WEBVTT - Beth 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.559 Teething can be a real nightmare for your little ones. 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:05.960 Highlands Naturals Baby oral pain relief tablets can help ease 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:09.119 the pain. It's gentle, natural active ingredients like camemeo and 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.280 arnica suit your baby's mouth, and gums made with ingredients 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.640 derived from plant minerals and other sources free of harsh chemicals. 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:18.319 You can count on Highlands for serious pain relief for 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.079 your teething baby. Highlands is a kinder way to care 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:24.239 for teething. Visit Highlands dot com, slash kind that's h 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:26.760 y L A n d S dot com. Slash kind 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:29.760 claims based on traditional homeopathropraptice. Not accept the medical evidence, 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:33.080 not ft evaluated. Do you suffer from zoom fatigue? 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She came down, 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:09.680 She hit her head, but she went through the day. 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.080 She was okay. But later that afternoon she had a 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:19.200 seizure and I noticed immediately that the right side of 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.200 her face was drooping and she was talking out of 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:26.400 the left side. That's Brian and Kathy Usher. They're talking 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:32.520 about their daughter Beth. She had a very rare neurological encephalitis. 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:36.920 Every minute or so she would have like either these jerks, 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.120 they'd throw her to the ground, off a chair, fork 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:44.040 would go flying, whatever was in her hand. It was, 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:52.160 you know, not a good time. The day we left 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:58.440 Johns Hopkins, their last words to us, um it was 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:03.960 go home and enjoy life and let's hope she has 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:10.240 ten good years. And then that was in seven and 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:16.239 Beth just turned forty. Thanks Mam and Gathy. Just more 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:25.680 keep that off the podcast. I'm Carla Wallace and this 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.320 is Finding Fred, a podcast about Fred Rogers from I 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:35.320 Heart Media and Fatherly in partnership with Transmitter Media. Today. 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:39.080 Just one story, I really wish I could remember I 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:42.440 was so young at the time, about Fred Rogers and 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:46.720 a kid named Beth. I only remember through stories that 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:52.480 Mom and Dad told me. It's slowly built up to 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.760 where she was having over a hundred seizures a day, 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:59.520 some so severe they would knock her down and she 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:04.200 would be flailing, and we were worried she couldn't breathe. 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.720 And I would go into grocery stores or church or whatever, 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:12.359 and people would look at me and look at her 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:15.440 because she was black and blue from head to toe 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:23.240 from falling. We were watching this deterioration happened, and every 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.880 time we went to the doctor, they had no idea 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:30.560 what was going on. It was so crazy that we 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:34.400 even tore apart of bedroom, thinking maybe she was bit 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:38.000 by a spider. Maybe there was a spider in the room. 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:41.880 You know, we were constantly calling all over the place 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:46.200 to try to learn of new drugs, new studies being done. 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:51.640 Didn't you doctor was checking and go into the library. 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:56.920 I even borrowed a doctor's lab coat and broke into 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:02.760 Yale University's medical library right because they weren't allowing anybody 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:07.600 in there. We felt like we were on Twilight Zone 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:12.800 because here something is obviously eating away at our child's brain. 