TURN THE PAGE: HOPE THROUGH THE STORM
Hop on board as I share my cancer journey, an un-filtered (mostly) podcast by Brad Williams!
#LETSGO
TURN THE PAGE: HOPE THROUGH THE STORM
A JOURNEY OF COURAGE AND GRATITUDE
What if facing a cancer diagnosis could lead to unexpected blessings and newfound gratitude? Join me, Brad Williams, as I share poignant stories of resilience alongside my friends Lori Schrek and Lori Auger-Dahlman, who have each bravely navigated their own battles with cancer. From enduring multiple rounds of treatment to finding spiritual strength amid adversity, Lori and Lori’s stories are a testament to the power of friendship and community that has inspired me on my own healing journey. Together, we explore the profound impact of shared experiences and the importance of community support, such as the remarkable fundraising efforts by the 4-H Event Center.
Reconnecting with my high school friend Lori Auger, we reflect on our parallel experiences with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Our conversations uncover the unique challenges each of us has faced, and the gratitude that has emerged from these trials. As Thanksgiving draws near, we shine a light on the Friends of Wadena County Youth’s initiative, which offers a heartwarming opportunity to make a difference in local causes through their Blue Ribbon Cookbook. These stories remind us of the spiritual strength and positive outlook that have carried us forward, even in the toughest times.
Music has always been a source of comfort, and discovering Waylon Jennings' "Old Church Hymns and Nursery Rhymes" brought new meaning to my journey. This lesser-known track has become the soundtrack of our podcast, echoing themes of returning to roots and cherishing life’s simple moments. Through nostalgic reflections, we explore the wisdom and joy found in familiar songs and cherished memories. With deep gratitude for the courage and friendship of Lori Schrek and Lori Auger-Dahlman, this episode aims to inspire and support others affected by cancer, serving as a reminder of the strength found in community and shared stories.
Blow on your restless wind. Up to your old tricks again. Up to your old tricks again. Look how far I had to come To get back where.
Speaker 1:I started from.
Speaker 3:All righty, then here we go with another episode of Turn the Page Hope Through the Storm. I am Brad Williams. This is a Brad Williams production. And what day are we at? Today? It is Tuesday and on the set list today from Studio B, I'm three weeks out from my last chemo treatment where I rang the bell.
Speaker 3:Two really good friends of mine who are no stranger to the battle of cancer, lori Shrek and Lori Auger, lori Dahlman, lori Shrek, I still call you Lori Farber. So Dahlman. Lori Schreck, I still call you Lori Farber. So I hope that's okay. And yeah, and I did talk with both of these gals, very good friends, went to school together over in Motley back in the day and, yeah, I'm going to. I guess I'm going to reference both gals here in today's episode.
Speaker 3:Also, I want to give a little shout out to the 4-H Event Center, friends of Wadena County Youth, their Facebook page. There is a cookbook fundraiser going on and as they try to meet their goal of $500,000, they're getting close. But you know that when we talked with the two Dans, dan Scogin and Dan Sartell, last week, that last hurdle can be kind of a tough one to get over on fundraising Kind of a tough one to get over on fundraising. So we're trying to help that effort out as well, because the 4-H event center is it's I tell you what. I had my cancer benefit there and I really, you know, one of the reasons we decided to have it there was because to give the event center some exposure as they raise funds for improvements out there and not only use that for the 4-H group here locally but also for folks that maybe want to use that for an event weddings, family reunions, birthdays, whatever little soirees, get-togethers. You know what I'm saying, and so that's kind of where we're going to be on today's episode.
Speaker 3:For some reason I talked with Callie and Mariah, both on my oncology team over at Lakewood Health earlier, and for some reason I thought today I was a month out, but I'm three weeks out from my final treatment, my, uh, my last chemotherapy. So, uh, anyway, just uh, very grateful for every day, every breath you take, uh that kind of thing. And, um, anyway, I, both of these gals that I'm going to reference here today, have both troopers. They have been in the face of cancer and I admire both of them for their journey and I just want to thank them first of all for the conversation I had on the phone earlier with both of them, and then also I want to thank them for being so brave, so courageous and fighting the good fight, and it's ongoing, it's daily, and once you are in the cancer family, as they say, you're never out of it. And these two ladies are nothing short of what I consider a blessing to have in my life and just such an inspiration in their own right as well. So I'm going to get to Lori Shrek, lori Farber, first, right as well. So I'm going to get to Lori Shrek, lori Farber, first, because she had we had messaged each other on Bookface and I knew that she had.
