes, or a box of toll at trees or

(21:08):
you know, I mean all of those things. So yeah,
we were we were certainly taken care of in a
lot of those ways. And and really I attribute that
a lot to our connection to churches, you know, and gosh,
I hate to imagine if we didn't if we didn't
have that.

Speaker 4 (21:29):
Yeah, you know, well, I think it's a testament to
your impact on people too.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
Man.

Speaker 4 (21:34):
I remember when I got the news, and you know,
Mount Juliet we obviously had our own share of the tornado, right,
but it just it absolutely devastated Cookville.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
And it was just heartbreaking.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
You know, you and I I hadn't seen you in
years probably, but you know, I never felt closer to
you in that moment. So what a what a difficult time,
but just kind of shifting gears a little bit.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
I love how you mentioned earlier I have three daughters.

Speaker 4 (22:03):
You still talk about Hattie in the in the present's head,
So tell our listeners a little bit about her and
what was she like and what was she into, what
kind of big sister she.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Was, and yeah, man, Hattie was uniquely good.

Speaker 5 (22:17):
And you know, I've got three girls, and this is
not obviously like I love all three of them, and
this is not an indictment on my other two because
they're good kids. They're you know, Lany's five now and
Davies two and a half, and they're sweet and good
and kind girls. Hattie was so unique and how good

(22:44):
she was. We never had to get onto her and
I and I'm not romanticizing that about her. She was
uniquely good. She was really shy in public. She didn't
have a whole lot to say publicly. We've got all
the pictures of her, like in different environments where there's
all kinds of kids running around, and she's the person

(23:05):
like sitting down watching you know, but she was she
was very observant in that way. She just would watch
and see not home behind closed doors, you know, silly
and playful, loved being a big sister, I mean loved it,
you know. And she had just started doing dance, so

(23:29):
like some dance ballet, and so her she had a
recital in May that was coming up, and she had
just gotten her like little you know uniform for that.
Yeah right right, yeah, I've got one too, and but
she had just gotten that and was excited about doing dance.
She her first So the storm was on Tuesday morning.

(23:50):
Her first soccer practice was gonna be that Friday, and
so she had just gotten into wanting to do some sports.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
She was really quick.

Speaker 5 (24:00):
She wasn't like had not a lot of like straight
line speed, but man, she was shifty and she could
dribble a soccer ball really well, I mean, for you know,
for being four. Her her mom, Mace's, was a great
athlete in high school. My father in law was a
college baseball player. She just had some athletic jeans coming

(24:20):
from the other side of the family, not from me,
but she kind of had a little bit of something
to her and so we were excited to watch her
play soccer. And one of the last videos I have
of her is her dribbling a soccer ball. On the
Sunday afternoon before the storm. We were practicing out in
the yard. My dad had gotten her a soccer ball,

(24:41):
pink soccer ball.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
And so we had set up the cones and she
was doing that.

Speaker 5 (24:47):
You know. One of the things that was really unique
about her, and maybe other kids were this way. I
am not as familiar, but she hated to say goodbye,
wouldn't do it, would not say goodbye, you know. And
and so if when it was time to leave somewhere,
if we were leaving family, or if they were leaving us,
they'd come to visit. Like, she just had no interest
in telling anybody goodbye. And so I don't know, I

(25:12):
don't know why, you know, but that just wasn't something
that she wanted to do. But man, she was so good.
She didn't didn't fight back at you, you know, it didn't.
I mean, just really really really good and incredibly intelligent
by the time that this that the storm hit. So

(25:35):
when she was four and a half, you know, she
went to this most day out preschool program at a
at a church in town.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
And part of what they.

Speaker 5 (25:44):
Do is they give you, you know, if you can
if you can do some some Bible memory stuff, you
get like a prize and everything, you know. And so
she was the first one in her school to have
completed all of the memorization. And so she had she
memorized every book of the Bible start to finish, the

(26:07):
Twelve Apostles, uh, the twelve Tribes of Israel, and then
just a host of Bible verses and so like all
of the Beatitudes and I mean just Fruits of the
Spirit and all these things. She had memorized tons of
Bible verses and she did it in song for him,
and so she could sing all of these Bible verses.

(26:27):
And so one of the things that was really neat
when Lane would be upset, she'd be crying.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
She's baby, you know.