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:16.800 We're watching it happen. You think like you have an 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:20.680 ill child and the world should come together and make 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:24.839 this child better. But no one had any idea what 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:30.560 was going on. We tried just about everything, and um 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:33.680 in order for us to get ready for work in 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:38.039 the morning, we had to PLoP Beth up with a 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:42.560 bunch of pillows in front of the television set, and 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:46.279 we instructed her older brother, he's Brian, he's older by 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.360 two and a half years, to sit with her with 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:52.400 his arms around her, and they were surrounded by pillows 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:57.159 watching Mr. Rogers neighborhood and he called, he said, Mom, 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:02.480 and I came running immediately, and he said Mr Rogers 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:07.080 is over with and Beth didn't have a seizure. And 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:10.919 then the next day the same thing happened, and the 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:15.240 next day after that, I said, this is very peculiar. 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.880 So then I sat down with her and I just 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:23.000 looked at her, and her eyes were just she was 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:27.680 inside that television screen, and it was like that he 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.840 was talking directly to her, even so that when he 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:36.320 would ask a question like shall we feed the fish today, 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:39.960 Beth would say, yes, we should and at the end 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:44.680 of every episode he would say I love you just 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:48.120 the way you are, and Beth would say, I love 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:54.200 you too, Mr Rogers, and she would not have one seizure. 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:01.479 After two and a half years of research, constant seizures, 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:04.919 and makeshift treatments, Beth and her parents finally got a 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:10.800 diagnosis rest Mussan's encephalitis. It's an extremely rare and progressive 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:15.680 disease that attacks the brain. The only treatment is at 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:19.800 that time, was to remove the entire left side of 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:24.159 her brain. You just can't fathom that type of surgery 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:28.360 and I couldn't imagine doing that left there. So now 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:32.560 we're not doing that. We even consulted a neurosurgeon at 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:36.479 Yale who said that they would not even put a 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:42.200 dog through that. And then Bethy kept getting worse, and 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.719 I mean impacted her whole life, I mean her learning, 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:49.920 her friendships. It was. It was a nightmare. We were 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:53.480 all petrified. We didn't go anywhere. We shut down as 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:57.960 a family. Um, we were afraid to leave her anywhere. 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:01.320 We didn't. One of us was with our all the time, 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:05.640 round the clock. Finally, I think what pushed us over 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:09.040 the edge. It was a holiday show and BETHI had 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:13.960 prepared for it and singing a song with her classmates. 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:15.960 I think you were in what first grade at the time, 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:23.400 and it was bomb remember that. And so the night 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:27.200 of the show, we were there and she has a 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:32.480 seizure right in the middle. Bow had to help her 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:36.560 fixed seizure, and she looked at us and said, I 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:42.640 ruined the whole thing. And she said, these seizures, I 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:48.960 just want them to go away. So they decided to 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:52.280 go ahead with the brain surgery known as a hemisphere ectomy, 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:56.320 and they scheduled it for the following February. That gave 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:59.640 them two months at home with Beth before the surgery. 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:07.560 We knew that there was a possibility that Beth could 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:11.240 fall into a coma, she could be paralyzed for life, 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:16.480 and she could even die from this surgery. We wanted 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:23.160 to make the time before her surgery spectacular. So Cathy 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:26.800 found the number for Fred Rogers TV station and explained 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:29.320 to his assistant that her daughter was going in for 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:33.880 a horrendous surgery. Kathy asked for an autograph photo of 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.960 Mr Rogers to tape up in the hospital room, and 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:42.640 she said, I will, you know, talk to Fred and 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:46.679 get back to you. And maybe an hour later, I 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:49.880 got a call and she said, Fred is going to 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:54.760 call Beth at seven o'clock this evening. Is that good 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:57.760 for you? And I said he's going to call her. 