How to Grieve with Grace: Navigating Loss and Finding Joy Again w/ Pastor Ann Alessi | S6 E12

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And we've learned they don't need to hear anything. They just need you to love them and hug them and say, I'm here for you. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Family Business with the Alesssies because family is everybody's business. We know that's why you are joining us today. Now, you're gonna love the podcast crew that's coming to you during this recording. It is myself, my wife Mary, and my mother and Alessie. Come on, give it up.

SPEAKER_03 0:41

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Yes, yes, yes. Now, mom has never been in a podcast booth and recording, so she's uh a little nervous as we sit here. First off, hopefully you're able to see the merchandise that's sitting on the table in front of me. We've got great merchandise we want you to look into and check out the website and buy some. It's great stocking stuffers and something you can wear. But we're here with mom and uh mom, we want to welcome you to the podcast booth. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Is this what you thought a podcast was?

SPEAKER_03 1:16

I figured more later.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Mom's 85 years young. This is her first podcast. Who knows? She may be on more because she's doing uh uh uh life with us from time to time, coming down. You've moved to Stuart, you're about two hours from us, but now you're in town because we're on baby watch. Yes, and so since we are all here today at the office, we thought let's bring you into the podcast booth. So here's what Mary and I are thinking you could add some value to the listeners. You have uh since 2020, you've uh moved into a new season, as we lost Papa in September of 2020, or actually October of 2020, and um you have since uh moved into this season of your life where you are a widow, yes, and uh you've done so for just over three years now. Yes, so people of course look at you, they see your strength, but this has been a new season, moving into a new season for you. So uh first off, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 2:30

I'm doing great. Thank God for my children. I appreciate what God has given my children and the grace that they have given toward me, or that God gave them to take care of me. Uh, I appreciate that. I have a daughter in California, I have a daughter in uh Stuart, Florida, where I live, and I have a beautiful son and daughter here in Miami, and my own bedroom. Yeah, I will share that bedroom with Faith when she comes down, and she will. She'll be here too to see the baby when it's born. Um it's been um difficult without my children. I don't know where how I would have handled all this. Sure. But because my children rose to the level that God wanted them to rise to, yeah, um, it has made me it made it easier for me. I also, when I when they came in and told me that my husband had passed away in the hospital from COVID, I fell apart. And then of course, when I went into my bedroom, I realized I could not do this. I believe God. Yeah, I believe God has a purpose for our lives. I believe that all things work together to good to those that are called. I'm a called out one.

SPEAKER_04 4:00

Right.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

You two are, you that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Right. You're called out, your your name is written in glory. Yes, and therefore, if I believed what the word of God said, I had to get a hold of myself. All the time that Dad was in the hospital, we kept saying because we all cried, and and and it was very traumatic for us, for a man as healthy and as robust as Pastor John was, um all of a sudden he's gone. Yeah, and we could it was hard for us to comprehend. And consequently, we all stood upon the word of God that we knew that God would not allow anything to happen to him that God had not ordained it to be. And if this is what God had, then we must be subservient and we must accept that. And that was our philosophy, and that was my philosophy. I've stood on that. I stood on the word of God, and I tried to tell the family, God knew what the future held. We did not. We did not know what the future held. But God in his infancy, in his in his divine glory, God knew what the future would hold for him. And my husband was such that uh he never never wanted anybody to try to help him. I at least I I uh appreciate the help that I get. But he didn't want anybody helping him walk, he didn't want anybody helping him get up, he didn't want any of that. He was really strong with that. Well, I had to also then tell my my children that we must still look to the Lord, and God has a purpose for this. I still haven't seen the purpose yet, except for the fact that my children are all all close and we're surrounded but with one another. Yes. Uh some of you out there perhaps don't, you do not have the uh the am I talking too much? No, no.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

I'll catch you. You doing good the support system around you.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

Perhaps you don't have the support system that uh I had and they had. Uh Pastor Stephen Mary had the church here, the church in Durell and the church in Daidlin, and all of them, everybody just drew together to support us, undergird us with the right right hand of the God the Father. And um I would go into my bedroom at night. I didn't want to cry around them. I didn't want them to think that I would didn't have the faith to believe that God did what he did, took my husband, um, was the enemy that took him, but it was God that sustained us.

