The Village That Holds Us | Ep. 5

They say it takes a village — but what does that really mean?

In this episode, we reflect on the people who show up for us in ways big and small. The ones who step in, lift us up, and remind us we’re never doing this alone. From family to friendships to the unexpected support along the way, this is about the village that holds us through it all.

Because sometimes, it’s not about having everything figured out…

it’s about having people who help you through it.

Got a story, question, opinion, or just want to say hi? Send it in and it might be featured in a future episode.

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This is Worth The Walk.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You have people who come into your life for a reason. A reason, a season, and a lifetime. Welcome to a space where we talk about the journey. Every twist, every triumph, every moment that shaped who we are today. Here we explore the paths that women walk on their journey to motherhood, identity, and everything in between. These are the stories that change us, the moments that ground us, the truths we don't talk out loud nearly enough. If you're searching for connection, comfort, conversation, a couple of good laughs, you're in the right place. This is worth the walk. Let's begin. So Cher. Hello, how are you? Hi, Claudette, doing wonderful. I know. We're doing great here, as a matter of fact. It's six degrees outside. I can see blue sky. I can see no rain in the immediate future. I have my grandson sitting right beside me. I mean, if we're talking gratitude, I mean, I don't know what else I could ask for at all. Nothing. What about you?

SPEAKER_01 1:28

I'm super happy he's here. I feel like we have an audience.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

And we do have it on. It's fun. We're performing for an audience. It is an audience of one, but we you know what? Small. You gotta start small and we're just growing. Hey, speaking of starting small, we recorded like the best episode we've ever had in our entire life. I mean, we laughed for a good 20 minutes. I had tears. Like it was great. And we would have published it today, because today is actually Easter Monday. However, there was a slight hip hiccup. Okay. My mic was on backwards. We had two feedbacks, couldn't hear anything. I put all the mics actually on you, not me. So I didn't even attend my own podcast, just you. That was it. But we laughed and we laughed and we laughed. But then I came to your house. I had a moment of sheer breakdown, only lasted five minutes. And then I came out the other side and I acknowledged this full engineering degree that I'm working on, I've been at for about two months. So, you know, those lines and the equalizers and you know, that whole stuff. I don't actually because it's confusing just to look at it.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

So I think you're doing a smash up job.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

So we're looking at it now, and my wave is two times larger than yours. So ready? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

So I mean, I'm quite confident that what I'm putting out is being picked up. What you're putting out is being put Dan. I'm quite confident. We just had a really, really great call with Dan.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Producer Dan? I'm I mean, look. Like, what do we say? Like, how much gratitude can we give to producer Dan?

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Gratitude there.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Like literally hands the mail. Call it his boss and say he's in a point.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Should we do that?

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Should we should we publicize that? No, we don't. No. That didn't actually happen. No. So produce Dan, delete that little blotter. Dan, we don't want to do that. All his own personal time. It was only on his own time, not when he worked. Exactly. We got that.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

So here we are today.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

It was a really, really good episode in the way that we um we cover and here, just to be frank and honest, we're actually going to cover off the sim the same topic today because of the um it's fitting. It's fitting for the time of year. It's fitting for you know what we're going through right now with having families visiting for you know occasions. And then it's just fitting because um I think we all rely and we all call in people into our our village. So that's kind of what we're going, and the direction we're going today is talking about um the village. Our village people.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

So I wish everybody uh good luck getting through this because we hope that it is the same greatest quality that we put out first time. Well, last last last podcast was phenomenal quality, and we only produce great quality from here on in. That's right. We're taking it we've set a standard now. We've got our bar, our bar has been set. And we can only go above it from now on. We can't go below it. All right, so hence we deleted the laughter. All right. However, we're going to still talk the topic.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

So I just need to mention though, before the episode started the last time, I was sitting here and it was very dry. So I had a drink of water. And before I left my house, I grabbed what I thought was chapstick and I go. Oh yeah, you gotta tell that one. Oops, we're on fire. So I'm what did I just put on my face? And it turns out it's uh by the way. It's called Fenty Heat Beauty. And uh, there's a plug for you. I don't think uh Rihanna needs that, but anyway, it's uh plumping lip gloss. Good God. Uh, it was burning and not in a good way. Like, what did I just do?

