Every family has a story woven with triumphs and trials, but few resonate with the harmony and heartache of the Boone family. Our latest conversation with Lindy Boone, daughter of the beloved entertainer Pat Boone, is a melodic narrative of a life lived in the limelight, and the raw, unscripted moments that remind us of the tenacity of the human spirit. As Lindy takes us through the cherished memories and the familial bonds fortified by music and love, we quickly realize this episode is more than a mere recounting—it's a lesson in finding beauty amidst life's unforeseen challenges.
The Boone family's journey is marked by a gripping chapter that few could navigate with such grace: enduring the pain of Lindy's son Ryan's coma and subsequent struggle with traumatic brain injury. The Father's Day message that once brought joy now echoes as a testament to resilience, as Lindy shares how faith, community, and unyielding hope became their guiding light. It's here, in the midst of this profound adversity, that the seeds were sown for Ryan's Reach, a beacon for others grappling with similar fates and a reflection of a family's unwavering commitment to help and heal.
Navigating the intricate dance of public life and personal strife, the Boones have embraced their platform to advocate for those touched by brain injuries and to spread a message of hope that transcends their legacy of entertainment. In this episode, Lindy not only offers us a glimpse into the storied past of Beverly Hills and the Coach House performances, but also invites us to join in the celebration of her own creative endeavors and the monthly podcast aimed at supporting the TBI community. The music of the Boone family continues to inspire, and in sharing their symphony of struggles and success, they remind us of the power of unity and the enduring strength of the human spirit.
Thanks for listening! Follow us at youtube.com/c/skiphappens
Every family has a story woven with triumphs and trials, but few resonate with the harmony and heartache of the Boone family. Our latest conversation with Lindy Boone, daughter of the beloved entertainer Pat Boone, is a melodic narrative of a life lived in the limelight, and the raw, unscripted moments that remind us of the tenacity of the human spirit. As Lindy takes us through the cherished memories and the familial bonds fortified by music and love, we quickly realize this episode is more than a mere recounting—it's a lesson in finding beauty amidst life's unforeseen challenges.
The Boone family's journey is marked by a gripping chapter that few could navigate with such grace: enduring the pain of Lindy's son Ryan's coma and subsequent struggle with traumatic brain injury. The Father's Day message that once brought joy now echoes as a testament to resilience, as Lindy shares how faith, community, and unyielding hope became their guiding light. It's here, in the midst of this profound adversity, that the seeds were sown for Ryan's Reach, a beacon for others grappling with similar fates and a reflection of a family's unwavering commitment to help and heal.
Navigating the intricate dance of public life and personal strife, the Boones have embraced their platform to advocate for those touched by brain injuries and to spread a message of hope that transcends their legacy of entertainment. In this episode, Lindy not only offers us a glimpse into the storied past of Beverly Hills and the Coach House performances, but also invites us to join in the celebration of her own creative endeavors and the monthly podcast aimed at supporting the TBI community. The music of the Boone family continues to inspire, and in sharing their symphony of struggles and success, they remind us of the power of unity and the enduring strength of the human spirit.
Thanks for listening! Follow us at youtube.com/c/skiphappens
live. Here we go. Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of Skip Happens. My name is Skip Clark, I'm your host of Skip Happens and you know what? We have another great, just a great podcast for you tonight. It's something that's really going to warm your heart. Does the name Boone mean anything? You know? I say that because, obviously, we've had Pat Boone on with us a couple of times. Well, now we've gone a little bit further. We got one of his beautiful daughters here with us tonight, one of four, I believe Four daughters Yep, lindy Boone how are you, hi, skip, I'm doing very well.
Speaker 1:Oh my God. Yeah, I'm happy to have you.
Speaker 2:Your smile the grin from ear to ear just makes me so happy. Look at you, gosh. I hear that I have a good smile, and so that's something I'm glad to have. I like to pass it around.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Well, it must be something in the Boone family, because I think y'all have it. But Lindy Boone, as I mentioned, you are the daughter of the wonderful Pat Boone, and who rumor is he's going to be celebrating a birthday here pretty quick, the big one like 90. Is it OK? I guess I just said it's a big milestone.
