In this special episode, I have a conversation with Chris and Elizabeth Tillett. Chris was considered COVID Patient Zero, in Connecticut. They share their journey through their voice.
2:49 Chris talks about how he was feeling and the symptoms he was experiencing
7:23 When Chris was admitted to Danbury Hospital and classified as Patient Zero
11:22 In Chris's words what it means to be intubated and breathing with the help of a ventilator.
15:52 Elizabeth's voice - as she has to care for 5 month old twins, stay in isolation and getting updates from healthcare providers on her husband's healthy is daily
18:50 When Chris was taken off the ventilator and what he felt through his own words
25:03. The power of community during this journey
You don't want to miss this episode
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To share your story with Amy, email her at: amy@fearlesslyfacingfifty.com
Subscribe to the email list for updates, blog posts and podcast episode notes here:
In this special episode, I have a conversation with Chris and Elizabeth Tillett. Chris was considered COVID Patient Zero, in Connecticut. They share their journey through their voice.
2:49 Chris talks about how he was feeling and the symptoms he was experiencing
7:23 When Chris was admitted to Danbury Hospital and classified as Patient Zero
11:22 In Chris's words what it means to be intubated and breathing with the help of a ventilator.
15:52 Elizabeth's voice - as she has to care for 5 month old twins, stay in isolation and getting updates from healthcare providers on her husband's healthy is daily
18:50 When Chris was taken off the ventilator and what he felt through his own words
25:03. The power of community during this journey
You don't want to miss this episode
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To Subscribe to the Fearlessly Facing Fifty Podcast Click Here
To Rate and Review the Fearlessly Facing Fifty Podcast Click Here
To share your story with Amy, email her at: amy@fearlesslyfacingfifty.com
Subscribe to the email list for updates, blog posts and podcast episode notes here:
Amy Schmidt, Host: 0:01
Hey there. I'm Amy. And welcome to the broadcast. Fearlessly facing 50. This podcast is about conversations and connections. And my mission is to encourage women over 40 to live their best life. You know what, ladies? We haven't peaked yet, and we are just getting started. So if you're ready for some real talk with real people and real conversations about what really matters you found the right place. I'm ready. Are you ready? Let's get started. Let's get riel. Hey there, I'm Amy. And welcome to this special edition of the fearlessly Facing 50 Podcast. Thanks for joining in today as we start another week of just living life under one roof and today's episode Ah, you are going to hear through their own story, their own words and what's so great about this story? As we're sharing good news, we turn on the news these days, and there's so much to process when it comes to Corona virus and what we should be doing, how we should be reacting. So today it's very special that we get to hear from Chris and Elizabeth till it they live about an hour outside of New York City. Chris was considered patient zero, and we're gonna talk to him exactly about what that means. The good news is, is that Christmas released from the hospital last week. So we're going to catch up and hear from them in their own words. Enjoy the podcast. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having. Oh, absolutely. It's You know, on Friday I got a picture, Elizabeth, scent of you holding the twin. And you have five month old friends and just seeing the joy and that just my husband and I and we're all living under one roof to I've got grown kids. But we looked at that, and it was just a moment of joy because of what you've gone through. So, um, this is quite the story, So if you don't mind Chris, just take us back. Thio. You know U S O for those that are listening that are in other parts of the country, the toilets and I share a community. We're neighbors basically. And Fairfield County is about a nor about an hour, I would say, north of New York City. So a lot of families in this area ourselves included commute into New York City for their jobs. So, Chris, it sounds like you are one of those people that commutes and travels. So just take me back to that day You had to travel for work to California. Yes.
