WEBVTT - My Dad Died Saving a Stranger, but He Never Stopped Saving Lives

0:00:10.160 --> 0:00:13.960
<v Speaker 1>This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,

0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:18.200
<v Speaker 1>the show where America is the star and the American people.

0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:20.919
<v Speaker 1>Up next, we have a story from a young man

0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:25.400
<v Speaker 1>named Caleb Bailey. Caleb is from California and recently moved

0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:29.360
<v Speaker 1>to Asheville, North Carolina for work. Here he is sharing

0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:33.120
<v Speaker 1>his family's story, beginning with his dad, who, from a

0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:35.640
<v Speaker 1>very young age, wanted to be a firefighter.

0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:41.280
<v Speaker 2>My dad wanted to be a firefighter so bad when

0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:43.760
<v Speaker 2>he was a kid that he set his backyard on

0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.360
<v Speaker 2>fire just so the fire department would show up. He

0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:49.680
<v Speaker 2>was so excited to see them. And you know, my

0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:52.159
<v Speaker 2>poor grandma was just like, I don't know how to

0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:55.680
<v Speaker 2>explain this to you. And then it's funny. You fast

0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:59.720
<v Speaker 2>forward or some years later and he is a firefighter.

0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:06.760
<v Speaker 2>He had a heart for serving others in that capacity.

0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.160
<v Speaker 2>But when I was born, ten days after I was born,

0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:15.240
<v Speaker 2>my dad, Joseph Dupe, was killed in the line of

0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:20.080
<v Speaker 2>duty as a Los Angeles City firefighter. He was a

0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:23.320
<v Speaker 2>captain and had been on the job for a while

0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:26.440
<v Speaker 2>at that point. He was responding to a structure fire

0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:29.959
<v Speaker 2>early in the morning. It was a pet food factory

0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:34.000
<v Speaker 2>and as him and his crew were fighting it. They

0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.280
<v Speaker 2>decided to exit the building because the structure was kind

0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:41.119
<v Speaker 2>of collapsing, and so he got a signal from one

0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.640
<v Speaker 2>of the emergency devices there that they use if any

0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.280
<v Speaker 2>of them are lost or trapped or anything, and they'll

0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:50.440
<v Speaker 2>set off that signal and the rest of the crew

0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:53.000
<v Speaker 2>will go and find them and help them out. And

0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.840
<v Speaker 2>one of his crew members dropped his and that's what

0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:59.240
<v Speaker 2>set it off. So actually no one was really in danger,

0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:01.960
<v Speaker 2>but they didn't know. So he went back in to

0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:06.360
<v Speaker 2>find that member, and so while he was in, he

0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:10.320
<v Speaker 2>walked into a room where the roof collapsed and knocked

0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:12.520
<v Speaker 2>his face mask off, so he was, you know, inhaling

0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:15.120
<v Speaker 2>all the smoke and toxins and stuff, and then an

0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:17.760
<v Speaker 2>oven in the building actually exploded and blew out and

0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:21.120
<v Speaker 2>knocked him out at that point. So his crew members

0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.200
<v Speaker 2>were close behind and came and found him and you know,

0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:26.720
<v Speaker 2>dragged him out, but by the time they tried to

0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:28.919
<v Speaker 2>do CPR and rushed him to the hospital, he was

0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:32.160
<v Speaker 2>already gone at that point. So my mom received the

0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:35.600
<v Speaker 2>news that morning. Mike Killiger, who is the chaplain, was

0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:38.560
<v Speaker 2>the one who told my mom about my dad. She's

0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:41.160
<v Speaker 2>told me a few times about what was going through

0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:44.920
<v Speaker 2>her mind when she got that news. Obviously a billion things.

0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.400
<v Speaker 2>You've lost your breadwinner of the family, you don't have

0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.680
<v Speaker 2>any finances, you've lost the father of your two sons,

0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:55.640
<v Speaker 2>and possibly most important of all, she lost her soulmate.