Speaker 5 (26:35):
One of the ways that Lane would calm down is
that Hattie would sing Bible verses to her. And I mean,
I have so many memories of you know, there's one
time we were leaving Murpher's Borough driving back to Cookville.
We had just eaten at this pizza place and Lane
was losing her mind. It was one of those nights
where it's like probably too late for a one year

(26:56):
old to not be already at home, you know. And
so we're driving back in the car and and she's
just going crazy, and so how Doie just starts singing
and she's singing Bible Versus to her, and she's singing
the books of the Bible to her. And just how special,
like thinking about that is, you know, so so intelligent,

(27:20):
so intelligent to be able to you know, to do
and to know all of the things that she did.
So so, I mean just incredibly special.

Speaker 4 (27:31):
With with the girls growing up now without her, how
is she omni present Yell's house? And how do y'all
like speak to the girls about her and kind to
keep her legacy there in the house.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (27:44):
So, so you know, Laney had a year with her,
doesn't remember that, but knows it happened, right, I mean,
she knows that Hattie's her big sister, and Davey does too.
They both know hatt he's her big sister. They're big sister.
They know that she's with Jesus. They don't understand what
that means. And so not uncommon for Lane to ask, like,

(28:05):
is Hattie gonna come visit this weekend, or can we
go see Hattie?

Speaker 2 (28:09):
Can she can?

Speaker 5 (28:10):
Do you think she wants to play with us, you know,
those kinds of things. But she sees pictures of her
and and knows that that they were together, and knows
that she's with Jesus. Now, you know, at night, Laney,
she she likes to pray, like before we eat dinner
or something like. Lane will pray and she will always,
you know, say thank you God for Mommy and Daddy

(28:32):
and Davy and Hattie and me and so.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
And so.

Speaker 5 (28:36):
She's very much I mean, the girls know that she's
part of her family, you know how much Davy Can
is aware of that. Who knows right at two and
a half, but they she knows Hattie. She knows her
face when she sees it, she says her name and uh.
And Laney certainly is getting to the point where she
it won't be long before we have to have some

(28:59):
serious conversations with her about what it means that she's
with Jesus, because all that she knows right now is
that she's with Jesus, you know, to to be able
to comprehend that that means that she's not going to
come back and play with you.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
Are those kinds of things.

Speaker 5 (29:16):
You know, we we have not We've not really gone
there other than to say, you know, Hattie would love
to play with you. Hetty loves you, you know, she
loves being your big sister.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
And so but yeah, they're they're aware of her.

Speaker 5 (29:33):
And they see your pictures and and you know they
know that that she's that she's part of the family.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
You know, I love it.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
So just shifting gears a little bit.

Speaker 4 (29:43):
So we you know, out of this, you've turned it
into this this beautiful thing that that's kind of your
mission and your cause.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
Now, so what went into that?

Speaker 4 (29:54):
What where was the decision to come to you know,
it's a faith based non profit, so I'd say you're
still in ministry, but just not serving as a minister
of a church.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
You're doing your ministry through this.

Speaker 4 (30:04):
So what it went into the decision of starting the
Magnolia Foundation.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yeah, pretty pretty soon.

Speaker 5 (30:10):
You know, when the storm hit, we had a pretty
sizable GoFundMe that was started for us, and so we
knew we wanted to take a portion of that and
honor Hattie with a portion of that money. And so
immediately after we decided we would do a scholarship, you know,

(30:30):
at Tennessee Tech, which is based in Cookville, and so
we did that. In June of twenty twenty, we endowed
a scholarship for the nursing department there. So there are
now three students at Tech that have the Hattie Joe
Collins Memorial Scholarship.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
But that's really hands.

Speaker 5 (30:46):
Off and so once you I don't know how familiar
are with scholarships the way they were, but once you
start them, that's pretty much it. And so we don't
have to we don't choose who gets it. We don't
get to you know, we've never met the people that
have it. We get an email from them like I
thank you, pretty standard thank you email, you know, every

(31:07):
year whoever receives it, and and that's really as far
as it has gone. And so we wanted to do something,
and so we did that and we're really happy with that,
like that's really you know, we're we're glad to see that,
but we wanted something more hands on, you know, and
so our thoughts continue to go to Okay, in the

(31:30):
aftermath of the storm, while we were supported by all
of these people, it was really primarily church people. Not
everybody's a minister. And so obviously, you know, people know us.
We have more of a public life than maybe other
people do. Who helps people who have lost their kid

