The final "goodbye": Estrella Quiroz on losing her father & co-founding Last Farewells

Before he passed, Estrella's father left her a message worth more than billions:

✨ "I hope a million angels look after you." ✨

Those seven words changed everything.

They carried her through grief. They inspired her to travel to over 50 countries. And they ultimately led her to co-found Last Farewells — a platform helping people leave their own meaningful messages for the ones they love, even after they're gone.

In this inspiring episode, Estrella Quiroz, self-proclaimed "life enthusiast" and death tech entrepreneur, opens up about the moment her father's passing cracked her world open, and how she transformed that pain into a mission: to help others "leave no words left unspoken."

Her story is about more than grief. It's about agency, faith, acts of kindness, and what it really means to leave a legacy.

What you'll take away:

+ Why the words we leave behind matter more than anything else
+ How faith and personal values can anchor you through unimaginable loss
+ What "end-of-life planning" looks like when it's driven by love, not fear
+ How one woman turned heartbreak into a movement

💬 What message would you want to leave behind?

🔔 Subscribe for conversations about purpose, resilience, and living fully, even in the face of loss.

Key Topics:

• The powerful story of Estrella’s father’s voicemail and its influence on her life
• Her experience traveling solo across 50+ countries and how loss shifted her priorities
• The origins of Last Farewells and its mission to fill the emotional gap in end-of-life planning
• How creating last messages can bring peace and agency during grief
• The role of faith and spirituality in healing and purpose
• Insights into death tech: what it is, how it works, and its impact
• The importance of authenticity and acts of kindness in content creation
• Personal stories of helping others, from an elderly grandmother to terminally ill patients
• The significance of signs, synchronicities, and trusting life's journey

Connect with Estrella Quiroz & Last Farewells:

• lastfarewells.com
• Instagram: @lastfarewellsapp x @estrellaq95

Transcript

This is the important part with my story is that when my dad passed away, he was at one of his lowest, lowest, lowest points and it was extremely heartbreaking. He had nothing. He had absolutely nothing. So when he called me for my birthday that I was out celebrating and I didn't answer, he left me three voicemails. Two of them he's singing me happy birthday. And the third he tells me, hope a million angels look after you. And those were not words that he normally used. So to me, my dad who had nothing left me a gift worth billions.

that has completely changed the way I live my life. Even the trajectory of my career, everything has been changed. You just lost your loved one. Now what? Welcome to the Grief in Life podcast, where we explore this new reality through grief-colored lenses. Openly, authentically, I'm your host, Nina Rodriguez. Let's get started. What if the last message someone left you became the reason you decided to truly live?

Today's guest lost her father three days after her 18th birthday. She never got to say goodbye. However, he left her a voicemail saying, I hope a million angels look after you. Words that reshaped the course of her life. Tereya has since traveled to over 50 countries, 40 of them solo. She's raised $21,000 for a stranger she met on a bus. And she is now co-founder of Last Farewells so that no words are ever left unspoken. Her

quote unquote, last message series has reached over 24 million people and moved millions more. She's a first generation Nicaraguan American, a life enthusiast and a heart led entrepreneur and someone who truly embodies what it means to embrace light after loss. I am so honored to have her here. Welcome to the Grief and Light Podcast. Estrella.

Wow. Hey, that was a really cool intro. my gosh. I felt like I was listening to my movie. Thank It is all you and for our listeners and anybody watching. I love Estrella on a personal level, on a professional level, all the things. I've had the pleasure of meeting her, IRL. And one of the things that I wish for you to take away from this conversation is how, you know, she's one of these people that restores your faith in humanity in every single way, just through the way that she lives and carries all of this light.

But all of the story, in a sense, was born out of the loss of her dad. And I guess we'll start there. I want to say that phrase again. I hope a million angels look after you. And I would love for our audience to get to know that story. Yeah, absolutely. I so I grew up daughter of immigrants. And it's the same mentality that most Latino parents have is like, go to school, get good grades, get a job.

And so that's the path I was on. And so my family was definitely lower income. So that's the path I saw out. So I was always a focused, good, straight edge kid. And then when I was 17, my dad got deported. So at the time, actually the last time I ever hugged him, which I haven't told many people, or I don't think I've mentioned this on a podcast, but it was actually in a prison center because they had already gotten him and...

We went to go and visit him. was like this very intimidating prison center in Texas, in Haskell, Texas. So we went there and that's when I saw him in a jumpsuit and I was able to give him a hug goodbye. They allowed visitors come in and then they kept him for a while and then they deported him. So I just never in my mind thought that the last time I would see my dad would be in this prison, but also like the last time I hugged him. And so there's a lot of things when it comes with death that we look back on and we look at and we see the last.

And so for about two years I was in the process, I was like, okay, let me go visit him in Nicaragua, I'll get my passport. So I got my passport. And then after my 18th birthday, I got the news that he passed away. And the thing with me and this timing that it happened is just, I had just had the best weekend of my life. Let me tell you, I won a homecoming queen on November 7th. On November 8th, it was my birthday. I went skydiving.

On November 9th, I went to Orlando to go to this electronic music festival. The next day after, was my two-year anniversary with my high school boyfriend at the time. So it was just a series of high, high, high, high. And I get to school on Monday, and that's when I get called to the office about midday. And my mom walks in, and my brother's there. And immediately, you have that sunken feeling, like, you know something's wrong. And so they were like, let's go, let's go. And I was like, no, what happened? Tell me. And they tell me, and I just start.

And it was one of those moments that I will just never forget, like the look on their faces, the moment that it is just so surreal, you know, being in school. And so after that, my classmates had raised money so that I could go back to Nicaragua. I'd never been before, but I was able to go to his funeral through the kindness and generosity of others. And my family, my siblings weren't able to go because of passports or because of money. So I fly alone. I meet all of the family I have there.

I see this new country, it's my first time living in the country. I go to my dad's funeral and I hold his hand and I'm just like saying, I'm sorry. I just vividly remember saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Like, I'm sorry. Like I was angry at him for other things in my life that towards the end, I felt like I didn't get the chance to forgive him. But with that voicemail, when I found it, I just remember thinking like, wow, I'm so lucky because he loved me until the end. so for me, I'm so passionate about just the sense of, you know, loss.

giving us that wake-up call. There's a quote that says, we all have two lives and the second starts when you realize you only have one. So for me, I always say that at 18 in that moment when I'm experiencing my dad's funeral is when my second life began because that's truly when everything started to change. Thank you for your willingness to be vulnerable and open and share.

all of it, know, the literal highs and followed by the lowest of lows in terms of, you know, life feeling so grand and exciting and wonderful. And all of a sudden this major loss that kickstarted like the second half of your life, if you will, at such a young age, because 18 is still very young. So obviously, sorry for the loss of your dad and everything that the human side of us, you know, really misses. And also I'm in awe of everything you've created since. So...

