Speaker 1: Hey, there're folks in this episode. He lived eighty eight years,
Speaker 1: but Pope France has saved his best for last. And
Speaker 1: with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
Speaker 1: When I say robes best for last. When I say last,
Speaker 1: I mean the last two and a half months of
Speaker 1: his life that we watched in a very intimate way
Speaker 1: and watched it very closely day and day out. And
Speaker 1: I guess you could say Robes in two and a
Speaker 1: half months of his life. The last two and a
Speaker 1: half months. Things went from dire to miraculous, to triumphant
Speaker 1: to shocking, but every step of the way there was
Speaker 1: an inspiration he gave us. In the last two and
Speaker 1: a half months.
Speaker 2: It's so true.
Speaker 3: We were just reflecting doing the morning run every morning.
Speaker 3: We were giving those constant updates, and we were holding
Speaker 3: our breath each morning when we woke up to see
Speaker 3: what the latest was with the Pope. So we were
Speaker 3: rooting as the world was for him and in awe
Speaker 3: of his ability to recover from what he was battling
Speaker 3: double pneumonia at the age of eighty eight. I mean
Speaker 3: that is significant. He nearly died twice and then he
Speaker 3: gets out of the hospital, and his doctors say, rest,
Speaker 3: take care of yourself, don't expose yourself to other people, crowds, children.
Speaker 3: And you know what the Pope did. He said, Nah,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna do what I love. I'm going to serve,
Speaker 3: and in doing so, I don't I know this might
Speaker 3: I know this is true. He taught us how to
Speaker 3: live by how he died in these last few months.
Speaker 1: And it should be said, folks, you're listening to two
Speaker 1: folks here. Who's one grew up Catholic. But I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna put words in your mouth. I think you say this.
Speaker 2: You call yourself a I call myself a recovering Catholic.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, put words in your mouth. And I am
Speaker 1: a black man from the South who grew up going
Speaker 1: to the Church of Christ. Right, So I no Catholic
Speaker 1: anything in my lane. But it doesn't matter if you're religious,
Speaker 1: if you're Catholic, if you're Christian, if you're whatever. There's
Speaker 1: a lesson he taught everybody, it felt like, and part
Speaker 1: of that was that there seemed to be a separation
Speaker 1: between the Pope as a religious figure and Frances as
Speaker 1: a man. For some reason, because he does feel like
Speaker 1: the Pope whoever it is, feels like a larger than
Speaker 1: life character. He was really humanized the past two and
Speaker 1: a half months by a lot of what he did,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: And I totally agree with what you're saying because and
Speaker 3: we don't and I don't mean to minimize any impact
Speaker 3: he had on so many marginalized communities while he was
Speaker 3: at his best, at his strongest, perhaps physically, these strides
Speaker 3: he made towards the LGBTQ plus communities, the even women
Speaker 3: within the Catholic Church. He was open and welcoming to
Speaker 3: people in a way we hadn't necessarily seen. However, I
Speaker 3: just feel like in these last few months, we did
Speaker 3: see this man who struggled just like every other human
Speaker 3: being on the planet, anyone who has known pain, anyone
Speaker 3: who has known chronic disease, anyone who has feared that
Speaker 3: they were going to die, that they were that weak
Speaker 3: that they couldn't get up in the morning.
Speaker 2: He was that to all of us.
Speaker 3: And he actually talked about how he felt closer more
Speaker 3: empathetic to anyone who was suffering because of the physical
Speaker 3: suffering he was going through in these past two months,
Speaker 3: and it just it humanized him. He was like all
Speaker 3: of us and to see him push through and fight
Speaker 3: to live, to serve, not for his own personal interests,
Speaker 3: but to continue to serve.
Speaker 1: Even if you the lessons he taught us about death
Speaker 1: than what we all have to go through will go
Speaker 1: through so many of us still, even if that's a
Speaker 1: long way off. We've had grandparents, we've had family members
Speaker 1: that we have watched kind of physically deteriorate in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways and don't come back. Folks don't check
Speaker 1: into the hospital at eighty eight with double pneumonia and
Speaker 1: check out. It's almost never, I just don't. So this
Speaker 1: was and for us this morning, and folks don't know
Speaker 1: we do put together daily newscast podcast morning run. So
Speaker 1: when he first went to the hospital February fourteenth, every
Speaker 1: day for the next thirty eight days we gave an
Speaker 1: update on how the prope was doing. It was the
Speaker 1: first thing every morning when we woke up, what's going
Speaker 1: on with the pope. And most of the time there
Speaker 1: were eight nine word statements from the Vatican only saying
Speaker 1: he slept well, he got some food, holl at you tomorrow,
Speaker 1: and then on the rare days they did fourteen words.
