A Contagious Smile Podcast
Stop surviving and start thriving. A Contagious Smile is a globally ranked podcast providing a safe haven for abuse survivors and special needs families navigating the journey of trauma recovery. Whether you are healing from domestic violence, narcissistic abuse, childhood trauma, or the daily challenges of disability advocacy, our mission is to turn your pain into power.
Each episode features raw, authentic conversations with survivors, mental health experts, and advocates who share actionable resources for PTSD healing, resilience building, and emotional wellness. We go beyond the struggle to highlight the triumphs of the special needs community, offering support for caregivers and individuals with disabilities who are rewriting their own narratives.
Hosted by Victoria Cuore, an award-winning trauma advocate and survivor, this podcast delivers the "blueprints" for recovery—not just Band-Aids. Join our community to find hope, humor, and the unstoppable spirit needed to rekindle your inner light.
A Contagious Smile Podcast
The Giving Journey: From Personal Healing to Global Impact
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What does it mean to transform personal trauma into a mission that uplifts others? Join Victoria and Michael as they unveil several groundbreaking initiatives designed to create safe spaces for those who need them most.
The excitement is palpable as Victoria announces their podcast-a-thon benefiting Give Kids the World, an extraordinary organization providing magical experiences for children with critical illnesses. This partnership with Make-A-Wish represents their commitment to creating meaningful moments for families facing unimaginable challenges.
Meet the Stucco Squad – named after Victoria's beloved service dog – a community where extraordinary superheroes can form lifelong friendships and be validated for exactly who they are. Michael shares a touching story about inviting a young woman with special needs to appear on their show, and how her tears of joy illustrated exactly why representation matters.
Drawing from her nearly 20 years of advocacy experience, Victoria introduces the Safe Haven Phoenix Center for survivors of abuse. With courses priced at just $4.99, she explains, "I've been exactly where you've been, but I went there alone, and I don't want anybody to have to go through that alone." This philosophy of paying forward hard-won wisdom permeates everything they create.
The conversation takes a powerful turn when Victoria demonstrates what resilience truly means. As an amputee who hangs pictures with a hammer and nail one-handed, she embodies her philosophy that "impossible" should be reframed as "I'm possible." Through stories of nearly losing their daughter and spending months in ICU, they remind us that life's petty annoyances pale in comparison to what truly matters.
Subscribe to extend your smile with Victoria and Michael as they continue creating platforms that validate voices, heal wounds, and celebrate the extraordinary in all of us. Your voice matters here – whether you're speaking, signing, or simply seeking connection in a world that sometimes forgets to listen.
Podcast Introduction & Upcoming Events
Speaker 1how do y'all welcome another episode of extended smile podcast here with the lovely, sexy as always, victoria? Yeah, no, not me, I'm just a redneck hi how are you outstanding? Now you're handsome. My beautiful wife has some exciting news to tell y'all I'm married to my soulmate.
Speaker 2What, yes, Okay. So the exciting news, which is so exciting, is that tomorrow or actually it'll be this morning when this gets released is our podcast-a-thon episode and it talks about the beautiful Give Kids the World. The episode is already done and will be released tomorrow or today and all of the money raised will go to Give Kids the World. And it's amazing. And we're working with Make-A-Wish on some other amazing upcoming events and I'm going to let my husband tell you about the Stucco Squad. I'm so excited. I love it because it's about my stucco and there's some other amazing, awesome stuff happening which we all want to hear from my awesomely handsome redneck husband. No, they really don't. Yeah, they really do. So tell us about Stucco Squad.
Speaker 1Stucco is our dog.
Speaker 2No, no, oh no, stucco's my dog, you have Uno.
Speaker 1What's yours is mine. What's mine is your. Wait, no.
Speaker 2Except Stucco.
Speaker 1What's mine is mine.
Speaker 2What.
Speaker 1What.
Speaker 2No, whatever, stucco's my service dog, he's my baby, my baby.
Speaker 1So that's why we came up with Stucco Squad, and what is Stucco Squad? It's pretty neat's pretty. Uh, I like it, I like it a lot, I like it a lot I like it a lot.
Speaker 2Um there's our boy, my baby that we have right now that's my baby and uh stucco's up here with us.
Speaker 1so, uh, when you see uh golden retriever on the pictures on many of the platforms, that's stucco, it's my boy. Boy, he's red golden retriever.