(31:55):
that not everybody knows about? You know, you can google
Hattie's name and you can read all kinds of articles
about her from every news outlet in America literally, and
so we weren't hard to find, to quote Dion Sanders,
and but yet nobody nobody found us. You know that

(32:15):
that helps families that have lost kids, like specifically, and
nobody pointed us to anybody. And I'm not saying they
don't exist, don't hear me say that. I'm just saying
our experience was we didn't interact with anybody that does that,
and so we just kind of thought, well, maybe that
should be us, you know, maybe that should be what
we try to do. And so it took about a

(32:38):
year to by the time that thought kind of grew
in our minds and we made the first phone call
to the time that we said, hey, we exist. But
in that time we kind of narrowed down, Okay, how
specifically do we want to serve, what population do we
need to serve, and how what that what would that

(32:58):
look like? And all those things. So it took a
long time to get it going. But yeah, it was
really just a matter of, Okay, if if we never
connected with an organization who serves families who've lost kids,
how is somebody else who loses their kid in silence
gonna connect with and with with with help, you know.

(33:20):
And and so we are, unfortunately, we are uniquely qualified
to step into those places. There is there is a
level of, you know, credibility that we have with families
that not everybody has because we've lost a child. And

(33:42):
so we're talking to families, you know, sometimes twenty four
hours or less after loss, and uh, and you know,
they need to know, they want not that they want
to know, but they need to know the person they're
talking to has a shared experience, the same experience, but
a shared experience. And so we're just here to help you.

(34:05):
We we understand to the level that we can. But
it really came from who helps people that have lost kids?
Because we didn't find anybody.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
And kind of diving deeper into that, you broad stroked
it a little bit, Well, what are the what were
the specific things services and support you guys decided to give, Yeah,
to the people the recipients that are going through this stuff.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (34:28):
So we serve families in really just three ways. We
assist with funeral expenses, obviously a very immediate need that
most people don't plan for. I mean we we certainly didn't,
and to be honest, like we still don't. I mean
we don't have even even in our experience, we don't
have all this money set aside for a just in

(34:50):
case for other girls.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
And we just don't.

Speaker 5 (34:54):
And part of me is like I hate to even
think about doing that, right, you know, and so, but
most people don't play and for to bury your child
and it's a it's an out of order death and
so and so we help with that huge immediate need.
The second thing that we do is we help with
access to grief counseling. I'm not a counselor. Mas he's

(35:15):
not a counselor, you know. I was in ministry. My
wife worked in the school system as a teacher. But
we don't pretend to be counselors. We don't try to
be counselors. If a family wants to talk to us,
they're certainly more than welcome to and we do that
from time to time. But we want to help families
get connected to licensed professional counselors who can help them

(35:36):
learn how to grieve and grieve well, because you can
but also grieve well together. If it's a two parent home,
you can imagine, you know, the way you grieve is
really is unique to you, right you, You both will
not grieve the same way that your wives do in
any kind of loss, not child loss, only child loss,

(35:58):
but any loss.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
Right.

Speaker 5 (36:00):
Loss is connected to or grief is connected to loss,
which is connected to love that you have. And so
anytime you grieve something, it's going to be unique to you.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
And so.

Speaker 5 (36:11):
In that families can fall apart really quickly, right. And
so a small example that I share with people is, say,
if you've lost a child, if the way that you process,
the way that you grieve is I want to sit
here and I want to look through photo albums, or
I want to look at pictures or watch videos of
my kid and do all the you know, kind of
relive some of that out loud, right, But your spouse

(36:32):
wants nothing to do with that. Well, the second I
try to make my spouse grieve the same way that
I do is the second that we begin to dissolve
our marriage, you know, and so because they they don't
want to grieve that way, or maybe I don't want
to grieve that way because I need to grieve this way.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
And so.

Speaker 5 (36:50):
Connecting families to counselors to help them learn how to
grieve well individually but also grieve well together, I think
it's really really important and one of the things that
we want to do to help families just stay together.
You've already lost a child, you know, and so hang
on to your family. And so we pay for a

(37:10):
family's first five sessions of grief counseling and and just
to get them to get them going down that road.
And so oftentimes families don't know who to go to
for that, and so we we make connections because we
have a we've just got a lot of counseling relationships,
and so we connect families to counselors in that way.
And the third thing is what we call commemorative care.