I know that you love traveling and you did mention that it was the first time you got on a plane to go to Nicaragua. As somebody who's terrified of flying, hi. I thought about you during my last flight because I remember you posted something on social media about how being up there makes you feel closer to your dad, maybe because he wanted to be a pilot. Share a little bit about that and your life as a traveler and where that has been. Yeah, oh my gosh. my dad, he was a crazy, courageous man.

was a coyote, so he helped a lot of immigrants cross the border through Texas. He was only 22 at the time, but he's going back and forth, going back and forth, but his real dream was to always be a pilot. So he went to some aviation classes in Nicaragua, moves to Texas, that's where I grew up, and he has to settle for being a car mechanic. So my whole life I've known him as a car mechanic. I remember we would be at AutoZone and he'd be waiting outside and waiting to get clients. And so anytime I pass Home Depot or AutoZone and see people waiting, I'm like, my gosh, I wanna help you guys.

But yeah, his dream was to be a pilot and he just wanted to fly. so I had dreams of, I guess, travel in the sense. But I think once I saw, once I was there at my dad's funeral, I'm on the way back and on the way back, I'm in the plane and I like, I'm so close to the clouds. And so I write this letter to myself. Like I literally have it in my notes. It's on, I write it on my notes phone and it literally says, dear Australia, it's like third person, like you just attended your dad's funeral. Like you just, you just saw what happened. Like all these things.

But it's a reminder, like go after your dreams, like go travel the world, like make time for people. And so I read this whole thing for myself to just like be who you want to be in this life. And after that, it's almost like there was a flip in the switch. was kind of like, it went more, less focused on academic grades or numbers or things, which are still important, but less focused on that and more focused on the memories, the life, the celebrations. So I went to university.

And first thing I did, I was like, let me sign up for the first study abroad program. I don't care if I have to take loans. I take out loans for the study abroad program. It's a program in Italy. And so I was only going to go for a month in the summer. But when I'm going and I'm in the process of all this, see like, wait, like if I go one month, I still have two months left of summer. Like, why don't I just stay longer and go to these other countries? So it was originally going to be like one or two countries. But you you look at the map of Europe and then you see Italy and then you see everything around it. You're like right there. Like you may as well.

And you see how common it is. start Googling, oh, it's so common to backpack. It's so common to go. So I try to get people to come with me. Nobody wants to go. So I'm like, OK, I'm going to do it by myself. So that summer changed my life because the first time leaving the country was to go to my dad's funeral. The second time really was to go to the study abroad program and then stay. And I ended up backpacking across 15 countries throughout the summer as a 19-year-old. And I loved it so much that I came back and changed my major to tourism.

And because of that experience, I was able to find a semester program in Australia, one of the best tourism universities, one of the best universities with a tourism curriculum. And so then I did the same thing. I was like, well, if I'm going to Australia, it's actually cheaper to fly to Asia. wait, might as well backpack Asia. And then I'll take a flight to Australia and then go back to Asia and backpack. So by the time I graduated university, I had seen about 40 countries. And it was through that experience, like I remember seeing my dad.

Like he wanted to be a pilot and I'm just so grateful at the fact that I got to live out that dream because of the hard things that he had to do, you know. His life was at risk every single day. So to me, it's such a privilege to be able to live out the dreams that he wanted to do. So I'm not the biggest fan of flying to be honest. I get scared. I'm like, what the heck? This thing is in the air. But yeah, it is really comforting when you see the clouds. When you also think of like where you're gonna go, who are you gonna meet? There's just so many possibilities. And so to me, I'm really, really grateful one time.

I was on this flight that left at 11-11 and my dad passed away on 11-11, so I was really excited to go on this flight. It was like, wow, I literally bought the flight because it's leaving at 11-11 and it landed at 2-20, which is crazy because my dad died at 2-20. So I, like numbers wise, I was like, oh my gosh, I need to be on this flight. So I wrote letters to the pilots and the flight attendants and I just wrote a thank you one and I just told them like, my dad's dream was to be a pilot, I'm on this flight.

It means a lot to me. And they were so beautiful. I do think anything travel-wise, to my dad, none of this could have happened. Like even being born in the US, getting these opportunities to study abroad, being a citizen really obviously helped me have a strong passport. So it really is through his courage and sacrifice that I got to make this dream happen. It's so inspiring and amazing and speaks to the nature of the type of person that you are or have learned to be through your life experiences.

I just imagine somebody 19 years old, backpacking and traveling solo on her own, like daring, right? And you said something about how the loss of your dad shifted your priorities. And that is something that a of people talk about and I experienced it myself. Like one day I have a 10-year plan mapped out with my deliverables for the next quarter and the next I don't know left from right. And with time...

you know, speaking of the loss of my brother, and then with time, all of my priorities shifted. Everything that I thought mattered suddenly didn't. And it sounds like you just, that gave you like wind underneath your wings, if you will, metaphorically and literally speaking, just to go out there and really be this life enthusiast. How did that lead to Last Farewells? And go from there about what is Last Farewells? I never in my life thought I'd be an entrepreneur. I never thought I'd be trying to do a tech startup.

or in the death industry. Like, y'all, I majored in tourism. Like, I'm here thinking my whole life is gonna be in travel. I worked in nonprofit travel, luxury travel. So I'm here thinking, like, that's my life. But you know, like, when you get the calling, you get the calling. And for me, one of the best opportunities I had, I had all this travel experience at university. And one of my requirements at university to graduate was to have a full-time internship. So I started looking and I found this company called Go Abroad.

and they were a travel search engine and they were based in Colorado. They didn't have any positions available, but I liked this company so I pitched myself. I made a little portfolio of the maps and the people I've met and I was like, this is my experience, this is what I could try to do. And so they gave me an opportunity, we got an interview and then they literally made the internship for me, the full-time internship for me. Like it didn't exist before, they made it happen. I moved to Colorado for a semester. I'm working at this travel company.