Speaker 1: It was huge, big mornings. Wow, we got fourteen words
Speaker 1: from the Vatican. But there were times we looked when
Speaker 1: they said double pneumonia. And that was early because he
Speaker 1: went in for bronchitis, right, Yes, it was very soon
Speaker 1: after they said double pneumonia. We didn't think, Okay, wow,
Speaker 1: this is this is over.
Speaker 3: Momentum is a hard thing to turn around, and especially
Speaker 3: when you're eighty eight years old and you are sliding
Speaker 3: into death, which is what it absolutely appeared to be happening.
Speaker 3: That Yes, we might have only gotten eight or nine words,
Speaker 3: but you could read between the lines that this was
Speaker 3: not going well for the pope. So yes, we were
Speaker 3: all holding I think people around the world were collectively
Speaker 3: holding their breath, but expecting that it was his time.
Speaker 3: And so how interesting that he pushed through that pain,
Speaker 3: He fought to live, His nurse fought for him when
Speaker 3: doctors had given up. So you saw this ground swell
Speaker 3: of support that came from the outside but also from
Speaker 3: within him, and you thought, he's going to do something
Speaker 3: like this is important. He lived to see another day
Speaker 3: because of and then to see him get through the
Speaker 3: holiest week in the Catholic calendar, to actually get out
Speaker 3: and mingle and be with the people who he loved,
Speaker 3: the people who are not the heroes and the important
Speaker 3: people of the world, but the inmates and the prisoners
Speaker 3: of Rome's prisons. But to reach out the way Jesus
Speaker 3: did to the less fortunate. He was still able to
Speaker 3: do that, and to have him be able to have
Speaker 3: that final Easter blessing, that is a miracle.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure if I've heard of it before, but
Speaker 1: this is a man who refused to die on his deathbed.
Speaker 1: He was on his deathbed at the hospital. That was it.
Speaker 1: It really was. I don't care what nothing. Yes, he
Speaker 1: got out of the hospital, but that was his deathbed moment.
Speaker 1: He was not supposed to leave the hospital. And it's
Speaker 1: bizarre that we always talk about what people in there.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Something happens to somebody when they're younger
Speaker 1: at twenty thirty four and they go through something physical
Speaker 1: and they go through a health crisis, and you always
Speaker 1: talk with people fighting to live. They just want more time.
Speaker 1: They're fighting to live. This dude, it feels like he
Speaker 1: was fighting to live just long enough. Like he and
Speaker 1: maybe God, if you're religious, were the only two that
Speaker 1: understood the assignment and what was happening, and he fought
Speaker 1: to live as long as he needed to for what
Speaker 1: he wanted to do, for what he thinks probably God
Speaker 1: called him to do, and maybe for what the faithful
Speaker 1: needed from him. But it's as I asked, you, can
Speaker 1: you think of another celebrity of some death anywhere where
Speaker 1: it seemed as poetic as this one? I can't think
Speaker 1: of one.
Speaker 3: We actually really did try to sit and think with that,
Speaker 3: and nothing came to mind, because I loved how you
Speaker 3: put that it was a poetic death and the fact.
Speaker 2: That he got and it was such a busy day
Speaker 2: for him on Easter, he was he was working.
Speaker 3: Not only did he make that appearance at the balcony
Speaker 3: and give that Easter blessing, but he also went down
Speaker 3: in the popemobile and.
Speaker 2: Was there with the people.
Speaker 3: Can you imagine being in the crowd and having seen
Speaker 3: him that one last time, not knowing it was going
Speaker 3: to be his last. And before all of that, he
Speaker 3: met with Vice President JD. Vance and we don't know
Speaker 3: exactly what was said, but certainly he was at odds
Speaker 3: with the Trump administration immigration policy and certainly made his
Speaker 3: last message about finding peace with the war in Gaza.
