Takeaways

• Hard seasons like cancer, grief, and loss don't ask if you're ready. The goal isn't to skip the rain and find the rainbow immediately, it's to keep walking through it one day at a time.
• A diagnosis, a title, or a hard season can become part of your story, but it doesn't get to become your entire story.
• Legacy isn't built through one giant act. It's built through small, consistent things: a text, a meal, a phone call, a foundation, a message someone remembers nine years later.
• You don't have to pretend a painful season is a gift or find a silver lining in every hard moment. Some things are just really, really hard, and that's allowed.
• Kindness is often the thing people remember longest. The smallest gestures, a text, a hug, a "you don't have to go through this alone," can carry someone through an entire day.

Summary of the episode

In this solo episode, Kayla reflects on the recent passing of Dolly Parton and what her life and words teach us about walking through cancer, grief, and hard seasons of any kind. Rather than a celebrity tribute, this episode uses Dolly's own quotes as a framework for something Kayla has lived through firsthand: losing her husband Kyle, building a life and a foundation in the years since, and connecting with thousands of people navigating their own cancer journeys.

Kayla walks through several of Dolly's most well-known lines, "if you want the rainbow, you've gotta put up with the rain," "find out who you are and do it on purpose," and "storms make trees take deeper roots," and connects each one to what it actually feels like to sit in a hospital room, wait on scan results, or grieve someone you love while the rest of the world keeps moving. She's honest that living more like Dolly doesn't mean forcing positivity or pretending a hard season is secretly a gift. It means choosing kindness, humor, and gratitude where you can, and giving yourself permission to have the days where none of that feels possible.

The episode closes on the idea of legacy, not as something reserved for the end of life, but as something built daily through the way we treat people. Kayla ties this back to Kyle, to the nine-year anniversary messages she still receives from people who remember him, and to the community INDY Foundation has built around exactly this kind of small, consistent showing up for one another.

INDY is short for "I'm Not Done Yet," a phrase often said by the late Kyle Strand during his courageous battle with colon cancer. Kyle's four-year journey was both extremely challenging and profoundly beautiful. Though he lost his battle in July 2017, his legacy lives on through his two dying wishes: to establish the INDY Foundation and to inspire others to live every day to its fullest. In August 2017, the INDY Foundation was born, continuing Kyle's mission to support and uplift cancer warriors everywhere. Find more information here: www.indy-foundation.org

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImNotDoneYetMN

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/indyfoundation/

Join our INDY Tribe - Inner Circle FB Group. A group for those affected by cancer.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/202854020588761

Takeaways

• Scheduling joy on your calendar with the same seriousness as a work meeting makes it far more likely to actually happen.
• Saying no isn't rude or selfish. It's a form of self-care that protects the time and energy you have for what matters most.
• Joy changes with every season of life. What brought you happiness in your 20s can look completely different in your 30s or 40s, and that's normal.
• Building a personal joy inventory, a running list of what actually makes you happy, gives you something concrete to reach for when life feels heavy.
• You don't need anyone's permission to prioritize your own happiness. You just need to start small and put it on the calendar.

Summary of the episode

This episode is a replay, bringing together Kayla's full three-part miniseries on joy from earlier this year into one place for a fall reset. It kicks off with the case for treating joy like an obligation instead of an afterthought. Kayla walks through why she blocks off her calendar for fun the same way she'd block off a work meeting, why she thinks people who let vacation days go unused are making a mistake, and how a Mental Health Awareness Month lens shapes the way she thinks about prioritizing happiness.

From there, the series moves into the art of saying no. Kayla gets personal about her own history with FOMO, tracing it back to going to work at sixteen years old and spending most of her twenties saying yes to everything out of guilt or obligation. She reframes saying no as a direct act of self-care, offers a few practical ways to say it gracefully, and lands on a line that carries through the rest of the series: every no is a yes to yourself.

The final piece is about figuring out what actually brings you joy in the first place, since it's hard to prioritize something you haven't named. Kayla breaks joy down into four categories, creative, physical, social, and relaxation, and walks listeners through building a joy inventory they can return to whenever life feels heavy. Even though this show is built around cancer and caregiving, the message underneath all three episodes is one Kayla comes back to often: joy isn't something you earn after everything else is handled. It's part of how you get through the hard stuff in the first place.