0:02:55.720 --> 0:03:00.000
<v Speaker 2>This is her husband and she married for years and

0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:02.720
<v Speaker 2>was just gone. And now they had to figure out life.

0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:05.640
<v Speaker 2>And that's a dark place to be. It's a place

0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:08.919
<v Speaker 2>where most people would give up, especially realizing that these

0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:12.040
<v Speaker 2>two little boys of yours have a lifetime of hurt

0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:15.120
<v Speaker 2>and hardship ahead of them because of this. So they

0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.320
<v Speaker 2>went to the hospital and many people from her church

0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:24.200
<v Speaker 2>were there. Many people from the fire department and surrounding

0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:29.000
<v Speaker 2>stations as well were nearby and supporting her. It was

0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:33.280
<v Speaker 2>the first fatality on duty that the La City Fire

0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:37.040
<v Speaker 2>Department had seen in a long time, years, maybe decades,

0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:40.240
<v Speaker 2>I'm not sure the actual number. So it not only

0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:43.960
<v Speaker 2>shook those of us who were close to my dad,

0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:47.000
<v Speaker 2>but just everyone in the department. It was a really

0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:50.440
<v Speaker 2>dark time for La City. And so yeah, that's where

0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:54.440
<v Speaker 2>we stood in February or March of nineteen ninety eight,

0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:58.120
<v Speaker 2>a family barely getting started as a family and now

0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:01.760
<v Speaker 2>they're just ripped apart. It's a pretty hopeless situation when

0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:03.840
<v Speaker 2>you look at it anyway that you cut it. It's

0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:06.480
<v Speaker 2>just tragic. It's sad. You hear stories like this all

0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:10.480
<v Speaker 2>the time about people, and different people deal with those

0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.520
<v Speaker 2>things differently. My mom could have given up and felt

0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.200
<v Speaker 2>no hope, which I'm sure she did at many points,

0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:21.600
<v Speaker 2>but she didn't give up. She resolved to raise her

0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.159
<v Speaker 2>two sons to love on them, regardless of what the

0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:29.240
<v Speaker 2>next ten twenty thirty years brought and whether or not

0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:33.960
<v Speaker 2>her husband was there alongside her. So yeah, all of that, Like,

0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:37.200
<v Speaker 2>like I've said, you can read about all of that online.

0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:41.920
<v Speaker 2>All those reports are on La City firefighter websites and

0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:45.760
<v Speaker 2>the incident reports, and you know the background on my dad.

0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:48.560
<v Speaker 2>But a lot happened after that, and you won't read

0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:52.320
<v Speaker 2>about those online, but they're the biggest parts of the story.

0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:55.440
<v Speaker 2>So the first one is my uncle Robert Dupee, who

0:04:55.880 --> 0:05:01.919
<v Speaker 2>was Joe's brother. He was similar to Joe in a

0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.800
<v Speaker 2>lot of ways. They're both just always up to no

0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:08.080
<v Speaker 2>good and pulling pranks and doing rowdy things. But in

0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:10.640
<v Speaker 2>terms of his faith and his morals, you couldn't have

0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:14.240
<v Speaker 2>been more different. He hated everything about the Church and

0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.479
<v Speaker 2>the Bible and Christianity. No matter how much his brother

0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.600
<v Speaker 2>presented it to him and pleaded with him about it,

0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:24.719
<v Speaker 2>he wanted nothing to do with it. And my dad

0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:29.320
<v Speaker 2>would pray at night. My mom told me, Lord, please say, Robert, like,

0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:32.200
<v Speaker 2>whatever it takes, even if it means taking my own life,

0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:36.680
<v Speaker 2>would you save him. And we kind of laugh a

0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:39.159
<v Speaker 2>little bit at that, sometimes say careful what you pray for.

0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:44.680
<v Speaker 2>But they got the news of my dad dying, and

0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:50.240
<v Speaker 2>my uncle was driving to the hospital and he remembers

0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:53.560
<v Speaker 2>just parking his car, turning the car off and looking

0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:56.880
<v Speaker 2>up and just saying, all right, you have my attention.