Introducing Stucco Squad & Extraordinary Superheroes
Speaker 2He's my baby and he is not spoiled, he's perfectly pampered. He's not no bones about it. Yeah, it's my boy. Say hi, you like to go up to the mic, don't you? You, yes, you do. Suckle squad's amazing. It's for extraordinary superheroes to come in and join and make friends, and lifelong friendships, and be validated for who you are. Your voice matters. You know this tiny little sidetrack.
Speaker 2I was at Costco today and two lines over was this beautiful couple signing and I got to start a conversation signing with them and, of course, faith is like what are y'all saying? It's been so long. I don't remember my sign language and yada, yada, yada and I was like this was amazing. I had to tell them to slow down because I haven't really had a conversation with fluent signers since my amputation. So I'm like, oh, how do I sign nice to meet you when I don't have the hands right? So I'm like trying to sign and I'm like slow down, and so that was amazing. But this is a place where voices matter, whether you are vocal or signing or whatever the case may be, and our Stucco Squad lifts you up and empowers you and makes you realize you're extraordinary and amazing and beautiful or handsome or whatever the case may be, and it's super exciting and we want one and all to join. It's awesome.
Speaker 1So I was in our arby's the other day rb.
Speaker 2I haven't heard that name forever. Oh yeah, we got the meat um, a cheddar and beef.
Speaker 1Anyway, while waiting no, I'm sorry my mistake. I was in dairy queen, I was getting a strawberry shake. My mistake, I was in Dairy Queen, I was getting a strawberry shake. And I saw we treat you right an elder couple with maybe a 20-something-year-old girl sitting at the table, and I observed that, you know, the girl was special needs and I said, well, the opportunity's here, so I'm going to go invite them onto our show.
Speaker 1And I went over there and as I approached, I asked if I could approach and give them a card and they said yes. So I approached and handed the lady the card and told them that we advocate for domestic violence survivors and special needs. And I looked at the young lady and spoke to her directly and I said we would love to have you on our show to tell the world whatever you want to tell to 40 million people and, you know, to inspire others. And that little girl looked at me and and she said I would love to. And she put her hands in her face and she started crying right there at the restaurant is that not the best feeling in the world when you get to see that happiness?
Speaker 1on a child's face. I almost had Paul in my eyes. It was, you know it feels wrong, happy.
Speaker 2It feels wrong to literally feel like you brought that happiness to them, but yet you are so full of happiness to bring that to them right. It's amazing and that's what give kids the world does. They are amazing and I am so excited. We're also planning a trip down to give kids the World, where we're going to do some podcasting and some making moments last a lifetime, and I'm going to walk the park and do some lives as well, so that's going to be incredibly exciting later on in the year. We have the podcast-a-thon going on now. Going on now. We have also.
Safe Haven Phoenix Center for Abuse Survivors
Speaker 2We have not only the stucco squad, but we're also launching the safe haven phoenix center, which is for survivors of any type of abuse so that they can come on and find resources as well as uh, take classes to help them on their journey of healing. For them to see, you know, that they are stronger than they know, they are more resilient than they know, they're more inspirational than they know, and I have looked around and seen that courses like this are outrageously expensive and I don't want that. I want everybody to be able to afford it, and my husband will be the first to tell you I do not like tooting my own horn, but I've been advocating now for close to 20 years. I have hundreds of classes, courses and certifications, and the only reason I'm saying this right now is because I don't want someone to go to the site and say, oh, there's stuff out on Google for three, four, $500. And here's the same sort of class and she's only charging $4.99. The reason I'm doing that is because I am a survivor, I'm a thriver, I've been exactly where you've been, but I went there alone, and so I don't want anybody to have to go through that alone, and so I believe in paying it forward, and I believe it comes around tenfold. So I don't want a small amount of money to prohibit you from getting that healing that you deserve because you are so strong and impactful, and I want to offer that, and so we're doing it for the $4.99 for anyone in the Safe Haven Phoenix Center, and it's a safe space.
Speaker 2And then, of course, we have the powerhouse podcast for um, everyone that does the classes and courses for social media growth, or what are you doing? What? Getting your attention? Okay, why? Well, I'm actually having a little issue with my limb at the moment and I'm trying to not pay attention to it. Okay, you made me lose my train of thought. So the Powerhouse podcast shows you how we went from literally zero to millions of followers, how our podcast remains in the top 2% globally 2% globally. How we advocate and how we interview and how we just everything in general. How you could be your UGC, how you could do social media content, you could be a social media creator. We have courses for all that how to go from opening up a TikTok account to selling on TikTok, to WhatsApp business app and everything in between. I'm going to let my husband talk for just a minute. Go ahead, babe.