SPEAKER_04 6:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 7:00

And so I I would cry many a night that I did not want them knowing that I was crying and grieving. But believe me when I say that as we trust God, the Lord just opens up people to come to us and share things with us to uplift us. And I understand that you're going to have a oh, what do we call it? What did you call it, son, for here for the widows? Oh, yeah, the grief.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

The grief and loss program.

SPEAKER_03 7:33

The grief and loss program. I admonish every one of you that have lost a loved one, whether it be a husband or uh a spouse, uh, children, I admonish you in the name of the Lord to find out about that and come out because you can be ministered to. Yes. Uh it's not just as a pastor's wife for uh so many 50, 60 years, as a pastor's wife, when my mother died, and even when Pastor John passed away, people would come over to me and say, try to give me words of encouragement, try to quote scripture to me. Well, I'd been in the ministry since I was 16 years old, and it and I'm 85 now, and it I knew all those scriptures. I had given scriptures like that to pe to women and men. I didn't want to hear that. I just wanted my heart to heal. And so it with this grief uh ministry that is starting, I admonish you to get into it, get involved, allow the Holy Spirit to come in and wave over you, just send that beautiful Holy Spirit uh presence over you that you then can look up to the Lord and say, give me the strength to say, Thy will be done, thy will be done in my life, in my children's lives. Let me accept this, Lord, and God will put the peace of God into your heart. If he will just saturate your life in the name of Jesus, he will saturate your life until you can say, I can handle this now. Is it gonna be overnight? No. No, it will not be overnight. But Lauren that is heading this up, she will be able to give you clinical ideas, clinical thoughts. No one gave me those clinical thoughts. It was only the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God that came upon me when I would pray. Did I miss my husband? Oh yes, I missed my husband. I miss him today. As I passed by the work on the uh Dayland campus, and there was that big, big uh thing that he's got across there. Banner. Banner, thank you. Banner that's across there. On one side is Pastor Steve, then the beautiful edifice that's been drawn, and there was my husband up there, so skinny, 27 years old, yeah, and yet he was there with his tools, just so happy to be able to uh build the church and build the chapel at that time, so happy. And now he's gone, but he's in heaven, yeah, yeah, and he's looking out for us. Yeah, he still gives me thoughts, he still gives Pastor Steve thoughts that all of a sudden will pop out of nowhere. But allow the Holy Spirit to come in. It's been three years now, as I've said before, and it's easier and easier. Yeah. God will give you the strength. Yes, he will.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Yes, he will.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

That's beautiful, Mom. And you know, there's something to be said about that. Mary's giving you tissue. If you know my mom, you know she's a crier. Right. So that's a good thing. And if you're not watching and you're listening, there's some tears already flowing, so you may want to go back and watch this. But mom, you know, we're trying to look at the different seasons of life and uh your life, of course, with dad, um almost 60 years of of ministry, you and him together. Um, and yes, he was the kind of guy that would take care of everything for you. He really did. He treated you well. And you didn't have to worry about things around the house, he was gonna take care of them. You'd have to worry about the cars, you didn't have to worry about the money, you didn't have to worry about those things. Because dad was uh that that was just what dad was about. So now you've come into this new season, and with every new season, there are some adjustments that need to be made. So, you know, you probably dealt with fear after Pop's passed. How did you deal with fear?

SPEAKER_03 12:00

I guess it was just the Holy Spirit, Steve, that uh helped me. First of all, uh the fear that I had I would call you and and ask you, for instance, the smallest thing like insurance. I never took care of anything like that. Yeah, I just paid the regular bills.

SPEAKER_04 12:17

Right.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

And dad took care of all the rest.

SPEAKER_04 12:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:20

And I didn't know the first thing. I had to call you and ask you for an insurance person to call. So the fear was there, but I just felt the peace of God let me know that you're you're gonna be all right.

SPEAKER_04 12:34

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:35

Because Pastor Steve took care of so much, uh, Darlene and Stuart took care of so much for me. Uh, and and all the family, it just whatever I needed, you were all there for me. And I feel sad that some of our widows out there don't have that. And I almost feel guilty to tell you that my family just encircled me and and took care of all those things for me that I couldn't take care of of my myself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

So you more or less had to just trust God.