Speaker 3: So I don't know what that conversation was like, but
Speaker 3: he's made no bones about how he feels about some
Speaker 3: of the administration's decisions.
Speaker 2: So perhaps it was a little testy. Perhaps it was a.
Speaker 3: Little I mean, I can't imagine he wouldn't have or
Speaker 3: he would have held back.
Speaker 1: And that's okay, that's wonderful. We can sit look at that,
Speaker 1: the Pope and JD. Vans are sitting next to each
Speaker 1: other having a conversation. It's okay. These two knocked heads
Speaker 1: on a bunch of issues. That's fine, and that's why
Speaker 1: I wanted to and you and I were talking about
Speaker 1: putting this together. And there are biographies out there that
Speaker 1: people will be doing, the what we call the the.
Speaker 3: Oh bids, the obituaries where you go through Pope Francis
Speaker 3: was born in Yes.
Speaker 1: No, and it's not necessary and too much of that.
Speaker 1: And I'm not gonna mention a single thing that's been
Speaker 1: said on social media with people already doing their thing
Speaker 1: right when it comes to this man. They want to
Speaker 1: talk about religion, they want to talk about history, they
Speaker 1: want to talk about all politics and fighting back and
Speaker 1: forth and once again pitting sides against each other. No,
Speaker 1: can't we just look at and can we not just
Speaker 1: trust that this was maybe a decent dude who did
Speaker 1: the best he could, and he might have some opinions
Speaker 1: you don't agree with, but his was a life of
Speaker 1: service and it was not more on display. He literally
Speaker 1: died to serve. What if he listened to the doctor's
Speaker 1: orders and didn't keep rolling around out there for the
Speaker 1: past month since he got out of the hospital. How
Speaker 1: much longer could he have had life? I don't know,
Speaker 1: but that would have meant some people might not have
Speaker 1: had the easter they had yesterday. That's service. And why
Speaker 1: can't we just honor the man and forget everything? Can
Speaker 1: we just take him at give him benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 1: This is a good guy, yeah, and leave it at that.
Speaker 3: I got chills when you were talking because I was
Speaker 3: imagining all the people who are in hospitals, all the
Speaker 3: people who are dying, and we're all dying, yes, but
Speaker 3: some of us are closer than others. And we realized
Speaker 3: that all the people who were suffering, all the people
Speaker 3: who had wake up with pain, who wake up with fear,
Speaker 3: who wake up with all of those things that the
Speaker 3: pope was experiencing, and they had him to look to
Speaker 3: and look towards and watch him lead the way. And
Speaker 3: that is so inspirational until you're in a situation where
Speaker 3: you feel powerless or maybe even hopeless, sometimes both. Sometimes
Speaker 3: it just takes one person that you see in your
Speaker 3: same boat or on that same path, and they do
Speaker 3: it anyway, and they get up anyway, and they keep praying,
Speaker 3: and they keep pushing, and they keep doing and being
Speaker 3: even in pain, and.
Speaker 2: I just I cannot.
Speaker 3: It actually brings me to tears to think about the
Speaker 3: impact that he has had and hopefully we'll continue to
Speaker 3: have on all of us who will, Yes, if we
Speaker 3: haven't already walked down that path, we'll be walking down
Speaker 3: that path at one point. And to think about how
Speaker 3: he handled himself and how he inspired us, and how
Speaker 3: I mean, really he showed courage like that to me
Speaker 3: is the epitome of courage.
Speaker 1: How do you I mean, even if you don't get
Speaker 1: the same result he showed, it's worth It was worth
Speaker 1: it to stick around for another month. It was worth it.
Speaker 1: And I said to you, Cyril, because we every single
Speaker 1: day we did this with the Pope, and when we
Speaker 1: got an updated and something sounded positive, and again we
Speaker 1: might not have expressed it fully during the podcast, but
Speaker 1: sometimes we did. But we were overjoyed and it was like, whoa,
Speaker 1: this guy is going to get out of the hospital.
Speaker 1: Who I'm telling you, He's going to show up to
Speaker 1: Saint Peter's and it's going to be a huge moment.
Speaker 2: You remember. And then it happened.