And it was there that the CEO was in town one day and he's like, yeah, let me have a lunch. Let me take the intern to lunch. And I tell him about this story about my dad's voicemail. And he tells me about this idea he's had since the 1980s, which is called Last Firewells, of you being able to create a last message that gets delivered after you pass away. And so he wanted to incorporate it into technology. So I'm here like, yeah, I have a last voicemail from my dad. It's been the best thing ever to have. And so.

It was Troy that had this initial idea. And Troy also was the person who gave me my first job after university to backpack Latin America from Bolivia to Mexico, like four months straight, meeting clients for them. Because he's like, what do you want to do after you graduate? And I was like, I want to backpack Latin America. He made that position for me. So this is really important to the story because Troy is, you know, he's like that. He's like, all right, let's do it. And so I do this journey. I go to work for a luxury travel company years later.

I reconnect with Troy because I had an idea. I saw my grandpa on his deathbed in Nicaragua. I saw the process of funerals and how black of personality they were, how formal they were. And so I was trying to start a celebration of life events company for my family to run and operate there so they could make money. But it could also help be a problem that people need solving. So I didn't know anything about the death industry. And I was like, I remember my old CEO. Let me reach out to him for advice. He's like, yeah, I haven't talked to him in five years. He's like, yeah, let's get on a call.

Five minutes in, I'm explaining this thing, and then one of the first things he says, he's like, yeah, I that sounds like a good idea. He's like, but wait, what if you revive Last Farewell as this idea I had back then that I tried to start, but what if you become the co-founder and you lead it, and then you can go back later and then do the Celebration of Life? So he literally offers me this company in a way, in the split of a second it felt, and I'm like, get off the call, and I had a friend next to me, and I'm like, I just got offered the opportunity to be a I'm an entrepreneur now.

Yeah, and so it took me a few months. was like, well, let me see. I was like, I need a few months. Let me think about it. And then I really thought about my life. And it's one of those moments where you really think like, know, yes, life is meant to be enjoyed. It's meant to be lived. It's meant to have fun. But at the end of the day, for me now, it's meant to be served. It's meant to help. It's meant to guide and be a light in dark places, right? So after that moment, it just kind of hit. And I was like, I think I need to try this out. At the time, I was at the best paying job I've ever had.

It was a digital nomad job. was easy. The people loved me and I quit it. And I probably quit it too prematurely, but to me it was kind of like, if I'm gonna go all in, then I need to go all in. Well, actually, let me preface that. I spent a year trying to do the job and networking and learning about the startup ecosystem, the founder life, because at the time I just had this vision. And then I made the decision to just quit the job because I realized I couldn't do both. It was not...

It was so hard for me to try to concentrate on one thing when I had this vision calling me. So I took the leap and that's when I started Last Farewell as full time. I took Troy's idea, the concept he had, I rebranded it. I tried to just lead through storytelling. And so that's kind of what I've been doing now for the past couple of years. I've made many mistakes in the process, but through it all, it's really elevated my network 100%, but also pushed me content creation.

I was not making any content at the time of this. Like, I was very private, more private than, way more private than I am now. But it was definitely, it's been the biggest eye-opener and just like one of those things that like, it's been so hard that if you look back, if you told yourself two, three years ago, you almost wouldn't even want to tell yourself to be like, yeah, go for it. But at the end of the day, it's brought me the best things. It's helped me find more faith as well. And so now everything that I do, I just want to make sure that...

the original purpose stands, which is like being that light in these dark places. And I think, know, Nina, really, literally grief and light is what it is. And I think that sometimes that people need to remember that like, yes, grief is dark, death is dark, all these things are dark, but there's so much good that can come from these dark places. And so I think we're meant to be in these spaces, especially if people look at our personality and think like, what are you doing there? We have different jobs. But I think, I think, yeah, I think it's a reminder to people that like,

you know, someone needs to be reminded that there is better days ahead and that this pain can be served into something far greater than you could ever imagine. do believe that. And I love that this space connected us even despite our losses because there is so much good that has come out of everything they're after, you know, how we make meaning. And it sounds like you've done just that. with all of this, it sounds amazing, but I don't think people understand like to the degree.

of which you have created such a beautiful space for people to see themselves, the different ways you can make meaning, see what goodness and kindness looks like, see what a path of faith looks like. So I want to get to all of that. But before we get to like your content and your faith journey and all these other things, I do want to kind of give the people a better understanding of what is death tech.

I go into lastfarewells.com and then what? What does the platform offer? Yeah, so I guess the way I like to break it down is we have things that are mandatory, like taxes. Those are the things that need to get done because we're required to. And then we have things like end of life planning. End of life planning, you hear it all the time, but what does it really mean? It basically just means you're going to take actions that are going to, just in case you die, this is what's going to happen. And so most people think of wills. They think of...

estate plans or they think of just the legal component as well, the financial or legal. So that's really what most people think is like, I need to have a plan in place in case I die. This is where my money's going to go. This is where my thing's going to go. So what Last Farewells is, and I'll get into death tech right now, but Last Farewells is the emotional component. So on Last Farewells, people can create their last messages and memorial page that's delivered after they pass away. And last messages includes letters, videos, and audio messages that you can schedule for upon your death.

on a special milestone like a birthday or wedding or on a specific day, like say May 8th was important. Those are the moments that can be scheduled and then your memorial page has your life story with your last music playlist, your last photo album, a last public message for everyone to see. So the platform itself is meant to fill the emotional gap that current end of life planning tools are usually missing. Like most people will think, most people don't even plan for end of life because they don't really believe they have anything. Like my mom is still a housekeeper.

She's never gonna go pay a lawyer or even get a will done because she's gonna be like, why? Like, what do I have left? But I want, this is the important part with my story is that when my dad passed away, he was at one of his lowest, lowest, lowest points to the point where they found him with holes in his shirt. And it was extremely heartbreaking. He had nothing. He had absolutely nothing. So when he called me for my birthday that I was out celebrating and I didn't answer, that's when he chose to leave me the voicemails and...

He left me three voicemails, two of them he sent me happy birthday, super common thing. And the third he tells me, I hope a million angels look after you. And those were not words that he normally used. So to me, my dad who had nothing left me a gift worth billions that has completely changed the way I live my life. Even the foundation of my career, like the trajectory of my career, everything has been changed. So that's what Last Farewells is and what death tech is.

