As we all hunker down in our homes to flatten the coronavirus curve, finding a guest for this week’s episode was a little difficult. So I asked my friend Chris Brown (my guest in Episode 3) to come back, this time to act as the interview host, so I can share my own personal story.  We sat the requisite 6 feet apart while discussing my childhood growing up in the other Valley (the San Fernando Valley), the tragic loss of my mother, and how that story both affected me in my career and relationships and how it’s now propelled me into this next phase of my life as a story collector. 

In 1990, my brother, mother, and I fell 60 feet down a mountain in Big Sur.  My brother and mother were seriously injured, I was not.  She spent the next year as a quadriplegic.  No longer wishing to be a burden on our family, or to live with the pain of life in a wheelchair, she starved herself for 45 days until she passed away.  Just before she died, my mother, Marlene, gave me a recording of her voice, which I cherish to this day.

In this episode, Chris and I discuss how that story has impacted me and how it’s helped me come to find my passion and purpose for this next phase of my life.

You can find pictures of my mother and me, our beautiful ranch, as well as my family in the SYV at SYV Stories.

The Maverick Saloon is featured in Small Business Spotlight.  Also mentioned in this episode are Santa Ynez MOPS, Bethania Lutheran Church, Allan Jones at Santa Ynez Valley Real Estate, Valley Wellness Collective, Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum, Dovecote Ranch, and StoryGem.