0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:02.000
<v Speaker 2>And as soon as he walked in that building, he

0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:06.480
<v Speaker 2>saw something that you don't see in these situations very often,

0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:10.000
<v Speaker 2>and it was the love of the church, the love

0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:13.680
<v Speaker 2>of family, the love of the fire department, all surrounding

0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.680
<v Speaker 2>my mom and overwhelmed him, you know. And it was

0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:20.680
<v Speaker 2>something that stood out and was different than what he'd

0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:23.200
<v Speaker 2>experienced in his life. And so he spent the next

0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:26.400
<v Speaker 2>few months asking questions and wanting to know what it

0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.560
<v Speaker 2>was that Joe believed. You know, what was this faith?

0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.160
<v Speaker 2>He asked one of Joe's friends from church. Will I

0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.560
<v Speaker 2>ever see my brother again? Like I want to see

0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:39.400
<v Speaker 2>him again, you know? A few months later, he accepted

0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:45.280
<v Speaker 2>Christ and started attending church regularly and wanted to not

0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:49.560
<v Speaker 2>only live on his brother's legacy, but more importantly, to

0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:52.039
<v Speaker 2>know this savior that his brother did.

0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:59.520
<v Speaker 1>And you're listening to Caleb Bailey tell the story of

0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:04.920
<v Speaker 1>his father, his mother, and his father's brother and how

0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.840
<v Speaker 1>he and his family dealt with a great loss, of

0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.560
<v Speaker 1>great tragedy. When we come back, more of this remarkable

0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:15.480
<v Speaker 1>story about faith, love, and so much more here on

0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:32.040
<v Speaker 1>Our American Stories. Leehabib here, and I'd like to encourage

0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:36.040
<v Speaker 1>you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts,

0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:40.880
<v Speaker 1>the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get our podcasts.

0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:44.240
<v Speaker 1>Any story you missed or want to hear again can

0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:48.040
<v Speaker 1>be found there daily again. Please subscribe to the Our

0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:53.280
<v Speaker 1>American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or

0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.680
<v Speaker 1>anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these

0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:12.200
<v Speaker 1>great American stories coming. And we returned to our American

0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:16.320
<v Speaker 1>Stories and we've been listening to Caleb Bailey share his

0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:20.760
<v Speaker 1>family story. Caleb's birth dad died when he was just

0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.280
<v Speaker 1>ten days old in the line of duty as an

0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:30.400
<v Speaker 1>LA firefighter. Through this tragedy, Caleb's uncle, Robert came to Christ,

0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.960
<v Speaker 1>but Caleb's mother was left a young widow and Caleb

0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.240
<v Speaker 1>and his older brother Luke were left fatherless. Back to

0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:39.480
<v Speaker 1>Caleb for the rest of the story.

0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.120
<v Speaker 2>So then life goes on for our family, just two

0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:47.080
<v Speaker 2>boys and a mom trying to make it by. And

0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.520
<v Speaker 2>one of my mom's friends had a mutual friend named

0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.120
<v Speaker 2>Kevin Bailey, who was also a firefighter. The fact that

0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:59.079
<v Speaker 2>she thought my mom would want to marry another firefighter

0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:03.560
<v Speaker 2>is crazy, but it worked, and introduced the two of

0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:05.920
<v Speaker 2>them at a Super Bowl party and they hit it off.

0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:10.000
<v Speaker 2>And that was Kevin Bailey. And I could talk your

0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.960
<v Speaker 2>ear off about Kevin Bailey. He had been working for

0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:16.960
<v Speaker 2>a while and was single, living in southern California, and

0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:22.199
<v Speaker 2>he was looking to get married and was blown away

0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:25.760
<v Speaker 2>by my mom's story. In fact, before he had met

0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:27.920
<v Speaker 2>my mom at that Super Bowl party, he had heard

0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:32.920
<v Speaker 2>her speak at a firefighter event regarding my dad's death,

0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:36.560
<v Speaker 2>and he was blown away. He was just like, because

0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:38.960
<v Speaker 2>she spent that whole time just giving the gospel. You know.