Speaker 2:I'm sure it's going to get out.
Speaker 1:I've had him on the Skip Happens podcast twice, so we've had a great conversation. A little bit of political, a lot about faith, a lot about the music he's been putting out, and just you know, I hope he never slows down. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he doesn't know how he doesn't know how Do you, as one of his daughters or any of you kind of, go Dad, you need to start taking it easy, or I think we kind of encourage him to not put as, as my mother would have said, he puts too much on his plate and his eyes are bigger than his stomach. But yeah, she was always wanting him to slow down a little bit. And I think, um, it's great that he has a lot of vision and a lot of um ideas of things that he wants to get done, and he's very creative. I always wish he would do a little bit less, because I just want to see him a little bit more. I think it's kind of selfish that I'd like him to have more family time, but he is still traveling and still quite busy. His schedule fills up.
Speaker 1:God. That's just amazing what he does and he continues to do it and God bless him. That is so good, and God bless all of you too, because you've been doing your own thing. Of course, debbie did her thing. I mean she back in what was it? The seventies? With you, light up my life and and all that.
Speaker 2:I think it was 78. I think we're around that 77, 78.
Speaker 1:You know, I have to say it was one of my earlier days in radio and it was like, oh, it's the Debbie Boone song again. Yeah, because it was getting played so much. But that was all a good thing and it's just. You know, there's talent in that family, no doubt. What was it like being in the Boone family? You lived in Beverly Hills, correct? Yes, and you know, with the tour buses and all that, talk to me about.
Speaker 2:What was that like growing up in that type of environment? Yeah, we always knew that our dad was famous. There was like our dad at home, daddy at home and then daddy Pat Boone, so we knew he was on television or on the radio or in a movie and if we went out he would be recognized and that was just part of our lives and it really didn't dawn on us that it was different, that different than other people, because that was all we knew and we had kind of a strict home life. We lived in Beverly Hills and around the entertainment business and my parents were really determined to give us routine and structure and values that you know included chores and things like that making an allowance.
Speaker 2:And so they came from, you know, more modest beginnings in Nashville, tennessee, and they just didn't want the affluence, maybe, of Beverly Hills to create entitled young ladies. So, they grounded us. They did a really good job of teaching us priorities and yet we got a lot of the perks of being in Beverly Hills and being in the business.
Speaker 1:I like that. Now are all of you together out there on the West Coast still.
Speaker 2:I would say more West Coast, but two sisters of mine live in other states. So, my oldest sister is up in Washington and my baby sister is in Colorado.
Speaker 1:And which one is the baby? Is that Debbie?
Speaker 2:No, that would be Lori. Debbie and I are in the middle.
Speaker 1:Okay, I got you.
Speaker 2:So I'm second and Debbie is third, and because we are the middle kids, we shared a room.
Speaker 1:He had the bunk beds right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had the double beds, but we are very close to this day. I just saw her yesterday.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:Enjoy each other's company.
Speaker 1:I love that Absolutely. You know, just talk about your singing career a little bit as the Boone sisters and all that.
Speaker 2:Well, that was really not a big planned out thing, but just for fun we learned how to sing and my mother taught us how to harmonize and she would teach us funny little songs that she knew as a kid and we loved the sound of our voices blending in harmony and so we'd ask her to teach us another one. Teach us another one, and pretty soon they were inviting us to sing for a company. You know, hey, girls sing, our friends this. So we had fun singing for other people and eventually my dad was still traveling a lot when we were becoming teenagers and once Cherry hit 13, next year, I hit 13. Debbie hit the next year, and then Lori. So it was like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Speaker 2:All of a sudden he was going to have four teenagers, and I'm not sure how much this had to do with it, but he was going to Japan to do a concert tour with the Osmond Brothers and it occurred to him maybe he could put his Boone girls, his daughters, in the show. And that's how we got started and we learned two songs and wore matching outfits and got on stage and the Japanese audiences, they loved the Osmond brothers. And then all of a sudden there's Pat Boone's daughters on stage and a big finale with all of us at the end of the show and then we got the bug.
Speaker 2:It was really fun.
Speaker 1:We toured.