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Is there really a good way for there to be burning through your why would anybody do that on purpose? I don't.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

And I mean, my lips look great.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Your lips look beautiful, they just glow of pink and fabulous.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Beauty's pain. Oh my gosh. Anyway, no pain, no gain, baby. So that was how we started off last time. I just, you know, I feel like we're starting off on an equally good foot.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Today, just minus the burning phase. So the other part of that is I didn't know you could buy stuff to put on your lips to make your lips bigger. Like I didn't, I didn't so I learned that. I learned that this weekend. Yeah. So that that's something right there. Yeah. But that was hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

I mean, I I don't recommend it, and I'm not going to use it again. It was spicy or something.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

That's not an insult to the product. Yes. Just on the age and perhaps where we're sitting in life. I don't require my lips to be burning, to be pumped up in any way, shape, or form. Yeah. It was good. It was good. Anyway, we're we're on the we're on the right foot here today. We're doing fabulous. So today it is the village, everyone. So as I talk about the village, so we want to walk through it. So when we began this conversation on Saturday, oh Good Friday, wasn't it? I think it was as well. Um I started off by saying, like, the village isn't necessarily like our immediate family. It's not literally like the mom and the dad and the sister, the brother, and the cousins. Like it that is like a village that you hope that you're able to have, right? It's a village that you hope is close enough to give you the support. But there's millions who don't have that village right at hand. And they've created their own village. And it just happened naturally. And we talked about it how my village has changed in the, you know, the 40 years of having children and being from age 20 to age 60. So I started my village with John's family as we went through it simply because when I was giving birth and having my family, I lived in Ontario and John's immediate family was all around me. However, my village grew exponentially because of hockey and soccer and gymnastics and swimming and just uh unbelievably beautiful neighbors who were there to help me. I could not thank Darlene enough who shared the same driveway, and her son was close friends with Samantha. They were the same age and they were just born. And I can remember when I went in and had my hysterectomia and mom was gonna come and she came over and cleaned my house. I can remember one time when mom and dad were gonna come. This isn't gonna reflect very good on Claudette at this moment, but we're gonna share it because I had a neighbor who just stepped up and did everything. I went out the night before with some friends and consumed a ridiculous amount of wine. Some that was just not healthy. They were not good life choices, okay? However, mom and dad were arriving that day. She came in and she cleaned my house from top to bottom, helped me out, took care of the kids while I laid on that couch. Unwell. Of course she did. There is a village, right? So you've got people come around. And then we can talk about my closest friend in the entire world, Janet.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Oh, and you need to share. Just talk about how you and I've met Janet several times. We've actually vacationed together. Janet and her family had come and stayed at my home with you when you were before you lived here and everyone came down for a vacation here in Nova Scotia. We have enjoyed meeting her and her family so much. She's lovely. And she's the tiniest little Irish woman. She's just the sweetest.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

She's the kindest, the kindest, sweetest human around. Tell me how you're. Please do. It reflects. Now remember, I've told you I am not the same person. We've had this go back, everybody, a few episodes where I said I am not the same person I was 40 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Lots of evolution.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

I've I've grown, I've done some introspect, I have studied a great deal on meditation and internal growth and emotional intelligence.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

I got it. Okay. So the story reflects it.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

And I believe you. Okay, I do. Janet's gonna sit there and say, Yeah, you didn't say enough about the story. So I'm gonna give it from my perspective. Believe me, when I have Janet on the phone, she will tell you different. Okay, here we go. So my kids were babysat or cared for by John's mom, Gloria. Um, and she lived on a little culvert and all the names. Cal de sac. Cal-de-sac. Yes. Not a culvert. No, not a culvert. Okay. No. She did not live in a culvert. She lived in a cul-de-sac. Oh my gracious. Let's try that again. Okay. So all the neighbors knew each other. They knew them all and they knew them well. Okay. So I would leave Samantha and Matthew with their grandmother. She cared for them and loved them, and every child and the whole neighborhood would always be at Gloria's house. She had the cookies, she had the treats, and she had the patience of a saint. All right. So I come this one day to pick the kids up, and I came a little bit early, and I showed up at Gloria's staff and I said, Where's Matthew? And Gloria says to me, Matthew's overplaying in the basement at the neighbor across the street. Well, I mean, there's this irate, you know, kind of 35-year-old nutcase going, my child's in the house of somebody I don't even know. In a basement. In a basement of someone I've never even met before. So there's Claudette, just a prouncing across the street, her stiletto's a mini skirt, just a woof woof, and knocking on the door. And there's little Janet answered, sweet, kind. Like she is, like I call her five foot nothing, but I mean she I think she says she's 5'1, but she's not. And she says, Hi, right smiley, sweet. I said, It's my son in your house. Her face went as blank as anything. And she said, Yes. I said, Is he down on the basement? Yes. Could you have my son up here, please? She's just looking at me. She's just terrified, right? Matthew comes and greets me and loves me, and he's just like, This is Sarah, and this is David, and this is my best friend, and all of this sort of stuff. And I started to look at her and I realized, oh my God, I have terrified this woman beyond belief. And I looked and I said, They're lovely people. Hi, I'm Claudette. How are you?