Speaker 3:She had a battle with cancer here a few years back and then another battle with the I'm not going to talk in specifics here, but another round of cancer that came back, not the same cancer, same category of cancer, but not the exact specific cancer. And I'll tell you what, what she has been through, and I'll tell you what what she has been through. And we talked on the phone how you know, how you want to. You're wondering why me, what did I do that kind of thing? Those are all real things and they're all you know. You don't have to apologize for them. But they're all things that as we go through the game of life here, probably in many instances, we question. Maybe we question God and what is going on here and why is it going on, and that kind of thing.
Speaker 3:But I just had a tremendous conversation with Lori Schreck and how she was a waitress at Mr Ed's restaurant forever and ever and ever, then over at the countryside for a while and a 40 plus year career in waitressing. Anybody that was ever especially at Ed's over the years knows Lori and just a smile on her face and a tremendous joy to be around and give a little grief to and she could dish it right back to you that kind of thing. But she had to undergo, you know, facing cancer and the whole thing and getting through it and then getting beyond it, perhaps to speak, and then BAM, here it is again and I it's a heck of a thing to have to deal with it once. It's really a heck of a thing to have to go through it twice. So I just want to thank you, lori Schreck, for taking time out, allowing me to use you as a reference point, because one of the conversations we had was talking about my podcast and that kind of thing, and I've had people, a lot of people, tell me since I started doing these here a few weeks ago um, just how you know how it's an inspiration to some, uh, how some, uh, you know, I've had perfect strangers that have listened to it, that have applauded me for doing it. It is my way of, I guess, giving back, because I sometimes don't know how to shut my trap and I really believe a 30 plus year broadcast career in radio and I really think this is what I was meant to do right here doing this, talking about my journey and how my journey brings in other people. And these two individuals, these two ladies I just tip my hat to and thank the world of both of them and some of you listening are going to know both of them and some of you listening are maybe not going to know who I'm talking about, but I just again wanted to thank them for just sharing their experience with me a little bit on the phone today and then, I don't know, I kind of threw an invitation out to both of them to maybe join me on a podcast. I would love to do that to both of them to maybe join me on a podcast. I would love to do that and, like I said, my messaging with Lori Shrek was you know what I'm doing here, but also what she's doing is very relatable too, because she is helping those out that are battling cancer right now, currently, that are scared to death of you know, maybe that appointment or whatever it might be, and she has been a shoulder for those folks to lean on and she's giving back in her way and I just applaud her for that.
Speaker 3:So I think you know, I told her today those, what we do and how we do it and how we pay it forward. In her words is they might be aligned up. The trajectory, might you know, is the same, but how they line up might be a little bit differently, but the ultimate, the end game is, you know, she's helping out too, in every way that she can, and it's awesome. So I found out she's, after 40 years waitressing, she's working at Mid-Minnesota Federal Credit Union in their Staples location and she's surrounded by a good bunch over there. So she's been there. It'll be a year, she said, coming up in December. So congrats to you on that one, lori, and thank you. Like I said, thank you for sharing, you know, your journey with me a little bit here earlier on the phone, and then also, I just want to. I want to reference because my both of my parents passed away from cancer my dad in 99, from colon cancer, my mom in 2014. And Lori and some of the folks over there involved with the Staples area Relay for Life certainly have recognized both of my parents in that regard. So I want to show you my appreciation on that side as well. Okay, and so here we go On to. So thank you, lori Shrek.