Speaker 1Yeah, because you're obviously in pain. It's not WhatsApp WhatsApp.
Speaker 2Whatever here, feel this and you're going to be like, oh my God.
Speaker 1I'm feeling her nub y'all. I'm feeling the bones that they saw in half. I feel it.
Powerhouse Podcast Growth Academy Announcement
Speaker 2But there's a gap now in between them. That's crazy. There's a gap in between them. You feel the gap.
Speaker 1Any amputees out there would like to write.
Speaker 2But this is an arm, not a leg.
Speaker 1And comment. Feel free, we'd like to have you on our show. Anyway, concerning what you know, to piggyback on what my beautiful and sexy wife said concerning the classes y'all she's, she has, I guarantee you, well over 300 certificates. I watched this mad, crazy Terminator woman here one handed every day. I came home, or I was, I was here and she would sign up for a class, skip the meat and taters of the class and go straight to the exam and ace it. Well, it's no wonder she has three doctorates now. Okay, three doctorates y'all, whatever that's a piece of paper to me.
Speaker 2I'm not taking it away from anybody else, but that's just my opinion.
Speaker 1But, if I may preference I said all that to say this say this any course that y'all see on any platform that we have okay, any of the websites that we have, uh, mighty and whatever they are master class courses. They are well worth, I guarantee you there's, there's courses I went through uh, I really wasn't editing them, I was perusing them and you were what perusing, perusing and you know they. What Perusing, perusing, and you know they're well worth. $500, easy, for just one of our courses. Is she charging that? No, my wife is extremely frugal. Like she said, she was in that dark place alone back up and to survive by yourself or with your child, you know. So, yeah, that's why she keeps everything economically low.
Speaker 2But that also. You know, we don't have a marketing team, we don't have an advertising team, we don't have agents, but we've done it all ourselves from inception to present day and creating our own websites. Who created all the websites? No, no, no, my love of my life. You contributed by bringing me my unsweet tea, yes, but I contributed so many websites from inception to to live.
Speaker 2That was like such a migraine. Oh, that was awful, that was brutal. And because I'm so methodical about stuff and doing those, and then all the social media and yada, yada. So all of that is done and we're showing you what works and what doesn't work. Now, not everything works for every person. I am also not a medical doctor, even though I have a plethora of medical background, and we're just trying to help show you what has worked for us along the way. So hopefully you'll find some nuggets in there that benefit you. We are also just an email away. There's a lot of ways of getting a hold of all of us at any time. He's just chewing at the bit to announce it. I haven't said it. He's ready to announce it, just go ahead.
Speaker 1No, I was. I'm off in left field right now.
Speaker 2Why what's up in left field?
Speaker 1left because you said plethora, and I'm thinking about placenta and how they fry it up and eat it. Then you said nuggets I'm thinking about chicken. You want to? Fry up a placenta nugget no, I know that's gross and you know, but that's disgusting.
Speaker 2But you've seen the videos where they no, I don't know, I don't watch that stuff. I watch my own surgeries, but I don't watch that that. I watch my own surgeries, but I don't watch that. That's disgusting.
Speaker 1It is disgusting.
Speaker 2Who would eat their own placenta?
Speaker 1I don't know. I've never met somebody who's done that. I don't doubt that.
Speaker 2Well, hold on, I've only eaten.
Speaker 1You know roadkill.
Speaker 2Why are we talking about anybody else? You've dated and fast.
Speaker 1I'm talking about, you know, like when you hit a deer.
Speaker 2What you hit a deer, what you get out and throw it in the back of your truck what anyway?
Speaker 1um, he's chewing at the bit for the news he got today, the news I got today my wife has been selected to participate and be I don't know what um brother or sister, I don't know know what kind of group this is called.
Speaker 2What.
Speaker 1The Cameo.
Speaker 2It's not a brother or sister, I don't know.
Speaker 1I wasn't invited, so it's some special order.