Speaker 2:Japan and we loved hearing the applause and being together and it was a safe way for us to kind of be in this industry with our dad being able to keep a close eye on us instead of traveling all the time and leaving us behind, but we also stayed in school. We stayed home and stayed in school, but summertime weekends and we'd miss a little bit of school to travel. Because, after that he put us in the show in Las Vegas.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:We go from Japan to doing two shows a night at the Fremont Hotel.
Speaker 1:Very cool.
Speaker 2:And that was real. It was very successful, except our audiences didn't drink and gamble, so we didn't end up going back.
Speaker 1:It wasn't so profitable. Yeah, you have a good point, because even in today's world and everything that's going on in some of the casinos here in upstate New York, that they will only bring in the acts where they know that their audience will consume alcohol and gamble.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we filled the place and we had a good time and I'll never forget it. I love Vegas to this day just because of my happy memories there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say you must have all happy memories, so were there any?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I mean just being together with the family and being able to do this with dad, and you know we did state fairs and traveled in buses and had the best time and even traveled out of the country and got to see a lot of the world singing.
Speaker 1:Did you ever have the opportunity to get into any movies with your dad at all?
Speaker 2:No, I did get to do an Abisko saltine commercial. That was the extent of it.
Speaker 1:Those are the best crackers. Come on.
Speaker 2:You know what I still? Remember the jingle, but I'm a little hoarse today, so we'll pass on the Abisko. It was a national commercial. So I was just newly married and it came in handy yeah.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, how cool is that. Let's move on a little bit. Let's talk about Ryan. Can we go through all that? What happened? He fell through a skylight how long ago was that? And he fell through a skylight how long ago was that? And then, of course, with the traumatic brain injury that I guess he's lucky to at that point to be alive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like you said, my life was all good.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Up until.
Speaker 2:June 19, 2001. And up until then I had three wonderful children. I'd been married two times my two first children from my first marriage and then my third child from my second marriage. But I've been married a long time to Mike Michaelis, still friends with Doug Corbin, my kid's dad, and we just had a lovely life going with Ryan, 24 years old. He'd just graduated, about a year ahead of that, ready to write, and he wanted to write and direct. So he was starting at the low end of the totem pole and he was a production assistant in Paramount and he was hobnobbing with writers and wanted to learn the craft a little more. But he'd gotten engaged. He was engaged to be married. So we were looking forward to a wedding in November and this was June, and so he was just the light of our lives. First, he was the first person to come to me, uh child in that generation and first boy in the boone family oh yeah yeah, so anyway, uh, we all adored him and I got a call in the middle of the night.
Speaker 2:It was really early morning, like 5 am. My sister, debbie, had called to let me know that um ryan had gone up to the roof of his apartment building with his roommate to get some sun and uh, over a skylight, but his foot didn't completely make it across and it came down on the skylight which broke underneath him and he just vanished through it. His roommate saw him fall to the floor three stories below, so I was unaware of that. It took them quite a while to figure out how to reach us in Spain. We were at a timeshare in Spain.
Speaker 2:And so, by the time I'd heard about it, all Debbie could tell me is Lindy, he has a skull fracture, his spleen burst and they're trying to get him to get a CAT scan. And she said that's really all I know. So we packed, we made our way back to California, and it took 24 hours. So there was this excruciating period of time, three different flights and just time in between flights to try to reach Debbie, to find out. Is there any other news?
Speaker 2:And every time she would fill me in, it sounded more and more serious and more like he may not make it. So it was a nightmare of an experience for sure. You can only imagine it, and then, when it's happening, you think maybe I'm going to wake up, maybe this isn't real?
Speaker 1:Maybe it's not real. Right, it had to be like the longest 24 hours of your life. I mean between flights and all that. It's just like come on, can this plane go faster? Can we do this? Can we that would? Oh my.
Speaker 2:And a very bittersweet thing when we got to Miami back then you know, this was 20, almost 23 years ago and when we got to Miami we're back in America all of our phone messages came into our phone, because overseas it was harder to have contact and Ryan had left a lovely Father's Day message for my husband, his stepdad, and so we're on our way to try to get to him at the ICU but heard his voice, loud and clear, just the longest message of gratitude for what a great stepdad.
Speaker 1:Do you still have that?