You have all types of tech. have like finance tech, you have legal tech. Death tech is really technology that's going to help you get these plans into place. So now in this industry, it's really just different technical platforms that are going to help you either plan your financials better, plan estate plans better, make it just a lot easier. so we're in the death tech industry because we've built the end of life planning platform for this emotional.

Emotional gifts I call them. I really believe they're the greatest gifts that anybody could leave behind Regardless of where you are like legally or finance or like financially especially even if you have nothing like you have a gift that's that when you pass away is gonna provide so much comfort and so much healing to someone because one as you know and as many probably listening know the moment someone passes away our initial instinct is to be like this is I want them back I want to hear from them like I want to I want to call him like and you just crave their voice you just crave

their comfort, you crave their words. so there's grief support groups, there's therapy, there's all these things you can do, but sometimes they really just take listening directly from the person and most people don't ever get that chance. that's what Last Heart Rolls is, an end of life planning platform for last messages and more delivered after you pass away. But we built it on a tech platform so that way can be done by anyone really. Right now it's in English, but people can still record their messages in whatever language they want.

long-term goal is for it to be in 100 plus languages worldwide.

Thank you. I often say the hardest goodbyes are the ones you never got to say. And especially when you experience sudden loss, unexpected loss, or you weren't there for the transition, even if you knew the person was in the dying process. It is so incredibly painful. I've held hundreds of conversations with grievers, and that is one of the top three things, top three pain points where people say, I...

I live with this desire to say goodbye. I never got to say goodbye and that hurts for years and years on end. Well past the wills and estates and insurance and all the things, the part that lingers is that heartache of not getting to say goodbye. And what I love about Last Farewell is because I've had the privilege of going in and creating some messages and seeing the infrastructure and learning about it and seeing your growth is that the person has

agency, so much of grief work, if you will, to give it a label, is returning agency to the griever and to the family. And what a beautiful way to be able to leave your last message as you wanted it delivered, as you wanted it said, right? A lot, you know, you might think you have to be older or in hospice or ill or something like that. You don't. My brother was 32 years old, newly minted, less than 24 hours of being a 32 year old.

had he done something like this, that last message would mean everything, absolutely everything. It would have healed parts of me. And now I live with more questions and that's okay. You also learn, but what if you had the opportunity to say things on your own terms and the person receiving it, those of us left behind receive it as you meant to deliver it. And you actually did this with a family in Texas who

I'll let you tell the story. It's a beautiful story. Sad, obviously, because there was a loss, but very beautiful. And it gives an example of what Last Farewells offers before, during, and after. Yeah, absolutely. Well, before our platform was even live, I really just wanted to find someone I could help. So I put a call out asking for, if you know anybody with a terminal illness or diagnosis. And I got connected to a person named Nick. And so...

instead of just like back and forth, like here's a link to our beta platform, test it out. Like I was like, nah, I'm getting on a plane. So I flew and I put together this experience, you call it like a day experience where I got, I literally was so intentional. I was like, what's your favorite breakfast? What's your favorite coffee order? So I picked up their favorite breakfast, got in the car, went to their home and set up this experience, got to know them first. We did a little meditation and then I helped them create.

his last messages, so he created about nine for his wife, for his kids, for his family. And then just to up it, I got his favorite music and his favorite cake and his favorite pizza. And then I surprised him, like, go hide in the room. And I literally put up a little simple decor. But because of my experience in the travel industry, I was able to connect with the NASA Space Center and they sponsored his bucket list item of seeing a rocket launch. And so that was an incredible way of showing me one, like,

Yes, these things are hard. Like, I'm not gonna lie to you. Like, it is hard creating your last words and your last messages. But the gift that comes after too, as well as like, was thinking like the more fun things, like what are my favorite songs? What are my favorite photos? What is still on my bucket list? And so I'm really glad I asked him that and was able to do that because he ended up going with the sun, maybe six months later to Orlando for the rocket space launch.

And then a few months after that, he passed away. It was a year. He'd only been diagnosed with his cancer a year. And in about a year, he passed away and he was only 38. So when people think that you have to be older to do this, obviously, like that's the most common misconception. And that's why most people will put it off. The thing is, like, you see all the car accidents happen. You see the young people passing away. You see the unexpected accidents. And I think those are more. And so for me, Last Firewell is

is really like life insurance, like you do it just in case. And I think that's where I'm trying to build up the platform. So end of life planning may, for people who've already done the financial or legal planning, they'll understand it more. But I want to hit an audience of people who've never done anything and get them to come in because what we can do is get them to start planning and then educate them for the other things that are still really important. But I think last travels can be a really good entry point for someone to start the end of life planning process.

But I also do think that it doesn't have to necessarily be, it has to be masked in a way of like a more celebratory thing. So like, what's your bucket list? What's your favorite music playlist? So I think there are certain points to someone who just never would have planned otherwise that they wanna lean in more to the living life, creating memories, traveling, doing all the bucket list experiences. And so that's kind of where I believe the direction of Last Travels is headed.

Yes, end of life planning, but what I've seen in the death tech industry is that most of the startups were not competing with each other at all. If anything, we're competing with the psychology of humans of just naturally not wanting to think about your death, not wanting to do something that's hard. And so that's why a lot of startups have failed. And it is extremely hard to create a business model that can work here. So I think last four walls are the advantage I've seen is at least on the media side and the content creation side, because you put something out there, a person's last message.

it's instantly captivating and people will cry and they'll listen and they'll think like, wish I had this or wow, this makes me think differently. So I think I'm about to start leaning more on the media side of like the speculous items. Like how do you create last messages? How do you make media that can stop and be super authentic and help people and inspire people and remind people that no day is guaranteed. So that's kind of the direction I'm going in with Last Farewells.

Tech is important too, but I think the media is the thing that can educate the masses right now until, you know, then they start triggering into the tech portion. Isn't that ironic how talking about death and even thinking about death can also amplify your living experience, your life experience? And it sounds like that that contrast that, hey, yeah, it's hard to make these messages. It could be very confronting. It could be very scary even.

And also, there is this whole side of, again, having that agency and how you go, how you live, and what you leave behind, all that legacy aspect. I want to touch on making those messages, because I know that when you sat with Nick, the gentleman we just spoke about, that maybe it was a little bit hard for him to make these messages, because in that moment when you have to hit record, it just gets very real. So how did you soften this? How did you make it more inviting than confronting?