Speaker 2You want me to try and get you on there? No, oh my Lord, I can only imagine. No. For people who don't know, cameo is a website. I guess you could say that offers like the most amazing people on it. If you look there, I mean, and good grief, the people on there there's um, let me interrupt.
Speaker 1You Didn't Gary LeVar he's on there Send you one years ago from there? Yes, when we first started. Yes, from rascal flats.
Speaker 2Yes, um, from there. Yes, when we first started. Yes, from rascal flats, yes, um, but you have so many celebrities on there from um, randy couture and um, like jennifer gardner, and I'm trying to think a whole bunch of celebrities. Sebastian Bach, vanilla Ice, ice Baby, all of these people, lots of sports people. Caitlyn Jenner, who my husband did not know. I had to explain who Bruce Jenner was. He didn't know who Bruce Jenner was. I don't follow it, but I knew who Bruce Jenner was.
Speaker 1I don't know who Sebastian Bach is.
Speaker 2There's so many people on here that you know Like it's insane the people that are on there. I have been given the opportunity to now become a talent for Cameo, and so I can offer happy birthday messages, happy anniversary messages. I can give advice I can do, shout outs you what.
Victoria Joins Cameo as Official Talent
Speaker 1Maybe there's a listener out there that will get the service and ask something crazy Like I don't know. Let our listeners think about that.
Speaker 2Oh Lord. But it gives me the opportunity and you can like slide. He ain't going to like this at all. You can slide into my DMs.
Speaker 1Into your? What Into my DMs? Ain't there going to be no sliding into no DMs around here?
Speaker 2Uh-huh, that's what the celebs call it. That's it they call it. Hey get my gun. Oh, stop it.
Speaker 2they call it sliding into the dms, where like people can go in and private message me and it comes directly to me and so then I can respond back, um, and then I could also do stuff for for businesses and some of the money can go towards charity. So it's awesome, awesome, awesome. I love it. I was insanely like blown away with things that some people in there are like $2,500 and they get like a three to three minute video of it and that's it for $2,500. Are you kidding me? And so y'all help me out, cause I don't have any yet. I just got noticed that I have my very first request and I haven't been on yet, but like a couple of hours, and they even paid to have me hurry up and expeditiously send them the video in a 24 hour period. You can upgrade for that too. So I want to keep it economically feasible for people, and I was like $2,500. Are you crazy? I looked at some of the others. Who's the guy from Napoleon? Tell me again. Napoleon.
Speaker 1Dynamite.
Speaker 2Napoleon Dynamite. He's on it. He gets $500 for his right Right.
Speaker 1We've had kind of like cameos from different actors.
Speaker 2No, yes and no, they're not from cameo. They've reached out to us. We had Tracy Gold, who reached out to Dana and I because she's actually a listener Good one. Yes, he reached out because somebody he knew reached out to him about how I helped her save her life. He was unbelievably sweet. Oh my goodness, dembe from the Blacklist.
Speaker 2He's on oh, I thought you got him oh oh no, he's in the posse of peeps, if you will. That's cool. They have so many people like I was, so y'all be sure to check it out. But I was literally like I was just going through and looking and and faith was in here with me earlier and and I was like I told her before you sorry, but I did and I told her and she was like I want to look, I want to look. So we're looking at everybody and she's like no way Like all these 90 stars, the descendants from Disney, all the descendants, oh, she'll love that. She loved that. Freddy krueger, the real freddy krueger, um, just all these massive celebrities, but, holy toledo, are they expensive? I mean, really, if I had that much bread, like that kind of moolah, right?
Speaker 2you'd buy me a crossbow of course I would, but I'm just saying to spend twenty five hundred dollars for a couple of minute video, holy, to leave like. I can't even fathom that right. I can't ever imagine doing something like that and then for them to say we want you with us. I was like what? So I want to thank everybody for that, because this is also going to help other charities, we're going to help other survivors and this is going to be amazing and it's finally all coming together finally with everything, with the Podcast-a-thon and the Make-A-Wish and the Podcast Academy and the Safe Haven Phoenix Center and the Stucco Squad and there's like oh, so much going on everywhere and all into one and it's amazing and the fact that we get to be a part of helping you on your journey is so fulfilling and I want to thank them for that, for trusting in us to allow us to help them with what they have going on and welcoming, welcoming us into their and heart.
Speaker 1I remember, if you are currently in a situation or you are a survivor, which is the same thing If you're in a situation, you are a survivor, but if you're in a situation or you've gotten out and away from the abuser, contact us and we'll put your story. You know, if you won't, we'll put your story, we don't show your face.