SPEAKER_03 13:10

Yes. That's the bottom line was trusting God. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

When we were at the house the other night and Lauren had come home and we were talking about the the course that she is hosting for the widows, we were just all so surprised and stunned because she hadn't really talked about it. But one of the newer widows in our church, whose husband suddenly um went out for a walk and had a heart attack and died on the street right in their neighborhood. And it was tragic for our whole church. Our whole church felt that one. And she'd approached Lauren and said, Connect groups are great, but I think some of our widows aren't ready for that environment. And we need something that really is going to help us heal, like you said, clinically. And as we were talking about it, that's when you started sharing from your own personal perspective as to what you're feeling when you've lost somebody, and the things you need to hear and the things you don't need to hear. And for the first time, and I I mean, we've we've we've been to many funerals in ministry, you've been to twice as many over the years. Um, we've been in in grief settings where what do you say? What is the right thing to say? How do you act? What is, you know, what do people need to hear? And we've learned they don't need to hear anything, they just need you to love them and hug them and say, I'm here for you. That's right. And you made a statement that night at the house, you said, I already knew that God would take care of it. I already knew that. I didn't want to hear that again. Not that you were angry at God or that that didn't bring you solace. That was something you knew. You were in a land that was unknown to you for the first time. And it was so um eye-opening for me, who I know more than most people how to behave in a grief environment, but it was still very eye-opening to hear you say that from somebody who you know we all have gleaned from. And we look at you as the a mountain of wisdom and you know, the mecca for ministry and understanding, and for you to say in that moment, I just didn't want to hear that. Knowing your heart, it made us even more start to understand the heart of somebody who's grieving. And the holidays, how hard are the holidays for somebody who's lost a loved one?

SPEAKER_03 15:33

They're very hard because you start remembering back to the things that you used to do together. Right. Everything was together. I mean, Dad and I were married 65, 66 years, and all of a sudden I'm alone. Yeah. I mean, at night, and I'm sure some of our widows have felt the same thing uh at night. Um, I thought I would feel him in the bed and he wasn't there. I'd reach over and he wasn't there. So holiday time, uh, I still we always went with Pastor Steve and Mary for Thanksgiving, and Christmas with Darlene and Debbie, and and all of a sudden he's not there. So I'm not gonna quit going with Steve and Mary for Thanksgiving, neither am I going to have a not going to have a wonderful time for Christmas. Right. I mean, the most beautiful that in Easter, the day he was born, celebrating the day he was born, Jesus. Right. And then culminating with him rising from the grave at Easter time so that we could live and live forever. That's right. Because we've accepted we had accepted Christ. So I wasn't gonna change any of that. I didn't want to. I said, with the grace of God, uh we'll go through it, and then I still have my family surrounding me and supporting me. Right. And so that's how I got through. Not that they would say, come on, let's read the Bible, Mom. No, no, I don't want to do that. I want to think of the good things. Yes, yes. There is not a day that goes by now that healing has taken place, there's not a day that goes by that one of my children or grandchildren does not mention my husband's name.

SPEAKER_04 17:26

Right.

SPEAKER_03 17:27

Grandpa, Papa, Papa. And we get through the day that way. And it's a we laugh. We laugh at some of the antics. And that's laughing was good for the soul. Yes. And we we never forgot him. He will never be forgotten. No, he will always be remembered in our heart, but it'll be with joy.

SPEAKER_04 17:52

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Even most of the restaurants we go to, they they they don't forget him.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

For for good or bad. He made a mark for sure.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

He left us with a lot to talk about. Yes. A lot of good memories.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

Yeah. Well, we we see it more and more, just so many people struggling with those seasons, and uh especially with loss, and of course, um people outside of a relationship with God, we wonder how in the world do they do it? Yeah, because the you when you're in that deep darkest moments where you feel fear, you feel um rejected, you feel like, man, the heavens are like brass. If there's God up there, how could he allow such a thing to happen? But mom, you uh you demonstrated a strength that uh you didn't realize, maybe you did, maybe you didn't. Uh, but your grandkids have been watching. No, I didn't know that. Yeah, all of your grandkids watching the way that you handled this, uh really spoke to them because they I mean, losing Papa was tough. Uh of course it's a little different. He he wasn't with them as long as he was you, he wasn't their father like he was me and Debbie and Darlene's father. But they had a precious relationship with him, enjoyed their times with him. Each of them can give you more or less their own stories. But watching you navigate through that, not fall apart, not be weak, uh weepy, but be strong, and that really spoke to them. So you know, with with the day in which we live in that family unit is so important to helping you get through things and being surrounded with the right kind of community just is so important.