Speaker 2:No, I don't know what happened to it, but in the chaos of everything, somehow it dropped off. I wish to goodness, we still had that. Anyway, I'll fill you you in, but his voice is back.
Speaker 1:That's good, I guess, right yeah, that's good, his voice is back, but let's keep going. So you had to go through a lot of trial and a lot of you had to be there. You had to just go above and beyond and maybe put things on the side, put them to the side so you could hang with Ryan and help him get back on his feet, so to speak. Can you talk about all that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that one of the things you learn in a crisis like this is how much will fall to the wayside, and nothing is that important that you can't be at the hospital be. Everything that isn't vital drops off, and so anything in my life, any commitments, they didn't matter. We were just at the waiting room constantly while he was in a coma. We were waiting to see if he would wake up. We were waiting to see what the doctors were going to decide to tell us, because it was all very like we have to wait and see, and so we just had this very long waiting period of weeks, weeks I would guess about six weeks before they ended up moving him, and so we went from hoping he'd wake up really soon to just praying that he still had a chance to wake up, and so the coma was over time. It was actually about a four-month coma.
Speaker 1:Oh, holy cow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so we ended up getting moved from UCLA to other facilities and in 10 months' time we were at six different facilities, based on what was going on in his body, his condition, and so they had to move him out of the ICU and to a subacute facility where they just wanted to wait it out and, in the meantime, do range of motion, keep his body, his joints moving, and little by little, there were signs over time.
Speaker 1:Then it was slowly getting better. Yeah, there was a signal, yeah.
Speaker 2:He couldn't move things on his own on purpose, but his eyes would open and you'd see him track from one side of the room. If somebody walked by, you could tell he was paying attention. So then they said, okay, he's not in a coma, but we could ask him to blink.
Speaker 1:Yes, or no. And he could not, he couldn't do that. Oh, he could not, oh, wow.
Speaker 2:He couldn't do anything, but he'd scratch his face every now and then if something itched and I thought that's purposeful. Okay, something itched and I thought that's purposeful, okay, he scratched an itch, he could swallow and they told us that was good, so the fact that he could swallow. He said that takes a lot of brain power to swallow and I said, okay, I'll take it. So it was very, very gradual, very little, small baby steps, but I always mark these milestones.
Speaker 2:The first time he took a little bit of food was at three months Little tiny taste of chocolate pudding and that was on purpose. He had no expression on his face, but he heard chocolate and he opened his mouth and he licked his lips and he swallowed and that was a big joyous moment. And then about a month later he was able to kiss us and he was still considered pretty much in a coma, but if we kissed his cheek he could turn and kiss us back and so those things, things like he started to be able to mouth the word and say Mom, but without any voice. So I'd hear, I'd see his mouth just go and I go. Okay, he's in there, he's responding. So it was that slow. It took 10 months before I saw a smile on his face. 10 very long months, did you?
Speaker 1:feel like your whole world was crashing in. I mean, I don't know why I'd be devastated, and I'm sure you were, but I'd be praying every night. Did you pray every night, did you? You know?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, well, prayer was was constant and we are a praying family and we went on Larry King live and we talked about that. Larry King invited my dad to come on. My dad wanted to know if I wanted to come on and I said I don't think I could. I said I feel like I'm an open wound and I don't know if it's even appropriate for me to bear my hurt.
Speaker 2:I feel like it's ugly what I'm going through, that we express that and be transparent and say not try to pretend it doesn't hurt, not try to pretend that we are not in great pain, but that we still had faith, that we still believed in prayer and that not the predictions that we were hearing from the doctors were. He probably will be on a ventilator all his life. He probably won't have any communication between his right side or left side of his brain based on the CAT scan. So we had to believe that they are doing the best they can to project what they think would happen statistically. But we said let us pray and we'll see what happens and we'll believe God for a better outcome than that.
Speaker 2:And so we continued to do that as a family and we did it publicly in that we talked about it in intervals on Larry King Live. He was a gracious host that showed a lot of curiosity and compassion to us.
Speaker 1:Do you, do you have any regrets showing your emotions and getting out there and talking to people like Larry King or others? I mean, you said, I believe you said you're you're glad you did that, but it must have.