Speaker 1: And then it happened, and now I kind of forgot
Speaker 1: that he was even sick. I'm like, oh, he's on
Speaker 1: the mend. If he's doing this, all right, he is
Speaker 1: going to recad. I didn't anticipate death.
Speaker 2: No, we were both shocked this morning.
Speaker 3: I mean we actually it's very rare that we're speechless,
Speaker 3: but we were typing away working on the podcast this
Speaker 3: morning and we heard it announced on CNN.
Speaker 2: I believe, and it it.
Speaker 3: Actually it shocked us to the point where we just
Speaker 3: stopped doing what we were doing.
Speaker 1: It shocked us to the point partly because of how
Speaker 1: it was delivered. Look, I don't know who that person
Speaker 1: might have been, that young lady was, but it was
Speaker 1: the newscast had started at the top of the hour,
Speaker 1: and the lead story I kind of remember it might
Speaker 1: have been about the billess Wayne and Bilizueln immigrants.
Speaker 3: It might have been that in Hegsath, I think it was.
Speaker 3: They were doing like a double headline about politics in
Speaker 3: the United States and our immigration policies, and Hegseath's group chat,
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden it switches to the other
Speaker 3: anchor and she quietly she.
Speaker 1: Simply, it was a weird delivery up to where we
Speaker 1: didn't think it was real because obviously, wait, we didn't
Speaker 1: miss that. The breaking news alerts hadn't come online yet,
Speaker 1: And she just says in a very calm voice, like
Speaker 1: nothing had happened.
Speaker 2: Pope Francis.
Speaker 1: Francis died overnight the age of eighty eight. Wait what
Speaker 1: we thought she was wrong? We didn't think we were
Speaker 1: hearing it right.
Speaker 3: I wanted to hear like the big, cold open breaking
Speaker 3: news just into you know, our broadcast center.
Speaker 2: But no, none of that. It was actually kind of interesting,
Speaker 2: it was. It came in with a whisper.
Speaker 1: Almost it was jarring how quiet it was at the time,
Speaker 1: and look, a lot happens and knew who knows how
Speaker 1: she got the information in her ear and how it
Speaker 1: went about, but that is how we got the news.
Speaker 1: And of course frantically started looking for Vatican statements and
Speaker 1: all this, which we eventually found, but it was we
Speaker 1: have and robe. This is not a I mean for
Speaker 1: both of us. We have covered popes in the past,
Speaker 1: We've covered stories in the past about you're always covering
Speaker 1: in some way, form or fashion. I have never felt
Speaker 1: as connected or invested in the papacy as I did
Speaker 1: with this guy over the past two and a half months.
Speaker 1: I agree with you because there were lessons and I
Speaker 1: was watching a display of heroism and service that had
Speaker 1: nothing to do with religion and had nothing to do
Speaker 1: with the pope. I was amazed at what he was
Speaker 1: able to do. And we should remind you that we
Speaker 1: didn't find out un till later, but he was essentially
Speaker 1: near death twice in the hospital. They were saying, he's
Speaker 1: one of the times, like you, said the nurse, but
Speaker 1: the doctors had made a decision to stop doing treatment,
Speaker 1: so that was it. And then his personal nurse said, nope,
Speaker 1: you fight and you keep going to the end, do
Speaker 1: whatever you gotta do, and look what it got us.
Speaker 1: I just I don't I hate when it delves into
Speaker 1: and starts immediately going into something other than this just
Speaker 1: was a decent guy. But then somebody immediately wants to say, well,
Speaker 1: his view on this was blah blahlah blah. So he's
Speaker 1: the worst pope ever. I don't want to rest in
Speaker 1: peace that kind of stuff is flowing. Can we not
Speaker 1: just for anything? Even the Pope? Just give him the
Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt. He was a decent guy, did
Speaker 1: his best. He was human, He made some mistakes, he
Speaker 1: hasd some opinions you differ with, But damn how you
Speaker 1: not applaud what this guy pulls off in a lifetime
Speaker 1: and in the last two and a half months of
Speaker 1: his life.
Speaker 3: Correct And you know, you pointed out that you don't
Speaker 3: have to look at the pope. This may sound funny
Speaker 3: through a religious lens, because for me, when I saw
Speaker 3: his devotion, it was more about faith. And we all
Speaker 3: have faith in something whatever, whether it's in yourself, in
Speaker 3: the universe, in your God, in your religion, but religion.