So I first tried to start like, Nick, what's your general message to the world? That was a mistake, because that was hard. He was like, oh. And I was like, no, I got you. Let's start with a simpler one. Why don't you create a happy birthday message for your wife? And so that was it. And we got fun. We got a candle. We found our favorite ice cream in the fridge. It was a simple 20-second message, And he sings happy birthday. And that's it. And then, OK, let's do the same for your son. OK, how about your son's future milestones, like graduation, all these things?

So doing those little fun short messages, it's almost like you're sending a text to a friend, but it's not really their birthday or that milestone already. I think for some people it's a lot easier. like I tell people, it's just in case. I hope you're there. I don't want anybody to die. It's going to happen, but I don't want it to happen. But it's going to happen. And at end of the day, your family, the days they're going to miss you most are on those days that I just mentioned, like the birthdays, the milestones, the weddings, and Christmas, New Year's Eve.

So why not just like, you know, prep it in advance, takes like 15, 20 seconds. These are micro messages, by the way. This is not a long 10, 20, 30 minute message. Like you just say it from the heart. And then, so after we did some of those, he was able to just finally sit down and I left the room. I left the phone recording and I just left the room and he recorded what was from the heart. And so anybody who's listening can actually go listen to his last message now on our Last Firewall's Instagram. It'll say, think Nick part two.

Or Nick's last message, you'll see him, but his message is super beautiful. And it really is just a reminder that life is short. Go, know, be with the ones you love, forgive, just enjoy this life while we can. So I definitely think it, like I, all to answer your question, I think starting with what's simpler can help you get in the mind space for it. Now for myself, I went to Sunrise.

to record my own last message. And I set up a blanket, I put some flowers around, and it was one of those things where I almost had to do it twice because the first one is like the awkward like, if you're watching this, I just passed away. And then you say these things and it starts flowing. And I'm like, okay, cool. I practiced, let me do it again. And that's the beauty of last forever. I was like, no message is concrete. It's always a draft. Like these are not getting sent. It's just there. If you don't like it, you can always update it or delete it later. And I think it is really important to update because you can't say how new people in your lives come in.

people leave, so it's good to just kind of like be a check-in point. It doesn't have to be something you log in every day, but maybe like once a year, once every six months, and then that's where we're trying to just improve the tech where people can get their reminders and they can just have those moments to pause. And I think sometimes you just really need to be reminded. Like I wish, though if I it was mean, I'd be lobbying for the laws of like making this mandatory and making people do this like by force. So I am trying though to.

to get this into firefighters, military, people who have high-risk careers that are constantly putting their lives on the line. To me, that makes sense where it can be mandatory, that it can still be a really good benefit for their loved ones just in case.

I love that you also said that it's something that could be updated. So there's no finality to it until it's actually final, right? This is a battle. We could always adapt. And honestly, in taking those 20 seconds to figure out what do you want to say, it could also help you put things in perspective about how do you want to live and what do you want to leave behind. So I really love that. If people wanted to log in and see the platform and engage with Last Farewells, how could they do that?

Yeah, you can go to last4wells.com right now. We'll just highly recommend you do it from a laptop or a desktop. It's on a website. You can create a free account. If you need more storage, there is a one-time fee for a premium account. So that's pretty much straightforward. But even the free account, can still create right now six free messages and then create your memorial page, which I really like the memorial page. It's like a mix of Facebook and MySpace to me. Like you put your last quote.

Mine is a verse which is, all that you do be done in love. And I picked my favorite photo because, know, let me tell you, when you die, they're gonna pick the photo they think is good of you. And sometimes they end up with a Facebook profile picture from 20 years ago. They'll put the angel wings on it. you, if you rest assured, like you, if you wanna, I actually just made a video about this the other day, but I take so many photos. I have 110,000 photos and videos and some of the photos and videos like.

the ones, one I took about my grandpa ended up on his tombstone. So that's literally the photo they've used on his tombstone. And then another video, a photo that I think took of my uncle ended up on his tombstone. So all that to say is, I don't know if they would have chosen the photos, but it was chosen for them. So I think that's why it is important to like kind of dictate or show people like, these are my favorite photos. Just so y'all know, please don't do me dirty.

Please don't choose the weird pictures. this is the one I you to use. I love that. I love that. And you know, on the content creation side and the 110,000 photos and all the things you're such, you do such a beautiful job with content. It sounds like you're the family archivist, like an official family archivist as well. But you...

Create incredible content that is so inspirational and it's so hope-filled and it's so honest and none of this is forced This is just an extension of who you are and the work that you put out into the world and the energy that you put out into the world So let's start with this just to give people an idea of what I'm talking about You adopted a 91 year old grandmother from the street. Yeah So yeah, no I was going through it was a very 97. Yeah in 97. Yeah

I was having a day where just like, entrepreneurship is a roller coaster every day. So it was just when we were like, am I qualified for this? What am I doing? I was like, let me go on a drive. Let me go get something to eat. So I'm literally at a stop sign and I could either go left or could go right. I didn't know where I was going. I was like, let me just go left. And so I started driving and then I see this older woman walking across the street and I'm thinking in my head, I'm like, wow, she's moving very slow. I'm like, she's really old. I started thinking about my own grandma who thankfully is still alive, but I was like, wow.

That's what my grandma would have wanted to be walking the street alone. I just kept driving though. I was like, let me go to Chipotle. But there was something in me that I was like, oh, just turn back. So I turned back and I started looking for her. don't see her. She disappeared. I go into this pharmacy to look for her ass and then nobody saw her. I'm like, that's so weird. How she walk? She was walking so slow. I was so confused. And so that's when I look across the street and I see that she was sitting at the bus stop. So I get in my car, park the car, get down, ask her if she wants a ride.

She was, I didn't know how old she was at the time, but she accepts the ride to where she was going. She was gonna go run some errands. So I'm taking her to run these errands. She's like, you're gonna do this? Like, why are you doing this? And I'm for free. And I'm like, no, it's cause you reminded me of my grandma. And so I'm here just hanging with her. I buy her like a Wendy's meal and we go back, I drop her off at a home. She invites me into her home. We share a meal. It's just only to find out that she's actually from the same city and from my dad, Leonic, which was crazy. And so I'm.