INDY is short for "I'm Not Done Yet," a phrase often said by the late Kyle Strand during his courageous battle with colon cancer. Kyle's four-year journey was both extremely challenging and profoundly beautiful. Though he lost his battle in July 2017, his legacy lives on through his two dying wishes: to establish the INDY Foundation and to inspire others to live every day to its fullest. In August 2017, the INDY Foundation was born, continuing Kyle's mission to support and uplift cancer warriors everywhere. Find more information here: www.indy-foundation.org

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImNotDoneYetMN

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/indyfoundation/

Join our INDY Tribe - Inner Circle FB Group. A group for those affected by cancer.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/202854020588761

Takeaways

• Signs from someone you've lost don't have to be dramatic to be meaningful. Sometimes it's a coincidence you can't shake, not a feather or a dream.
• Bringing new joy into your life, whether it's a new pet, a new chapter, or a new love, doesn't replace what or who you lost. It adds to the story instead of erasing it.
• Grief and joy aren't opposites. They can exist in the same house, sometimes in the same hour.
• You don't need anyone else to believe something was a sign for it to be true for you.
• Paying attention to specific details, like a name, a place, or a date, is often what turns an ordinary moment into something that feels like a message.

Summary of the episode

In the final installment of the Signs From Heaven series, Kayla shares the story of how a puppy named Indy found her way into her family, months after they lost their 13-year-old lab, Max. What started as a passing thought after seeing a photo of an available puppy turned into a chain of small, specific coincidences: the puppy's birthday on the Fourth of July, a breeder's phone number that showed up as Hallock, Minnesota, the exact town where Kayla's late husband Kyle once worked on the pipeline, and a personality video showing Indy as the bravest, first-out-of-the-litter puppy of the group.

Kayla walks through the decision itself, the wait list, the deposit she almost didn't put down, and the moment she knew she had to say yes, while being honest about what the choice actually looked like: very little sleep, a few accidents, and a daily moment of "what did we just do." She holds space for both the chaos of a new puppy and the deeper reason it felt meaningful, without ever pretending the two cancel each other out.

The episode closes out the three-part Signs series with the show's clearest statement yet on what these moments are and are not. Kayla is upfront that she can't prove any of it, and she's not trying to. She offers a way of thinking about signs as personal rather than universal, and a reminder that new joy after loss doesn't undo what came before. It just adds another chapter.

Key Topics Covered:

• The origin story of how the puppy Indy joined the family
• Grief after losing a longtime family pet
• Signs from a loved one who has passed away
• How new joy and grief can coexist without contradiction
• Wrapping up a three-part series on signs and meaning after loss

INDY is short for "I'm Not Done Yet," a phrase often said by the late Kyle Strand during his courageous battle with colon cancer. Kyle's four-year journey was both extremely challenging and profoundly beautiful. Though he lost his battle in July 2017, his legacy lives on through his two dying wishes: to establish the INDY Foundation and to inspire others to live every day to its fullest. In August 2017, the INDY Foundation was born, continuing Kyle's mission to support and uplift cancer warriors everywhere. Find more information here: www.indy-foundation.org

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImNotDoneYetMN

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/indyfoundation/

Join our INDY Tribe - Inner Circle FB Group. A group for those affected by cancer.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/202854020588761

Takeaways

• Kayla and the INDY Foundation asked their Facebook community to share their own signs from heaven, and the stories that came back ranged from a phone that rang for two years after a mother's death to a cross made of leaves on a quiet country drive.
• Feathers, coins (especially unexpected dimes), songs that follow you into every room, and dreams are some of the most commonly reported signs people notice after losing someone they love.
• Recognizing a sign from heaven isn't about meeting a strict checklist. It's about the connection you feel in the moment, whether that's a chickadee visiting a deer stand or a cardinal racing alongside a three-wheeler.

Summary of the episode

In this second episode of the Signs From Heaven miniseries on Connecting Through Cancer, host Kayla Keenan opens the conversation up to the INDY Foundation's community. After the foundation's Facebook page asked followers to share their own signs from loved ones who have passed, Kayla reads through what came back and walks through the signs people report most: feathers found in unexpected places, coins (dimes more often than the usual pennies), songs that seem to find you at exactly the right moment, and dreams that carry a sense of peace.

She then shares four submitted stories in full. Laura describes a cardinal that raced her son's three-wheeler on the day of a funeral. Sarah Schmidt talks about her mom calling her phone for two years after she passed, always for a half ring and a hang-up, and how the number was disconnected when she tried calling it back. Kelly Summers shares a cross made of leaves that appeared on the fifth anniversary of her dad's passing while Higher by Creed played on the radio. And the show's own producer, Abbey, shares that chickadees visit her every hunting opener, a sign she connects to the grandfather and grandmother she lost to cancer.