Chris Tillett: 2:49
So I had a conference in Calif. In San Francisco, and while the while we're in the conference that the city of San Francisco declared a state of emergency, Um, but the offer's still went on, and that's okay, But we, um I came home after the conference is over. I was there for the entire week and that Saturday I have been pushing myself all week. I was getting up early to your clients on the east Coast and then up lately, you know, right in San Francisco. So I just thought I was worn down. Yeah, And then by Sunday morning, I felt like a truck hit me, Really? And then I had and I started getting a little bit of shortness of breath, and I thought, Well, maybe it's just, you know, sometimes after you get on off of a plane, you have a little bit of a cold, right? Yeah. I don't think much of it. Bills, But it wasn't until the one or two. Fever hit on Monday. Wow, that I said, OK, I think I've got this krone virus.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 3:51
You did. You thought that I thought this is more than the flu? Yeah,
Chris Tillett: 3:54
I called. I called the physician's office, and they didn't even know where to get a test. Um, and so they sent me to a CVS to go pick up some over the counter meds, cause you know, they treated they've treated me for flu and and, uh, pneumonia before, So I said, Okay. You know, it's very possible that that's what this is. And then I By Wednesday, I Elizabeth solves getting worse. She got me a great deal about you, and there's that. By Thursday, I was starting to get a little wiped out. And then by Friday and Thursday, Elizabeth told me She's like, You don't have this corona virus thing. You have a man cold.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 4:34
I can relate to that. Yes, exactly. I know,
Elizabeth Tillett: 4:39
Like we have two babies. I had the flu and I was down for one day, and I'm like, you've been in bed for four or five days old.
Chris Tillett: 4:46
Yeah. Yes. By Friday, I was delirious. Um, yeah, yeah, like if you If you hear there's a certain reporter that has it now and he's talking about delusions, that he's having it, it does make you a bit delirious and then lower. Since they brought me to the E. R. And I met with the doctors there, I remember being wheeled off into a gurney and I don't remember anything after that.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 5:13
You don't know. Did you get yourself to the hospital? Elizabeth. Did you drive him
Elizabeth Tillett: 5:17
So we had gone back to the doctor to follow up because he right, he's getting much worse. Trouble breathing, coughing, exhausted. And so they gave him, like an Albuterol inhaler some right cough medicine and, um, uh, steroid inhaler. So I brought Chris home. I ran out to CVS to pick it all up, and I came back. He was to tie. He was laying in bed. He was too tired to even take his medicine. That's like, you know, babe, sit up. Let's at least do the inhaler on. And I had a pulse oximeter, and I put it on this finger and it was 89. And you know how healthy human it's between 92 100. So right. Okay. Well, he has pneumonia. You've been here and, you know, see if it goes up. Sure. It went down, went down to 79 he was hilarious. Who is making no sense. And so we paged his doctor and they were like, Yeah, he needs to go to the e r. And so I was ready to call 911 But then I was like, you know, I think I can get him there faster. And I mean, being a nurse, I have I have a defibrillator, an Ambu bag, Right? Right. Those like, if if he started coding halfway there, I can treat him and call 911 then. But, like, I think you
Amy Schmidt, Host: 6:44
You are so brave it's amazing. That's what we d'oh, right. Don't you feel like women? That's kind of what we D'oh!
Elizabeth Tillett: 6:50
Yeah, thing is just what has to be done. And one of your baby sitter came and watched the baby's within 10 minutes, and, um, you know, going to the hospital. By the time he was at the hospital, I mean, they had him on a face mask with Albuterol and he still couldn't breathe. Still couldn't keep its oxygen. So I mean, Chris at home was ready to just roll over and kind of go to sleep. And I you know, I commented somewhere like, Like, head. He gone to sleep? I don't know what would have happened if you
Amy Schmidt, Host: 7:23
Exactly. And, you know, a shoutout Danbury hospital here because we are in this community. There's several hospitals in Fairfield County, but Chris went to Danbury Hospital. I've been treated there for pneumonia. It's a fabulous place on and, um, you know, I mean, it is It's it's really top of the line care. So, Elizabeth, you're literally taking him to the e r. And at that point, there really weren't any cases, right? Aren't you considered, like, patient zero.
Elizabeth Tillett: 7:54
They, like, assumed when we walked in, They masked masked us.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 7:58
Okay. Right. Did you go in through the normal emergency?
Elizabeth Tillett: 8:02
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um, they immediately recognize, since he had been in San Francisco and couldn't breathe. And so they brought him into a negative pressure rooms. So it's a room that is, does not allow any air to be released back into the hospital.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 8:19
Okay, sure we hear about that. So that's a good explanation for that. Thank you.