0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:41.360
<v Speaker 2>Here she was in front of hundreds of people in

0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.280
<v Speaker 2>La City, and she was just given the gospel and

0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:48.480
<v Speaker 2>he was like, WHOA, that's different. Apparently the two little

0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:51.400
<v Speaker 2>rascals she was dragging along her side didn't scare him off,

0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.880
<v Speaker 2>so he went on some dates with her. It speaks

0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.199
<v Speaker 2>a lot to his character that during that time, before

0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:00.920
<v Speaker 2>they were even married, he would be me over for dinner,

0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:04.079
<v Speaker 2>He would be watching us. If my mom had some

0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.199
<v Speaker 2>event you need to go to, you would babysit us.

0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:08.840
<v Speaker 2>When I had pneumonia and I was in the hospital

0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:11.920
<v Speaker 2>at a year old, he was there supporting my mom,

0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:15.040
<v Speaker 2>taking care of me, and hanging out with my older

0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:19.960
<v Speaker 2>brother Luke. Obviously my dad was interested by based on

0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.920
<v Speaker 2>the fact that he stuck around my mom and me

0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:27.080
<v Speaker 2>and Luke, and so as he was dating her, he

0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:30.400
<v Speaker 2>kind of went to our pastor at our church and said, hey, look,

0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:32.920
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what the next step would be or

0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:34.800
<v Speaker 2>how soon that step would be, but I think I

0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.720
<v Speaker 2>want to marry this woman. And my pastor just looked

0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.080
<v Speaker 2>at him and said, hey, you either fish or cut bait.

0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:44.880
<v Speaker 2>She's got two sons, and those sons need a dad,

0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:48.439
<v Speaker 2>and she needs a husband at this point, so you

0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:52.000
<v Speaker 2>better make a decision, and so I guess my dad

0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:56.080
<v Speaker 2>went with the fish instead of cutting bait and married

0:10:56.120 --> 0:11:00.840
<v Speaker 2>my mom in nineteen ninety nine in July, and adopted

0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:05.320
<v Speaker 2>me and Luke, so he was now my mom's husband

0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:10.400
<v Speaker 2>and our dad. And people ask me sometimes, you know,

0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:13.400
<v Speaker 2>was there ever any weird points in her upbringing, just

0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:17.640
<v Speaker 2>kind of like dealing with your stepdad and trying to

0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:20.800
<v Speaker 2>navigate that and kind of the power dynamics or the

0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.199
<v Speaker 2>parenting models and all those things, and I just tell

0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:28.400
<v Speaker 2>them he wasn't my stepdad, like legally he was my

0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.920
<v Speaker 2>legal dad, and it wasn't just a legal obligation either.

0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:34.679
<v Speaker 2>The way he raised us made it really easy to

0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:37.559
<v Speaker 2>be his son because he was a great father. They

0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:40.720
<v Speaker 2>had two more sons, my younger brother's Brock and Rylan,

0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:43.679
<v Speaker 2>so we had four boys in our house and it

0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:46.880
<v Speaker 2>was chaos all the time. But nothing really surprised my

0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:50.120
<v Speaker 2>mom at that point, after all she'd been through. So

0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:53.800
<v Speaker 2>my dad retired from the fire department in twenty ten

0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:56.560
<v Speaker 2>or twenty twelve, I can't remember. I'm pretty sure it's ten.

0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:00.720
<v Speaker 2>A man on his crew, Glenn Allen, actually died that

0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:04.520
<v Speaker 2>year responding to a fire as a roof collapsed on

0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:09.319
<v Speaker 2>a building, and my mom just said, Hey, that's enough.

0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.080
<v Speaker 2>You know, I can't be going to bed every night

0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:14.600
<v Speaker 2>with you at the station and knowing that that could

0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:16.640
<v Speaker 2>be you, you know, and go through all this all

0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.600
<v Speaker 2>over again. So he retired after thirty years on the department.