(37:33):
And so that's kind of like what it sounds like.
There are special days in every family's life, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays,
in our cases, dates of loss right March. The third
means something to us that it doesn't mean to other people.
And so we want to make sure that families know
that they're not forgotten about, and so you can remember,
you can maybe imagine, you know, if you've been through

(37:56):
some kind of loss. After the funeral is over, it
kind of feels like everybody goes back to their regular life,
but you don't.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
You just don't.

Speaker 5 (38:04):
And whether it's your child, or whether it's your grandparent,
your parent, your spouse, your sibling, a friend, it doesn't matter.
You end up in the grocery store and you're like,
does nobody else remember? Does nobody else know? And so
we want to make sure that families know that somebody
else cares and that somebody else remembers and somebody else knows,
because it feels like it can feel like nobody does.

(38:29):
And so a few times a year we want to
connect with families and make sure they remember or they
know that we remember. And so we'll mail them something
to put in their hands, something that is significant and
unique for them for their relationship with their child. And
so like my life today was just she was just
mailing off a lot of things for a lot of

(38:49):
our mothers for Mother's Day, you know, And so they'll
get something at the end of next week. They'll get
something in their hands that says, hey, you're loved, how
has loved you. Know, whether it's your first your fifth child,
you're still a mother to that child. And we know
that this hurts, and so we do that throughout the

(39:11):
year and make sure that that family knows that they're
not totally forgotten about. So that's that's how we serve
so funeral expenses, grief counseling, and then what we call
commemorative care.

Speaker 4 (39:21):
Yeah, so the grief counseling, chalk it up in the
cabin that where the useless information goes.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
I remember reading something I'm going.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
To butcher this, butcher this statistic, but it was like,
families that had lost a child are ten times likely,
you know, to end in a divorce, right because of
exactly what you're talking about. So I'm assuming that you
and mac y'all did some grief counseling and you know,
talk to talk just a little bit about that and
kind of what that process looked like for you guys.

Speaker 5 (39:49):
Yeah, So you know, our experience was it was in
the middle of COVID, right, and so we did we
were online and but we had a really good experience
where we went to it. We did it together, and
then we would have a couple of sessions, you know, individually.
But for us, it was really a way for us

(40:10):
to be able. I mean, all counts this is not
that's not fair. I shouldn't say not all counseling. But
a lot of what counseling is is somebody's ability to
get you to talk and say things out loud that
maybe you wouldn't say out lot otherwise, right, and so
to help you process things. And so you know, we
were able to go and to share some things that

(40:32):
were on our hearts and in our heads and what
we were thinking. And maybe that not that we would
withhold them from from each other, but we just wouldn't
have known to say them out loud, right, And so
our ability to sit there and say things out loud,
like here's how I here's how I feel about this,
was really helpful so that I know, like, this is
what Macy's thinking right now, and she knows here's what
I'm thinking right now, and so you know, and may

(40:55):
not that we would have not told each other, but
we didn't know to tell each other.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
And so it was for us.

Speaker 5 (41:01):
It was really helpful to be able to just say
some things out loud, you know, and kind of walk
through some of that. I immediately liked. I started reading
all these books, you know, and about loss and grief
and all those things. And that wasn't Macy, that wasn't

(41:21):
what she was drawn to, you know, and so and
so for us to be able to kind of work
through that together was it was really important. You're right,
there are stats out there, whether it's ten times more
likely or you know, some people might tell you it's
like seventy five percent of families in a divorce or
things like that. Whatever the actual number is, it's high,

(41:42):
you know. I mean, I don't really know how you
know exactly, but every everybody will tell you it's it's
pretty significant. And and we just weren't going to do
We weren't going to do that. We weren't going to
do that, you know. We we still had Laney, and
we made a commitment to each other, even I mean
in the hospital, like we we weren't going to give

(42:04):
up on each other, on her. We were going to
give her a life that she deserved to live right
full of joy. And so it was I mean, for us,
the idea of of doing anything other than coming together.
I mean it was there was never a question, but
the counseling was really helpful for us. It was really

(42:26):
helpful for us for sure.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
So tell me how faith kind of informs you and
guide your mission, you know, especially considered.

Speaker 3 (42:33):
You know, you came from ministry work, and did you
get you went to freed right?

Speaker 2 (42:38):
I did?

Speaker 3 (42:38):
Yeah, that's what I thought you did.