Elizabeth Tillett: 8:23
Yes. And then after we got there, you know, like nine. PM by 2 a.m. They told me that he was such a presumptive case that I needed to leave. So I remember I didn't I didn't even look at my husband cause I have singing to myself. OK, this is really now, OK? Because I have to get home and take care of two babies. And I was like, if I even looked at him, I might get it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So and then they had a door that exit to the outside off of those rooms for the very purpose so that I wouldn't have to walk back out through the emergency room and just walked in my car and drove home at two AM and that was that was the last time I saw him before he was in debate. And I remember thinking the last time I may have seen him, I didn't couldn't even look e I
Amy Schmidt, Host: 9:13
know you are. It's incredible. It's incredible. And, you know, I know that you had told me that you lost your mom. I lost my mom, um, a few years ago. You lost your mind five years ago to breast cancer. And, you know, sometimes as women, that's the first phone call you want to make. You just want to pick up the phone. I mean, I can't imagine you driving back the 20 minutes from Danbury Hospital by yourself, knowing you've got to go in and you are full on. I mean, you are, mom, and you got to face this. And, uh, what was that like?
Elizabeth Tillett: 9:42
Yeah. I mean, driving home was a blur to me.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 9:45
Yeah, that it was
Elizabeth Tillett: 9:47
because it was just all of a sudden, like, all week, I just come to go. Yes, of flu. Oh, yes. Pneumonia. You know, he's going to go in the hospital. He'll get i v antibiotics. He turning around within 24 hours. And then when they were basically told like, Hey, we're This is a total presumptive case. First case in Connecticut, right? You know, And you have to go home for two weeks and quarantine mandatory. No one in no one out. And I was just thinking to myself like I don't even know how to reach my husband I exactly these 24 7 that are still waking up in the night.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 10:26
Five month old? Yes, I rolled up. Yeah. Yeah,
Elizabeth Tillett: 10:29
and I really just thought, you know, I I don't know how to do this. That being said, um, you know, my mom died from breast cancer, but she also died from a particularly barbaric course of breast cancer. Had metastasized both to her brain multiple times, but also to the skin of her entire torso, which has a nurse I had never even heard of. Sure, Um and so I think that experience definitely prepared me to kind of dig deep and deal with something really fast.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 11:06
Yeah, caregiving. It's amazing.
Elizabeth Tillett: 11:08
And and to be a caregiver. And so this time around, it was still hard. But I just kind of told myself like you've done this before and you're just going to do it again. Yeah. And you know, I'm gonna take it day by day.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 11:22
But, Krista, you don't really remember anything. I mean, you got to the hospital, So when they say intubated, can you just explain because, you know, being held in your profession? Elizabeth and Chris, What is that exactly? So
Chris Tillett: 11:34
essentially, what they're doing is your body. I'm spiting so hard just to breathe right. They essentially, you know, put you under and they put a tube down into your lungs so that it can breathe. The ventilator machine can breathe for you, so they wanted my body 100% focused on fighting this virus. Um um, Now there's been much made and several articles written about that. I didn't talk to rise. I had I had a cocktail of drugs, but we're not really sure if they worked or it's just my body being shut down, fighting the virus, fighting it. And there's no there's no control group, cause there's no people that are going to say You sure put me in the hospital and don't give me anything and let's see how I come out of that. So so I don't blame the doctors for trying what they did, because to me they had to try something and I would have done the same thing in their position. But I did have a fever for a thinking additional five days, which tells me about my body was fighting it. So it's gonna be interesting to see long term. If it's just something that if they intimidate you and they put the tube down there and then the breathing machine can help you breathe in your body.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 12:49
Yeah, Yeah, It is a powerful thing. And you're healthy. Otherwise, Yeah. I mean, you know, I mean, I've had pneumonia before, too. I mean, we've all and you know, that type of thing, and you're treated with antibiotics. And I'm sure the doctors like you say they're doing the best they can possibly do and trying to figure it out.
Elizabeth Tillett: 13:05
Will and I even think with Chris's case because he was patient zero he got. Ah, 100% of in the entire team's attention. The nurses, the doctors, the pulmonologist, the intensive iss, the CDC, the W H O. And you know. But now they're so swamped with these cases.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 13:26
Yeah, exactly.