Kayla closes by reminding listeners that a sign doesn't need to be proven to matter. She encourages everyone to stay open-hearted to the mundane, unexpected moments, and invites listeners to keep sending in their own stories of connection.

INDY is short for "I'm Not Done Yet," a phrase often said by the late Kyle Strand during his courageous battle with colon cancer. Kyle's four-year journey was both extremely challenging and profoundly beautiful. Though he lost his battle in July 2017, his legacy lives on through his two dying wishes: to establish the INDY Foundation and to inspire others to live every day to its fullest. In August 2017, the INDY Foundation was born, continuing Kyle's mission to support and uplift cancer warriors everywhere. Find more information here: www.indy-foundation.org

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImNotDoneYetMN

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/indyfoundation/

Join our INDY Tribe - Inner Circle FB Group. A group for those affected by cancer.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/202854020588761

Takeaways

• Signs from a loved one who has passed can show up in ordinary places, a song on the jukebox, a butterfly, an animal somewhere it has no reason to be, and they don't need to be proven to matter.
• The INDY Foundation's name traces back to a real moment: a horse named Indy at a county fair, days after Kyle's death, on the same theme he and Kayla had already talked about.
• Connecting Through Cancer has always been about connection, and Kayla makes the case that connection doesn't end when someone's cancer journey ends or when their life ends.

Summary of the episode

In this solo reflection, Kayla Keenan opens up about the signs she believes Kyle has sent her in the nine years since he passed away. She walks through the moments that have stopped her in her tracks: the unexplainable sunset on the day they celebrated his life, a horse named Indy at the county fair just days after his death (the same name that would go on to become the foundation), a song that follows her into nearly every bar she walks into, and a single cardinal that appeared once in her backyard and never again.

Kayla is careful not to tell listeners what to believe. She sits with the uncertainty in the open, wondering out loud whether these moments are truly signs or whether she simply wants them to be, and lands on the idea that what matters isn't proof. It's how the moments make her feel: connected, remembered, not alone.

The episode closes with an invitation. Kayla asks listeners to share their own signs, the songs, animals, dreams, or small unexplainable moments that made them stop and wonder if someone they lost was still finding a way to reach them. She reframes the show's core mission around this idea: Connecting Through Cancer isn't just about a diagnosis or a journey, it's about the connection that continues long after.

Key Topics Covered:

• Signs from a loved one after loss (cardinals, songs, animals, butterflies)
• The real story behind how the INDY Foundation got its name
• Grief, faith, and living with uncertainty instead of forcing an answer
• Why connection doesn't end when a cancer journey or a life does

INDY is short for "I'm Not Done Yet," a phrase often said by the late Kyle Strand during his courageous battle with colon cancer. Kyle's four-year journey was both extremely challenging and profoundly beautiful. Though he lost his battle in July 2017, his legacy lives on through his two dying wishes: to establish the INDY Foundation and to inspire others to live every day to its fullest. In August 2017, the INDY Foundation was born, continuing Kyle's mission to support and uplift cancer warriors everywhere. Find more information here: www.indy-foundation.org

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImNotDoneYetMN

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/indyfoundation/

Join our INDY Tribe - Inner Circle FB Group. A group for those affected by cancer.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/202854020588761

Takeaways

• Cody Johnson's song "Till I Can't" became an unexpected mirror for Kayla nine years after losing her husband Kyle to cancer, a reminder that we don't know how many tomorrows we have.
• Strength after loss isn't something you build alone. It's a collective force carried by the people who show up for you, again and again.
• Making the most of your time comes down to five practical shifts: prioritizing connection, practicing gratitude, being present, embracing vulnerability, and seeking joy in ordinary moments.

Summary of the episode

As the ninth anniversary of becoming a widow passed this month, Kayla found herself reflecting on nine years since losing her husband, Kyle, to cancer. Driving in her car a few days later, Cody Johnson's "Till I Can't" came on the radio and hit her with unexpected weight. The song's lyrics about putting off calls and visits with the people we love landed differently for someone who has already lived through the "before" and "after" of losing the person closest to her.

Kayla walks through what has changed in the nine years since Kyle died, and what has stayed the same. She talks about the yearly ritual of going back through the cards she received while he was sick and after his funeral, and how that practice reminds her that her strength never came from inside herself alone. It came from the tribe of people who showed up, who reminded her it was okay to cry, and who slowly helped her find her way back to joy.