Speaker 3:On to Lori Auger I used to call her Auger in high school, so I haven't talked to her. I can't even tell you when. The last time I talked with her. It's been a long time. Uh, we've had a chance to message back and forth and, uh, today we were able to hook up, to hook up on the phone and just had a great conversation. She, without getting into too many details, but she had messaged me when she saw when I was sharing information about the benefit that the community and my family and friends and community had for myself and Dana here back in October, on October the 12th.
Speaker 3:But Lori had reached out almost right away and said that she had battled the exact same type of cancer as me, the exact same type of cancer as me, and we messaged a little bit. And today I was, you know, as I'm getting to get away from the chemo brain a little bit, although I'm not exactly away from it completely yet and it is a thing let me tell you. And for those that have experienced that, you know exactly what I'm saying. But I just wanted to reach out to her and talk about her story a little bit and listen to her journey. But I tell you what you know there are times when you think you know, you might, you know, say, like I know how I felt when I first was diagnosed and just how internally, how I was trying to process everything. And I tell you what Lori went through some things not only with cancer but some life things that really you could say were legit, like you're raising your hand, like what the heck? And I'll tell you what I admire her for sharing with me.
Speaker 3:So we both were diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and how you go into that and how you deal with the treatments, and it's different for everybody, like there's no two that are identical and I'm convinced of that I mean the different, different side effects and how it uh, you know the, the different setbacks within that Um and uh, anyway, I just uh, lori Auger, you, uh, you've been through a heck of a thing as well, and so I hope both of these gals that are good friends of mine can at some point going forward. We can figure out a way to sit down with each of them individually and turn it into a little bit of a cancer journey, but maybe have a little fun in the meanwhile as well, maybe tell some crazy old stories. I don't know, who knows, was there anything that we did back in the day that shouldn't be public knowledge On the worldwide podcast world? I don't know, maybe, maybe. So, anyway, I just wanted to just applaud both of those ladies and, uh, if anybody's listening to this and um, and you are a believer of god and the lord jesus christ, like I am, uh, keep these two ladies in your prayers, um for sure, okay, uh, 4-h event center.
Speaker 3:Um, here's a cool thing and I want to bring this up because this is just an awesome way that uh, that maybe you can do a little Christmas, christmas, um, gift giving if you're so inclined. Friends of Wadena County Youth on Facebook. That's a page, okay. So on there, if you go to that page, give that page a like. They would appreciate that and you don't have to scroll down too far. But here it is. This was on October 17th.
Speaker 3:Looking for a Christmas gift idea Order a blue ribbon cookbook. They're only $20 each and there are recipes in here from a lot of locals, a lot of locals. That's all I'm going to say about that. But but 250 award-winning recipes, right? And if you like cooking, I love cooking. Matter of fact, when I get done with this, I got to whip up a brine for a turkey for Thanksgiving Day. We're going to get to being thankful here in just a little bit as well. So you can pre-order $20. All proceeds are used to purchase kitchen equipment for the Wadena County 4-H building. Okay, and let's see here. I think they're saying mid-December the cookbooks will be available for delivery and it's a great gift-giving idea. And I talked with Julia Snyder, who's on that committee also to help fundraise and that kind of thing over there, and she had sent me a message via text and there is also a link on there. If you go to the Friends of Wadena County Youth, you can find it, but it's. Wadena. Elks Lodge is helping out too by being an online order form online Elks-4-H-Cookbookwebflowio. But, like I said, go to the link on the friends of Wadena County youth. Okay, help them out if you can and find some mighty fine recipes in there, okay. So that's kind of a cool thing and I just wanted to give those guys a shout out here on turn the page, hope through Through the Storm and giving thanks.
Speaker 3:It's Thanksgiving and I've been one since my diagnosis in July of B-cell lymphoma. I've really tried to put this whole thing into perspective and I've got my mind and my body and my soul in a good place, not only spiritually, that's first and foremost, but mentally, physically, I feel so much better and I've had a couple setbacks here and there, but, like I told Callie my, the gal who checks on me on the social side of Lakewood Health on through the oncology, that I don't even want to complain about it, and I told Mariah Neiman that same thing today as well. But I'm in a good spot and I think in my situation I consider it more of a blessing than anything, and I really do, and I, you know, like I've said, I'm going to underscore this. Yeah, sure you can say that now you've rang the bell and you're on your way. I don't know that anybody with any form of cancer in any stage can really say that you know what I'm saying. I mean you always, you'll always, it'll be part of you one way or the other.