I just thought it was a crazy video, also like I had always made kind of content like for a year before, but it was always voiceovers and you know, post. But this was the first time I ever vlogged. Like this was the first time I got my phone and started documenting an action that I was doing in the moment. So I just recorded it and then I wasn't gonna post it. But the next day I put it together in like 20 minutes and overnight it went viral. It hit 3 million views. Everybody was like, how can we help? How can we help?

people were asking to donate. And so I created a GoFundMe and the goal was 5,000, it hit 22,000. It got picked up on People Magazine, the Today Show, and it was just truly simply like a miracle. It brought me over 25,000 followers, which I only had like 3,000 on Instagram at the time. It started, but the cool thing was too, it also started bringing people to the Last Farewells' Instagram, which was in my Instagram bio. so Univision picked it up.

and I got invited to speak about Last Four Royals in Spanish, which was crazy too, because I was comfortable in English, it was like, yeah, I met Pamela Silva, who's an incredible person, and I got to speak about Last Four Royals, tell people about my dad's voicemail, tell people my story. So that moment itself, really was just, it came from an honest place because it's not like I was going on the street, I'm gonna go find someone to give a ride to for a video. No, not at all, I've never done anything like that before.

I'd always been nice, always help the homeless. I just never shared about it. And it's one of those things that it's kind of tricky because you want to do things from authentic place, but you also don't want to make it seem like you're capitalizing on anyone else's struggle. But at the same time with content, you also have to remember that doing something can also bring light to these persons. So example of what I just posted today, I saw my local coffee shop owner that her dad died.

and died about a month ago. I was meaning to reach out. didn't, I didn't, I never got the chance to send the message and I felt bad. I was like, let me bring some flowers. But now I'm thinking about it as a video because I was like, you know what? I know she's going through grief, but I know she's also a business owner and I know she, she definitely wants more clients and customers. Cause I spoke into her about it in her coffee shop. So was like, let me vlog this because then I can do this nice act of kindness show people, but also share about her coffee shop. So it's one of those things where

You know, I don't want to feel like I'm capitalizing on someone's grief or like even for views. It's not even about the views. It's so I can educate you about this amazing person who's going through a tough time right now, who needs the support from the communities. I think that's the beautiful part of content. And I think acts of kindness have always been something that have called to me. I love strangers. I've always loved making friends with strangers on the streets now. And I've always naturally like taking content of things.

But it's pretty cool to kind of like be in the position of now that I'm switching gears. I'm like, how can I do more acts of kindness? How can I reward more people? How can I get companies to pay me to give away their money and then take terminal people on their bucket list items? Like, that's how my brain is thinking now. Before it's like, again, you don't want people to think that you're doing it for their wrong attention. But at end of the day, there is a possibility where this can help so many people, help people who would have never had these experiences otherwise or.

Or just even feel seen and then also like help the greater good of the mission which is for last four walls what I'm trying to do is like Get people to live like get people to leave no words left unspoken follow your bucket list dreams and all these things So I've really enjoyed the content making process and see it is a strength of mine But I've not gone as in because I'm focused on the tech portion. So that's why I said I'm moving forward I definitely want to triple down on the tech on the media component well, you do a fantastic job and

One point I want to highlight is that you, people can sense if somebody's being authentic or if they're just doing it for clicks and views, your authenticity shines through. You could tell this is who you are. And like you said, so much good has come out of your videos, even in a world where we are quite literally bombarded on social media with tragedy and awful things and whatever. Whenever I see one of your posts come through, just even in that...

small act of seeing something beautiful and kind and humanity in display is already a beautiful way for good energy to ripple out into the world, if you will, as an example of a lived experience. Further than that, you got help for the 97-year-old grandmother.

If I'm not mistaken, you even got her house cleaned or moved to a different location. you literally, you are changing people's lives through these videos, I guess is what I'm getting at. And if you want to say anything about that, go ahead. Yeah, I'm still visiting her. I saw her a couple of weeks ago. She smiles. bring her, she loves McDonald's by the way, not even Wendy's. I still visit her, but we did get, she was living alone. We got her place deep clean because it was extremely dirty. But then we got her caregiver and now we got her support and now she's living in a much, much better place.

with constant support, very, very clean. So her life definitely did change. And I think that's one thing where a lot of people are scared to post, but the thing that you can post can quite literally change someone's life or give someone that's a spark or an idea and inspiration. So it's actually quite someone, the way someone told it to me, it's like, it's quite selfish if you don't post because of your own ego, which makes you think like fear of judgment. What are people going to think of me? Are they going to perceive me at this light? At the end of the day, when you know what your vision is in this life, and that

then nothing else should matter. There's always gonna be noise, there's always gonna be people that think you did for the clicks. You'll get comments of people thinking you're not being genuine, but as long as you are coming at it from a different place, that's the most important part. And to me, that's where my faith has really tripled down on my integrity. I was never really religious or even had faith before when I started Last Four Worlds or during the process of grief.

During my 20s, I went on like, I'm going to do whatever I want in this world. I'm going to have fun. I'm going to make it happen. Con dinero, sin dinero. I'm going do it. And I did. At the time, like I was relying on, you know, I was a strong believer in the universe and manifestation. But the key differentiator that I've learned now in that is that when you are constantly believing that you are the source of power, it's all on you. It's all, are you thinking positively enough? Are you doing this enough? Like, are you, you...

It's you, it's from there. So on the days that are really down, it's almost like you feel even worse because you're like, no, I need to change my mindset because it's all on me. I can control my destiny. So I was I came from a point of exhaustion where I just felt like I'm still navigating the startup world. I don't know. I don't know if I can do it. And so that's at the time a year ago now that really God found me like I was never looking for it. A person came into my life, started praying over me.

I walked into church and the message was, you do not have to change for God to love you. God's love will change you. And I just started crying because I was like, you mean it's not me? It's someone, like I can just give it to God. And that's literally what they say in Christianity is like, you just surrender. Like when you are broken, that's when God can do his work on you. And so to me, this past year has really been rebuilding my whole vision in life. But now with a perspective of faith, which for me, I'm feeling so much more called to serve.

and just to be that light again, to be that light in these dark places. But now my foundation is much stronger than me. Like, yes, I lived and I traveled and I had all these fun times, but I still had anxiety. was still scared. I didn't feel the peace. I think now that when I, having that faith for me, like in God and Jesus has really given me a sense of direction. Even if I still don't know what I'm doing, it's like, well, now there's a larger purpose. Now when I'm scared, in...