0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:25.680
<v Speaker 2>They've been present and very active in our lives. So

0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:30.240
<v Speaker 2>six months back, I moved from California to Asheville, North Carolina.

0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:34.640
<v Speaker 2>So Uncle Robert, he's one of the few family members

0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:38.480
<v Speaker 2>of Joe that we've been in close contact with. He

0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:42.240
<v Speaker 2>made quite an effort after everything happened to still be

0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:46.439
<v Speaker 2>around to support my mom, to love on me and

0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:49.640
<v Speaker 2>my older brother, to spend time with us. And I

0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:54.400
<v Speaker 2>actually visited him this past summer on my way down

0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:57.880
<v Speaker 2>to North Carolina. They live in Nashville, Tennessee, and so

0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.080
<v Speaker 2>I spent time about five hours that first night. They're

0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:04.880
<v Speaker 2>just kind of hearing stories about my dad, hearing kind

0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:08.280
<v Speaker 2>of what went down on site of the incident, which

0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:11.120
<v Speaker 2>was kind of a huge moment because I hadn't heard

0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:14.120
<v Speaker 2>those things for a long time, and not for bad reason.

0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:16.280
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I just had never asked my mom, you

0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:19.520
<v Speaker 2>don't really want to bring up those things unnecessarily. If

0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:21.280
<v Speaker 2>I were her, I wouldn't really want to revisit that

0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:25.360
<v Speaker 2>situation a ton, So I wanted to be considered in

0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:27.640
<v Speaker 2>that sense. And it wasn't of the utmost importance that

0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:30.360
<v Speaker 2>I knew about some of those things. But my uncle

0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:32.320
<v Speaker 2>didn't mind talking about it, so we talked through some

0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:34.920
<v Speaker 2>of those things, and then he told me he had

0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:38.760
<v Speaker 2>the actual original tape of the funeral. There were a

0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.959
<v Speaker 2>couple funerals, actually, the La City Fire Department did one,

0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:45.240
<v Speaker 2>and then Grace's Community Church held another. One of the

0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:48.640
<v Speaker 2>most impactful things about that video was watching my mom. Naturally,

0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:50.679
<v Speaker 2>my eyes were just kind of directed towards her and

0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:52.800
<v Speaker 2>just kind of seeing how she dealt with it. My

0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.160
<v Speaker 2>mom is so sweet and so emotional too, in both

0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:58.000
<v Speaker 2>the highs and the lows, so she gets the most

0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.320
<v Speaker 2>excited about our achievements and our com puishments, but she

0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:04.400
<v Speaker 2>cries very easily too, So I was just expecting her

0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:07.360
<v Speaker 2>to be in a pool of tears during this video,

0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.040
<v Speaker 2>and I kid you not, the whole time I watched it,

0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:12.600
<v Speaker 2>she wasn't crying once. She had her two sons with

0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.840
<v Speaker 2>her and she had to be strong for them. Obviously,

0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:19.480
<v Speaker 2>she wasn't pretending like nothing happened. Deep down, her heart

0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.520
<v Speaker 2>was being ripped out. There's a whole range of emotions

0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:25.680
<v Speaker 2>from overwhelming support of all these people being here for

0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:29.040
<v Speaker 2>the service, and then the reality of her husband being dead,

0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:33.480
<v Speaker 2>and yet she stood there and welcomed all the hugs,

0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:37.080
<v Speaker 2>welcomed all the love and the condolences from people around.

0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:40.520
<v Speaker 2>There's one little clip where they cut in and it's

0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.720
<v Speaker 2>close and she's holding my older brother Luke, who's two

0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:46.000
<v Speaker 2>at that time, and she's pointing out things on the

0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.040
<v Speaker 2>fire truck like, hey, that's kind of cool. You see

0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:49.680
<v Speaker 2>that all you see the big fire truck, And it's

0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:53.120
<v Speaker 2>just like here she is facing the biggest moment of

0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:55.680
<v Speaker 2>her life, the biggest tragedy of her life, right in

0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:59.560
<v Speaker 2>the face, and she's raising her son at the same

0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:03.960
<v Speaker 2>time and knows that that's going to be the next

0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:07.040
<v Speaker 2>you know, rest of her life is doing that regardless

0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:10.160
<v Speaker 2>of what happens. And she was strong in that, and

0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:13.160
<v Speaker 2>she's continued to be strong even if she's emotional. She

0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:19.560
<v Speaker 2>doesn't crack. You know, she has been joyful all throughout

0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:23.000
<v Speaker 2>our upbringing, even when a lot of it wasn't joyful.