Speaker 4 (42:39):
So you know, how does it God y'all's mission and
ultimately your activities for the organization and the people you support.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (42:46):
So, I mean people will ask us from time to time,
you know, how do you still believe in the Lord
after after something like that? You know, my response isn't perfect,
but it's kind of like, hey, what other choice do
I have?

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Right?

Speaker 5 (43:02):
I either choose to believe that I had four and
a half years with Hattie and that's it, or I
choose to believe I'm gonna hold her again. So to me,
there's there is no other choice, right, I believe I'm
going to hold her again. It doesn't make it easy

(43:22):
right now, it doesn't make it It's not worth it.
I mean I would take her back every every moment
of every day. I would trade every family that we
work with to have Hattie back. I would I'm not
more noble to you know than to say that, but
for me, it is, Hey, I there's no choice.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
What other choice do I have?

Speaker 5 (43:42):
You know, I believe that the Lord's holding her for us,
and I'm going to hold her again, and that she
saw Jesus and to I can be angry at God
and certainly have experienced, you know, moments of like what
like what we doing? You know, moments of frustration and

(44:03):
anger and questioning and all of those things, but you
know that ultimately isn't going to give me what I
want the most, which is my family together. What's gonna
give me what I want the most is is to
be with the Lord, to be.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
With all of us together. And so you know.

Speaker 5 (44:27):
A lot of you know, not every family that we
interact with do we have those conversations with some of it.
It can be incredibly transactional. Right You've got a family
that's lost a child. We're talking to them twelve eighteen
twenty four hours later, they got they gotta get a
funeral turned around, and so I mean we're on the
phone and boom, boom, boom, you know, fifteen minutes later,

(44:50):
you know I'm talking to the funeral home, and but
then you know, there are sometimes where there's a family
I'm talking to that we have a lot, we have
a long discussion about some of that stuff, and so
but for us, really it kind of boils down, boils
down to like there is no other choice, right, There's
no other choice for us, and so we just we

(45:10):
either choose to believe we're gonna be with her again
or we don't. And I just refuse to believe that
four and a half years I will get.

Speaker 4 (45:16):
I had on the way here today and there was
a I listened to the Bible app and devotionals and
things on there, and there was a the premise of
what I listened to today was rejoicing and struggle, because Christ
rejoiced in his struggle for us, and immediately made me
think of you, of how you've turned this tragedy into

(45:38):
a triumph at the end of the day, and and
something that will live on where you passed you and
and hopefully for years to come and be.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
Of Hattie Joe. So again I commend you, man. It's
super powerful, which I'll do. I had another question. I
forgot where I was going with that Casey.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yeah, as far as like you know, you said, some
of it's very transactional. Some of it's long discussions. Is
there anything that any stories that stood out where you
were like this was a life even more of a
life changer for you of people that you've met or
been around or interacted with.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yeah, you know what's interesting is.

Speaker 5 (46:18):
A lot of the families that we interact with, I
mean really, there is a lot of it that's pretty transactional,
right like, Okay, can we get a few help with
the funeral? Who do we go do see for counseling?
And then so we do those things and happy to
do them. But some of the ones that are longer conversations,
you know, it's not uncommon to hear somebody like I
was talking to a lady on Friday who they lost

(46:41):
their child and and she said, Hey, when when we
kind of get through some of the initial things that
we have to do here, I'd love to call you
back and talk about how you started this, because I've
got a desire to do something that honors, you know,
my baby, and not uncommon for people when they lose

(47:06):
a child, the ones that I've interacted with to want
to try to honor their child in some way that
kind of stands the test of time. You know. I
just think it's something something within us just screams that
this is not like this life isn't enough.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
It's not enough, you know.

Speaker 5 (47:28):
And whether it's six months, four and a half years,
forty years, eighty years, I'm like something about us like
wants more, wants more, and wants more. And I've continued
to see that, like our our desire for that wasn't
unique to us. I've seen I've seen that in a
lot of families where they're like, hey, we we want

(47:50):
to do something to kind of keep keep them alive,
you know, because well, I mean it's just it's not
it's not right. It's not fair for them to be gone.
And so I think I think born within us, within
all people, is there there's a desire that, hey, this,

(48:10):
this can't be all there is, Like there's got to
be something that is that is better and bigger and
more meaningful than this. And I think people, whether they
come from faith or not, I think there's a realization
in and just humanity like this isn't enough. And I've
I've kind of been that has struck me, you know,

(48:33):
from talking to families that desire for for something that
kind of lasts. That's the same desire that we had,
you know.

