Speaker 1: When she was born, she was not breathing. M We
Speaker 1: were just crying because we felt like pretty much that
Speaker 1: it was over at that point and out of pretty
Speaker 1: much nowhere. She was just laying on my chest and
Speaker 1: I was just rubbing my finger on her chest like this,
Speaker 1: and um, she just kind of went, you know, just
Speaker 1: like this tiny raspy breath. We're told we have you know,
Speaker 1: four to seventy two hours at most, and so Hate
Speaker 1: and I were just staring at her all the time,
Speaker 1: like how much longer are we going to have? You?
Speaker 1: You know, is it going to be an hour? Is
Speaker 1: it going to be through the night? Is it going
Speaker 1: to be two nights? You know, we had no idea
Speaker 1: put another lag. Nobody here is good time. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the fire Pit with Matt Joneller. So, by now, if
Speaker 1: you're listening to this particular podcast, I'm going to assume
Speaker 1: you've either read or watched the Hayden Springer story on
Speaker 1: the fire Pit Collective dot com. If you haven't, I
Speaker 1: strongly suggest you had paused. Now read the story, which
Speaker 1: was written by Ryan French, and then watch the story,
Speaker 1: which was produced by Ben Van Hook, shot by Henry Link,
Speaker 1: and edited by Adam Showen. While you're doing that, I'll
Speaker 1: take a second to thank our partners at link Soul
Speaker 1: who don't just make clothes. They foster and cultivate community golf,
Speaker 1: junior caddies, and a culture that has quickly become the
Speaker 1: answer key for municipalities all over the country. Go to
Speaker 1: link sol dot com and use promo code fire Pit
Speaker 1: off your next purchase. Okay, back to the back story
Speaker 1: of the hay and Springer story. As you all probably
Speaker 1: know by now, the fire Pit Collective's first hire was
Speaker 1: Ryan French, whose personal story was also a recent podcast.
Speaker 1: In just a few weeks of working with Ryan, I
Speaker 1: guess I'm stunned and yet not surprised at his relentless
Speaker 1: delivery of compelling observations on aspiring tour pros. And when
Speaker 1: he sent in his first draft of the Hayden Springer story,
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe what I was reading. And it's not
Speaker 1: just that Sage Springer took that first breath and then
Speaker 1: so many more, or that while Sage is surviving, Hayden
Speaker 1: was qualifying for the US Open, or that Emma lives
Speaker 1: and works as a nurse all day every day to
Speaker 1: make both the surviving and qualifying possible, and it's even
Speaker 1: deeper than they do it all with such ease and
Speaker 1: selfless grace. For me, it's also about the fact that
Speaker 1: I'm a parent, that our son had complications at birth,
Speaker 1: and if it wasn't for staff at the Winni Palmer
Speaker 1: Hospital in Orlando, he wouldn't be alive today. So it's
Speaker 1: all of that, which is why when watching the story
Speaker 1: produced by Ben van Hook, my wife and I sobbed.