The Bible literally says, fear no man. And I think that's very beautiful, because when it comes to posting content, it's extremely easy for people to not want to post anything because they fear the judgment, they fear what's going to come. But like, what about the greater things? Like, God literally can do miracles like that. And it showed it to me with the 97-year-old overnight, millions of views, thousands of dollars coming in, not for me, but like for someone else.

And just the power of like what really is possible, like infinite things are possible. And I think having that belief has really shaped my integrity. And that's why my memorial page quote says, let all that you do be done in love, as what is said in the Bible. And so I've really taken that a lot more seriously. I've tried to have a lot more integrity. And I think that's really just like my personal vision regardless of like, what can I do to serve, to help?

to guide others to be there and to just go beyond my own pride and ego and my own desires really. But yeah, that's where the faith component has come into all of this. Thank you. That's beautiful. And there's so much there. want to rewind a little bit to the 97-year-old because that's just one example of many acts of kindness that you have published on your page. So if people wanted to see more of this, where can they go?

You can go to my Instagram, EstrellaQ95. By the way, y'all, I had no idea this would happen, but when things started going viral, you you start getting all these followers, but you get all your notifications are like, likes, likes, likes, small like, every, like, my, if I go to my feed now, I can only see the past hour. So now that I have a lot more followers, I can't even see who's really following me. Like, and I feel bad because I think people might, I only have 30 something.

I can't even imagine millions or hundreds of thousands. And I'm here thinking like, my gosh, really cool, amazing people. Everybody's called amazing, but like I'm sure I'm missing new potential friendships and they probably just think I didn't follow back. Listen to me, I can't even see it. I don't even know who's there. So I just want to preface this, preface this, cause you know, I have followed my fair share of larger creators and they like, like if I can't, like everything gets lost. And so.

Yeah, that's where it's definitely been an interesting journey. my goal is to increase it though, increase it for the greater good, because I know that though it is a vanity metric, as long as I don't get sucked into the vanity, like thinking, like relying on the numbers or feeling like my validation comes from these numbers, then that's most important to me because then what good can come from this content that I can create, especially with acts of kindness, strangers on the street, helping the terminale, helping the elderly. I think that I have my brain like...

I can't even explain to you what ideas I have until they're done. So that's what I do now. I pray truly before, even like this one of the videos that I did, it was my dad's birthday and my dad passed away and I wanted to find a stranger on the street who had the same birthday, which kind of sounds crazy. You're like, you're gonna keep looking until someone's birthday. And so I got a sign and I got a little cake and the sign said, is today your birthday? And I said a prayer. I said, God, you connect me to the right person.

who needs this, like please, I know they're out there, please let it be the right person and let it be fast. And I kid you not, six minutes later, I found a man who was only two years younger than my dad, would have been two years younger than my dad, from the same country, Nicaragua. And I'm like, are you kidding me? Angels, angels, I hope a million angels, he said that prayer and he said it with his chest in that voicemail, because that's really what my whole life has been, even when I didn't have faith.

I was always protected, I was always guarded. So whoever is going right now and listening to this, if you've made it to this end, like I know you're here probably because you're a griever and I know in the darkness it feels so, it can be so over consuming sometimes. So I do encourage you to find faith because you're not alone. And it sounds so cliche, but you really are not. But when we start thinking that we can do this, we can get out of the pain, we can do it, like it's exhausting. And I think that's been the beautiful thing of faith is that.

we're not alone and we have like, for me, like, I believe we have God and the beautiful most thing that I can say now is that like, didn't, I, for 11, 12 years now, I've not had a father, like, an earthly father. My dad's dead. But when I found, when God found me, it was like having a new father and he's always been there. And it's just like the perfect father, regardless of how imperfect my dad was, because everybody makes mistakes.

Like this is a father who's never going to lead me, who's always gonna be here by my side, who's going to hear my prayers, who's going to guide me, but he wants me to want to have the relationship with him. So I think, know, grief is a moment where a lot of people do end up finding a relationship with God. Even if it's a grief of a breakup, those moments where we're so brokenhearted, like God literally calls us like, come brokenhearted and weary, like come rest on my shoulder. So yeah, I think it's extremely beautiful.

If you are watching or listening, I am sure that you are fully inspired by now in all the ways, not just with the story, her personal story and content and all the things, but with the story of faith. And I will be honest, Estrella, I've seen grief take people either way, right? Like I've seen people either question their faith and almost be resentful towards their faith, whatever that faith may be. And also people get closer in their faith or find a new path or find a new closeness, right?

in the times that we're living in, even with the topics of the way immigration is being handled, with the way that Christianity is being weaponized, with the way that people speak and throw morality at each other as if it's like a, I don't even know, I don't even know. It's just very messy right now, right? And it is hard to, and from my perspective, I'll speak for myself, sometimes I start questioning things like, is this the time to...

deep in my faith or is this a time to really believe what's happening because it feels very mixed and muddied. It feels muddied right now. I will be honest, you are the only person that has made me look at faith and say that is what it's about. Like that is what I want and that is like, that's what it's about. And you don't do it through preaching. You don't do it through anything other than the way in which you embrace life.

and the way that you carry yourself and the way that you literally live very authentically through the world. So when I say you are a light, you are a star. Her name for anybody in English, Estrella means star. So she is a star. She is a shining star of bright light for so many. It is not hyperbole. This is quite literally who she is. So do yourself a favor. Go to the show notes, follow all the accounts. If nothing more than to be inspired, but you will get much more than that. And definitely, definitely.

Go to Last Farewells, play around with it, create an account. I believe it's free to create an account, right? Yeah, yeah, love myself. Send me an email, message, or however on Instagram, and if you have any questions, the tribe of us will get back to you all. But Nina, really quick, want to touch on your point. Whoever's listening, yo, I did not like Christianity. I thought it was so judgmental. I thought it was so hypocritical. I was like, how are they going to preach this? Exactly where you're feeling the judgment.

And again, like it really was, I think what's happening now is that like you see so much good, no, so much evil that it's almost like so alarming. to see so much evil, you also have to see how much good can exist as well. And so that I think God is calling in a new wave of people who have had just different experiences. it is, to modern, like to Christianity, we see where it is being weaponized. And people can think like, well, how can you preach this and say this, right?