Speaker 4 (48:42):
When I remember what I was gonna ask, Now, so
how does the how does the process work when a
family is kind of put in front of y'all? You
got a board of directors, I'm sure, and I mean,
this is this is your job.

Speaker 3 (48:53):
Now, what's what's that look like?

Speaker 4 (48:56):
And how do y'all decide on on who and what?

Speaker 5 (48:59):
Yeah, So so our our we can get connected with
the families in a variety of ways. I mean, anybody
can refer family to us. Our our most successful if
you want to call it that, referrals come from Vanderbilt
Children's Hospital. And so when there's a family that loses
the child at Vanderbilt, there's a decent chance that we're

(49:21):
gonna hear about them through their social work department. So
there are other organizations that do a few things. They're
pretty specialized, right, So if you have cancer, there's a place,
there's something for you. If if you f c h
D heart defects, then there's something for you. Really, most
everything else is gonna come to us, and so anything
traumatic that comes to the er sudden, unexpected that's gonna

(49:44):
come to us. So we had one come in this morning,
and so and so the social worker will get online,
they'll make a referral and then we reach out to
the family from there and and so all all of what.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
We do goes through through who whatever group we're working with.

Speaker 5 (50:03):
And so if it's a funeral home, you know, then
we all of our money goes directly to them. If
it's counseling center, it goes to them. You know, like
we're we don't exchange money with families, but we do
connect with families pretty immediately. But but really our best
source of of of of people to serve comes to
hospitals Vandy locally is is I mean, they send us

(50:24):
families every single week. Every single week we get families
from Vanderbilt and so yeah, that's that's really that's how
we that's how we do that. And we have more
hospitals on the way that are that are in the
works as of as of today that we're fixing a
pick up in the next couple of weeks, and so,

(50:44):
you know, they're families that lose kids every day.

Speaker 4 (50:47):
Unfortunately, you you shared something with us before the show
that there was a family that also lost a kid
in tornado and Oklahoma.

Speaker 3 (50:58):
What was that call like or that converse like?

Speaker 4 (51:00):
Considering It was just that one really hits close to home,
considering is very similar to your situation.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
Yeah, they're They're not the first one that we've had
in a in a tornado, U the second one. We've
had one other family that was had a child that
was lost in a tornado. You know, really, I don't
know that I feel a whole lot differently about it.

(51:27):
I mean, certainly it is it is so similar to
to our experience that I mean, I can't ignore it.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
But all of them suck, you know.

Speaker 5 (51:39):
I mean, we get kids with cancer, kids in a
car wreck, kids you know, hit by a trunk driver.
I mean, like every scenario you can imagine. All of
them are hard. And so certainly that one is is
unique because it is close to home. But it really doesn't.
It doesn't affect me any differently than the others, do
you know? And I don't really know why that is

(52:06):
to be honest with you, other than to say, like
every family that loses a child has a situation that
is awful, however you lose them, and so but yeah,
we that is the second one we've had that's been
through a tornado.

Speaker 4 (52:18):
That's that's that's tough man. Yeah, but like you said,
they all suck. That's that's the thing. So yo, not
that I run a nonprofit like you do. This is
your job, This is what you do. Mine is mine
as a hobby with the work that Casey and I
do through SWN friends.

Speaker 3 (52:36):
And I remember you, you.

Speaker 4 (52:38):
And I either emailed or text or talked whenever you
were like coming up with this idea, right, and how
you're going to do it. But you know it's obviously
challenging doing this, and you know what, what have been
some of the just biggest hurdles or obstacles for you guys,
and you know, how have you ultimately overcome them?

Speaker 3 (52:57):
And and you know, talk to me about that.

Speaker 5 (53:00):
Yeah, the biggest obstacle so far was to decide whether
or not to quit our jobs to do this full time.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
I was terrifying. You know.