SPEAKER_03 19:42

Yes, it is, yeah. So it's not just important for you, it's important for your your sons and daughters and also your grandchildren.

SPEAKER_04 19:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 19:53

To see if you say you serve the Lord, then walk in that. Yeah. Walk in it and know that He's the provider of all things. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

I I want to say this that we we all made it com, we would all discuss it around the season that it was so new and fresh. That you, you know, you have always taught us so many things. How to love the Lord. You've taught us ministry. Um it's it's endless what you've taught us as the mother in our life. But one of the things that we talked about, my kids, your grandchildren, was that you showed us how to grieve the godly way.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

Oh, thank you, Mary.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

And you kept saying this, and I'll never forget it, because we and we've said it since then, that the day of the funeral, we were getting ready to walk out, and you said, Today uh we are going to grieve. As a family, we're gonna grieve. But tomorrow, the sun is coming up and we will find joy tomorrow. And we walked out as a family. I mean, all of us is this big entourage of family, and you let us know this is what we're going to do. What a matriarchal thing to do. And it's not that you weren't feeling weak. It wasn't that you didn't have all the normal female and emotional um experiences that all of us have when we grieve. It wasn't like any of that was void or lost on you. You were feeling all those things, but you were taking God at His word, but everything you said you believed, you were now grabbing hold of and walking out. And we got to see what that looked like. The example for us and your grandchildren was if God forbid it ever would have happened to us in the future, it's an example of how to greet the godly way. And you you lean on your family because your family needs you and you need your family, you turn to your church because sometimes, you know, we God is always present. He's near and dear to the brokenhearted. But what we need people in our lives too, and people who've been through it and have walked through it, that just know how not to say a word, but they understand the pain. Because they've been there before, but they're also an example to you that healing is in your future. Yes, and joy again is in your future. And happiness and laughing and actually enjoying your life is in your future. It's just not right now.

SPEAKER_03 22:17

Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

But you can stop and take the time to let your life heal, your heart heal, your body heal. And you really did exemplify what healthy and and Lord would say this as somebody in psychology and Christopher too, not just godly grief, but um the grief that you would be if you were in a counselor's office or a psychiatrist's office, what they would tell you you needed to do in order to stay healthy and have the right mind about you in order for you to heal, you did exemplify that.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

I didn't like looking around and seeing every time we got together, my grand grandchildren crying. Yes. And then we adults started to tear up. And that's when I said, No, this is not happening again. And that's when I said, We're gonna cry today. Yeah, we're really gonna cry. That's right. But this is the last time we're crying. When we leave here, we're gonna wake up in the morning and there's gonna be joy.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 23:20

Because the word of God says, weeping endures for the night. For the night. But joy comes in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

And that's what I wanted my grandchildren and my family, all my family to feel.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

And they did.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

They did. They got permission to do that.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

That's right. And they can only get that permission from you.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

If I didn't cry and weep every time they saw me.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

And you know, I I know it's kind of um harsh to to say, but it's a reality. Death is a part of life.

SPEAKER_04 23:50

Yes. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

And we're all going to meet our Maker one day, and we're going to lose loved ones, some tragically, some uh through just the natural means of age and what happens, we can't live forever. So loss is a part of living. Death is a part of life. So we have to uh give ourselves room, yes, to grieve. That was that was sad. But yet there is that tomorrow. There there is now we got to move on because like you did, mom, you realized okay, you still got you still have life ahead of you. Absolutely. You've got your kids, you're still enjoying your grandkids. Now you're seeing your great grandgrandkids come on the scene. You're healthy enough to embrace them and see them. You still travel, you go out to see Debbie in California. Um all of those things are still a part of your life. So you can't stop living when there is a death and a loss, you you still have to pull yourself up by the bootstraps, and life's different. It's a new season, it's not going to be the same, but but you move on.