Speaker 1: But it was an oddly good cry, and I'm happy
Speaker 1: for them cry. As Ryan French said to me, you
Speaker 1: think it's supposed to be a sad story, but it's not,
Speaker 1: And I think that's the true miracle here. It's that
Speaker 1: they're all refusing sadness, that Sage is denying death, and
Speaker 1: that with Dad on the bag and the whole family
Speaker 1: in the crowd this week, Haydn could win the whole
Speaker 1: damn thing. So with that, I recently spoke to Ryan
Speaker 1: and Ben together about how they reported their stories and
Speaker 1: as that they share their perspective on why this story
Speaker 1: matters to them. I start with Ryan French on how
Speaker 1: he became aware of what Hayden Springer was going through
Speaker 1: follower sent me a message and and I think it's
Speaker 1: just a very delicate story, and stories like this, I
Speaker 1: want to make sure I have the player's input, and
Speaker 1: I put in uh, you know, I put it in
Speaker 1: their words what they want out there. Um. And so
Speaker 1: I talked to Haydon after I had heard from a
Speaker 1: story and had heard the story from a follower who
Speaker 1: was a family friend. He's like, you know, we're not
Speaker 1: We're not quite ready there. That was right when Sage
Speaker 1: was being born, and I think even before she was born,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. And then Emma has become kind of
Speaker 1: an advocate of of babies with trying send me eighteen
Speaker 1: has been outspoken about their life, and so I talked
Speaker 1: to him again he wanted to share, but again it's
Speaker 1: just a serious, heavy story that I wanted to do
Speaker 1: justice too. And then um, yeah, we were in Las
Speaker 1: Vegas and I saw him outside the clubhouse and um,
Speaker 1: he had just Monday qualified, which is again amazing, and
Speaker 1: him and I had message you know, multiple times leading
Speaker 1: up to that, and we just set outside the clubhouse
Speaker 1: and talked for ten or fifteen minutes about what his
Speaker 1: life is in his story and and how amazing I
Speaker 1: thought it wasn't I tell it if you wanted to
Speaker 1: tell it? And so, um, well he agreed, and I
Speaker 1: talked to Emma after that, and um, you know, I've
Speaker 1: been connected with Hayden and Ema since then. It's just
Speaker 1: it's it. It's the heaviest but best story, uh that
Speaker 1: I want to you know, back to what Ben said,
Speaker 1: this does not feel sorry for it. It's an appreciation
Speaker 1: for what Emma does and what Hayden does on the
Speaker 1: golf course. The first version of the story was written
Speaker 1: before Springer had qualified for the US Open. It was
Speaker 1: Gary in the fire pit queue and then by way
Speaker 1: of the US Open qualifier at the Dallas Athletic Club,
Speaker 1: by one shot, Springer was bound for Tory Pines. So
Speaker 1: now what do we run the story right away? I
Speaker 1: know Ryan and I were inclined to go that route.
Speaker 1: Seemed to make sense. Just qualified for the US Open,
Speaker 1: Ryan has written this crazy, amazing, inspirational, emotional feature. I said,
Speaker 1: I think you update it and let's hits end. But
Speaker 1: we opted to wait for Shipnock. To Chaiman, Alan suggested
Speaker 1: that we wait all the way through and essentially build
Speaker 1: our US Open coverage around the Springer story. His point
Speaker 1: was that even if someone else would write or produce
Speaker 1: a version of the story, that no one would have
Speaker 1: the story Ryan was telling and Alan was right. We
Speaker 1: all opted to wait. But while waiting, why not tell
Speaker 1: it visually as well? Which is what I called Ben
Speaker 1: van Hook, an Orlando based photographer who I used to
Speaker 1: work with at both Sports Illustrated and Golf Digest. Van
Speaker 1: Hook had made the transition into producing and shooting videos
Speaker 1: a variety of clients, and although we used to play
Speaker 1: Winner Park nine together, we hadn't really worked together in
Speaker 1: eight years. I sent him the story and asked if
Speaker 1: he and his team would be interested in a quick
Speaker 1: tripped Dallas. They were obviously in. We were shocked when
Speaker 1: we went there and and met them because like, you know,
Speaker 1: I read I read the story and you know, super
Speaker 1: touched by that. And then I had a FaceTime call
Speaker 1: with them, and you know, her personality is just like
Speaker 1: you know, it's just so explosive, and it's like she's
Speaker 1: got this this aura about her, this personality, and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, this is great. You know, she's really
Speaker 1: outgoing and it's very articulate, and it's very convicted, and
Speaker 1: and then um, and then when we got there and
Speaker 1: we met them, it was just like, I mean, it
Speaker 1: was really overwhelming emotionally because they the family has got
Speaker 1: this giant heart, you know, everybody in the family does,
Speaker 1: and it's like, you know, a group effort to try
Speaker 1: to make this machine work and um and then they
Speaker 1: were just so open and you know, they really want
Speaker 1: to tell their story for especially for other people going
Speaker 1: through the similar kinds of things that they're doing, and
Speaker 1: it's just very h very touching, you know, to to
Speaker 1: to be there and to like witness it firsthand. I
Speaker 1: told Matt Um when when we were interviewing Emma, like
Speaker 1: the whole crew was crying, like we were all like
Speaker 1: in tears because it was so touching. You know. Ryan
Speaker 1: French and his wife, who's a nurse, also had a
Speaker 1: serious health scare with their son Jack, which made Ryan
Speaker 1: even more empathetic to what the Springers were going through.