Speaker 5 (53:11):
We've always been a family that's lived on salary, and
you know, we've known exactly like what next month looks like,
you know, and so we didn't start this with the
idea that it was gonna be what we did full
time as quickly as it was or maybe even ever,
like we didn't know. We just knew we wanted to

(53:32):
start a nonprofit to help families of lost kids. And
I mean immediately we had families coming in to the
point where it was like we got to make a decision,
you know. So that was really hard to say, Okay,
like we've got to we have to either keep doing

(53:52):
what we're doing, but we're gonna have to say notice
in families, right, I mean, just practically you can't do
all of everything, or we've got to take a risk
and say we're gonna go fundraise for a living, right,
I mean, like and just and if it don't work,

(54:13):
then we figure it out when it doesn't work, you know.
And so and so we started this in twenty twenty three,
but we we went I went full time. We quit
our jobs at the end of twenty three and so
January first was when we went full time with it,
although we were already doing it last year.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
And and that.

Speaker 5 (54:31):
Was scary, I mean just really scary and still is,
you know. I mean, and so it's like, you know,
I'll get paid on Friday, Well get paid, you know,
like the next.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
Time, you know, like I hope so right.

Speaker 5 (54:45):
I mean, you know, but but that that that part
is the scariest part, Like what is what does that
look like? How do you how do you do that?
I mean I had no idea. I had no idea,
and so yeah, for us, the most challenging thing is
is the ability to raise funds to not only serve families,

(55:07):
but to raise enough to be able for this to
be our full time employment, right, And so there's a
there's a you know, there is no safety net really
with that, and there's a there's a level of fear
that comes with okay, like if people don't buy into
what we're doing, Like we can have the best hearts

(55:30):
in the world to want to serve these families, but
ultimately I can't serve anybody without somebody else, you know, contributing.
And I tell people all the time, like we can
be generous so long as people are generous to us.
Otherwise like I got nothing, And so that part's scary,
you know, that's the biggest hurdle.

Speaker 4 (55:50):
Well, that's that was the premise of our conversation. It
was like, hey, man, how do you do yours? And
are you like paid? And I was like, man, I
do it for free. But again I don't have the
time and the energy invested into to mine. And thankfully
I got a group of people that also support me.
So I was I was honestly a little scared for you,
because I got a little anxious because ultimately that I've

(56:13):
told everybody was like, one day, that's all I'm going
to do is sw and friends, and that's all I'll
you know, need to do because the joy that I
get out of doing that work. But it's remarkable what
you've done in such a short time. How many families
have you, guys helped up to this point.

Speaker 5 (56:27):
Yeah, I mean we get a couple of families every week,
So in twenty twenty four alone, it's been right right
over thirty families we expect to serve, you know, by
the time. And that's in a variety of ways, right.
Not every family does all three things. And so there
may be a family that we're just doing commemorative care with.
They don't have a need for funeral expenses, they don't

(56:50):
have a desire for counseling. There may be a family
that we're just doing a funeral for and that's it, right,
And so in a variety of ways, we're connecting with
two to three families every week. We expect that to
pick up significantly within the next month. And so yeah,
I mean by the end of the year, you're you're

(57:11):
talking probably probably I mean well into.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
To triple digit category, you know, with families. And so.

Speaker 5 (57:21):
You know when it when last year and we first
started it, that it kind of started going down that
path where it was like, okay, like there's another one
this week. Okay, there's two more this week. Okay, there's
three more this week. So okay, like what what do
we do here? But yeah, so it's it's a couple
every week so far. This week, today's Tuesday. We've had
two families come in. This week, it's Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
So yeah, crazy, So you two things, You've chosen to
honor your daughter by dealing with someone else going through
the same thing that you went through. So you really
have decided that you're ever gonna give yourself a break
from it? Yeah? What went into that decision? Because there

(58:06):
you talk about the scholarship, which totally totally makes sense
and its hands off, but this is like deep waters
every single day. Why did you guys decide to say,
all right, this is what we're going for what did
what was it? Yeah, that kind of culminated that that
was the purpose of this of this this foundation.

Speaker 5 (58:26):
Yeah, I think one of the things that I've learned
a lot, uh in reading and listening to some people
who are a lot smarter than me, is the healthiest way,
the healthiest way to live life is to face life
on life's terms and to not run from it. And
and so in grief, you know, you can run from that.

(58:48):
I can bury myself and something else really easily, right,
but that's ultimately not healthy. And so yeah, I mean
to to be able to face grief every day is
something that I want to do. I want to feel.
I want to feel. I don't want to numb myself

(59:10):
from that pain. It would it would feel like a
disservice to Hattie to to numb myself from her loss.
So I want to feel it. And and these are
my people, right, even if I never meet him in person,
you know, they're my people where I'm where I tell
I tell the families that we work with a lot like, hey, listen,

(59:31):
I'm on your team.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
You don't know me.

