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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: Grieving woman made a cemetery her home until kindness changed

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Speaker 2: her life forever. Written by Heather Riggleman, read by Duly Provost.

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Speaker 2: A grieving woman made a cemetery her home until kindness

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Speaker 2: changed her life forever. I can't imagine the weight of

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Speaker 2: grief this woman carried. But if my high school sweetheart

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Speaker 2: and husband of twenty seven years was suddenly gone, I

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Speaker 2: know I might have ended up right where she did.

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Speaker 2: Grief has a way of shrinking the world until the

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Speaker 2: only place that feels safe is where love last stood still.

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Speaker 2: That's how Rena Holmes found herself living in a cemetery.

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Speaker 2: Police officers in Syracuse, New York, were stunned in December

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Speaker 2: when they discovered the fifty five bei old woman sleeping

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Speaker 2: among the gravestones at Oakwood Cemetery. But her story didn't

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Speaker 2: begin there. It began years earlier, with a love that

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Speaker 2: lasted nearly three decades and a future that disappeared in

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Speaker 2: a single day. Ria Holmes and her husband Eddie Holmes

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Speaker 2: had been married for twenty six beautiful years. They were

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Speaker 2: high school sweethearts, finally ready to buy their dream home.

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Speaker 2: In October twenty twenty. Their offer was accepted. That same day,

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Speaker 2: Eddie died suddenly at a heart attack. Instead of buying

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Speaker 2: a house, Rio used her down payment to purchase a

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Speaker 2: cemetery plot for her husband. She added a bench in

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Speaker 2: front of his grave and a place to sit and remember. Slowly,

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Speaker 2: remembering became surviving, and surviving began slipping. Grief followed out

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Speaker 2: her life. Rhea lost her job, she was evicted. Too

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Speaker 2: proud to move into a shelter, she went into the

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Speaker 2: only place she still felt like hers, Eddie's grave. This

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Speaker 2: is what I purchased, she said, simply. Beginning in May

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, Rea volunteered at a nearby food pantry

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Speaker 2: during the day. At night, she quietly returned to the

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Speaker 2: cemetery to sleep, unnoticed and alone. She assumed that's where

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Speaker 2: her life would end. But grief doesn't always get the

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Speaker 2: final word. In December, a retired officer working at the

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Speaker 2: cemetery noticed her at alerted police. Syracu's police officer, Jamie

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Speaker 2: Pastoral responded and became what Rhea called her angel. He

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Speaker 2: paid for her to stay in a hotel. Then he

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Speaker 2: connected her with Leimannan College, where she could stay on

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Speaker 2: campus during winter break. He started a crowdfunding campaign and

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Speaker 2: introduced her to a nonprofit called a Tiny Home for Good,

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Speaker 2: which provides affordable housing to people in need. Within weeks,

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Speaker 2: everything changed. In just twenty days, Ria went from sleeping

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Speaker 2: on cold ground beside a gravestone to moving to her

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Speaker 2: own tiny home. Nothing will ever replace Eddie. Love like

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Speaker 2: that doesn't get replaced. But when Ria had Officer Jamie

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Speaker 2: during a recent reunion, it was clear that kindness had

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Speaker 2: interrupted her grief and given her a reason to keep

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Speaker 2: living forward. Sometimes God sends angels quietly in uniforms with

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Speaker 2: open hands, right when the grief feels too heavy to survive.

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Speaker 2: The Lord is close to the brooken hearted and saves

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Speaker 2: those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm thirty four eighteen

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Speaker 2: FedEx worker gives birth at work, not knowing she was

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Speaker 2: actually pregnant, written by MICHAELA. Gordoni, read by Julie Propost.

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Speaker 2: Family got a very special delivery. Last month, the woman

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Speaker 2: gave birth at FedEx and she didn't even know she

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Speaker 2: was pregnant. It was a memory she'll never forget. The woman,

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Speaker 2: Amethyst Bloomberg, who works at a FedEx facility in Grimes, Iowa,

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Speaker 2: had just fitished a workshift when she suddenly felt like

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Speaker 2: she had easy at the bathroom. After that, I couldn't

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Speaker 2: even get off the toilet, she said, adding that she

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Speaker 2: was able to open the door and call for help.

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Speaker 2: I get up and I'm like, I feel his head,

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Speaker 2: she recalled. The fire patrol arrived just before the baby

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Speaker 2: was born and assisted with the delivery. She ended up

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Speaker 2: giving birth on the floor at her workplace at eight

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Speaker 2: thirty three am. Her baby, whom she named Onyx King Easterleigh,

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Speaker 2: weighed six pounds eight ounces and measured nineteen inches long.

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Speaker 2: With my first one, I had all the symptoms, she

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Speaker 2: recalled of her first pregnancy. With this one, I had

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Speaker 2: nothing at all. I was losing weight at work. The

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Speaker 2: only signs she ever felt were when she was in

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Speaker 2: the bathroom. The only thing I felt was when my

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Speaker 2: back started hurting from back labor, and when he was descending,

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Speaker 2: I felt him move, she said. I've seen a lot

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Speaker 2: of things in my field, so I don't get too

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Speaker 2: much surprise anymore. Nick Pearson of the Johnson Grimes Fire

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Speaker 2: District said, I'm just very happy that she was healthy

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Speaker 2: and the baby was healthy. He's perfect antist said, he's

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Speaker 2: our FedEx baby. Wow, what an incredible thing that this

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Speaker 2: little baby stayed hidden through his mom's whole pregnancy. Anyx

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Speaker 2: birth will be a story to tell for many generations.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to story Behind podcast.

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Speaker 1: We're really glad you joined us for this week's story.

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Speaker 1: To see photos and videos that may have been referenced

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

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

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Speaker 1: is a Salem Web Network production.