Speaker 3: Take that out of it and make this about faith
Speaker 3: and about following through on your faith and being the
Speaker 3: person and striving to be the best person and be
Speaker 3: willing to learn and being willing to evolve. We definitely
Speaker 3: saw this from the Pope throughout his papacy, but certainly
Speaker 3: in the last few months, and I am he was,
Speaker 3: and this is where he was constant. He was always
Speaker 3: about serving the marginalized, always about being the voice for
Speaker 3: people who didn't have any And I will always appreciate
Speaker 3: that from him because we.
Speaker 2: Need more leaders. That is the role.
Speaker 3: That is why we do and have leaders in this
Speaker 3: world to represent people who can't speak up for themselves,
Speaker 3: who don't have power. And I really do feel like,
Speaker 3: regardless of how you think of the Pope's policies or
Speaker 3: his beliefs, he did that consistently.
Speaker 1: It didn't feel like lip service at all. He's not
Speaker 1: a politician necessarily, even though some would argue he's a
Speaker 1: political figure. But we see so many politicians not calling
Speaker 1: anybody out. But it seems to be lip service. It
Speaker 1: seems to be they show up in this community on
Speaker 1: a certain day to get a photo op. They'll go
Speaker 1: stand with a group of black children and rah, and
Speaker 1: they'll go over here with this group and righth Rah.
Speaker 1: This guy has been washing the feet of prisoners for years. Yep. Okay,
Speaker 1: you can call that a photo op if you want to.
Speaker 1: But he showed up Thursday last Thursday at a prison
Speaker 1: he's been to before, and actually said to them, I
Speaker 1: would like to do it, but I'm not in good
Speaker 1: enough health to wash your feet today, but please know
Speaker 1: I want to and I wanted to be with you
Speaker 1: on this day. And he still showed up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was Holy Thursday. It was just last week.
Speaker 2: And you know the other thing.
Speaker 3: While he was in the hospital, we didn't get a
Speaker 3: lot of specific information, but the one thing we got
Speaker 3: every single day he made a phone call. He had
Speaker 3: a can to that parish in Gaza, and he made
Speaker 3: a phone call to check in on them to see
Speaker 3: how they were doing. Every single day he was in
Speaker 3: the hospital, according to the Vatican, we kept getting these
Speaker 3: updates and in a perhaps pretty cool full circle moment.
Speaker 3: And this isn't to have any opinion about what's going
Speaker 3: on in the Middle East, because that has certainly caused
Speaker 3: so much, yes, discord among many people. But one of
Speaker 3: his last message read by his associate or by his assistant,
Speaker 3: was for peace, for peace in the Middle East, for
Speaker 3: the cease fire to take place, for the hostages to
Speaker 3: all be released, for the prisoners to be released, to
Speaker 3: allow people to have a free and peaceful existence.
Speaker 1: Poor a guy who's dying, by the way, this is
Speaker 1: what he's he continued, on his mind, that was on
Speaker 1: his mind every day in the hospital. He's calling somebody
Speaker 1: else to check on them.
Speaker 3: That tells you. That tells you everything you need to know.
Speaker 3: That tells you everything you need to know.
Speaker 2: And it was it was this.
Speaker 3: We've covered so many stories in our lives, and we've
Speaker 3: gone to the stories, We've flown around the world, we've
Speaker 3: been right there where things are happening, and yet funny enough,
Speaker 3: just given the power of what we watched and witnessed
Speaker 3: over the last two months, I like to you to
Speaker 3: your point, I feel more connected to him and more
Speaker 3: invested in his last few months than I have in
Speaker 3: really covering a lot of other events, because I just
Speaker 3: it was real, it was raw, it was human, and
Speaker 3: it's something that we could all relate to. It wasn't
Speaker 3: for show.
Speaker 1: Is it wild to say, maybe you can relate to it.