Speaker 2:I am glad that we did it. It's risky because I didn't know if I could hold it together.
Speaker 1:It's okay. If you don't, though, you know what I mean, because you're human, you're real, and you know Ryan is your son, and God forbid anything happened to my, my son, like that. I, I cry on a, on a. You know, so easy. I just I wouldn't know what to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what was interesting is that somehow I had a gift of grace or poise to be able to speak calmly even though my heart was breaking. But I also had hope in my heart and relied on scripture and family and the doctors and I just I was feeling a special support, whether it's the spiritual support or the prayers of other people.
Speaker 2:And also just wanting to share Ryan, because it made me happy to talk about him, I just wanted to say you know, this kid is awesome, he's just such a good human being and I just loved to share what a great human he was, so that helped me, at the same time that they would show pictures of him or show a little video of him talking. And I thought this was, this was nice. I'm glad that we did that.
Speaker 2:And people prayed all over the world. We got so much email and so much goodwill and support from all over the world. So ultimately I was glad that we did it and on the fifth time we were on, ryan actually went on with us and he didn't have his voice yet, but he had his understanding and he understood what was being said and he could mouth things. Like we said Ryan, can you mouth the P, mouth the pledge of allegiance? And without even having a voice he did the whole right and he didn't have the energy to get the voice out. But larry just dropped his pencil and he goes. Wow, you know, because he'd seen him in the coma, he'd seen all the uh stages to get him that far and he's certainly come a lot farther since then.
Speaker 1:Now you've got Ryan's Reach.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:And you have the podcast. Tell us first of all about the foundation that you created, the Ryan's Reach, and how can we help with that today.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you. It occurred to me after about a year and a half a girlfriend had been doing some nice things, like trying to get Ryan introduced to some of his celebrity faves, and so she would call up certain people in offices to say, oh, pat Boone's grandson is a big fan and he had a brain injury. So I never asked her to do this, but it was very sweet of her to want to reach out and do something nice for Ryan. And as we started to meet people, I realized there's so much goodwill out there, there's so many people that care about Ryan's story, and I thought there should be a way we can take this and do some good for other people that don't have famous fathers and don't have the ability to get their stories out.
Speaker 2:And I had learned through my own experience how lonely it is to go through this and it's so confusing. You just want to have all the information about brain injury that you can learn and at the same time, you don't want to hear it because it's frightening information. So you're trying to let enough in to guide you to the next step and not feel overwhelmed, and so I just thought let's start something where we can help other families like ours and we can raise money because people know who Pat Boone is and he's invested so much out into the world and he has so much goodwill flowing back towards him.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:Ryan does now too, because of the exposure that he's had.
Speaker 2:So we were able to start, you know, doing concerts and golf tournaments and 5Ks, 10Ks and started raising money on a regular basis and turned it into ability to give it away for therapy for other traumatic brain injury survivors in our area, and we started supporting High Hopes Head Injury Program in Tustin, and so we could give a certain amount of money for a certain amount of time so that different individuals could go and get that therapy that otherwise they wouldn't be able to get because insurance cuts you off.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, I know that Sometimes insurance will frustrate you. Most of the time they kind of the way I look at it, sometimes they run your life. I maybe I shouldn't say it that way, but it's like they just they don't care. Maybe they do, but they don't care. That makes sense because it's just like, ok, we're not going to do that.
Speaker 2:It's a business and they're looking at the numbers and they're looking at how fast you might be progressing or not progressing, and if you're not progressing fast, they feel that it's money down the drain.
Speaker 2:So Ryan was on the slow track. So Ryan was on the slow track. He was very fortunate because, even though insurance eventually did stop, he was able to get a good settlement, a legal settlement that has allowed us as a family to have caregivers and that put us in a position to really run this nonprofit, because otherwise we'd be totally his caregivers. Yeah, that's hard. Nonprofit couldn't have existed. So it was out of gratitude, really from a heart of gratitude, that Ryan was alive, that he was progressing, that he had the settlement that allowed him to get therapy and we didn't have to worry about that.