Speaker 3:And how many of us know somebody that's been affected by cancer? How many of us have lost loved ones or friends or you know, uh, from family members to coworkers to you name it, all of us in it? Um, I don't. So for me, my, the blessing part of it for me is where it really hit me at a time in my life where it, um, really woke me up, really woke me up, um and um, I thought I was in a pretty good spot with God and I'm realizing that I don't necessarily think that was the case because it really put me in tune with Jesus. And I'm not here to you know, to thump that one way or the other for somebody. I mean, I acknowledge it here and I'm so appreciative of what God has done in my life through this and I'm forever grateful for that. And just for me, it's just.
Speaker 3:The blessing part of it is, um, understanding life a little bit and figuring stuff out, figuring out what is worth it and what isn't, because, um, there's a list on both sides and that was kind of one of the things with me, uh, regardless, and I told Lori, uh, lori Shrek, earlier today I said, you know, I'm okay if it ends tonight or tomorrow, and I'm also okay if it goes 5, 10, 15, or 20 more years, I don't know, but within that, anybody that's ever had to deal with any kind of tragedy or any kind of life-changing event it's with you. And so that's kind of how I look at it and just so grateful for my family, my friends, my community, those in and around Wadena and Deer Creek that I've got to know over the years, but also my brother and my two sisters and friends, like the two Lorries that I've spoke of here today. So, yeah, I'm thankful, especially this time of the year, for some of the things, that's, the positives that it's done in my life, and I just just wanted to share that with everybody. And as we go into Thanksgiving, you know, if you're, I lost my parents my dad in ninety nine to colon cancer I've referenced that before my mom in 2014 to ovarian cancer and and uh, you know if you're listening to this right now and you have both parents or one, uh, hang on to them as tight as you can. Um, because, uh, I'll tell you what and I I see it from people that have maybe lost their parent recently or within the last year or two or whatever, and you know the thing that Facebook does I like to share memories and different pictures of both of my parents, and I'll tell you what. When you've got them, appreciate it as much as you can, be thankful for them. But not only that.
Speaker 3:On this thanksgiving week, here, just kindness counts, and you know, the name of this podcast is hope through the storm. But like a message or I was talking to laurar earlier that storm might be. You know, how am I going to get to payday, or how am I going to get my truck fixed, or how am I going to get new tires, or how am I going to get brakes on my vehicle, or how am I going to get to my kid's event? You know, it could be anything. It might be cancer too. It might be cancer too, and uh.
Speaker 3:So within that, I just say the for me personally, I guess I'm so thankful for just being, uh, being able to talk about this stuff. I'm grateful every day, for sure. And uh, yet within that, there are things that I do where I say to myself you know, I can be better than that, I can be a better person than that, and I just am grateful and thankful for the mindset to be aware of those instances as well. And that's kind of where we're going to let this one hang. I hope everybody has a tremendous Thanksgiving with your family, friends. Whatever you're doing, if you're traveling or if you're hosting or whatever you're doing, may God be with you and hope you have a great meal and are able to look at the things that we can all be thankful for. And life can kind of suck at times and life can be pretty cool at times too, and with that I hope it's pretty cool for you and your family and friends. And whatever you got cooking no pun intended for Thanksgiving Mashed taters and gravy and turkey and pumpkin pie and all that good stuff, right, okay, I've had people ask me where are we at on time here, bradley, we're getting there, we're getting there.
Speaker 3:I wanted to kind of keep this one to close to a half an hour here. So the music that I use at the beginning and the end of my podcast, especially typically at the end, I chose the music bed from a song that has just stuck with me from my radio days, and it's it's a Waylon tune old church hymns and nursery rhymes. So let me tell you the backstory to that. I was, I thought I had, I knew, everything about Waylon Jennings that anybody could possibly ever know, uh, which includes all of his music, right? Um, and it turns out I don't know when this was probably, uh, oh, if I had to put a year on it, I would guess this to be around 2016, maybe 2017.