Speaker 5 (59:35):
We I may never see you, but I'm on your team.
And and so to face that, to face life on
life's terms, say hey, this is this is where we're at,
and this is what's in front of me, and I'm
not gonna run away.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
From it, you know.

Speaker 5 (59:50):
To me, I feel like it's the healthiest way to
to kind of embrace what life is for us. Now.
It's not what I would choose, it's not I want,
but it's it's where we are. And so it feels
like there's nothing else I'd rather do than serve families
like this because they're my people.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
So looking in looking down the road here being the
first couple months of full time, I know you guys
are kind of taking in as it comes, But what
is what are your kind of aspirations for the foundation?
What do you what would you like to see happen?

Speaker 5 (01:00:21):
Yeah, our goal is we want to be able to
serve every family in the state of Tennessee who's lost
a child from birthday eighteen. And so we serve families
right now birthday eighteen. We don't serve families who have
experienced miscarriage, although there's so many that do and that's
a real loss and real grief. We don't serve families
to lost adult children, although that's a real loss and

(01:00:42):
a real grief, and so many that do.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
Our focus is on is.

Speaker 5 (01:00:46):
BIRTHDA eighteen, and our expectation is that we want to
serve every family or have every family have the ability
to be served in the state of Tennessee that lose
a child. In that way we serve out the state
is well and and and will continue to do that.
But our primary focus is where we are, you know,

(01:01:08):
and so the way that we do that is connecting
with hospitals and funeral homes around the state. And so
the more that we connect with, the more opportunity families
will have to be served.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
You would it shocked me.

Speaker 5 (01:01:24):
The more hospitals we talked to, the lack of resources
that families have when they walk out the door, you know,
shocked me. And so every hospital we've spoken do so
far has has been like, yeah, absolutely, we love, we
love to to send families to you because right now,

(01:01:45):
when they leave the door, there's we don't there's nothing
for them. And so we want to serve every family
in the state. It's a big goal. There's a lot
of families. Takes a lot of money, but that's that's
what we're trying to do.

Speaker 4 (01:01:58):
Well, perfect segue, and how can people find you and
how can they how can they get involved in help?

Speaker 5 (01:02:04):
Yeah, our we're very active on social media, and uh,
one of the things that's really helpful that people don't
think about as much is just sharing what we're doing online.
The family from Oklahoma, the family from Oregon. We've had
all these families from out of state. They find us
because somebody shared about us online. And so we've got
an Instagram account at Magnolia Foundation, we have we have

(01:02:26):
a Facebook account Facebook slash the Magnolia Foundation, and so
families can find us there and people sharing about what
we're doing is really helpful. You have no idea who
reads your social media feeds, which is you know, kind
of terrifying, right, But for us, it's beautiful. And so
I mean, every couple of weeks we'll get somebody in,

(01:02:48):
but it's because somebody saw what we're doing online and
so they said, hey, we need some help. So that's
that's really a beautiful way. We have a website, you know,
the Magnolia Foundation dot com that people can go to.
They can read a lot about us and our story.
There's a giving platform on there if they want to
contribute financially. They can do that on our website and

(01:03:08):
that's obviously incredibly helpful. We're five on one C three right,
so everything is tax deductible. If people want to contribute
in that way, they can do that. But yeah, social
media online, that's that's a good way to find us
and all of our information, to connect with us personally.
They can do that on there as well.

Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
Well.

Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
Be sure to tag them and get everything going with
this episode so you folks can get involved, especially all
you Mount Jullet folks for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
Well it's been awesome, man.

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
Yeah, dude, your strength, your courage, your heart. Man.

Speaker 4 (01:03:39):
Like, I'm a firm believer that God picks his soldiers
for their battles, dude, and this was the battle that
he had for you and Macy. And it's not right,
it's not the way that you wanted it. But man,
the work that y'all are doing and again turning your
tragedy into this triumph, it's it's nothing short remarkable, man,

(01:04:00):
So thank you for sharing. I love you, and you know,
obviously we'll do everything that we can to support you.

Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
Thanks. I appreciate being here.

Speaker 3 (01:04:08):
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Well, thanks guys for listening to another episode of the
Encado Podcast. We are grateful for all the feedback we've
been getting. Matt, thanks for coming in and talking with us,
and we'll see you guys next time.