unknown 11:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

I reeled that sucker right back in, but I scared the life right out of it.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

And fast forward like 30 years.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

35? 35. Well, 30, 32 years, right? 32 years. Because she's Samantha's godmother. That's right. So yeah. Fast forward. And I have the best friend that God has ever granted any human on the face of the earth.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

You need those relationships. You need those um people in your village. You need those village people, as we want to know. We said we were not gonna YWCA today. Um, but you need you need those friendships, and I just I've had lots of those as well, like those, not so much where I've gone over to accost my neighbors, not I didn't cost.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

I have hyperade with those experiences.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

But I have had um like so my friend Dorinda, of course, and Avery and Sean have been best friends since they were infants, like before their first birthday. And Avery's going to be 27 in a in a couple of weeks. So, you know, Dorinda was the first person who ever reached out to me, invited me to a mom and baby group, and I just kind of our relationship grew through there. But and then our kids were involved in sports. Charles coached for 20 plus years. So we've met so many people through that. And having your kids involved in organized sport, I find we all take turns picking up, dropping off. You get together for away games, away tournaments. You're you're getting together for all these, you know, sport-related events, which makes you grow closer to those families. And some of those are my best friends today. So those are great people that we had in our village. So if I kind of look at my life now, and you're right, things change and you evolve. And the people who and I love what you said when we were speaking on Friday is the villa is that you have people who come into your life for a reason.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

A reason, a season, and a lifetime. Yeah. So for me, I've got so many people that helped me in my twenties and my thirties and my forties, but they're not there now, right? But I couldn't have lived without them at the time. They taught me something, they gave me something. So there are people that come in for a season, which would be those years that we talked about, right? So from the hockey season, right? I I'm I mean, I know a lot of them, I know the lot from their school, but I'm not in touch with them today, right? They've gone their journey now and I've gone mine. And there's some that have come in for a reason. They come to t teach you something. So they've just come in for a moment, gave you a little bit of insight on who you were and what you should do, how you should act and how you shouldn't act, right? Or or just to teach you something. So there's the reason, the season, and then the lifetime.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Giving something to them. Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

It is a two-way street for the reason, season, and lifetime. Absolutely two-way. And the lifetime are those such as my Janet, right? And so I talk about Romanna, right? So she is uh the mother of Samantha's friend, and they met when they were just infants. Romanna took care of Matthew and Samantha for a while. Um, Romanna and I did a great deal of things together as parents to young girls, right? And uh now I don't talk to Romanna maybe once a year, right? Uh every Halloween she would drop by with her girls in these phenomenally excellent costumes that they would all work on together. You just thought she was amazing. Right. But again, it's that season, right? She comes in and I've known her my like easily 32 years I've known her, right? And uh, you know, but it's she just touches in and she touches out. So there's all of those people that come and go, but they're there for a very specific reason, and you just love it, right? You have to make sure that um you appreciate all of them. And sometimes you don't appreciate it until it's over, right? And that's that reason until they're gone, and you think, oh my gracious, okay. What was that? Oh right. Yeah, okay. So I I was supposed to have that person enter and then leave, and I needed it to find out who I actually was as a parent, as a mother, as a as a woman, as a sister, as whatever.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

So I have a group of friends that uh and you got to meet a lot of them when you oh they birthday party. When I have and those are a group of friends that I think so much of. I've got such a such great memories because we knew each other at a at a time in our life when we were in high school. We were doing all those things, you know, that teenagers do and making all the mistakes that teenagers make, and we made them all together and we were had such a good time. We were we were really good kids actually. And we'd only see each other or connect some of them once every five years. Uh, and then it's that type of friendship where you can pick up like you just saw each other last week.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

You 30 years passed, and then you've seen each other, and it's just like nothing changed. Like nothing changed.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

We were just dancing in the kitchen like it was and laughing so hard.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

I've never, I mean, I was just dying laughing. That was they were beautiful people.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Yeah, really, really, really great. Um Yeah, I find Jan and I, we we make a point to touch bass often. Every couple of months, or maybe once every few months. We'll send each other a little note or a text, or um, we'll kind of catch up that way. We don't see each other in person as often as we'd like to, I think. Um, but those are those types of friendships too. You just you you connect after a while. I I want to just touch two just on our book club gals. I just gotta throw this out there.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