Key Topics Covered:

• Reflecting on nine years since becoming a widow and losing husband Kyle to cancer
• How Cody Johnson's "Till I Can't" reframed the urgency of connecting with loved ones now
• The yearly ritual of revisiting sympathy and support cards as a source of comfort
• Why strength after loss is a collective force, not something built alone
• Five practical ways to live with more intention: connection, gratitude, presence, vulnerability, and joy
• A quiet Sunday moment with her three-year-old that reframed how fast life moves

INDY is short for "I'm Not Done Yet," a phrase often said by the late Kyle Strand during his courageous battle with colon cancer. Kyle's four-year journey was both extremely challenging and profoundly beautiful. Though he lost his battle in July 2017, his legacy lives on through his two dying wishes: to establish the INDY Foundation and to inspire others to live every day to its fullest. In August 2017, the INDY Foundation was born, continuing Kyle's mission to support and uplift cancer warriors everywhere. Find more information here: www.indy-foundation.org

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImNotDoneYetMN

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/indyfoundation/

Join our INDY Tribe - Inner Circle FB Group. A group for those affected by cancer.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/202854020588761

Takeaways

• Regular mammograms catch breast cancer earlier, and earlier detection consistently leads to easier treatment and better outcomes. Every survivor interviewed said the same thing.
• Genetic testing, like BRCA gene testing, can give women and families critical information before a diagnosis happens, not just after.
• Community support, whether from a foundation, a board member, or a ballpark full of strangers, makes a real difference for people going through cancer treatment.

Summary of the episode

This episode takes you on site to Pink in the Park Night at the Rox, an annual partnership between INDY Foundation and Alliance Imaging held at a St. Cloud Rox baseball game.

The survivors range from one year to three years past diagnosis, and their paths were all different. Colleen Kennedy went through chemo and radiation and is now three years out, with a sister recently diagnosed early enough to skip chemo entirely. Lisa Powers found out the day before this interview that she has no evidence of cancer, caught through her annual mammogram. Danielle Murphy was diagnosed at 34 after early detection and BRCA gene testing, a family history that traces back to her mother. Lisa Melanin is two months cancer-free after facing a hard-fought battle with triple negative breast cancer in both breasts.

Rounding out the conversation, Courtney, executive director of INDY Foundation, talks about what it means to wrap the community around six cancer warriors for a night, and Troy Lenarz, board member and representative of Alliance Imaging, speaks to why the partnership between INDY Foundation and the St. Cloud Rox matters.

Every voice in this episode lands on the same message: get your mammogram, know your family history, and don't wait.

INDY is short for "I'm Not Done Yet," a phrase often said by the late Kyle Strand during his courageous battle with colon cancer. Kyle's four-year journey was both extremely challenging and profoundly beautiful. Though he lost his battle in July 2017, his legacy lives on through his two dying wishes: to establish the INDY Foundation and to inspire others to live every day to its fullest. In August 2017, the INDY Foundation was born, continuing Kyle's mission to support and uplift cancer warriors everywhere. Find more information here: www.indy-foundation.org

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImNotDoneYetMN

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/indyfoundation/

Join our INDY Tribe - Inner Circle FB Group. A group for those affected by cancer.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/202854020588761

In this episode of the Connecting Through Cancer podcast from INDY Foundation, Kayla reflects on the approaching nine-year heaven anniversary of Kyle’s passing, honoring their final days together and describing how grief can feel heavy and suffocating. Speaking to listeners who feel their story has ended, the host shares what they would tell their past self: grief was never meant to be carried forever, and surviving is not synonymous with healing. They discuss learning to “let go” not by forgetting or relinquishing love, but by releasing the weight that keeps someone stuck, noting that healing can deepen appreciation for what was shared. The host recalls hospice-room conversations filled with tears and laughter about dreams, love, and a future without Kyle, and encourages hope, faith, and community dialogue about finding joy again.

00:00 Welcome Back

00:05 Kyle’s Anniversary

00:43 When Loss Hits

01:19 A Message to Past Me

01:54 Surviving vs Healing

02:21 Learning to Let Go

02:54 Hospice Room Memories

03:41 Hope After Grief

04:18 Make Space for Hope

04:48 Join the Conversation

05:01 Share and Support

INDY is short for "I'm Not Done Yet," a phrase often said by the late Kyle Strand during his courageous battle with colon cancer. Kyle's four-year journey was both extremely challenging and profoundly beautiful. Though he lost his battle in July 2017, his legacy lives on through his two dying wishes: to establish the INDY Foundation and to inspire others to live every day to its fullest. In August 2017, the INDY Foundation was born, continuing Kyle's mission to support and uplift cancer warriors everywhere. Find more information here: www.indy-foundation.org

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImNotDoneYetMN

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/indyfoundation/

Join our INDY Tribe - Inner Circle FB Group. A group for those affected by cancer.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/202854020588761

Takeaways

• A single quote scrolled past on Instagram can completely reframe how you think about grief, legacy, and the story you're currently living.
• Grief's questions change over time. What starts as "why did this happen" can eventually become "what story am I living right now."
• You still get to choose the story your loved ones would tell about you today. That story isn't finished.