SPEAKER_04 25:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

And a year, you know, after the passing of Dad to the date, we were able to come back. And as much as we would try to stop by and go see dad's grave on a regular basis, partly because we missed him, partly because of guilt, like, oh my gosh, he would he would be upset with us if we didn't stop by his grave to check on the case.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Because he arranged the whole setup for us to be able to easily visit him.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

But a year to the date after his death, we were able to name the street in front of the church after him.

SPEAKER_03 25:30

Yes, that was a beautiful testimony.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

Yep. So I see we see his name still every time we drive down the street. We're in the church that he built. Yes. Yes, we were able to take that over and um uh put our campus, one of our campuses, there. Uh so even when we're going through this remodel project, almost $4 million, I'm looking at him thinking, wow, there's there's things here that happened in this building that dad would have been on top of and seeing. And of course, the guys joke because they know so much of what we are doing, he would not have been happy with. You can't move that, you can't change that, you can't rebuild that, you can't paint that. There would have been a lot of that going on if he was still around. So the point there is, you know, we go on without him, but yet he's always present. He's always that's a good thing, yes, and uh that's part of who we are. I mean, if you're you're talking about soul ties, there's no side soul tied tied more together than that between a husband and wife, and then between um uh a parent and a child. No, yes, because literally coming out of the womb, the parent created, so we never forget him, and he's always speaking at one time or another, seeing things. Some of some of us have had great dreams, yes, yeah, where it's like uh he just walked in and hey, I'm good.

SPEAKER_03 26:58

Yes, he did that too. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

So so you lose him, but what's the alternative? We gotta continue to live. And that's the inspiration here, mom, because even your church family, so many of them, they knew uh, especially from the Dayton campus that were with you and dad for so long. They knew what a imposing figure, strong figure dad was, but then to see you continue on and uh uh do your life like you're doing uh is done well. It's really been inspiring. And I think something that helped you tremendously, which maybe we can encourage for everybody who has a loss, you didn't make a lot of changes right away.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

Oh, I definitely did not. I had determined that I would not sell my house, even though it was so big and so costly to keep up, but I would not sell my house until after a year when I would start to think about it. Right. Then I would start to think about it. That's right. And only then to think about it. Smart. Thank God he got us a new car before he passed away.

SPEAKER_02 27:59

He drove it one time.

SPEAKER_03 28:00

And he drove it one time, yes, before he passed. But if he hadn't gotten us a new car, I might have still been driving around in that old Lincoln.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

That's true. No, we wouldn't have to do it. No, Pastor Steve would have made it. He left you well off financially, thankfully. You were able to be taken care of. Yes. You didn't have to get remarried.

SPEAKER_03 28:18

I didn't have to go back to work. I see people working that's that's older. Yeah, you're thank you, Jesus, that I don't have to do that. Then I don't have to be a waitress. Oh, I do.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

You got a job with Metro.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

I'm just gonna say that you're doing it right now. She's on the clock.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

What do you do for Metro? What do you do for Metro? What's your job responsibility?

SPEAKER_03 28:40

I write out Christmas uh birthday cards that's right every month. You should get me getting my birthday card. This this month, though, has been a little slack only because I've been really busy. Yeah, he he and Mary have kept me so busy that it takes me several days to rest up, and then I don't feel like going in and writing my cards out. So please forgive me.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

Well, we did that because I remember one day you saying to me, Oh, my handwriting isn't like it used to be. That's right. Well, you were so accustomed to sending texts, whereas before, you uh years ago you were a legal secretary, so you were a whiz on a typewriter, even with your uh disuh disabled hand that's a little dis disabled, but uh you so you weren't doing that, but you said, Oh, my handwriting's slipping. And I went home, I told Mary, uh, we're gonna have to work on mom using left and right brain, so she can't just use her fit hands for texting anymore. I'm gonna give her a job. And I remember having our staff retreat, and when we were getting ready for the beginning of the year, I said, by the way, y'all, we have a new employee that's starting at the beginning of the year. And they're like, Oh, they got all excited and questionable with her eyes. Who? I said, Pastor Ann Alessia, she's coming on staff. So they all thought that was adorable. So, so you are busy, you're doing something. It's not as though you're vegging out.

SPEAKER_03 30:08

No, I'm not vegging out. No, my children keep me very busy. That is good.