I love them. I do too. So I'm so glad they let me come into that group or welcomed me into the group. They were a well-established group before I got there.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

And they really opened up and made me feel welcome. They opened up the book club and invited me in. Thanks, Amanda, for that invite. Um, but for someone as who, like as a youth in my younger days and even as an adult, I'm not a team, I'm not a team player. No, I mean I'm a team player, but I've never did organized sports organized sports. I mean, you want to tell the story of my team sports? Oh gosh, your team sports.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

The only team one I was on?

SPEAKER_01 17:47

You did karate.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

No, that's individual.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

That's not team. What do I mean? Were you ever on a team? Yeah, I told you. Bowling? BBC I. Basketball. Oh, you gosh, she's five three. You did not play basketball. I didn't. I was the water girl.

unknown 17:59

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

I was on the team. I had a jersey. I was part of the team. You are part of the team. All those roles make up the team. Yeah, I wasn't willing to do any of that for any team. I was on a baseball team when I was like 12, and the uniforms are so horrendous. I decided never to go back again.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Go ahead with the book club because I I really want to shout out to them.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

They are so kind. They are so kind. I just and they're so great because they've sent us some notes about hearing the podcast too, and they've had such great feedback on the pod. So uh shout out to you, gals. I'm just anyway, for I don't feel like book clubs like my team. You know what I mean? I feel like I'm part of a team, and I love that about you know, book club, they just kind of invite you in and everyone talks and shares about um not just the books that we read, but we talk about our life and we share, and they've got so much, they're so interesting. Gosh, there's a really interesting group of gals. They're so great. Anyway, shout out to you guys. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

I appreciate them very much. So they shared a little bit with me as well, right? So when we go in there and I'm learning from them as well. So I'm thrilled that I'm part of that. So when we talk about our village, our village does not have to be that immediate relationship. It is those that you pull in that you can turn to for support. A village helps you. So Book Club helped me learn a little bit about some people in the neighborhood and and support for medical stuff that we talked about. You know, the I'm not ready to talk about it on here, however, but it was good company, good conversation. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

You were gonna drop that word to no. I was actually gonna tell a story about recently I was reading a doctor review because I was um I had a referral. I need to go into a clinic, okay, in in the city for like OBGYN. I'll just say that. That's better. Thank you. OBGYN. And so I have a referral to go to this doctor, and I thought, ah, I've never heard of the doctor. I'm gonna do a review. And several doctors came up in the same field, and one of the comments, so you know how people can go and rate them.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Oh, yes, yes, you can you can review comments on the doctors, you can. I know.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

I know. Somebody wrote, somebody wrote, I just want to say, children are a luxury item. Children are a luxury. Children are a luxury item and I don't recommend them. You're kidding. I'm not. I'm not. I mean, they're not wrong. They're super expensive. But at the same time, I'm like, I don't know. That comment was unnecessary. It wasn't in in response to any particular boy. Yeah, they're luxury items and I don't recommend them. So I'm just like, okay, I'm just gonna file that away because I guarantee it's gonna come up at some point where I can throw that at the end. Put that in the backstory. Yep. Anyway, so I totally didn't mean to go off track. That's okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

So when we talk about the village, I'm going back to the village again, all the people around us, everything that we touch in our life, and somewhere we can turn to for support. So there are so many items out there, right? When we talk about uh support. For me, uh I in my 20s and my 30s, I don't know what I would have done without John's family. I just I honestly don't know. They were everything for me. And not that my family wasn't, but I lived 1700 kilometers away from my family. And John's family was my family. And if you think about the cousins that John has, which is Dan's mother and father, producer Dan, that is, um, and their sisters and brothers, I I I thought of them as my own, right? There wasn't anything that they wouldn't do for us. They were so kind and beautiful and caring. And Dan has got a sister, Katie. And they are very, very close with Matthew and Samantha, very age wise in that area. And I just always thought of them as like mine, right? So they were my niece and my nephew. I mean, they're cousins and second cousins. And everything, but I literally thought of them as mine. Everywhere I went, if I was going to take them, I took them, right? Everything we do, I always invite them. Every party, every celebration, every single boxing day for the last 30 some odd years has been at my house, right? They are my my lifeline. Like they are my family, and that is my village. And I can't thank you know Pam enough to help me in some situations where she just jumped right in and gave me support. And there's Arlene, who's just crafty and brilliant and an excellent cook and so kind and thoughtful. And Shelly and Art, I mean, they have a cottage and they're welcoming, inviting, and loving. Like there's just not enough verbs, nouns, and adjectives out there that I can throw into a sentence to say, uh, this is my family, and that was my village. Now I've moved and I've come down here. My village is different down here. So I'm making a new type of village down here.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Well, it must be hard. We haven't really talked a lot about that. It might be a bit difficult because you're you're not losing those folks because of a season of it. You're really removed yourself, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