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:02.040 The phone rang and I picked it up and I 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:06.600 said to Beth, Beth, a friend is calling for you. 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:12.320 And at this point Beth had no friends, so thinking 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:16.120 that a friend was on the line was really unbelievable. 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:19.040 And she ran over and I gave her the phone 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:27.520 and she's skwheeled. It's squilled Mr Rogers. Bummy, dad, it's 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:32.960 Mr Rogers. Brian and I left the room. We were 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:37.120 peeking over around the corner because she we wanted her 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:41.600 to have this real, genuine conversation with him. Was over 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:46.160 an hour. She was talking to each and every character 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:50.720 on Mr Rogers and Neighborhood, and all of a sudden 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:55.120 we heard her say, I'm afraid I'm going to die 0:09:56.240 --> 0:10:01.800 and leave my brother and my parents. And then we 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:08.360 heard her say really, Mr Rogers, really, King Friday, and 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:13.200 she hung up the phone saying, I love you too, 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:18.559 Mr Rogers, thank you so much. I love you King Friday. 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:22.440 I love you Elaine Lady, Elaine fear Child. And I 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:26.960 love you, Daniel Strike Tiger, thank you for calling me, 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:32.000 and I am going to be okay. And she hung 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:36.000 up the phone and we were in a puddle. We 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:45.760 just couldn't believe it. That February, the family made the 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:50.480 trip to Johns Hopkins for the surgery. The operation was long, 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:54.480 about twelve hours, and at first things for Beth looked good. 0:10:56.000 --> 0:11:00.760 The surgery went well, and then later that night she 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:05.960 fell into a deep coma. We were killing ourselves, like, 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:08.920 what did we do? You know, at that point we 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:12.800 thought for sure we made the wrong decision. We were begging, 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:17.600 praying to God, please just let her wake up from this. 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.040 If she can't walk or talk, we don't care, just 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:23.560 let her come out of it. And we did not 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:27.120 leave her side. We were in the intensive care the 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:31.440 entire time. Brian and Cathy said at Beth's bedside night 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:36.000 after night for weeks, and one source of constant comfort 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:42.240 was the music of Mr Rogers. Before her surgery, after 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:45.600 he spoke to her on the phone, he sent her 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:51.840 a huge box of tapes, cassette tapes, and we had 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:57.760 this little tiny Fisher Price battery operated tape player and 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:04.000 all around the lock we would play songs it's a 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:08.079 beautiful day in the neighborhood down You'll never go down 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:12.200 the drain, and we would play them over and over. 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:15.840 When she was in a coma. One of my vivid 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:22.720 memories is going into the intensive care unit and she 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:27.240 was strapped up to every thing imaginable, all kinds of 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:32.679 ivys and her head was swollen like three times the size. 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:37.200 Her eyes were so swollen shut and you could hear 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.800 the beat beat beap of the heart monitor and the 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.600 dripping of all the i vs. And in the background 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:49.640 you hear there are many ways to say I love you, 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:55.000 Mr Rogers in the background the music that was constantly 0:12:55.559 --> 0:13:05.400 going on in the room, many ways ways more from 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:20.080 the ushers in just a minute. Teething can be a 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:22.079 real nightmare for your little ones. 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After her brain surgery, Beth Usher fell into 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:46.520 a deep coma. Her parents, Kathy and Brian, kept Mr. 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:51.040 Rogers music playing in her room. One night, a nurse 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:56.240 came into Pet's room and said, Kathy, there's a man 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:02.439 with a voice sounding like ms to Rogers, claiming he 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:05.080 is Fred Rogers and he'd like to speak with you. 