Speaker 1: I haven't they haven't gone through exactly that, but I
Speaker 1: think when you have a child could potentially, you know,
Speaker 1: die from something, and in our case a surgery. Like
Speaker 1: you WRT to stories like this more, you you can
Speaker 1: you can feel what are feeling. You can you you
Speaker 1: know what that meeting with dr means you know what
Speaker 1: what you don't know what tomorrow is? Uh, you know.
Speaker 1: I think that's why I'm happy to tell this story
Speaker 1: because yeah, I can relate to it on on some
Speaker 1: some way. When Jack was in the hospital and and
Speaker 1: gone through all this and was vomiting every night, I
Speaker 1: could hardly function. I was running a group of restaurants
Speaker 1: right like, I wasn't at my best and this guy
Speaker 1: is doing I mean I can relate on that end
Speaker 1: a's like I don't. It just gives me such an
Speaker 1: appreciation for the level of Golfe's playing because you know,
Speaker 1: we weren't sleeping, weren't doing those things, and that is
Speaker 1: in a short term, not close to what these folks
Speaker 1: are going through. And you know I wasn't at my
Speaker 1: best or even close to my best. So it just
Speaker 1: again just gives another level of appreciation for the golf
Speaker 1: that he in the family structure, it lets him play
Speaker 1: like that. We didn't have a long time to get
Speaker 1: Ben to sync up with the Springers and their schedule
Speaker 1: as they braced for whatever the US Open week would entail,
Speaker 1: but they agreed to let us in their home. And
Speaker 1: then the fear was what was the exact situation Ben
Speaker 1: would be going into. The baby had survived the necessary
Speaker 1: heart surgery at four months old, it was gaining weight
Speaker 1: and strength, but it's still incredibly vulnerable to something like
Speaker 1: the common cold, and it's definitely safe to say every
Speaker 1: day four stage is literally a miracle. Originally, you know,
Speaker 1: my thought as a filmmaker was like, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: gonna be very fast cutting um chaotic situation, you know,
Speaker 1: with you know, she works nights as a nurse, he's
Speaker 1: gone all the time. The family, they're living with his parents.
Speaker 1: That's the house he grew up man, which is like unbelievable.
Speaker 1: You know, they're living there because they don't have the
Speaker 1: choice right now. They need this help this family out.
Speaker 1: And when she talks about the family and the friends
Speaker 1: that have really stepped up to help, that's when she
Speaker 1: gets the most emotional about about the story, and um,
Speaker 1: it just it shows how like close it is to
Speaker 1: her heart that all these people have rallied around them
Speaker 1: to help help them, and um, and that was very
Speaker 1: touching and but but but in my mind I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be like like total chaos, because you know,
Speaker 1: it's like there's no you know, there's no schedule. Really,
Speaker 1: the baby needs twenty four hour, seven day a week care,
Speaker 1: I mean really in reality. And that's the reason that
Speaker 1: you see them drag their mattress into the bedroom of
Speaker 1: the baby and they sleep there when they're both home,
Speaker 1: because it's a queen sized bed and the baby won't
Speaker 1: fit in the bed with them, so they need to
Speaker 1: be in the room with the baby all night. So
Speaker 1: you can imagine that going on for eight months, and
Speaker 1: the lack of sleep and all that. So in my mind,
Speaker 1: I was thinking, Okay, it's gonna be very chaotic, but
Speaker 1: in essence, when I got there, it was. It was
Speaker 1: so elegant the way that they were living their lives.