Speaker 2Well, you know we do not give out geographic locations, we will. Number one priority is your confidentiality and your comfort, and it's like two friends having a conversation. You could say to me afterwards you know, I'm really not comfortable, I'll scrap it, it's all about you, I won't ever put it out. It's you never know. What information you provide that will be the winning factor for somebody else, that will give him the strength to to leave. And that is so imperative because you know if you've been in that situation or you're currently in that situation, you the way I can explain it is you feel like you're asthmatic, being suffocated in a smoker's lounge. You can't breathe and you feel like you're never getting out. And to have put your your ear pods on, put your hair over your ear pods, listen to other people's inspiration and stories of survival, and you too can get out.
Speaker 2You know these courses are cheaper than a order of fries. Now, you know, seriously, you go to Chick-fil-A and order fries is like five something. You go and get a meal and it's like $11 for a meal. And you know I've had people say why are you, you know, not charging what it's worth? Because I've been that person, I've been that woman, I've been that mom and it's like do I feed my kids or do I feed myself? That's not even a question I would ask. It's my kid, that's who's going to eat, not me.
Speaker 2We sacrifice everything for those that we love and there's no second thought. Sacrifice everything for those that we love and there's no second thought. But you know, at the end of the day there's still a ton of expenses to host the courses and the platforms and everything that goes with it, and we're hoping that one little, you know, drop in the bucket at a time makes a lot of ripples and it covers the cost of what we're doing and the cost for the podcast and social media classes. That's definitely a little more. It's not, you know, what others charge. I've seen $7,000 for these courses. I've seen 5,000. I've seen most of them on the average of several hundred. You know several, several hundred.
Speaker 2We're nowhere near that at all either, um, and you know we're going to have events and live events and things of that nature on as well, so we're just trying to pay it forward. Uh, you know, good people are hard to find, they're harder to keep in your life and when you never know, like literally. I go back and think of um. Two and a half years ago, in the spring, I was outside, you know, helping my husband with stuff and and cooking dinner, stirring it. Little did I know, in a matter of weeks, that I would no longer have my arm, that I would no longer have my hand. You don't know, you have no idea what tomorrow can bring, and so we try to help in all ways that we can, but we're self-funded, we have no grants, we have nobody um, helping keep the lights on, and so it's.
Speaker 1It's very challenging and we sacrifice a lot personally in order to do this speaking of uh, if you don't mind me interjecting on my dms no, uh, speaking of you know, not knowing, um, I happen to be at the scene of a fatality on my last job of the day and it took me about an hour sitting in, sitting in traffic at the accident site and, uh, it involved a motorcycle and as I passed by the wreckage, there was no engine left on that motorcycle. It was completely demolished, it was absolutely destroyed so you're not doing motorcycles, that's all the front tire and some of the front shocks of the motorcycle.
Life's Fragility & Give Kids the World
Speaker 1The rest was just obliterated. It was just gone. And as I got to my last customer of the day, she said a friend of hers saw that same motorcycle hauling ass by them on that highway just before it happened. And then of course it happened. So you just never know.
Speaker 2Well, prayers go out to the family, without question, and that's why I'm so glad you've given up motorcycles, because life is too short. It's too short to let the bull crap weigh you down. It's too short to let the drama get involved. I mean, you know, you don't know, you have no idea what tomorrow brings and if you can have happiness and that cackling laugh that you love from faith and you guys have the pranks and the love that you have, people search their whole life. If you go back and think about what is consistent in your life and I'm being serious because I know my husband's going to give me this oh, it's a male whore.
Speaker 2Look, if you go back, your whole life, you wanted to be loved, right From childhood to present. You want to be loved. You want to be unconditionally loved and welcomed and valued and respected and cared for in every phase of life, from infancy to elderly and the whole. One consistent thing friends come and go, jobs come and go, cars, homes, everything else come and go. The one consistent thing we have is love. We all want that unconditional love and if you have it, you should build a great wall of life around it so that nobody can tear it down and get in between you and that. And people are unhappy individuals and misery loves company and if they don't have it, they want to just destroy it because they don't want you to have it.
Speaker 1And people include family members.