SPEAKER_02 30:13

You've remodeled your place in Stuart, Darlene really um took care of that with you, but it put you out for a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 30:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

Because you had to put up with that whole remodel. You did finally sell your home. I did. That was a big deal.

SPEAKER_03 30:28

This past June. This past that so uh for two and a half years I stayed in the house. That's right, which is smart.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

Yeah, they usually say three years, three is a good number for any kind of adjustment and change. It takes you a good year just to realize the new, then it takes you another year to kind of figure your way out what you're gonna do next. And then within that third year, that's when changes take place. So I was right there. You were right there, mom. Okay, that was that was good. So you're you've landed on your feet. You took a fall, but you've landed on your feet, and you have um more, seemingly more energy. I do.

SPEAKER_03 31:05

I have a lot, a lot of energy.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

Your hobby is what?

SPEAKER_03 31:09

Um just going around from house to house. No, you like to read. Oh, I love reading. Oh, yes. And I get to do more of that because Papa didn't he didn't like that. No, he wanted my my his under my undivided attention.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

And he wanted to go to TJ Maxx and all that. He liked to shop, yes.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

And I just I just love uh reading a good novel.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Yep, so you you pretty much do that every day. Get into your reading, yes, your Bible, and then your novel.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

Yes, uh, and uh she's had what three or four more great grandchildren in the last year and a half, yeah. She's had four more in the last 18 months. Yes, Diana, um Daniel's third baby, then Marino, and Matthew coming.

SPEAKER_03 31:54

Yeah, we'll have six this Christmas. Yeah, and um when Papa passed away, we only had one great grandchild. And that was Rome.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

Yep. Yeah, wow. So life goes on, you're here to tell people, hey, it hurts. Life sucks sometimes, it gets really hard, but you have to do as the one old preacher said, you've got to endure the manure. Yeah, and as you do, hang in there, things could get better again. They will get better again if you handle it right.

SPEAKER_03 32:24

Yes, yeah. Well, I like that joy comes in the morning and it has come into my life. Amen. Like I said with the other brand new great-grandchildren. Uh, you know, God is good. Yeah, God is good, and don't let Satan ever tell you that he's not.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

That's it. Dad would be 88 because he passed away at 85.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

Yes, he would have been 80 uh 88. 88.

SPEAKER_02 32:49

Boy, he would have been a tough 88-year-old.

SPEAKER_03 32:52

Yes, he would have.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

He would have been walking a little slower, which would have frustrated him because he loved being healthy.

SPEAKER_03 32:59

Remember how aggravated he got because he would go to uh dayland and couldn't walk but a few steps and then had to stop. And he hated it.

SPEAKER_02 33:08

And as much as we hated to lose him, we had great, great years. Yes, we would not want to have seen him lose his dignity and going downhill, anything like that, losing his strength. He, if he couldn't walk to the beach to lay out in his speedos, he would have been so frustrated.

SPEAKER_01 33:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:28

Well, mom, we're glad you joined us on the Alesi family business, the family business with the Alessis. So you are an official podcaster as of today, and I can't wait to tell my sisters that. Thanks so much for it. Introducing you to new things in life, Mom.

SPEAKER_03 33:45

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:45

Well, thanks for joining us for another episode of the Family Business with the Alesssies, because family is everybody's business. We're so glad you joined us. If you like this, subscribe, pass it on to somebody that you may know is going through a seasonal change or even have lost a loved one and is having a hard time. Pass this on. Maybe it'll be an encouragement to them. So thank you so much for joining us. God bless.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

You've just enjoyed another episode of the Family Business Podcast with the Alessis, and we can't thank you enough for being a part of our podience today. Now that you've learned more about us, here's how you can join in in the family business. First, make sure you're following our podcast right now and download this episode so you can hear it at any time. Second, think of someone you know that might need or enjoy this episode and share it with them. You'll be helping them and helping us to spread the word about the family business. Third, go to AlesiFamily Business.com and tap the Ask the Alessies button. This is really cool. You can use it to record a voicemail comment or question, and we can add your voice to our conversations. Finally, while you're on our page, tap the reviews tab and you'll see a link to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. We love reading your reviews and we might even share them on the show. Thanks again for joining us, and we'll see you next time at the Family Business with the Alessis because family is everybody's business.