Speaker 1: And like I think because it's just driven by this
Speaker 1: deep love that they have for Sage and and and
Speaker 1: it's reflected in like everything that they do, like how
Speaker 1: they care for her, how they treat each other. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like you can see that in the daily life,
Speaker 1: how they all pitch in. I mean, there was never
Speaker 1: a you know, a stern moment or you know, everybody's tired,
Speaker 1: so everybody's in the same boat. And but they but
Speaker 1: they really make it work. I mean, it's I mean,
Speaker 1: it's like you said, it's like the superhuman feet that's
Speaker 1: going on with this family right now, because it's you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't I don't know if I could
Speaker 1: do it, but they're they're certainly doing it. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm old enough to be their father. I mean, these
Speaker 1: people are young, you know, years old of either they're
Speaker 1: just getting started. It's like, it's incredible. I asked Ryan
Speaker 1: about marveling at the totality of this story when I
Speaker 1: wrote the article. Man, it made me really think, because
Speaker 1: I mean, this is part of a lot of players stories,
Speaker 1: is that that you know, they have to they have
Speaker 1: to make a check to get to the next check,
Speaker 1: to to grind and travel and all those kind of things. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, it made me reflect on two things, and
Speaker 1: of of Hayden's stories. One is that you know that
Speaker 1: pro golf on this level is such a family sport,
Speaker 1: right Uh. I mean, Emma is more important or important
Speaker 1: to be a part of Hayden's uh playing career as
Speaker 1: anything that he can go and leave that at home.
Speaker 1: He's talked about it that she's a hero and you
Speaker 1: know he can go and that. But I mean, Hayden
Speaker 1: is a very accomplished golfer. I mean, he was an
Speaker 1: All American at at TCU. He beat Victor Hoveland at
Speaker 1: the at the Big Twelfth Championship. He's in the top
Speaker 1: twenty of the All Pro Tour, which is a very
Speaker 1: uh good developmental tour, mini tour. Uh. He's Monday qualified twice.
Speaker 1: He just lost in a playoff the week before, and
Speaker 1: now he's gotten through to the U s Open. I
Speaker 1: am really but I'm astonished by the level of play
Speaker 1: of anyone that can get to the US Open. It
Speaker 1: is the next level. And Hayden is outside of his
Speaker 1: home life, Hayden is in that group of people that
Speaker 1: you're I mean, he's a very decorated players also, man,
Speaker 1: as you know, there's plenty of All Americans who have
Speaker 1: the resume that that Hayden has, that never played the
Speaker 1: US Open and never have the accomplishment but that he's
Speaker 1: had in his young career. And to think about he's
Speaker 1: playing against players who are single, who have gym memberships,
Speaker 1: who don't who sleep perfectly every night, who wear a
Speaker 1: whoop band and talk about recovery, and uh. To to
Speaker 1: think that he's competing at above a lot of players
Speaker 1: when he's has the odds stacked against you. I mean
Speaker 1: I was talking about that with my wife this morning,
Speaker 1: Like the odds are stacked against every player out there. Uh.
Speaker 1: I mean that's just the fact of the manners. Like
Speaker 1: there's gonna be roughly five new people on the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour this year next year one of twenty five of
Speaker 1: thousands chasing it. And those are people that there's there's
Speaker 1: players out there who have money, who have personal trainers
Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff. And to think that
Speaker 1: he has to come home at three in the morning
Speaker 1: there and care about it and and do those things,
Speaker 1: just it's astonishing his level of play. Van hook on
Speaker 1: how and why Hayden Springer is capable of the hyper
Speaker 1: focus on golf in the midst of such extreme and
Speaker 1: heart wrenching distraction. But we don't touch on in the
Speaker 1: film is that that his father was in the Navy
Speaker 1: and he was an F fourteen UH pilot in uh
Speaker 1: in combat. I mean he you know, he the guy
Speaker 1: landed on aircraft carriers at night. You know, it's like
Speaker 1: really top level intense stuff. And he's, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: his dad's a farm boy from Tennessee, and you grew
Speaker 1: up on a dirt road, he told me. And all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, he finds himself, you know, in the Navy,
Speaker 1: and they and they even you know, he gets in
Speaker 1: aviation and they teach him how to fly these jets.