Chris Tillett: 13:27
Yeah, it was. It blew my mind. Um, you know, as we said, Danbury Hospital, they're amazing. I I thought the whole time I was there, I was the only patient, very, very hospital, and then towards the end. And then the thing is, when the nurses came and I could tell they were endorses the doctor I could tell they were busy, but they never acted like stressed or they never basically that expression. Never let him see a sweat. I definitely that was my experience. Yeah, I was to cut to find out later on that the floor that I eventually moved to was all confirmed Cove it Wow. Maybe, really? Yeah, because, you know, it made me really appreciate how hard he had to work. Just the people that they had to do just to come in my room 5 or 6 times a day. And then they have to completely tear it off and throw it in the trash can in my room and then go outside in the hallway, get completely dressed again to go into somebody else's room. You can see why there's a high burn rate of pee pee, and then it's exhausting having to get completely dressed all over again just to going to deliver a meal to someone and and then in vitamins or or your medications, and to check on your blood, oxygen levels and blood pressure. All that. So, yes, I dated a really good job of if they came in. They did everything at once. They brought you your meal. They checked her Your detector. Vitals.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 14:54
True heroes right there. Yeah. And you can remember them coming in and out of the room. So, Elizabeth, when you walked in the door, then so you get into your house and your sitter is there, and you're thinking Wow. Okay. I just gotta put on my cape, like, you know, women. D'oh! And we just got to power through this. Were you worried at that point that you will, obviously you're exposed and you know, your infants. What were your thoughts then? What did you have to d!
Elizabeth Tillett: 15:20
You know, I think there was a large part of me that worried that I How could I not have it right? Comparing for him, I slept every night in the same bed as him. And it's so contagious. I thought, there's nowhere that I don't have it. But I think there was a part of me, too that was in sort of denial. Like, there's no way I can have it because I have to take care of these two babies for men. My two weeks, and that's just what I'm going to dio. But that being said, I still had to make all the arrangements. You know, I made sure that I pulled our wills and because, you know, I didn't know if if I could get sick really fast and have to call 911 and I would have a brother and sister in law that live upstate in New York. And then we have Christmas sister who would have custody of the Children if anything happened to both Both Chris and I. And so I still made all those arrangements because I didn't know you didn't know it. Yeah, you know, if we're both out out of commission, um, I wanted to make sure the baby's were taken care of. So it's all those steps, I think, as women, we just We just do it. And I held something to the part of us. Is women that just think Well, we don't get sick because we have to take care of our families,
Amy Schmidt, Host: 16:40
right? Yeah. We don't have time. We don't have time to get sick. I know. Exactly. Incredible. Incredible. So were you getting just updates by phone? Um, from the hospital, just on how Chris is doing.
Elizabeth Tillett: 16:52
Yeah, So the I would get a call from each one of his doctors at least once a day, if not twice. And that was really my only communication, um, for his condition. And we'd go over, you know, his care plan, how he was doing. You know what we wanted to try What we didn't want to try, because everything's experimental. All right? Sure. And obviously Chris is unconscious, and so I'm his health care proxy, But I can't be present there. So for me to consent for him, it was a whole phone process to everything. Took 45 minutes.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 17:27
I really have
Elizabeth Tillett: 17:28
to read you all the risks and and then you have to verbally agree. And they have to have two witnesses to say They heard you verbally agree. Four. You know your husband. So I just remember there are times where, you know, the babies would be fussing, and I knew that I had this 45 minute phone call and I have to make sure they're in a safe place and they're crabs or whatever, and they might be crying, but I have to go downstairs, and I have to take care of this, and they're gonna be okay. And it breaks your heart, but that's that's what you have to do. So you just do it.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 18:02
You just do it. Amazing. Are you tired? I'm sure you're tired a little bit, aren't you?
Elizabeth Tillett: 18:07
I'm bone tired.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 18:09
Yeah, you're exhausted. Yeah. Yeah, I bet you are. So you have to take care of yourself too. And you know, Chris, you got that word. I guess they they brought you out. Is that what they do? They kind of take you off of the three. That as I
Chris Tillett: 18:23
so on. By day seven, I'm on this thing I was starting to come to. I was starting to get better. I was starting to the treatments they were giving me. We're working again for just me, but they were working, so they start slowly but surely we knew off the ventilator to see if your lungs can. And they had to do a lot to get all the fluid out of your lungs. Because I had a lot of fluid on there, so they were able to get that going. And then by day 10 they brought me back.