Summary of the episode

As Kyle's nine-year heaven anniversary approaches, Kayla shares what happened when a quote stopped her mid-scroll on Instagram: "What if every time you thought of them, it was because they were telling a story about you in heaven?" That single line became the seed for this episode, a reflection on nine years of telling Kyle's story and what it might mean to ask, for once, what story he would tell about her.

Kayla walks through how her relationship with grief has changed since Kyle's cancer journey and death. In the early years, the questions were "why me," "why Kyle," "why did he have to get cancer." Over time, those questions shifted into something different: not a search for a reason, but a search for the story she's currently living, and whether it's one worth telling.

She talks honestly about the fork in the road after devastating loss, the pull toward addiction or numbing out, and the deliberate choice she made instead to build the INDY Foundation and turn her family's cancer journey into something that helps others. She's clear that grief and resilience aren't opposites. Both can be true at the same time.

The episode closes with a direct challenge to the listener: think about the people in your life who have passed. What story would they tell about you today? Not someday. Today. Because the story isn't over yet, and there's still time to write it the way you want it told.

Key Topics Covered:

• Grief on a heaven anniversary and how anticipatory grief shows up in the weeks before
• How the questions grief asks change over years, from "why me" to "what story am I living"
• Choosing resilience over addiction or numbing out after devastating loss
• The origin of the INDY Foundation, born out of Kyle's cancer journey
• A direct challenge to reflect on what your own loved ones in heaven might say about you today

INDY is short for "I'm Not Done Yet," a phrase often said by the late Kyle Strand during his courageous battle with colon cancer. Kyle's four-year journey was both extremely challenging and profoundly beautiful. Though he lost his battle in July 2017, his legacy lives on through his two dying wishes: to establish the INDY Foundation and to inspire others to live every day to its fullest. In August 2017, the INDY Foundation was born, continuing Kyle's mission to support and uplift cancer warriors everywhere. Find more information here: www.indy-foundation.org

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImNotDoneYetMN

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/indyfoundation/

Join our INDY Tribe - Inner Circle FB Group. A group for those affected by cancer.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/202854020588761

Takeaways

• Cancer is the great equalizer. It strips away titles, careers, and status, and leaves only presence.
• The people patients and caregivers remember aren't the most credentialed ones in the room. They're the ones who simply showed up.
• Influence doesn't require authority. Every person, regardless of title, has the power to make someone feel seen.

In this solo episode of Connecting Through Cancer, host Kayla Keenan steps back from the hospital room and into something she's been sitting with in her own life: how quickly titles stop mattering once cancer enters the picture. Kayla hasn't gone through cancer herself, but she has watched a spouse fight it, and that experience reshaped how she sees status, career, and what actually makes someone feel loved.

Kayla walks through what she calls cancer's "leveling" effect. In an infusion chair, a hospital room, or beside someone you love, nobody cares about your job title, your LinkedIn profile, or what's printed on your business card. What people remember instead is who showed up. The nurse who remembered a patient's favorite blanket. The receptionist who greeted her by name every time. The neighbor who quietly mowed the lawn. The friend who dropped off dinner without asking a single question.

She reflects on influence, too, and pushes back on the idea that it requires a platform or a leadership title. Influence, in Kayla's words, requires humanity, not authority. Every listener, no matter their job or position, has the ability to leave someone better than they found them.

The episode closes with a challenge: instead of asking what title you want next, ask how you make the people around you feel. Encouraged. Loved. Hopeful. Like they matter. That, Kayla says, is a legacy worth building, and it doesn't require a promotion.

INDY is short for "I'm Not Done Yet," a phrase often said by the late Kyle Strand during his courageous battle with colon cancer. Kyle's four-year journey was both extremely challenging and profoundly beautiful. Though he lost his battle in July 2017, his legacy lives on through his two dying wishes: to establish the INDY Foundation and to inspire others to live every day to its fullest. In August 2017, the INDY Foundation was born, continuing Kyle's mission to support and uplift cancer warriors everywhere. Find more information here: www.indy-foundation.org

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImNotDoneYetMN

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/indyfoundation/

Join our INDY Tribe - Inner Circle FB Group. A group for those affected by cancer.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/202854020588761