Speaker 1: So the one thing he said that they really drilled
Speaker 1: into them in the military was this idea of compartmentalization
Speaker 1: and whatever problems that you have in your life and
Speaker 1: you have at home, you leave that behind when you
Speaker 1: get in the cockpit of a jet like that, and
Speaker 1: you have one mission and one purpose and that's what
Speaker 1: you do. So it's super focused attention. And he said
Speaker 1: that he um tried to instill that in Hayden growing
Speaker 1: up from a little boy. And I thought that was
Speaker 1: fascinating because that's exactly what's you know, that's what's happening
Speaker 1: now because he has to have that. And I asked
Speaker 1: Hayden about it, because you know, I mean over my
Speaker 1: career and I've worked with you at a bunch of
Speaker 1: different publications, Matt that I photographed, you know, almost everybody
Speaker 1: who's anybody in professional golf, and and I'm fascinated with
Speaker 1: how mental of a game it is, you know, on
Speaker 1: any given day, any of these guys could win. I mean,
Speaker 1: you have to be so sharp and tough mentally to
Speaker 1: win at that level. And so they I think they
Speaker 1: all have some degree of this, But Hayden is like,
Speaker 1: you know he I think that's the way he grew
Speaker 1: up because of his dad, and I think that's the
Speaker 1: reason that he's performing at this level right now. Is
Speaker 1: Dad say, you know, it's he's even amazed that he's
Speaker 1: playing the best golf of his life in the middle
Speaker 1: of this storm of you know, emotion and everything that's
Speaker 1: going on at home. And and then you know, when
Speaker 1: you see it, it's like you just can't you know,
Speaker 1: you can't believe somebody could operate at that level. Do
Speaker 1: you have high hopes for Hayden Springer the golfer? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think of what he's gone through and
Speaker 1: to accomplish the things he's done. I mean, but let's
Speaker 1: just take his family out of it. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: a very accomplished golfer. He's Monday qualified, which is, as
Speaker 1: we know, difficult to do. He's got to the US Open,
Speaker 1: he's top twenty. I mean, he's beaten Victor Houghland in college. Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he can be out there of course, as the people
Speaker 1: who have filed the account now that it's really hard
Speaker 1: to do, and now adding what he has to deal
Speaker 1: with and his family have to deal with on a
Speaker 1: on a daily basis. But if someone came to me
Speaker 1: and said, hey, name you know the top ten players
Speaker 1: that don't have status right now that you think are
Speaker 1: going to make it, Hayden would be in there. Um.
Speaker 1: So all of this shows how amazingly gifted the golf
Speaker 1: course because he has the odds stacked against him. So
Speaker 1: if he makes the cut at the US Open, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be a whole, a whole bunch of people cheering
Speaker 1: for him, having just been with him. I asked Ben
Speaker 1: what he knew about the specifics of the Springers US
Speaker 1: Open week. You know, his dad has caddied for him
Speaker 1: more than anybody, and I think he was in one
Speaker 1: PGA Tour event and he actually hired a caddy and
Speaker 1: it wasn't a great experience for him. I think he
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, why do I need? You know,
Speaker 1: my dad knows my game better than anybody. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: even though neither one of them been Torrey Pines, his
Speaker 1: dad's gonna be caddying for him. At the US Open
Speaker 1: and and his dad had the conversation with him and said, look,
Speaker 1: this is business. You know. If you want to hire
Speaker 1: somebody or you want somebody that's that's you know, that's
Speaker 1: been there before, that knows the lay out, that knows
Speaker 1: you know, the yard. He said, I won't be offended
Speaker 1: at all. Take it. Don't make a decision right now,
Speaker 1: take a day and talk about you know, think about it.