For sure, those are valid questions, but I think first and foremost, at the end of the day, it's what is your relationship with God? Like even if you believe in God, but if you do, what is your relationship? And that's a first step. It's like, just you, just pray. You just pray to God. I'm not even telling anybody to go to church. Just have that talks. But I wanna, really quick before we end, I wanna share a story with you about my dad and Lester Wells. When I thought about joining this, I just saw so many signs of like,

This is my path. It wasn't just the voicemails. I found a photo album that my dad had left at my grandma's 20 years ago. And in it, he wrote, Barak Emedek, Werdet en Sante, which means, so you can remember me forever. And then on the back, he writes, I'll always be in your hearts. And again, so you can remember me forever. He wrote that twice in his book. Had photos I'd never seen of him. So I imagine Last Rolls has this memorial page feature where can create a photo album. And so that's one. So the voicemails, this photo album, but there's a third story that I've never shared.

My dad had a younger brother, his name was Iscar. And on one of the visits, Iscar, they were crossing the border. Iscar went with a different person. And in that process, he drowns and he died. And so he never wanted to cross the border. He never wanted to live in the US. So a week before, he's in Mexico with my mom. He asked my mom, can you take me to the post office? And so she's like, yeah. So at the post office, he spends hours writing all these postcards.

to his mom, to his girlfriend, just to so much people. He's a 17 year old kid. All these letters. And he did not want to go. And he had, he ends up going on, he has to go and he dies. And so afterwards, everybody's receiving, his girlfriend receives these postcards, his mom received these postcards. So I learned the story maybe a few months ago where I was just so shocked. But my dad experienced sibling grief. know, he lost his younger brother. Everybody loved the younger brother. It was the youngest, the baby.

of the family and now my brother's named after my uncle. But to see that story played out, like I can only imagine my dad's grief, also like that's where to me like Glass Firewalls felt so personal. Wow, how do I even explain these signs of like why I'm supposed to be doing what I'm doing? Like it wasn't just my own experience, but it was my dad's experience or even just like my uncle having these postcards, sending them out and he was 17, didn't think any, like, you know, took a risk.

didn't end up properly, but his family got these letters and videos. So those are just some signs, like, you know, like I'm so proud of you and everything, the way that, you know, you're making your brother so proud and he's such an angel and guiding your light as well. I just know that like the people that you're going to impact more with all these podcast features and even more in-person community, all these, everything you're going to do. Like, I just know like it really, we never would have thought we'd be in this industry.

But again, we were chosen and I really do believe like it truly is a calling. There's one thing that I can leave off. The Bible says, you know, he will qualify. God's not gonna call the qualified, meaning he's not gonna choose the most qualified person. He is going to qualify the called, meaning that you're called, okay, then he's gonna improve. Then he's gonna give you the resources. Then he's gonna give you the people. So that's...

gives me a lot of strength and help because sometimes we always think that like, I don't know enough or I can't do this because I don't have the resources or this and that. But if you feel called to whatever or whoever is listening and you want to take that step in this industry or wherever, go for that dream. Like just know that if you're feeling that calling it's for a reason. And once you accept is then when you become equipped with the things that you and the people that you will need.

And that's exactly what my journey has been with Oscar Wilde. I'm non-technical, I'm first gen, I've never, like nobody around me is out of business like this. And yeah, like so many blessings have come in the past two years, maybe not financials at this point right now, but like so many different ways, so many different peoples, media, content creation, views, like all these things. yeah, I just, hope, I hope, I'm praying for everyone out there, whoever's listening. That was beautiful.

Fully received, thank you so much for your words. Same to you. I thank your dad for having the wisdom to share those words with you that have changed not only your life, but the lives of so many and will continue to because we're now done with the million angels. are working overtime. are doing their is 111th podcast, am I right? Okay, I asked you to set for the 111th spot. I saw she'd done her 100th episode. We were meaning to do a podcast.

But like 111, let's go. I just like the ones, the 111s, the 1111s. Yes, and I love the way that you follow these signs and synchronicities. don't question them. Even when you got on the plane on the flight 100, what was it, 111? And then you got there at, you know, the 220. I was definitely more into signs probably before Faith, but now it's kind of like a...

walk by faith, not by sight. So I stopped asking for as many signs because I was like, you know, I need to have more faith. And that's been different, but it's good to have when the signs come because the signs. Well, it's that trusting, that trusting that things will work out and that just like inner knowing and that faith that you have embraced so beautifully. So thank you for sharing all of it with us. It has been so powerful. I hope that all of you listening and watching are feeling what I'm feeling right now, because it's just, this is Estrella. You just feel like you're

a person left better than you were an hour ago, you know, since listening to this episode. So thank you, thank you. I wish you all the best with Last Farewells and obviously everything you do. If people wanted to support Last Farewells as a company, because I believe that you're still seed funding or I don't know if you want to say anything to that end or if you can. We were raising angel investment. I paused it momentarily, but yeah, if we pick that back up.

You'll see it on our Instagram account. Well, if you or somebody, an investor that would like more information, definitely visit their account or the account as well. any final thoughts? feel like you did a lot there, but like anything that you want to say before before we close. final thoughts. That's good to hear today. I will ask you one final question. So, you know, go back to that Estrella that got the news, right? Like after such a high high, all of sudden you get the news and then you get this.

voicemail and listen to it for the first time. What would Estrella today say to the version of Estrella listening to her dad's message for the first time?

I just, my head went to that song, just trust me, you'll be fine. And the montage of everything I've done. That's really the first thought that went to my head because I don't think it would be, I don't think there would ever be enough words, the right words, but I think if I could go back to that person, I wish I could play them almost like a flash montage of my life, the adventures, the smiles, the memories, the birthdays, the cakes, my grandma, like.

A montage of what I've done in this past 11 years, she would have never believed it at all. And I think it was just one of those things that I don't think I could tell you anything, even with faith, right? don't think it was like everything happens at its time. But I think if I could have just show that one content creator video of like, this is us today, I'd be like, wow. And I would just be so happy for her because she'd be so excited to live.

Absolutely. Thank you so much, Estrella. Thank you for all you do and thank you for being you. Yay, thanks. I love you. That's it for today's episode. Be sure to subscribe to the Grief and Light podcast. I'd also love to connect with you and hear your thoughts and your stories. Feel free to share them with me via my Instagram page at griefandlight or you can also visit griefandlight.com for more information and updates. Thank you so much for being here, for being you.

and always remember, you are not alone.