Elizabeth Tillett: 18:50
Bye. But him back then, he means they weaned the study a tive paralytic medication.
Chris Tillett: 18:55
Yes, yes, because that, uh And then at that point, I waas not quite myself, right? I couldn't hold a glass of water to my face. I couldn't walk most of my muscles that atrophy. And, um, your it's everything you learn it from, Like, a year and 1/2 to 3 years of age. You have to relearn all that again, you know, eating and swallowing. And they have therapists that come in to see how well you do with all of that. Um, but yeah, When I first came out, I was delirious. I had dreamed this entire paranoid dream. Ah, the whole time I'm under cause basically, your dream doesn't end, so you just It just keeps building. So when I woke up, I was paranoid. I had dreamed I had had some crazy dream that Elizabeth sent an email to my family that she was leaving me and taking the babies how to into California. And so when the nurse, the nurse of Danvers, like your wife would like to face time, you I was like, I'll deal with her later,
Elizabeth Tillett: 20:07
like, way had one reporter who asked us like when he came to did you? You know, Were you just in tears and so happy to talk to him? And I'm like, actually, he yelled at me for taking her Children into international waters. That was the exam that romantic exchange
Amy Schmidt, Host: 20:27
in exactly those terms of endearment. Yeah. Oh, my gosh, That is awesome. I think that
Chris Tillett: 20:33
was the thing. I mean, this is just this dream. I'm probably gonna write a book about it because
Amy Schmidt, Host: 20:36
it was you saying, um but you remember it. You should Yes,
Chris Tillett: 20:40
it's coming. It's It's that to remember that dream is slowly coming in ways because your short term memory takes a while to come back. But it was Ah. So when I first woke up, I wasn't really myself. And I was almost like it 18 or 19 year old kid, the way I would communicate. Uh, again, I thought, you know, she's plaintiff. I'm defendant, so I'm not gonna talk to her. I don't know that she convinced me. And then and then Elizabeth explains to me on the phone, all that transpired. And then she didn't say everything about what was going on with covert around the world. She was just You've been in a coma for 10 days. Uh, because I thought that somehow it by drinking, I thought that she and I agreed That would be good for me to check myself into the hospital. I don't know why, and that was yelling at her. Like, why'd you convince me to do this? I'm miserable.
Elizabeth Tillett: 21:31
Really? Well, if you've got just one, just one day had passed. So here's I got a text from him. Like, Hey, why can't you just come pick me up there? Not doing anything
Amy Schmidt, Host: 21:43
right? They're not doing anything. Yeah, Yeah. Come out
Chris Tillett: 21:47
before those poor nurses in the icy you if I could just go back and apologize. I'm sure I said the stupidest things to them right there. Use. I'm just hoping. Yeah, just hoping that they that they were, like, Okay, He had a lot of drugs to put him down, and he asked his brain isn't right right now.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 22:07
Yeah, They might be the one writing a book, you know? You know what came out of the mouth of Chris? Yeah. You
Chris Tillett: 22:15
know, it's jerks on TV that said, you know, let me tell you what he really Yeah,
Amy Schmidt, Host: 22:19
exactly. Uh well, I'm just Elizabeth. I'm amazingly proud of you, Um, as ah, Mom myself with grown kids and as other women listening. It's amazing to me, because you really are, um, a superhero in a lot of ways, just dealing with everything and putting one foot in front of the other. And that's what we have to do right now. I mean, as a as a nation, as a world, it's too much for all of us to process. And your proof here that you know, you you got the virus. Like you said early, I got the virus and, you know, it is what it iss. And at some point, I kind of have to look at it that way, right? I know that sounds shallow, but
Chris Tillett: 23:02
no. Eight year, actually. Right. So I told this tool I said this to in multiple interviews. You know, when I found that all that my wife did, I was like wonder woman. That's all I kept saying. So hopefully that doesn't cause you any copyright issues. But
Amy Schmidt, Host: 23:15
that's all I
Chris Tillett: 23:16