Speaker 2:So we could raise money and make it possible to give away, and so for the last 20 years, that's what we've been doing along with starting two group homes for people with brain injury. So we have one in Tustin and one in Santa Ana, california, and nine wonderful people are able to live in these group homes and it's a very gratifying thing that I get to do, and so does my husband, my husband is the one who really was able to get it off the ground, and our whole family is a big part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. And a song came out of all this too, word Lair. Yes, can you tell me? I think I have it here. Hang on, I know I have it. I'm going to play a little bit of it, if you don't mind. No, I don't mind, I'm going to see if it'll come up here. Let's see here, here we go. I have it and we're going to do it. Come on, just give you a little taste of what we're going to be talking about here for a moment. It's beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 3:When you're happy turns to tears and you're broken by your fears, it's so tempting to declare that all is lost. You can speak into creation and build a new foundation, laying word upon word upon the cross. Spend some time with your creator. Are you grateful that he made you? Do you know that you're a creator too?
Speaker 1:Your words have superpowers.
Speaker 2:They can sweeten right. Yes, yes, I got to write this song and I'm not considered a songwriter. That was a song I wrote, that's beautiful. But it was a gift to be able to write a song with a Nashville musician, and my daughter gave me that for Mother's Day in 2020. And so it made me exercise a muscle I didn't know I had.
Speaker 1:Well, you did well.
Speaker 2:Well, it turned out really beautifully. The lyrics kind of downloaded to me once I had the title, and the idea of word layer is something that I really practice. I practice being careful with what I say and I really try, if I'm feeling very emotional, to either wait until I'm less emotional so I can say what I really want to say and and be kind, um, and I want to be very proactive. When it comes to Ryan, I've been very proactive with speaking over him words of life and healing and what his future would be like, and hope and blessing and so that his life matters. I just go into using words to create the next chapter of his life, of my life.
Speaker 2:So I love the idea of laying words down like a brick layer would lay down the foundation or a path forward, and so that's where the idea came from, and so the song is called Word Layer and it's co-written. The melody was written by Ann Buckle, who is this Nashville musician who writes a lot of songs, and she loved the lyric and said I'm not changing anything, Lindy, but I'd love to write the melody. And she wrote this beautiful melody and she's the one who suggested. She said Lindy, I think you should record it and I think you should have your sister sing on it. And that just really resonated with me. I thought, ooh, I love singing with them and it had been a while.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you did To go into a studio and record.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the Boone girls were back together again.
Speaker 2:Back together again. And the harmonies, and they still sounded, yes, oh my gosh, lindy.
Speaker 1:Just you know I listened to that before you went on tonight too, all the way through and it was just like it blew me away the harmonies. And you know I have a voiceover studio on the other side of the room and I went over there and I cranked it up, so it was good and loud.
Speaker 2:It's really good when it's loud.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, it's good at any level actually, maybe a little bit better when it's real loud. I feel better when you're in the car and turn it up.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, that's whole thing. Turn it up. It's lindy boone. Yes, and we had great musical arrangers and vocal arrangements and you know real professionals jimmy nichols and frank myers doing that for us in tennessee, where my folks met and and were high school sweethearts so you did that in nashville yes how cool.
Speaker 1:What studio did you go to can?
Speaker 2:I ask it Starstruck.
Speaker 1:And I'm told that's the one that.
Speaker 2:Reba McEntire built.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is.
Speaker 2:It was very elegant and professional and we felt like we were in a dream, just getting to be there and work with such professionals. And then it turned out so beautiful when I play it for people. It is a song that has such deep resonance with people, especially in this age.
Speaker 2:I wrote it from my experience with Ryan and my spiritual growth as I had to stretch myself during this very trying time, but it seems so appropriate that even since then because that was 23 years ago but just the way people talk to each other sometimes or talk on social media and when they feel like they can get away with it, they're not being kind and they're not being thoughtful, Not at all, not at all With their words and we have to really choose kindness, compassion, understanding.
Speaker 1:Choose kindness, compassion, understanding and put that over and above some of the things that we get so upset about. We need more of that. We need more word layer. We need a whole lot more of that.
Speaker 2:Well, that's one reason I think it's resonating.
Speaker 1:Now is Ryan in a group home or is he with you? He lives with us. Okay.