Speaker 1: And he uh, he came back the next day and said,
Speaker 1: you don't want you. I want you on the bag.
Speaker 1: So that uh, that's one thing to his family affair.
Speaker 1: And then before we left Dallas, um and just in
Speaker 1: casual conversation it didn't even come up in the film,
Speaker 1: but casual conversation, Emma said to me that depending on
Speaker 1: stages um prognosis for I think she had a little
Speaker 1: bit of a low oxygen level the baby did, and
Speaker 1: so she's gonna go back to the doctor I think
Speaker 1: on Monday maybe and and get checked out. And if
Speaker 1: everything checks out and they give her the green flag
Speaker 1: to travel, well, Uh. Emma and Sage already have tickets
Speaker 1: to fly to San Diego to be there with him
Speaker 1: and watch him. And she said, I know that It's
Speaker 1: like a lot of people would look at it and
Speaker 1: say like, oh, you've got this, you know this baby
Speaker 1: that special needs and it's really hard to travel and
Speaker 1: you probably shouldn't travel with them. And her attitude is like,
Speaker 1: this is the reason that they gave her this chance
Speaker 1: at life, because they want her to live her life.
Speaker 1: And part of that is being there to see her
Speaker 1: dad play in the U S Open. So I mean
Speaker 1: that's like, that's like pretty amazing that you know, you know,
Speaker 1: fingers crossed, you know she's gonna be there, and I
Speaker 1: mean that's you know, part of the amazing story is
Speaker 1: like to watch him, you know, compete the first two
Speaker 1: days trying to make the cut. Ryan. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: if if if you're not rooting for Hayden Springer, for
Speaker 1: Sage Springer, if you're not in awe of Emma Springer
Speaker 1: and all that's happening, that inner circle and that force
Speaker 1: that's bound for Tory Pines, if you're not in that camp, uh,
Speaker 1: you're no friend of mine. Yeah. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I always I think that golf is a family, a
Speaker 1: fair mat but there's nothing, there's no story that I
Speaker 1: know about there that's that's likeness and uh, and it's
Speaker 1: a true family affair. And I mean I forgot that
Speaker 1: it's Father's Day coming up Sunday with his dad on
Speaker 1: the bag. I mean it is if he's able to
Speaker 1: make the cut, I'm not sure they're They're definitely shouldn't
Speaker 1: be a dry eye as they walk up eighteen. I
Speaker 1: can't thank you enough for doing what you did to
Speaker 1: write the story, and it moved all of us immediately,
Speaker 1: you know when we first read it, and then obviously
Speaker 1: passing the baton to Ben and teen to go do
Speaker 1: their version of the story. Um, this is yeah. I
Speaker 1: sent Hayden and hay and then um and my text
Speaker 1: to Night, you know, and I said, thanks for trusting
Speaker 1: us to tell your story. Uh, you know, it's uh
Speaker 1: a story that needs to be told, and I'm happy
Speaker 1: they trusted us to do it. Mhm. Did she respond back, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but uh, yeah, thank you. We can't we can't wait
Speaker 1: to see it so um and then I've been lucky
Speaker 1: enough to tell a lot of all stories, but nothing
Speaker 1: has been left before. What do you think when you
Speaker 1: saw Ben's story? Yeah, I mean my wife and I
Speaker 1: uh yeah, I sent it to my wife and we
Speaker 1: grad together it brings up but at the beginning, you know, um,
Speaker 1: never want to face your own child's mortality. Uh, I
Speaker 1: just appreciate what's I go through with. It's just powerful,
Speaker 1: it really is. Ben, what's your what's your biggest takeaway
Speaker 1: from just being a part of the Springers lives for
Speaker 1: those few days looking back at the relationship that I've
Speaker 1: had with you over the last what have we known
Speaker 1: each other twenty five years? Probably work together, and this
Speaker 1: is like the kind of like culmination or really the
Speaker 1: start of a new relationship of working with you guys,
Speaker 1: and and and and telling these kinds of stories because um,
Speaker 1: you know, at the stage of my career and and
Speaker 1: also Henry too as well. It's like we're you know,
Speaker 1: the opportunity that you've given us to tell this story
Speaker 1: and the fact that the family was so you know, giving,
Speaker 1: and it's just so beautiful that like, you know, I