Speaker 3:And it was on a Wayland Wednesday thing, and I challenged the listening audience to see if they could come up with a song that would test my ability. And there was a gal. I don't remember her name. I do remember the phone call. I remember she was from Park Rapids, and so I put a. You know, if you got a Waylon request, hit me up, right. And so the phone rings, I answered it and she said could you please play old church hymns and nursery rhymes? And I'm like what in the world are you talking about? Never heard of the tune, but I didn't want to let her know that I didn't know right, because you're supposed to be. This is your game, it's your thing, it's you know. You do this every week and somebody requests a tune by Waylon by golly, I'm going to play it. So I said, sure enough, we'll get right on it, hung the phone up and I'm like, oh my goodness, I am so screwed right now because I'd never heard of the song.
Speaker 3:And I'm looking through everything, everything that I had on CD, even vinyl, everything in the computer. I am looking and looking and looking and I am coming up blank and, um, all of a sudden I look over and, uh, danvers and myself used to have a, a CD rack in the studio that had just certain CD songs on it, and by this time we're playing digital music right out of the computer. Right out of it was a Mac system, or was it. By then Maybe we had went to the new Zetta system, can't remember, but either way, all the music was in the system, in the computer. You just do a keyword search and boom, there it would come, and anyway I couldn't find it anywhere.
Speaker 3:So I look over on this small rack of CDs that Mike Danvers and I used occasionally, and there were some different things in there. There was like some John Barry stuff and I remember we had some like vintage Johnny Cash in there and some Merle and you know all the good stuff. Sawyer Brown had some stuff in there and and I'm going, I'm like just glancing over and at the very end I see this CD and it's titled uh Waylon. I pull the CD out and it's an album called the Eagle and I'm looking at the uh, I'm looking at the uh CD and I look on there and I'm looking at the CD and I look on there and I don't remember if it was the last song on there or not. I kind of think it was, but there it was as big as God, old church hymns and nursery rhymes and I'm like coming right up. But that's the true story. And then when I listened to the song, I just it just melted me. Um, and there's a line in there that I use on this podcast Um, look at how far we've come to get back to where we've started from. And uh, for me that's uh, that's kind of where I'm at with everything. And so here you go.
Speaker 3:Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. Thank you both, lori Shrek, lori Auger-Dahlman, and two good friends. Hopefully I can sit down with you, ladies, as we go forward and talk about cancer on your level and share your stories, and if one person, if this helps one single person, then it's mission accomplished and that's really what I had kind of set out to do and it's my way of giving back and I enjoy doing it. Doing the podcast is good for my soul also, and so I want to thank those ladies for that. Happy Thanksgiving. You have been listening to Turn the Page Hope Through the Storm here on a Thanksgiving week. I'll leave you with my buddy, waylon.
Speaker 2:Blow off your restless wind. Up to your old tricks again. Bear down you Texas sun. You make the deserts dry and the brush fires run.
Speaker 1:Splintered wood rusty chain.
Speaker 2:This old front porch swing remains. The pendulum of memory goes back and forth on a summer breeze Singing old church hymns and nursery rhymes From the days way back before my time, with the little child upon my knees, singing every sweet word back to me. Look how far I had to come To get back where I started from. With a child's wisdom passing time Singing old church hymns and nursery rhymes.
Speaker 1:I've run the rings.
Speaker 2:I've walked the wild, I've paid the price of my desire, and the only time I've known it all Was just before I took a fall. So how'd you lone coyote, soar and fade the sapphire sky at dawn. Fade the sapphire sky at dawn. Count me in the lucky man To send the world around again, singin' old church hymns and nursery rhymes From the days way back before my time, with the little child upon my knee.
Speaker 2:Singing every sweet word back to me. Look how far I had to come To get back where I started from With the child's wisdom, passing time, singing old church hymns and nursery rhymes Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm. Thank you.