Speaker 2:He's lived with us because he has behavior issues which makes him not a good candidate for a group home. He's really best behaved with us, he knows who we all are and he speaks and he's loving and he's his true essence around us. And yet if he gets around only men, not women and I don't talk about this publicly but I'm not ashamed or embarrassed about it, it's just Ryan has a reaction, a fight or flight reaction to men that he doesn't know, and that's just the brain injury.
Speaker 2:And that is a very strong impulse because his frontal lobe has a lot of damage and the rational part that can edit and inhibit that reaction is slow, and so he apologizes afterwards and then forgets immediately that it happened because his memory is so short, He'll say I shouldn't say that. And then later, if I tell him he did, he goes, I do and he's surprised.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh man.
Speaker 2:That's a blessing, though, because he doesn't live feeling embarrassed or any loss. He is able to count his blessings. He just looks around and goes. We are so blessed and I go. Yes, we are. And he laughs easily. He's funny and I love the sound of his voice, even if it's cussing. I go. I didn't hear that voice for 15 months. I'm going to just revel every time, let it go.
Speaker 1:I know Exactly. I have a, just so you know. I have a 23-year-old son. He's down syndrome but he has. He'll never leave the house. There's certain issues that you know that we have to handle as well. So I can somewhat not exactly, but somewhat agree with what you're saying, and I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Not exactly, but somewhat agree with what you're saying and I know what you're talking about. And yet we still wanted to start two group homes, because during all these years I've made friends with other families and there would be parents who would say I don't know what's going to happen to my loved one when I get too old to do this and I'm aging out of it, it's getting too hard. And so over time I just kept bugging our board and saying we got to figure this out. And finally my husband, who's a lawyer and a businessman and was semi-retired by this time he finally decided okay, I'm going to look into it. I'm not sure we can do it, but he's pretty brilliant. And he figured out how it could be done and he got it all started and became a group home administrator, so he'd know how to hire one and know what the job was.
Speaker 2:And so I don't talk about him enough in interviews, because he's, you know, that song the wind beneath my wings he doesn't get he's.
Speaker 1:You know that song.
Speaker 2:The Wind Beneath my Wings. He doesn't get nearly the attention that he should get because he's the quiet guy and I get out in front and I just talk, talk, talk.
Speaker 1:Maybe he wouldn't want the attention, but he wants to do it.
Speaker 2:Well, I think he'll like that I'm bringing him up.
Speaker 1:You didn't have to talk to me, talk about me. I don't know that's so awesome, though. Just you know you're lucky you have somebody like that and, of course, what you've done and it for Ryan and what you're doing for others now, and you know, with the, the podcast, that you have the foundation that you guys have created.
Speaker 2:Have I mentioned the name of the nonprofit is Ryan's Reach.
Speaker 1:Ryan's Reach Ryan'sreachcom.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's what I was going to say, ryan'sreach.
Speaker 1:Ryan'sReachcom. Okay, that's what I was going to say Ryan'sReachcom. So if anybody that's viewing this or anybody listens to this, even down the road, they can go to Ryan'sReachcom.
Speaker 2:No apostrophe in the website no capitals. It's just all lowercase. No apostrophe, ryan'sreachcom. Just picture him reaching up to God and his family and the medical community and with his other hand he's reaching to bring as many people along with him on the road to recovery. And that's the whole picture of Ryan's reach.
Speaker 1:You're so blessed. You're so blessed. What to quickly before I let you go. So, Lindy, you got together with your sisters. You put down tracks to a great song, a word layer. Do you think we're going to be doing another one?
Speaker 2:Oh, you know, some people have told me you need to write more songs.
Speaker 1:I think so.
Speaker 2:I've written a couple, but they've been personal. One was for my husband, one was for my grandson. But I am exercising that muscle a little bit and I think that there might be another song or two. Let's see what happens.
Speaker 1:Tell dad he's got to take you out with him next time he goes to a show.
Speaker 2:I'm singing with him at the coach house and May 11th he's going to be doing a show and he invited me to come sing word layer that's right there, out in California, it's in San Juan Capistrano.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, wow, out in California, it's in San Juan Capistrano yes. Yes Wow.