Speaker 2Yes, yeah, absolutely, and I, yeah it does. And if you have that unconditional love, you know what? I'm glad you said that, because to me you have that unconditional love. You know what? I'm glad you said that because to me, family members should be your biggest cheerleaders. They should want you to be happy, they should want you to have that love and be taken care of, and you take care of them. And you know, like we have a great friend who's part of like kind of family to us now and immediately we found out that they were in the hospital and I'm like, let's go. Like you know, it's rush hour, it's Friday, it's going to be hellacious, but no hesitation, let's go. That's what you do, you know. And you don't say, God, it's gonna take me four hours in rush hour traffic and it's a Friday, and can I just, you know whatever? The first thing you and I both did was say we're on our way and he, you know he said he was tired.
Speaker 2But the point is is that life is too short, it just it is. You see, all these things that are happening, you know what. You go get around and you can only contest a small bit of it, but you go get around any of these kids that have gone through hell in a handbasket and they are so happy Like, I'm sorry I'm going to, you know, lay it out there. Faith has every right to be downright, just hateful. After everything she's been through right, just hateful, rude, nasty, downright, just hard to deal with. She is the happiest kid you know. She's so full of life that laughter is infectious. Her laugh is why a contagious smile is contagious, because you can't help but laugh when she comes into a room. You can't help but light up when she comes into a room. I mean, I take part twice a week with Dave Campbell in his meetups and when he sees her he's like it's my favorite person in the world, it's my superhero, it's faith and that's what Dave does. And everybody is like a better person for being near her. And I'm not just saying that because I'm mom, but listen to her story, listen to her podcast, listen to how. You know she'll stop what she's doing. You know she'll stop what she's doing, you know and say, oh, you have a trach. I had one too. Mine came out. This is what it'll look like when it's gone.
Speaker 2And this was some old, grumpy person leaving the hospital who was just bitter and rude and she took a moment to say there's no need for it because you're still here. And they said I have nothing to complain about. You really don't right. Your strength is amazing and you're here for a purpose and celebrate life. Because, just like the motorcyclist, when he got on that bike, I guarantee he didn't think he wasn't coming off of it. Right, I guarantee it.
Speaker 2You know, we didn't know when she was having dinner that night. Two hours later, they would have told us we could keep her comfortable and let her pass. You don't know these things, just like my hand. I didn't know I was going to lose it, but it's gone, you know, and I'm still in the process, years later, going through operations and trying to get stuff done to try to make things better. That's why take a moment, go to givekidstheworldorg and look at this amazing site, look at a place that you should never want to go, because you have to be a Make-A-Wish recipient, and to be a Make-A-Wish recipient you have to be chronic or terminal and for a week you get to be on cloud nine and it is the best place in the world. It will change your life Like it changes your life and it makes you appreciate every second. It makes you appreciate everything. You don't take anything for granted. You see kids walking around, you know, getting their chemotherapy. You see, you know kids dressing up and I'm the thing that's killing me and they put their hands on killing me and they put their hands on their hips and they're so cute, you know. And then somebody has a seizure. It'll be gone in a minute and you know they're right up again and it's like how can you complain? Because somebody cut you off on the way home, right, how can you complain that? Because, oh, you didn't get the job you wanted. You're still employed, right, you, you're gonna complain. Oh, I don't know how I'm gonna take my kid to soccer and baseball and football and I don't have time for all that and I don't have time for me to go hang out with the boys.
Finding Strength & Possibility Through Challenges
Speaker 2When faith was born, I quit my corporate job, my career. I moved into a hospital room. I was in a wheelchair and we went from doing all that I did to 20 to 25 appointments a week. You know, I used to like literally take a mirror under her nose to make sure she was breathing, even though she had a tracheostomy, she had an apnea machine. She had a pulse ox probe, all of these things you know. I had to do emergent trach changes. I had to do g-tube changes. There was 15 pieces of equipment that had to go every single place that we went and you don't think about.
Speaker 2I'm missing a ballet. I'm missing, you know, the ability to go have girls lunch or tea with the girls. I didn't hang out with my friends for years and years and they abandoned me because I was too involved with my child. I had family that said they would never want a special needs kid because it took too much time away from themselves and I never spoke to that person again. And I can't understand how somebody takes that that mind because you know what, the very next day something could happen to them not that I wish that, because I don't wish it on anyone and then they become special needs.