Speaker 1: Maybe a lot of people can't. I didn't feel sad,
Speaker 1: like tears came to my eyes and it was a
Speaker 1: little overwhelming, and it was a little shoulders slumped a
Speaker 1: little bit, But this was a beautiful death. If it's
Speaker 1: if you can say that anybody lives eighty eight years,
Speaker 1: Congratulations right, you don't necessarily that's the celebration of a
Speaker 1: life live that long, anybody makes it that far. But
Speaker 1: the way it almost feels like he wrote his own death,
Speaker 1: like this is the way I wanted to go. It's
Speaker 1: incredible what this was. This is then the thing I
Speaker 1: likened it too. I was trying to think of a
Speaker 1: celebrity death. This is I have a personal connection to
Speaker 1: this One's so why this one jumps out Chadwick Boseman
Speaker 1: and I say it only in this way is that
Speaker 1: we had no idea what he was going through, and
Speaker 1: he showed up every day, He did his work, he smiled,
Speaker 1: he hugged those kids, he took those pictures, he did
Speaker 1: everything in service of it seemed like something he understood
Speaker 1: at least what he was, and he didn't want to
Speaker 1: be a distraction anyway. What the only thing I can
Speaker 1: get close to liking into is just someone who put
Speaker 1: what they were going through a side for the sake
Speaker 1: of the moment, for the sake of who they are,
Speaker 1: for the sake of understanding what they meant to other people. Yes,
Speaker 1: the Pope and the guy who played Black Panther, obviously
Speaker 1: there are differences. So I'm not trying to say that
Speaker 1: on the same level, but for the Pope to now
Speaker 1: I look at it in this way, he put his
Speaker 1: life on the line to serve God, to serve the church,
Speaker 1: to serve a community, serve the world. He literally put
Speaker 1: his life on the line. Just goes. I said it
Speaker 1: on the one of the podcasts, Dude, please just go
Speaker 1: stop hugging kids, right he went through this, Please go
Speaker 1: rest please, I said, Yeah, first time I see a
Speaker 1: little kid cofing next to him, I'm a freak out.
Speaker 1: Now we don't know what ultimately happened here, details will come,
Speaker 1: but it couldn't have helped.
Speaker 3: No, no, I mean he was actually with a child specifically,
Speaker 3: you could see him touching and kids, which was a
Speaker 3: very specific.
Speaker 2: Request from the doctor's crowds and kids. Big no, nos.
Speaker 1: He We're all trying to avoid that, right.
Speaker 3: For a lot of reasons. And we don't have compromised
Speaker 3: immune systems. We're just in the hospital for thirty eight days. Kids,
Speaker 3: I always say this, are living walking petri dishes of germs.
Speaker 3: So yes, anyone who was a school aged kid knows
Speaker 3: you're gonna get sick a ton until they get through
Speaker 3: those elementary school days. So yes, that is not anything
Speaker 3: anyone should be exposed to, let alone an eighty eight
Speaker 3: year old pope who just got out of the hospital with.
Speaker 1: There are plenty of pictures of him the past couple
Speaker 1: of weeks.
Speaker 3: Hugging yesterday, yes yesterday, in the popemobile, touching, but it's
Speaker 3: just who he was. It's how he connected with people
Speaker 3: and is what made him so beloved by so many
Speaker 3: because he did. I love the way you put that.
Speaker 3: I thought that is actually a beautiful analogy of someone
Speaker 3: who put their own physical pain and their own personal
Speaker 3: discomfort aside to do what they know or knew was
Speaker 3: the right way forward that would affect and impact the
Speaker 3: most people in the best way, and they put what
Speaker 3: they wanted or what they might have needed. I'm sure
Speaker 3: there were plenty of moments where he wanted to die,
Speaker 3: where he was probably willing to give up, But I
Speaker 3: just think it's another it's a you know what, I
Speaker 3: look at it like this too. So many of us
Speaker 3: have had moments and we'll have more to come where
Speaker 3: we want to give up, and he just showed that
Speaker 3: you can keep fighting and getting another day, getting another week,
Speaker 3: getting another moment with someone where you can have an impact.
Speaker 2: Is worth it. It's worth the fight.