And I moved down, and they're still there. I mean, you know, Janet and I I mean still can talk for an hour, if not two, about anything happening in the entire world at any space in my life, and she's always there. And as for, you know, Shelly and you know, Tony and Michelle, which is John's brother and his wife. I mean, I I could, I could do any moment in life I could pick up and call and say, Mish, I need you. Blah, blah, blah. I mean, she's all ears, she's right there to help. So all of that stuff is all there. It didn't go anywhere. But my new village down here, I'm trying to create. Obviously, I've got, you know, you guys got my family. They're right here. That's super. And then, of course, I've joined a uh writing club, I've joined a book club, um, I've met my neighbors who live up the street, who's given me recipes for rhubarb, something or other that I'm actually going to try to bake.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Love that.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

I know, because you know how fabulous I am at baking.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

And your garden's going to be fantastic this year.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Well, because the my gardener who's sitting directly across from me is going to help me with my flowers that were starting actually very, very soon because I've got all my stuff all ready to go, which I've ordered from uh Vassies. Vassies, you know. Vessies, right? And I shout out to that company because they are absolutely amazing. They're the seeds I got. I'm I'm I'm so excited. I can't even. They're a powerhouse. I'm not sure they need the shout-out. I'm sure they don't. However, I'm just saying everybody gets a catalog. Yeah. Everybody gets a catalog. Yeah. They are phenomenal. Absolutely amazing. So my village is beginning, and I'm happy with it. And then the other side of that is the people that I moved down here to be a manager of, of which I'm no longer a manager. I'm now a retired person. I get to pull in those people. So I have Beth, who lives out in Halifax, and I mean she is kind and caring and sweet, and I love talking to her, right? Now we haven't had the opportunity to sit down and talk as personal friends, because I had to kind of draw that line. I was always scared of crossing the line of manager and friend. And then some employ other employee that I had, because I mean, at points I had up to 50 employees, right? And I I liked all. They were all good acquaintances, but some I really, really cared for. I now can pull them in, right? And I can have them as part of my group, and I can share personal and we can share good information. I mean, I've got Michelle who lives out in Alberta, but I can't wait to start to pull her in now. Because this is how as you get older you meet a different group or type of people because as I told you, I have matured emotionally. You have really matured. I've looked inward and I'm able to see how I project to other people.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

How wise of you.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

I know I know I've been able to table my ego to say, okay, I don't need to win this, I can have that go to the side. All kinds of growth that has happened.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

So with my work, I've always kept a pretty fine line. Not a fine line, I've drawn a hard line actually between my personal and professional. I've worked with um some of the same people for 30 years. They've been there longer than I have. And I recently had a dinner with co-workers who are retired now, uh, that have or decided to move on to a different career. And we got together uh for a dinner a couple weeks ago. And we sat for two hours. We just uh poor waiter, we kept having to say, sorry, we're not ready. We're not ready just yet. Couple more minutes, please. And after two hours, we stood up to say goodbye to one another and we realized we hadn't spoke about how we know each other, which is our work. We hadn't spoken about work the entire time. We talked about everything else in between, and I just think that what a great indicator of having people you can just sit and because you talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

It's nice that so there's people that you met at work that were very nice and kind and you liked them. But really the only, you know, commonality or the joining conversation was the work environment. And you did but then I had met others that I got to speak about their life and their family and hardship or joy, uh some personal things that they would be going through that I could really relate to. And I thought, oh, these are kind people that I hope that I can pull in further in my life, right? When I when it's got nothing to do with business, and I don't want to be uh somebody saying that well, you gave that person more attention because you like them better, right? So you always had to keep it as professional. But now I've got them and I know that I can speak openly with them about my you know, my life, my journeys, and all the other things going on.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

I feel like Charles has uh I mean his uh village is my village, obviously, but he also has so many extra um people that he has in his life too. I find because he's such an I don't know if he's extrovert's the right word. He's definitely uh like he loves people and loves stories. So he has an extrovert is.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