Speaker 2I'm special needs because I'm an amputee. I'm deaf, you know, I have a metal face. I metal everywhere. You know I'm like a parts department, but you don't ever see and correct me if I'm wrong. You don't ever hear me crutch on it and say I can't do this today because I'm hurting. My husband will say listen, woman, like we came home from surgery last week, he says what are you doing? I'm going to work. No, you're not. Yes, I am. No, you're not. You know, I will go right back into work. I went the next day and was cleaning the kitchen and he's like what are you doing? I'm cleaning it.
Speaker 1Oh, and let me interject, you hung a pitcher.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, that's awesome. You got to tell them about that. That's my amputee peeps. How.
Speaker 1Folks listen. My wife does not have an arm or a hand. I tied my shoes Below her left elbow. Okay, now that you envision, there's absolutely nothing there but a three, four inch nub. She hung a pitcher using a nail, a hook and a hammer. And a hammer.
Speaker 2With nothing else. No other assistant devices, guys. No other assistant devices, guys. No other assistant devices that's so important.
Speaker 1I'm talking to the guys at least. No, okay, women must be amazing or something. I don't know. I'm not going to admit that on air you just didn't. But don't tell your daughter.
Speaker 2Now she's my daughter.
Speaker 1How in the Sam Hill.
Speaker 2Now she's mine.
Speaker 1Do you nub a nail? Nub a nail and hit it with a hammer. Hit it.
Speaker 2Yeah, hit it, I tie my shoe.
Speaker 1You did tie your shoe one-handed. Well, that's all you got. But yeah, I don't. So this woman cannot say I can't because she's going to find a freaking way, Okay.
Speaker 2I'll say I won't I won't, I won't be stopped.
Speaker 1I will do what I need to do. Some of y'all other amputees I've seen them.
Speaker 2Yeah, but most amputees you ever meet don't have legs. I don't see anybody without legs.
Speaker 1A no-arm woman. Take off her sock and shoe with her other foot and get a bag of chips off the top shelf. That's awesome. Reach in her backpack, get the debit card, hand it to the cashier, put it back in her backpack, all with her foot, and she opened the thing with her foot and her teeth for her child, Mm-hmm, and so yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, the big thing of garlic.
Speaker 1Y'all are amazing.
Speaker 2The big thing of garlic that's so hard to open. The other day, faith's like I can't open this and so she hands it to me open. She's like ahhh and yeah, I don't like to hear. You know what it's not impossible. Think of the word impossible metaphorically, write it in your brain and close your eyes and think of the word impossible. Take the letters I and M and put an apostrophe. I'm possible. I'm possible because I can do it, you can do it, I can do it, you can do it. People don't tell me no. They don't say I can't do this, because I'm not gonna be told you can't do this. Watch me, I'll figure it out. It might take me a minute, but I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 2It's like after surgery I have to go to the bathroom, oh my god. And they're like you can't get up and I'm like I gotta pee. And they're like you can't get up and they turn around and the doctor's like not her, don't, don't, don't, I'll wait till she comes back. And I'm like I'm up and I just walk to the bathroom like she could fall. No, don't, trust me, don't. And it's just like okay, come on, I have to pee. I'm not gonna sit here and wait on howdy doody. Come on, I gotta pee, let's go. You've had me hooked up to saline, I have to pee. So I get up and I go bathroom with an iv in my hand and I still pee. I'm just saying so.
Speaker 2I don't want to hear these fuddy duddies like, oh he cut me off and now I'm in a bad mood. Think about the families that strive for one more day with their kid or one more day just to have one more smile or to beat cancer or to beat whatever the cause is. And you want to complain about somebody cut me off on the way. You know what? I drive one handed. I drive and my car tells me put hands on wheel. You know I really should go after our car manufacturer for discriminatory reasons because it says put hands plural on wheel. And that's discriminatory because it's telling me what to do and I can't do it. You know that's not okay, that's wrong.
Speaker 1Y'all, and this is going to be recorded. My wife is so right. Did you hear that what? My wife is so right.
Speaker 2Hold on, I don't have my hearing aids in. Can you say it again? My wife is so right, okay, right hold on, I don't have my hearing aids in. Can you say it again, wife?
Speaker 1is so right, okay, I'm soaking that in. We lived in the icu for two and a half months with our daughter and we did not hear a word from her for two weeks. Because of all the equipment, 17 days down her mouth, her nose, everywhere, she could not talk medical induced coma and we begged her, just to squawk, just to say a word, mumble something you actually said if you talk, I'll never tell you to be quiet again.