Speaker 2:So I'm looking forward to that. Wow, how close are you to Rodeo Drive.
Speaker 3:Well, he's very close. I grew up in Beverly Hills on.
Speaker 2:Beverly Drive and Rodeo. They're very close so we always hung out in that Beverly Hills area to go to the grocery store or to buy clothes. My mother always went to Pixie Town to buy. She dressed us all alike when we were kids. But it's very yeah, it's a pretty ritzy place to hang out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my wife does a lot of conferences and she had to go to Beverly Hills and I went out with her. We stayed at the. Is it the Hilton? Where do they? They do the show there too, is it? There's an award show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's the Golden Globes maybe they do at the. Beverly Hilton.
Speaker 1:That's where we stay.
Speaker 2:We roasted my dad there when he turned 80. So almost 10 years ago we did a Dean Martin type of roast for a birthday for him and it was a fundraiser for Ryan's Reach and we had the dais with Larry King and Gavin McLeod and a bunch of great comedians. Rich Little was there. I love it. We had so much fun and we raised a whole lot of money there at the hilton, which allowed us to start our first group home I love it.
Speaker 1:I was the when my wife went. I was the tourist that was sitting in the lobby with a newspaper like this, trying to see who I would see walk that's right yeah and then I remember I actually walked to the reason I asked about rodeo drive.
Speaker 1:I actually walked up there. She was in doing her thing. I said I'm going to go for a walk and I ended up going up there and I think there was a coffee shop I might've even been in Starbucks and I just kind of got myself an expensive cup of coffee and I sat there on the sidewalk you know a little table on the sidewalk and just watch people pull up and go on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's different. I grew up there and I'm very starstruck still. I'm not blasé about it, I just think it's fun to see celebrities. I grew up with a different kind of attitude because of the way my parents raised me.
Speaker 3:But I also think it's fun.
Speaker 2:I used to ride my bike at the Beverly Hills Hotel because that was right across the street from us and they had these fun pathways and I'm sure they didn't appreciate a little girl riding a bicycle through the pathways, but I thought it was kind of a challenge to navigate.
Speaker 1:That was cool to do.
Speaker 2:Come on, that was cool, yeah, I took my allowance money to the little gift shop and bought candy.
Speaker 1:There you go. That's what I did.
Speaker 1:I think there was a real quick before I let you go again. I think there was an Adidas store right there on Rodeo Drive and my wife's nephew was Dave Mira, who was a BMX bike rider. He's left us now, but I remember seeing his picture on the back wall because they sponsored him and I'm going. Oh my God, that's my wife's nephew. I can't believe that's here at Rodeo Drive. But anyways, it's another story for another time. Anyways, lindy, you, you're, you're a blessing, you're a gift. There's a lot of just nothing but positive about you and what you've done and what you've been through. You're an inspiration to so many. And you've got ryansreachcom, which, if anybody watching this or down the road, if you listen to it or watch it, make sure you go there and see what that's all about.
Speaker 2:And I would assume you accept donations there as well, Absolutely we do, and my podcast is kind of on a page there as well, If anybody is wanting to hear the podcast. It's about TBI hopeful encouragement and education.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. How often do you do that?
Speaker 2:Is it once a week? Brand new? It's brand new. It's once a month. Once a month. Very new, I can say I jumped into the podcast pool.
Speaker 1:I think it's an awesome thing.
Speaker 2:It's a new thing for me, but I'm learning.
Speaker 1:Nobody better to talk about that than you because, being the mother seeing it how it all went down, it's the real deal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is, it is, that's cool.
Speaker 1:Lindy, I want to thank you for joining us here tonight and thank you for all this great advice and great information. Talking about Ryan, talking about Word Lair it's a great, great song. God bless you.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:I want to hear more of you and your sisters. I'm just yeah, let's throw dad in the mix too. If you see him, tell him he's talked to Skip Clark from Skip Happens tonight. I sure will. We've talked a couple of times. I don't know if he would remember or not, but he's such a great guy too. God bless you. Thank you for joining us here on Skip Happens and happy early birthday to your dad too.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I'll pass it along All right, Lindy Boone.
Speaker 1:Everybody Thanks for joining us tonight there.