I watch him in a crowd, he's good. I watch him speak with people with confidence. But maybe not an over-the-top extrovert, you know, needing to be the center of, but he's definitely free and approachable. Yeah, he's like a magnet.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

Yes, and so when he would be coaching, so for instance, I would come to the game, and of course, he would be gone early, and he would pick up all of the our children going to practice, plus he'd pick up all the neighborhood kids that we could fit in with gear and and people in the van and then go to practice and get everything set up. And then I would go later to watch, not so much practices, but games, I would go and show up later. They'd have to be there so early, and then I would go. So I would be walking in and I'd be kind of by myself. And so I most often I would just kind of sit alone and like not really interact. But then it's those moms that you kind of they know, like, oh, get, you know, we'll go over and sit with Sherry or we'll, you know, it kind of brought me into the circle. Charles is kind of what I'm trying to say is he's kind of brought me into a lot of circles that I now consider really, really great friends because of the, because of his what he would be doing and getting out into the world and doing all the extracurricular things that I kind of like I'm now adopted into those and I've connected with so many of those moms. Yeah, that's great. The way I I have I'm very, very fortunate. I feel like I've got a wonderful group of support people. And we're just back on Charles with Kate Breton is one of my closest friends in Kate Breton, Janice, who would have been one of the very first friends I would have made when Charles and I started dating. And uh oh, her family and just the way they live, I just love their lifestyle. But they've just got such fantastic kids and they're so clever and they've got these wonderful businesses and super, super interesting. And so Janice really brought us into into brought me in anyway, welcomed me in. And we don't talk, also we don't connect um as often probably as I'd like or as we should. And but when we do, it's kind of like picking up where we've never really lost a beat and we can connect and and share about our families, all that all over.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Lifetime Yeah, yeah, yeah, Janice. So I go go back to it again. Lifetime doesn't mean that you're speaking with them every single day. 100%. Lifetime just means that they're there for the rest of your life because they were just meant to be. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

Yeah, and you don't have to even say it. You don't have to, it's just an understanding is I get you. And when you're when we have time or when you have time, and I have time, and we can share our time together, then we'll make use of that. But it doesn't have to be, uh it doesn't have to be said or spoken or set or scheduled.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

It's just is. So for everybody out there, you know, find out who your village is, right? And use them for all the right reasons. Find out who your village people are. You gotta stop it, right? You just have to. It just doesn't, it doesn't call for it doesn't. Please give us feedback and tell her it does not call for the village people. It does not. And before I even move one more step closer, we are gonna talk about how you want to name the people who follow us.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

Gosh, we've had such wonderful feedback about the people who have been, oh, I heard the podcast, or I've heard episode one and two. I can't wait to hear three and four. Oh, this is okay. So I thought, oh my goodness, we need, we have a little group, we have a little following. Like we should be the walkers. We have a walk. Don't it's like we have a walking group. We'll call ourselves the walkers.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

And I hope every person out there who I mean, I've heard that like so there's millions and millions of people who have watched The Walking Dead. Okay. I know the second thing. Let's call ourselves the walkers. I'm not walkers.

SPEAKER_01 31:57

I'm not a zombie. It was obviously the wrong choice of words. I understand that now. I get it now. I didn't hear it first. I didn't hear it when I first said it. I wasn't, I didn't get the reference. I do now. I do get the reference. Yeah, no walkers. I know. No, we're not we're not calling you walkers. Sorry. We're not, we're not doing it. It's not happening. We're not there. I'm skipped ahead. We'll wait a few more episodes and we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

We'll see what happens. We'll see. So, with that being said, I am so happy once again. Here we are, you and me, sitting and enjoying a beautiful day in our neighborhood. I am excited for our next episode. And Sherry, I know you're looking around for your words to say, you know, uh. So you're gonna wait now. I took her paper. It was on the desk of what she's supposed to say.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

I really want to do it. I know. I wanted to do better. She wanted to be feeling. I really wanted to sound professional.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

You know what? Listen, it's us. We're working our way through. Okay, everyone.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Thank you so much for episode five this week. We're so glad you took time out of your day to listen to us. Please follow us on all the socials that you can listen to our podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Send us a note, tell us what you'd like us to chat about at WordTheWalk Podcast2026 at gmail.com. And everybody have a fantastic day.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

Thank you, Cher. You did good. I'll get it taped to the desk. I'll even add a couple of good notes. Have a fantastic week, everybody. Can't wait to talk to you next week.