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:07.920 And I went to the desk and I picked it 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:11.240 up and he said, Cathy, this is Fred, and I'm 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:14.240 getting concerned. I wanted to find out how Beth was 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:18.120 and I said, um, thank you so much for calling, 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:23.680 but unfortunately there were major complications and Beth has been 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.480 in a coma now for a couple of weeks. And 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:31.560 he said, I'd like to come. I won't stay long, 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:37.119 I promise, and UM, so we said okay. So a 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:41.119 couple of days later and he walked with a clarinet case. 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:46.440 He placed it on Beth's bed and he opened it 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:53.600 slowly and took out King Friday, Lady Elaine Fairchild, Daniel 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:59.920 Striped Tiger, and Mia Mio pussy Gat and Beth had 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:06.679 her own neighborhood show. I just remember he was so 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:14.800 genuinely concerned about Beth. He insisted we take pictures with 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:17.560 the puppets and Beth he's got her feeding tube and 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:21.960 she's hooked up the machines. And I think what touched 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:26.239 me the most was when he sang, I love you 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:31.800 just the way you are. It was my dad, your mom, 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:36.640 a few of my sisters, and we were just outside 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:40.680 the door of the room. And I remember hearing that 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:44.439 outside the door, and I looked around at everybody, and 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:51.359 even my dad had tears streaming down their faces, and 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:56.040 I remember just thinking, what am I seeing here? This 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:01.119 is incredible, and I honestly believe eaved Beth was going 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:06.560 to wake up, that's how magical it was. And when 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:11.399 she didn't, I'm sorry, Mom, you know um, but I 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:17.640 remember afterwards we held hands around her bed and we prayed, 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:23.399 and that really gave us so much comfort. I just 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:28.400 remember feeling as though things are going to be okay. 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:39.760 Don't don't worry. It has a happy ending. Beth Asher 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:42.160 finally came out of her coma about three weeks later. 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:46.960 Mr George left all of his puppets around my bed 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:49.960 so I wouldn't wake up and be alone, so I 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:59.239 knew he came somehow. The surgery, Um, it left her 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:04.320 heavy please check, paralyzed on the right side, but it 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:09.240 also took away her right field of vision in both 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:13.360 eyes and and speaking and speaking because half of her 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:19.440 tongue is paralyzed. I talk it goodly now, but her 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:28.080 hearing is perfect, So it's now. Beth and Mr Rogers 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:32.479 corresponded throughout the years. He wrote many, many letters and 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:38.359 even called Beth her birthday. Kathy and I both worked 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:41.399 at the University of Connecticut. Mom was put in charge 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:46.080 of finding someone for the commencement speaking and so I suggested, 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:50.439 why not get Mr Radgels and my mom and my 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:53.240 dad will both nervous that college kids I won't get 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:55.960 to listen to Mr Djels And I said, no, no, 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.040 I think they'll listen. So I went ahead. I wrote 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:01.200 him a little He got right back to me and 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:05.119 he said he would be delighted to under one circumstance, 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:08.760 if I help him write his commencement address. I was 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:12.840 only twelve years joad at the time. So Mr Rogers 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:16.719 came and Brian and I have been involved and intended 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:22.119 a lot of graduation ceremonies, and we could never quite 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:27.920 hear the commencement address. The champagne corks going off, the 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:33.440 balloons and balls that are being bounced around in this ceremony, 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:38.159 you could hear a pin drop. And during the address, 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:42.880 he pointed to Beth in the audience and he said, 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:47.320 these words were provided to me by my good friend 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:52.080 Beth Usher. And what what what was the main point 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:55.320 of your advice to him when you wrote back to him, 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:58.600 do small kind eats for other people, then they will 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:02.080 do small kind eatsful other people, and maybe we'll start 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:05.960 a chain reaction. And he also did the take a 0:23:06.040 --> 0:23:12.520 moment two, think about someone who helped you along the way. 