Speaker 2You lied.
Speaker 1And I did make her a promise that she talks. Then she gets to pick movies for every weekend for the entire year, next year.
Speaker 2Daddy-daughter night. They have once a week where they spend time together watching movies and stuff. It's so cute and what does?
Speaker 1mom do Work, but y'all don't know unless you're there. Okay to hear your child or your loved one just one more day, just one more hour. Let me have that time.
The Value of Unconditional Love
Speaker 2Let me hear her voice when you ran to that floor that night and they said she wasn't going to make it through surgery and you ran. I mean you ran, and you never even ran as a cop. You ran and when you saw her I'll never forget that look on your face ever, ever. I mean, my heart was in my throat. I felt sick. I don't think I could stand. I literally lost my ability to stand. At one point I fell into you. I fell into the nurses before you arrived, when they said her body temp was 88 and they couldn't even get an ng tube downer. Um, they were trying just to. You know, I I fell into one of the nurses. It was literally like my life was taken from me and that's not even an option. Like it.
Speaker 1Just I couldn't imagine functional life without her so I don't want to leave off on a sad note. Um so, to recap, and you help me out here, no, you're good no, we're good together. Uh, to recap, we got podcast-a-thon coming out tomorrow today, by the time this goes out today, see, and it benefits. It benefits. Give kids world faith. Oh, lord faith. Don't tell her I said anything on air she's probably not listening to me. We have the stucco squad. Y'all check that out. The Stucco Squad, y'all check that out we have Mighty, which you have a link somewhere.
Speaker 2What's Mighty? It's on the Mighty platform. It's on the Mighty platform Safe Haven, phoenix Center.
Speaker 1It's our powerhouse. Podcast Stucco.
Speaker 2Squad.
Speaker 1Yes, safe Haven we got to come up with acronyms these names you have are way too long for no, they're not. They explain what they are Safe Haven. We got to come up with acronyms, these names you have are way too long for no, they're not they explain what they are.
Speaker 2Safe Haven, phoenix Center it's a safe place for them to rise back up, and the other one, stucco Squad no, it's for superheroes.
Speaker 1Podcast Powerhouse and Growth Academy.
Speaker 2Okay, we're teaching you how to be a powerhouse in podcasting and how to grow your social media platform. How is that too long.
Speaker 1It's too long. We need an acronym. So I make up an acronym for us.
Speaker 2Well then you can go back and change all the advertising on everything everywhere. Okay, I know a guy Don't look at me. My buffet table is full, okay.
Speaker 1That didn't sound right.
Speaker 2Yeah, and it's not all you can eat, uh okay, let's um, let's change the subject.
Speaker 1Uh-huh, we're trying to keep this pg when have you ever? So there's a. There's a whole list of books that my wife has written.
Speaker 2There's some that my my daughter has written no, she was only mine, and and now you've changed that again.
Speaker 1She's a published author, so am I. I'm very proud of her. I'm a published author, well, yeah, but you've written like 41 books. She's written five. So there you go.
Speaker 2Well, why don't you want to own up and claim me like that?
Speaker 1I do To whom? But you set the standards so high. No, I don own up and claim me like that I do to whom? But you set the standards so high. No, I don't really really. How many people you know have three doctorates. Thank you, thank you right there. No, that was enough. That that one second pause was that.
Speaker 2Now it's up to four seconds and you still have an answer no, I saw the look everybody's laughing nobody, they heard it.
Speaker 1No, oh, yeah, no, oh he got her, oh, he got her good.
Speaker 2Some people have to spend 25 years to do a two-year degree.
Speaker 1Well, I wouldn't know who that'd be. Yeah, you would Thank y'all for listening to another episode of Take a Smile Podcast, with Stucco down here sleeping away. My boy. My sexy wife, victoria. Y'all look her up Anywhere. Google Bean, she takes up like the first 11 pages Victoria Curie.
Speaker 2What's Google, bean, google or Bean? You said Google Bean, google or Bean Like coffee bean. You said it all together.
Speaker 1Well, I'm from the South.
Speaker 2Are you.
Closing Thoughts & Episode Recap
Speaker 1I slur my words. Yeah, so Victoria Curie and Michael are signing out tonight. Thank y'all. Goodbye.