Speaker 3: And when I think of him and I think about
Speaker 3: what he did, I think about not giving up. I
Speaker 3: will remember him. I will remember what he did in
Speaker 3: these last few months the next time I'm feeling hopeless,
Speaker 3: the next time I'm feeling helpless, and think about the
Speaker 3: power of staying in the fight, the power of not
Speaker 3: giving up, the power of just giving. I think he
Speaker 3: is a shining, beautiful example that I hope we can
Speaker 3: all remember. And yeah, this just felt like the right
Speaker 3: podcast to do. We were talking about wanting, wanting to
Speaker 3: discuss his life and his death, and traditionally you and
Speaker 3: I would have if we were at a network, we
Speaker 3: would have written or we would have read a an
Speaker 3: entirely long written obituary.
Speaker 2: Right we'd be on a plane of roam right now.
Speaker 3: We know that. But but I just think talking about
Speaker 3: the the emotional impact and the I just I am.
Speaker 3: I am so blown away by the lessons that now
Speaker 3: the more I think about it, the more they're there
Speaker 3: right in front of me of what he gave the world,
Speaker 3: and and everyone personally can choose to take what they'd
Speaker 3: like from it.
Speaker 2: But I know I am going to walk away from
Speaker 2: today with.
Speaker 3: A a clearer head, a sharper focus, and a bigger heart.
Speaker 1: I can't believe. I really can't. And it was how
Speaker 1: emotionally invested it got into the pope. There are celebrity
Speaker 1: deaths that impact us all. I think if you would
Speaker 1: have told me in January news came across Hope passed
Speaker 1: away overnight, we'd have done the story it had been
Speaker 1: what it was. That's sad for the faithful. We move
Speaker 1: off fine. The way this happened had me so emotionally
Speaker 1: invested in this guy in this moment that I can't
Speaker 1: even quite understand it, but absolutely the lessons he's not
Speaker 1: talking to your point. We look, we've had we all
Speaker 1: have them. Somebody's going to have him today. You had
Speaker 1: them this weekend. Whatever setback it may be, and we've
Speaker 1: had plenty in recent days and weeks we haven't talked
Speaker 1: about from a professional standpoint, physical of emotional, all kinds
Speaker 1: of setbacks that just what life is This guy in
Speaker 1: the past two and a half months has every single
Speaker 1: day because we've been reporting on it, has been a
Speaker 1: new reminder every day of just what do you think
Speaker 1: your problems are? And the way he served. That's what
Speaker 1: they always say. If you're down or depressed, you know
Speaker 1: how you can get out of it, Go be in
Speaker 1: service to somebody else. And this guy just displayed it
Speaker 1: in a way. And I would you say, as well, yesterday,
Speaker 1: at least on Easter, he didn't look as good or
Speaker 1: as healthy. It's yeah year a ring right. He didn't
Speaker 1: look as good or as healthy yesterday as he did
Speaker 1: that first appearance he made at the hospital. He didn't
Speaker 1: look great, but he weighed. I remember interacting with one
Speaker 1: woman down in the bottom. But then that second appearance
Speaker 1: he made as surprise, we were like, whoa, well he
Speaker 1: had apparatus on in one and then he went the
Speaker 1: one where he didn't have.
Speaker 2: He took off the breathing apparatus.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he made a previous appearance that wow, he looked
Speaker 1: on the mend.
Speaker 2: We were hopeful.
Speaker 1: Then yesterday I didn't think it. When I saw the pictures,
Speaker 1: I didn't think anything of okay, he's not doing as well. Fine,
Speaker 1: then the news is man this morning, so twenty five
Speaker 1: to thirty five.
Speaker 2: To thirty five Eastern time, he's okay.
Speaker 1: East times. When he passed a lot of people didn't
Speaker 1: not get in the news until they woke up this morning,
Speaker 1: and it was a shocker.
Speaker 3: It was a shocker, But I just I think it's
Speaker 3: so appropriate that he ended up passing on Easter Monday
Speaker 3: and he got to completely lead his flock through Easter Sunday.