could keep saying. I mean, all the things that she was doing just blew my mind. It made me appreciate her. So much Maura's ah, wife and a mother, er, and and also is a nurse. Especially seeing how the nurses in action. I'm going. Okay. My wife has the skill set, and I'm watching all the different things that they've got to know to keep me alive. And you just you have such a reverence for that. Their skill sets now. But is this faras? Yeah, moving forward. I only said one prayer to God of kind of Why be? And then I remember sitting in a chair and was I was in this chair for eight hours. I was kind of delirious. Still, I actually thought I saw my wife, Herman and uncle in the across the glass, and I was somewhat hallucinating. Ah, and that's when I said that little prayer. And then I started thinking about like, Why not me? You know, I mean, I'm a pretty strong guy. I got the I'm not dead yet, right? I I'm alive now, and every day is grateful. And they would give me a Flintstone Vitus until the take. Yes,
Amy Schmidt, Host: 24:25
Yes. Oh, boy. Those are gonna be in short supply now, after we have to release this. Oh,
Chris Tillett: 24:31
yeah. So That was my moment. I got so excited to see that every morning thing. And that was my old, like to say, a little gratitude career. Really? Yes. I think from my life, I think, and asked to bless the hands of those that were caring for me. I thank them for my wife, my kids, my sons, my family, my friends. It might boss my job because my job was amazing. Lea, supportive of Elizabeth and my family. And so it was one of those things where and
Elizabeth Tillett: 25:03
again it's just something
Chris Tillett: 25:03
just really quick. But it set my day for the rest of the day that little Flintstones vitamin it, that little gratitude prayer and I had I made sure that the rest of the day I tried to be is pleasant. And if I could be funny with the caregivers of the doctors, I would, um and so it just Ah, you can sit there and go Should've would've Could've why me? Or you can say Okay, we just gotta move forward now and we've got and we have to deal with the matter at hand and not what could ever should have happened. Here we are Let's deal with it and let's move forward.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 25:38
There is so much more a sense of community. I mean, I know personally, your story came across my feed, my social media, friends of friends and Wilton that knew you. So just can you talk about just that? Because there is such power in community and connection and sharing.
Chris Tillett: 25:57
Yes. I was very humbled to see the support from the community. I grew up in a small town in Virginia, and this is a town where, you know, you would drive around and you'd waved everybody's. You drove down the road. Sure. And so when I moved to Wilton, I kind of felt like I was home the way that just the way it is, it made me feel that way. But when I was reading people's comments, what I heard about what they did to support my family, I my wife and I, we had, you know, we've been married for five years. We've been renting, and we like where we settle roots, you know? Where do we want to raise kids? Yeah, that really would. That solidified it to me. I'm going. This is the kind of community I'd like to raise my Children. And this is the kind of community that those were some values that I want my sons tohave. So I was completely floored, completely humbled by complete strangers. They didn't know me. So yeah, you see, people in New York, they're banging the pots and the pans, which is along for the shifts. That was Wilton's way of doing that same thing for us. And so I really
Elizabeth Tillett: 27:01
appreciate. And I thought it was amazing. As soon as you know, it was announced that Connecticut's first case was a Wilton resident. Yeah, immediately was contacted by the editor of the Wilton Bulletin. Heather, who manages the door, were also brag connected on Facebook, and she immediately, um, asked how people could help. And I said, to be honest, um, I said, We have plenty of food. She said, Well, people really, really want to help. How can I direct them? And so she she suggested that I make, um une email address that didn't have my name in it because we were being anonymous at the time. Sure, and, um and then a go fund me so that she could direct people so that I could get whatever I needed diapers or food or And, you know, I was scared because I was home alone with two babies and I didn't prepare. I didn't have any groceries. I hadn't prepared to be home for two weeks. This the virus was taking off all over the world. So I didn't know what I needed to stock up on. And all of a sudden I mean thousands, literally thousands of e mails from Wilton residents to this email address, Everybody listing their name, their dress as you think I did anything. They donated Amazon gift cards. I could just have everything delivered to my house. Baby food diapers. Wow. And we've only lived here six months. I mean, it wasn't
Amy Schmidt, Host: 28:27
Ah, that's incredible
Elizabeth Tillett: 28:29