0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.680
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, even talking to her. I talked to her

0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:30.480
<v Speaker 2>today because yesterday was the anniversary, twenty four year anniversary,

0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:35.440
<v Speaker 2>so I was talking to her today and I told

0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.840
<v Speaker 2>her people always ask me how I process through that situation,

0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:41.720
<v Speaker 2>like how can I pray for you? What's difficult about it?

0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:44.880
<v Speaker 2>And that's understandable. But the reality is there's not much

0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.440
<v Speaker 2>grief in it. You know, obviously in that time and

0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:50.120
<v Speaker 2>at the moment there was, I was too young to

0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:53.320
<v Speaker 2>really experience that. The only emotion that I feel is

0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:56.880
<v Speaker 2>just being overwhelmed seeing the Lord's kindness and providing through

0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.280
<v Speaker 2>all of that. And she said that's exactly how she feels,

0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:04.080
<v Speaker 2>which says a lot because she was the one that,

0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:08.240
<v Speaker 2>you know, bore the brunt of what happened, and yet today,

0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:11.480
<v Speaker 2>you know, twenty four years later, she's saying, Yeah, it's

0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:16.880
<v Speaker 2>not sad, it's only like incredible what's happened. There's so

0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.640
<v Speaker 2>much redemption in the midst of all of it. Like,

0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:21.880
<v Speaker 2>if I were to plan that out from a third

0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.400
<v Speaker 2>person perspective, I'd be like, they have a happy life

0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.800
<v Speaker 2>as a family, nothing bad happens to them. Okay, that's cool,

0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:30.520
<v Speaker 2>that's great. That would be a good situation and then

0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:32.600
<v Speaker 2>the Lord says, no, I'm going to take the husband

0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.560
<v Speaker 2>out of the picture. And you're going, what in the world,

0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:38.720
<v Speaker 2>that's not only a bad idea, that's the worst possible idea,

0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:42.040
<v Speaker 2>Like that's complete opposite. What are you thinking? And then

0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:44.920
<v Speaker 2>he goes, but through that, I'm going to save his brother.

0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:48.080
<v Speaker 2>And then through that, I'm going to provide another dad

0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:50.760
<v Speaker 2>for this family. They're going to get more people to

0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:55.320
<v Speaker 2>their family, and those that whole family will know me

0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:57.800
<v Speaker 2>as a result and praise me. And then they're gonna

0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.720
<v Speaker 2>tell this story to hundreds of thousands of people in

0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:04.159
<v Speaker 2>the future, and those people know the story. Now. Yeah,

0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.920
<v Speaker 2>your whole thing with the family being happy and complete

0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:11.960
<v Speaker 2>and everything that's special, but this is something different. He

0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.359
<v Speaker 2>can redeem those things that are broken way better than

0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:16.320
<v Speaker 2>we could ever picture it.

0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.840
<v Speaker 1>And a terrific job, a beautiful job on the production

0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.520
<v Speaker 1>by Faith and a special thanks to Caleb Bailey for

0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:28.480
<v Speaker 1>sharing his story and my goodness, his mother comes off

0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.920
<v Speaker 1>as one heck of a star. He lost a breadwinner,

0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:35.159
<v Speaker 1>lost the father of two sons, lost her soulmate, and

0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:38.080
<v Speaker 1>had to figure out life. He said he could have

0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:42.520
<v Speaker 1>given up, but she didn't. Caleb Bailey's story, his family story.

0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:52.840
<v Speaker 1>Here on our American story.