Speaker 3: And that's a beautiful way to end a beautiful life
Speaker 3: and a beautiful papacy. And I would love as we're
Speaker 3: wrapping up, because I don't know how many people, I
Speaker 3: hope all of you check out Morning Run every day,
Speaker 3: but we always do a quote of the day. And
Speaker 3: I went and I looked, and he's got plenty of
Speaker 3: quotes out there. But I love TJ that you pointed
Speaker 3: me in the direction of something you directly heard from
Speaker 3: him last week when he was at that prison where
Speaker 3: he wanted to wash the feet of those inmates but
Speaker 3: he couldn't. But you know, reporters were shouting questions at him,
Speaker 3: and one reporter asked him how he planned to spend
Speaker 3: his Easter and his quote was, I am living as
Speaker 3: I can.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Can it be our answer to everything? Okay? So what
Speaker 1: are you gonna do? How you doing? What are you
Speaker 1: gonna do? I'm gonna do what I can. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do the best I can. Whatever I'm allowed to do,
Speaker 1: I'm going to do it. That was a man who
Speaker 1: accepted where he was at the time. We talked all
Speaker 1: the time, what living like tomorrow's not gonna come, Living
Speaker 1: like this is your last day? Like it doesn't seem
Speaker 1: like that's practical to do every day because it was
Speaker 1: my last day, I would go rise and road coaches
Speaker 1: and go have some margerita. He can't do that necessarily,
Speaker 1: But in his role, he looked like a guy who
Speaker 1: knew he was about to die. He actually he looked
Speaker 1: like a guy who knew exactly when he was going
Speaker 1: to die. Because you don't put in a Sunday as
Speaker 1: an eighty eight year old just got over double pneumonia
Speaker 1: out of the hospital after a month. You don't put
Speaker 1: in a day a work day like that. I don't
Speaker 1: put in a work day like that on a healthy day.
Speaker 1: It was insane. His day was crazy, how busy he was.
Speaker 2: How cool was it that that was his last day too?
Speaker 2: It's I love that it wasn't he knew it. He
Speaker 2: wasn't in a hospital bed.
Speaker 3: And look that happens, and that that sometimes you can't
Speaker 3: avoid that, And that's that is how plenty of people
Speaker 3: end up having to go, which is you know, but
Speaker 3: I you just said something that that is just the lesson.
Speaker 3: There's so many lessons, but this one acceptance, acceptance, surrender.
Speaker 3: He was. He fought, he pushed, he did what he could,
Speaker 3: but he accepted where he was. And isn't that so
Speaker 3: important for all of us to do. We're not always
Speaker 3: going to be at our best, our strongest, and a
Speaker 3: lot of times we might be at our worst, but
Speaker 3: there is a point in which we accept where we
Speaker 3: are and we do the best we can.
Speaker 1: You can live how you can. So so look forward.
Speaker 1: Resists the urge to get caught up in anything related
Speaker 1: to this guy other than what we just witnessed over
Speaker 1: the past two and a half months. As a guy,
Speaker 1: as a man who happened to be in a position
Speaker 1: to have the spotlight. He happened to be in a
Speaker 1: position to have a role, but that had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with the example necessarily that he said, you can
Speaker 1: set that example. I can, we all can, and how
Speaker 1: we live, and that's what he did. I don't think
Speaker 1: whose line is that. That's Jim Valvano, right, Jim Valvano
Speaker 1: with the v Foundation ESPN. They do all the time.
Speaker 1: He said that in that classic, that historic now speech,
Speaker 1: you beat cancer by how you live. The Pope didn't
Speaker 1: have cancer here, but he set an example and how
Speaker 1: he lived. How do you beat old age, how do
Speaker 1: you beat disease? How do you beat these things? Look
Speaker 1: at how you live. I'm never gonna think about this
Speaker 1: guy as a sickly old man who just withered away
Speaker 1: on his deathbed. Never, this dude went out with a fight,
Speaker 1: and I don't. That's exactly how I want to go.
Speaker 1: Is that somebody saw me out on a roller coaster,
Speaker 1: or serving meals or kicking it or doing or working,
Speaker 1: doing exactly what you're supposed to do and exactly what
Speaker 1: you love. And then the next day, what today's dead.
Speaker 1: That's that part. I just saw him yesterday. That's how
Speaker 1: you should go.
Speaker 3: So thank you, Pope Francis for showing us in how
Speaker 3: he died, how to live. And I know that I
Speaker 3: will be taking that with me today and hopefully for
Speaker 3: the rest of my days to come. So we hope
Speaker 3: you appreciated this episode in honor of Pope Francis, and
Speaker 3: we hope you live like you're dying today and for
Speaker 3: the rest of your days to come, but thank you
Speaker 3: for being with us and we'll hopefully see you on
Speaker 3: the run one day soon.