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:18.560 Fred Rogers did this often in speeches, asked crowds to 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:21.439 sit quietly and reflect on the people they love and 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:24.480 the people who love them. Like in this commencement address 0:23:24.480 --> 0:23:27.480 at Dartmouth College, I'd like to give you all an 0:23:27.600 --> 0:23:33.840 invisible gift, a gift of a silent minute to think 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:38.920 about those who have helped you become who you are today. 0:23:40.480 --> 0:23:46.160 Wherever they are, if they've loved you and encouraged you 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:51.880 and wanted what was best in life for you, they're 0:23:52.000 --> 0:23:57.200 right inside yourself, and I feel that you deserve quiet 0:23:57.320 --> 0:24:05.159 time on this special ocasion to devote some thought to them. 0:24:05.160 --> 0:24:08.520 So let's just take a minute in honor of those 0:24:08.600 --> 0:24:14.080 who have cared about us all along the way, one 0:24:14.119 --> 0:24:23.320 silent minute. I have goose bumps now when you look 0:24:23.359 --> 0:24:29.199 around at the audiences and students and parents, you just 0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:34.760 see them like these big burly football basketball athletes with 0:24:34.920 --> 0:24:39.520 tears streaming down their eyes. Um when when they were 0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:43.840 asked to think about somebody who really helped them along 0:24:43.840 --> 0:25:01.040 the way, Whomever you've been thinking about, Imagine how grateful 0:25:01.440 --> 0:25:06.880 they must be that during your silent times you remember 0:25:06.920 --> 0:25:14.280 how important they are to you. At the end of 0:25:14.320 --> 0:25:17.919 the speech that Mr Rodgers gave the President of Yukin 0:25:18.040 --> 0:25:21.720 gave Mr Rodgers a present and it was this engraved 0:25:21.880 --> 0:25:25.840 jewelry box and he hands it to my brother O'Brien 0:25:26.440 --> 0:25:30.600 and said, keep it until we meet again. He was 0:25:30.720 --> 0:25:36.720 so aware that Beth's brother was kind of in the background, 0:25:37.480 --> 0:25:41.360 and everybody was paying so much attention to Beth, as 0:25:41.400 --> 0:25:47.080 they should. He made a point of asking him about 0:25:47.119 --> 0:25:52.440 his life, about what he enjoyed doing, and Mr Rogers 0:25:52.480 --> 0:25:57.120 paying attention to him really was huge, and he knew that. 0:26:14.280 --> 0:26:17.719 One day I came home from work. I was making dinner. 0:26:17.880 --> 0:26:22.520 I remember it profoundly. I was trying to make spaghetti 0:26:22.520 --> 0:26:26.639 and meatballs, and I was rushing around multitasking, and the 0:26:26.680 --> 0:26:30.159 phone rang and I picked it up, and he said, Kathy, 0:26:30.200 --> 0:26:33.080 is this a good time to talk? This is Fred? 0:26:33.880 --> 0:26:37.160 And I went, oh, no, Fred, this is perfect. How 0:26:37.240 --> 0:26:40.320 are you? He said, I just have a quick question. 0:26:41.640 --> 0:26:45.720 Beth and Brian seemed to have such great self esteem, 0:26:45.760 --> 0:26:50.080 and I just want to know what your philosophy is 0:26:50.320 --> 0:26:54.679 and how you go about raising your children to have 0:26:54.880 --> 0:26:58.960 such great self esteem. And I'm going on and on 0:26:59.080 --> 0:27:02.919 and in the time Brian comes home from work and 0:27:02.960 --> 0:27:06.760 he's kind of listening to my side of the conversation. 0:27:07.280 --> 0:27:09.879 And I said, okay, Fred, Oh, love to you and 0:27:10.000 --> 0:27:13.800 Joanne and and I hung up the phone and Brian 0:27:13.880 --> 0:27:16.119 said to me, who are you talking to? And I 0:27:16.160 --> 0:27:21.360 said Mr Rogers And he said you we're telling Mr 0:27:21.520 --> 0:27:26.840 Rogers about children and self esteem like and afterward I went, oh, 0:27:26.920 --> 0:27:30.800 my goodness, what did I say. I'm telling the Guru 0:27:31.119 --> 0:27:34.919 of children. Um. But that that was how he was. 0:27:35.440 --> 0:27:39.119 He didn't feel he had all the answers he was 0:27:39.200 --> 0:27:46.320 asking everybody else. Fred was always learning, always curious, always listening, 0:27:46.800 --> 0:27:50.320 and he was always there. I mean, there's so many 0:27:50.359 --> 0:27:54.719 stories about Fred showing up in surprising places, about his 0:27:54.840 --> 0:27:59.480 kindness to people that he didn't even know. Kindness in 0:27:59.560 --> 0:28:03.960 present were what Fred believed in, maybe because that's what 0:28:04.240 --> 0:28:09.879 God was for him, what goodness really meant, love and availability. 0:28:10.880 --> 0:28:14.040 So that's what he did as much as he could 0:28:14.280 --> 0:28:23.320 in person and through his show. Next time. Fred didn't 0:28:23.320 --> 0:28:26.119 call Mr Rogers Neighborhood a show, and he didn't call 0:28:26.160 --> 0:28:30.000 it a program. What he called it was a television visit. 0:28:30.880 --> 0:28:34.040 Think of what a visit is. A visit is you 0:28:34.119 --> 0:28:38.840 and me together. He was talking with us, not to us. 0:28:41.800 --> 0:28:45.280 Finding Fred is produced by Transmitter Media. This episode was 0:28:45.320 --> 0:28:49.120 produced by Jordan Bailey. Our editor is Sarah Nick's Special 0:28:49.120 --> 0:28:52.880 thanks to Michael Garofolo. The executive producer for Transmitter Media 0:28:53.000 --> 0:28:56.960 is Greta Cohne. Executive producers at Fatherly are Simon Isaacs 0:28:57.000 --> 0:28:59.920 and Andrew Berman. Thanks to the team at I Heeart Media, 0:29:00.360 --> 0:29:04.960 and thanks also to Beth Brian and Kathy Usher. Our 0:29:05.000 --> 0:29:07.640 show is mixed by Rick Kwan, music by Blue Dot 0:29:07.680 --> 0:29:12.320 Sessions and Alison Layton Brown. I'm Carver Wallace. Thank you 0:29:12.360 --> 0:29:38.880 for listening. 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