Speaker 1: just feel very blessed to like to be a part
Speaker 1: of it. You know, I'm just feel very lucky, you
Speaker 1: know that life led me in that direction that I
Speaker 1: can you know, do this kind of work and and
Speaker 1: there you know, and I'm like running. I've told a
Speaker 1: lot of stories, told a lot of golf stories and
Speaker 1: uh and and you know, shot a lot of film
Speaker 1: over the years, but this one, this is special. This
Speaker 1: is different. This is very powerful um testament to like
Speaker 1: perseverance and love and family. And it's very touching. And
Speaker 1: we were, I mean, Adam and I sitting in the
Speaker 1: edit bay editing it and we're like crying while we're
Speaker 1: while we're editing. I mean, you know, usually we're not
Speaker 1: that close. A little bit more objective as a journalist,
Speaker 1: you know, you're a little more objective, but you're you
Speaker 1: cannot help but be affected by this, like when you see,
Speaker 1: you know, what this family is going through. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's very it's a privilege, privilege to tell the story
Speaker 1: on Ryan and Ben both said it, it's truly a
Speaker 1: privilege to share the Springer story. I can't wait to
Speaker 1: root for them, not only this week but forever, totally
Speaker 1: on team Springer. And before I get to one final
Speaker 1: recap of the five days Ben van Hook spent with
Speaker 1: the family before Tory pines, I just want to also
Speaker 1: thank the team at part points the new app that
Speaker 1: allows you to change the way the game is scored,
Speaker 1: Thanks Stableford. But even better, certainly more interesting, especially for kids, families, beginners,
Speaker 1: and buddy strips. Download the app now and go make
Speaker 1: part right. We end this with Ben, who shares more
Speaker 1: details about his full immersion into the life of the
Speaker 1: Springer family, a snapshot of their selfless love and exhausted
Speaker 1: dedication to their daughter and their dreams. We just decided
Speaker 1: to do like a really small crew. Henry my DP,
Speaker 1: who have collaborated with three years. He happened to be
Speaker 1: in Seattle at the time, and he flew in, and
Speaker 1: then I flew to Dallas and then um, I brought
Speaker 1: one assistant with me, another camera operator and also a
Speaker 1: utility guy, and then we just hired a sound guy
Speaker 1: in Dallas and that was it. There was just four
Speaker 1: of us, and so it's very small, very intimate, and
Speaker 1: um you know, minimal lighting. I mean, you know, we
Speaker 1: just went into their home and like you know, she
Speaker 1: opened the doors for us and we could do whatever
Speaker 1: we want. So we basically the reason I went in
Speaker 1: a day early was we went in on a trying
Speaker 1: to think now so heyes, kind of, uh, I think
Speaker 1: we went in on a Wednesday, you know Wednesday. We
Speaker 1: got there on Wednesday, because that was while we were there,
Speaker 1: that window that was the last overnight she was going
Speaker 1: to work at the hospital, and I thought that was
Speaker 1: a really important part of the story, and we wanted
Speaker 1: to go to work with her because, I mean, we
Speaker 1: didn't say this in the film either, but she works
Speaker 1: at twelve hour shift from seven pm to seven am.
Speaker 1: But what she didn't say is that she has a
Speaker 1: one hour commute each way to Fort Worth to the hospital.
Speaker 1: So she's like, you know, I mean, she she the
Speaker 1: baby is still on dreast milk and she has no
Speaker 1: time for you know, for Harley anything. So she's driving
Speaker 1: on the interstate and she has to pump you know,
Speaker 1: breast milk while she's in the car driving by ourselves.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of life they're living. And it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, he can't even imagine. And she
Speaker 1: goes to the hospital and she has to care for
Speaker 1: these patients like all night long, and then she comes
Speaker 1: back home, and she said, basically a nursing home to
Speaker 1: twenty four hours a day. So I felt it was
Speaker 1: really important to get that, and so Henry and I
Speaker 1: went in a day early and we went with her
Speaker 1: to the hospital and when we came back, and then
Speaker 1: the next day we met her over at the house.