community for years. And so I mean, I just It blew me away. And how many people, still, even even now, when other people are suffering from Kobe, it and they'll still reach out and write me a message. And I just think the selflessness that they care about making when they're going through this themselves Now, Yeah, that's inaudible in the town, Mike.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 28:52
No, it's a special place. Absolutely No. We were all following it. We really were. We were all following it and wanted to help. And, you know, that's what Sometimes you struggle with, How do you help? You know, do you call when you're at Costco and you and you see some strawberries, and you think maybe I should pick him up for Elizabeth? Sometimes people don't know what to do. So how nice is it that Heather kind of took the lead on that and said, I'm gonna take that off your plate and figure it out. And that's those air the this, the stories of hope that I love to hear. And Chris, what about your industry? I mean, you're out at a conference. It was Was it attended by a lot of people and
Chris Tillett: 29:24
Oh, yeah, not have people there, thousands of people there. And they, um they really stepped up with the go fund me to say a lot of people, some people I had worked with in the past, uh, matter of fact, it was a couple people that I worked with in the past that I didn't work with them that much, but they were right there, you know, putting encouraging words to my family didn't making a donation. I was
Elizabeth Tillett: 29:50
1000 coming.
Chris Tillett: 29:51
2000 comments in
Amy Schmidt, Host: 29:52
2000
Chris Tillett: 29:55
when I came home and I'm just scrolling through Elizabeth walked in for me. Oh, let me see it. And I was up to, like four AM and I was just crying. You're treating hearing, you know, seeing people that I hadn't worked within five years Comment about something and you're going. Wow, I I didn't realize you don't realize how people feel about you and to see that that's how they felt about me and they were going to support my family again. The only thing you can say is you're humbled by it. You don't you don't expect it. It wasn't something that you know. You you feel like you deserve. But you're grateful that that you're seeing people go back to giving, and I think we're all in kind of, Ah, we're all in this together. And so I I'm looking forward to the opportunity to give back. That's the thing. I'm looking for two right now and I don't want to take any more. I want to give. And so were we were just discussing that this morning. Like, how do we give back to the people that Danbury Hospital Right now it's all locked down, right? How do I give back to them? Is there another family and Wilton that it's got this? Is there something I can do for them? Yeah, even if it's just a phone call of encouragement, what can I do? And so the so the community and my community and cybersecurity. Those two communities really gathered around us, and I'm looking forward to giving back to both
Amy Schmidt, Host: 31:27
to giving back and share that beautiful picture of you come home and holding those babies I love. It brings us without anybody's face. I'll tell you. Thank you.
Chris Tillett: 31:38
My my own guy at work told me I should I should have gotten a white one z to match him. And then all three of us throw. One
Amy Schmidt, Host: 31:45
would have been perfect. That would have been perfect. Thank you so much to both of you for sharing your story, your journey through your own words. And, um, I'm just I'm proud of you both and just, you know, we're gonna get through it one day at a time. And there's
Chris Tillett: 32:02
hope there. Yes, there are hundreds of people coming home. I feel absolutely awful. We know of a family that we were my wife. People have been reaching out to Elizabeth for help. And we do know of a family that lost their father and were heartbroken for them. Right. But I also think of, uh I also think of the fact that there are hundreds of people coming home. Exactly. It is not a death sentence. There are. Unfortunately, it is
Elizabeth Tillett: 32:34
a risk. A risk of death. Does it rotted that, son?
Chris Tillett: 32:37
Yes, there is a risk. All right. I was probably close a couple of times. And so that's why I'm just grateful for every day I've got.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 32:47
Exactly. Exactly. So fabulous. No, that's I'm just so glad you sound great, Elizabeth, Take care of yourself. Get the rest. You need put. Self care is a priority. You're an amazing, amazing woman. An amazing mom and wife. Really.
Elizabeth Tillett: 33:03
Thank you very much. Means a lot.
Amy Schmidt, Host: 33:05
And Chris, I'm so glad you're home better together, right? All right. We'll stay in touch. Kim getting better. All right?