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Speaker 1: Hello, friends, Welcome to Story Behind Podcast. This is the

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Speaker 1: show for people who love hearing a good story and

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Speaker 1: who believe the world could use more positivity. We're the

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Speaker 1: team behind God Updates and God Too, and we hope

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Speaker 1: these weekly short stories will brighten your day.

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Speaker 2: Ninety five year old Veteran honored by school children and

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Speaker 2: Sweet Birthday Celebration written by Heather Recommend read by Dully Provost.

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Speaker 2: A ninety five year old veteran honored by school children

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Speaker 2: in a sweet Birthday celebration will make you misty eyed.

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Speaker 2: You may want to grab a box of tissues. That's

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Speaker 2: because sometimes people who change a community don't stand on

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Speaker 2: stages or make headlines. Sometimes they simply stand in their yard,

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Speaker 2: wave with all their heart, and make children feel seen

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Speaker 2: on an ordinary school morning. That's exactly who Bob Jones

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Speaker 2: has been for the last two decades in Claremont County, Ohio.

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Speaker 2: Around here, Bob has become a loved fixture in the neighborhood.

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Speaker 2: Day after day, year after year, he has stood outside

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Speaker 2: his home waving at school buses as they passed by

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Speaker 2: children way back. Drivers honk windows, roll down voices call

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Speaker 2: out mister Bob. Some even shout the sweetest words of all,

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Speaker 2: I love you. Can you imagine what that kind of

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Speaker 2: steadiness does to a child's heart to know someone is

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Speaker 2: waiting to greet you before school even begins, to know

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Speaker 2: someone notices you. For twenty years, Bob has handed out

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Speaker 2: joy in small waves and warm smiles, and last week

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Speaker 2: the community decided it was time to give some of

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Speaker 2: that love back. To celebrate his ninety fifth birthday, neighbors

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Speaker 2: in local schools organized a school bus pray just for him.

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Speaker 2: Bus after bus rolled by in his honor, creating the

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Speaker 2: kind of birthday surprise that cannot be bought. It was

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Speaker 2: gratitude of meals. When Bob shared what those daily interactions

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Speaker 2: have meant to him, he shared, in a slow, quiet

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Speaker 2: sort of way, I wave at the kids and the

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Speaker 2: bus drivers, and they wave back. A lot of people

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Speaker 2: in the car's wave and the kids roll the windows

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Speaker 2: down and holler, mister Bob. Some of them say, I

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Speaker 2: love you. Neighbors say, everyone who meets Bob loves him.

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Speaker 2: Shelley Tippett explained that generations of families now I know

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Speaker 2: his kindness. My sister drives for a bus and this

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Speaker 2: is the second or third generation of students that are

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Speaker 2: coming by. Think about that for a moment. Three generations

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Speaker 2: of children have grown up seeing the same faithful man

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Speaker 2: waving hello. That's a legacy that shows up in beautiful

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Speaker 2: ways like consistency, steadiness, and kindness. Bob Jones reminds us

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Speaker 2: that you don't need a platform to make a difference.

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Speaker 2: You just need a willing heart and a hand ready

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Speaker 2: to wave to make someone feel seen, heard, and even loved.

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Speaker 2: And on his only fifth birthday, those children and drivers

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Speaker 2: made sure he knew something important. Every smile he gave

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Speaker 2: away came back multiplied. And let us not get tired

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Speaker 2: of all doing, for at the right time, we will

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Speaker 2: get in the grain if we do not give way

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Speaker 2: to weariness.

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Speaker 3: Galatians six 's nine.

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Speaker 2: A Grandpa's completed world's largest jigsaw puzzle, sixty thousand pieces

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Speaker 2: in all, written by Heather Wriggelmann, ride by Julie Provost.

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Speaker 2: A grandpa just completed the world's largest jigsaw puzzle, sixty

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Speaker 2: thousand pieces in all, and you'd be surprised to have

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Speaker 2: a little advice about life coming from those pieces, day

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Speaker 2: by day, piece by piece. That's how Lou Salas of

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Speaker 2: Colorado Spring Colorado built it not just the world's largest

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Speaker 2: commercial jigsaw puzzle, but something deeper, something quieter, something that

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Speaker 2: looks a whole lot like life. Lou spent over eight

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Speaker 2: hundred hours across four years working on a sixty thousand

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Speaker 2: piece puzzle called What a Wonderful World. It came in

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Speaker 2: sixty boxes to create a full map of the world,

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Speaker 2: slowly coming together in his hands. But before he even

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Speaker 2: placed the first piece, he had to figure out where

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Speaker 2: something this big could even live. Isn't that how life works?

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Speaker 2: Sometimes we think we're ready to begin, but first we

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Speaker 2: have to make room. Lou worked on each section, one

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Speaker 2: at a time, building one thousand piece puzzles in a

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Speaker 2: quiet room, storing them carefully on plastic sheets, and beside

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Speaker 2: him often was his eight year old grand his puzzle prodigy, learning, watching, helping,

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Speaker 2: because the best things in life they're barely built alone.

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Speaker 2: But even then it wasn't easy. At one point, everything

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Speaker 2: nearly unhraffled one missing piece in the seventeenth section, just

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Speaker 2: one enough to stop the whole thing. Lou admitted he

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Speaker 2: didn't sleep when he realized it was gone. For a moment.

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Speaker 2: All that time, all that work felt like it might

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Speaker 2: not come together after all. And maybe you've been there too,

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Speaker 2: that place where one missing piece feels like it could

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Speaker 2: undo everything. But the piece came. The work continued, and

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Speaker 2: Lou kept going, because that's what faithful building looks like.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't quit when it's hard. When it came time

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Speaker 2: to assemble the entire puzzle, it became, in his words,

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Speaker 2: the biggest puzzle within the puzzle. His family and friends

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Speaker 2: built an eight foot by twenty nine point five foot

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Speaker 2: table in his garage, and Lou literally suspended himself from

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Speaker 2: the ceiling to bring all sixty sections together. Took nine

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Speaker 2: hours just to connect it all, nine hours after four years,

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Speaker 2: and when it finally done, he called it bittersweet, because

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Speaker 2: sometimes the thing you've poured your heart into becomes part

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Speaker 2: of you, and finishing it feels like both an ending

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Speaker 2: and a beginning all at once. But here's what I

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Speaker 2: love the most. After all this time, all that effort,

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Speaker 2: all those pieces carefully placed, Lu doesn't want to keep it.

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Speaker 2: You can't put it into words, or price on it

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Speaker 2: or anything. He said, If somebody could do it, that's

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Speaker 2: good enough for me. So he's giving it away because

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Speaker 2: somewhere along the way, Lou didn't just build a puzzle.

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Speaker 2: He learned something about life that it's not about holding

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Speaker 2: on to what you've built. It's about passing it on

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Speaker 2: piece by piece. Let it's not grow weary in doing good,

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Speaker 2: for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest

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Speaker 2: if we do not give up Galatians six'.

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Speaker 1: Nine thank you so much for listening To Story behind.

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Speaker 1: Podcast we're really glad you joined us for this week's.

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Speaker 1: Story to see photos and videos that may have been

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Speaker 1: referenced in this, episode check out the links and the show,

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Speaker 1: notes and if you enjoyed what you heard, today subscribe

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