Speaker 1: I think maybe she slept two hours and then she
Speaker 1: um she went to got us permission to shoot a
Speaker 1: therapy session with Sage that she takes her and so
Speaker 1: a week to this uh kind of an occupational therapy
Speaker 1: UM session, And so we went in there and shot that,
Speaker 1: which was really nice to get that because the next
Speaker 1: day they had a doctor's appointment, but because of COVID,
Speaker 1: we couldn't go into any hospital, so we UM we
Speaker 1: went with her to the therapy session, we came back home,
Speaker 1: spent a little more time with her there, and then
Speaker 1: Thursday night, Hayden was flying in late from Savannah. He
Speaker 1: had just played out on the East coast somewhere, and
Speaker 1: he flew in late, got in around nine pm, and
Speaker 1: we shot him at the airport and then we Henry
Speaker 1: jumped in the car with him and he drove home
Speaker 1: with him, and then we went home with them that
Speaker 1: night and then got up early the next morning, went
Speaker 1: over and basically spent all day Friday with them, and
Speaker 1: you know, we did you know, we did everything that
Speaker 1: day with Hayden because that was the only day that
Speaker 1: he was going to be there. And one really touching
Speaker 1: thing that happened was at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: we shot this scene where they're cooking spaghetti you know,
Speaker 1: for the family for a family dinner, which is typical
Speaker 1: for what they do if they don't get something out,
Speaker 1: especially if all of them are there, and they put
Speaker 1: stage on the dining room table, you know, well they
Speaker 1: eat dinner because she's right there with them, and um
Speaker 1: and then Emma and Jennifer, her mother in law, you know,
Speaker 1: said to me, she goes, hey, she goes, we're cooking,
Speaker 1: and she goes, you know, I insist that you and
Speaker 1: your crew, you know, eat dinner with us. And I
Speaker 1: thought that was like, you know, everything you're dealing with
Speaker 1: and you're gonna like cook for the crew. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, okay, So after they said the prayer and
Speaker 1: we shot a little bit of that, you know, we
Speaker 1: put the camera down and we pulled up a chair
Speaker 1: around the table and we we broke bread with the family,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's this really beautiful moment. You know,
Speaker 1: It's like and they were just so giving, you know,
Speaker 1: and like you know, worrying about what we're gonna eat,
Speaker 1: and you know, where we were staying and all those
Speaker 1: kinds of things, and and so then the next day,
Speaker 1: Hayden was supposed to flower early in the morning, so
Speaker 1: we said, okay, we'll come over to the house and
Speaker 1: we want to shoot a few odds and ends that
Speaker 1: we didn't get. And this was on Saturday morning, and
Speaker 1: we went over and Hayden was there, and I was like,
Speaker 1: what are you doing here? And he said, well, I
Speaker 1: drove to the airport, couldn't find a place to park,
Speaker 1: so I missed my flight. That's how packed the parking
Speaker 1: rodgers were. So he missed his flight, drove back home,
Speaker 1: and he's going to take an afternoon flight out. So
Speaker 1: instead of hanging out there, he comes back home to
Speaker 1: be with his family and be with his daughter. And
Speaker 1: so we shoot a little bit more with him there
Speaker 1: and then and then he takes off and then we
Speaker 1: we fled back home on Sunday. We said, it was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, basically they let us move in
Speaker 1: with him in a way, you know, but it shows
Speaker 1: and that in the footage that we got and the
Speaker 1: story that they told us, because you know, it was
Speaker 1: very um, you know, it's just very intimate and and
Speaker 1: she's just like so giving with the story that you know,
Speaker 1: I just feel like it was a gift.