Empowered Within with Jennifer Pilates

A Rock N Roll Journey Through Life and Alzheimer's with Renee Schyjer & Freddy Moore

May 31, 2022 Renee Schyjer - Freddy Moore Season 6 Episode 63
Empowered Within with Jennifer Pilates
A Rock N Roll Journey Through Life and Alzheimer's with Renee Schyjer & Freddy Moore
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Show Notes Transcript

This Week's Empowered Within Podcast Episode: "A Rock n Roll Journey through Life and Alzheimer’s with Renee Schyjer - Freddy Moore" is a true love story that has spanned the test of time. Renaissance woman, truth-seeker, and storyteller, Renee Schyjer is devoted to sharing the life and legacy of her husband, 80's Power Pop legend Freddy Moore, who was diagnosed a decade ago with early-onset Alzheimer's. 

For years, Freddy was center stage, a prolific singer/songwriter/musician who sold out iconic Los Angeles clubs headlining bands like The Police, The Knack, and The Motels. Armed with Freddy's memoir, It's Not A Rumour: A Rock & Roll Journey Through Life and Alzheimer's and their love story that spans decades, Renee is reaching out to music lovers and families impacted by Alzheimer's, telling previously untold stories that offer a glimpse into their life "before and after."

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Welcome to empowered within a soul clinching transformational podcast that will set your soul on fire through candid and inspiring conversations. Leading experts, celebrities, healers, and I share our journeys of how we've overcome challenges to living an empowered life from within I'm your host, Jennifer Pilates. Welcome to another episode. Empowered within hi there and welcome to today's show. I am excited to have with us today, Renee Shire, Renaissance, woman, truth seeker and storyteller. Renee is devoted to sharing the life and legacy of her husband, eighties, pop legend, Freddie. Who was diagnosed a decade ago with early onset Alzheimer's for years, Freddy was center stage or prolific singer songwriter and musician who sold out iconic Los Angeles clubs, headlining bands, like the police, the knack, and the motels armed with Freddy's memoir. It's not a rumor, a rock and roll journey through life and Alzheimer's and their love story that spans decades. Renee is reaching out to music lovers and their families impacted by Alzheimer's telling previously untold stories that offer a glimpse into their lives before and after. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Jennifer. It's great to be with you. Yeah, I am so happy to have you here. And I'm just so intrigued with your book. How did you come up with the idea to write Freddy's map? Well, it's interesting because before Freddie started losing his memory, he started posting on Facebook. He was retired. And so he was just at home all the time, trying to work on projects and stuff. And he was posting on Facebook, a lot of his stories, and he just was telling people's stories from the band days and the childhood and, and all of these exciting things he did. And so he was. He was having a great time posting. And one of his friends from Facebook said, do you know what? You really ought to write a book because your stories are so much fun to listen to. And everybody was really responsive to him. He has a lot of his fans on his Facebook page. And so everybody was listening and they said, let's do it. You know? So I, I decided, I thought it was a great idea. And at first we tried to get with a friend of his who, um, is a publisher for Alfred music publishing and they actually probably. Music song books. But, um, so he invited us to come down to the Nam show and the now show is about music instruments and, and tools for musicians and all kinds of stuff. But anyway, we went down there and we realized it was going to take a lot more to pull the stories out of him. Then they had. So I contacted the LA writers group as a matter of fact. And, um, they hooked me up with a bunch of writers co-writers that could help sit and ask him questions, interview him and go on and on about things. And we interviewed a bunch of writers and then we found Shannon Dighton and she was great. And Freddie and her clicked. So they just. Started working together. So we just started putting this stuff together. She came to our house, she started asking him questions. And the really interesting aspect of the whole thing was by telling his stories and having to recall these things from his life, from his childhood, from the band base, from the music, it was improving his memory. It was actually helping him with the Alzheimer's. Unbelievable because you don't think that would happen. You would think people get frustrated, but by him sitting and just thinking about things and having to go back and, and content, you know, conjuring up these old memories, he was really improving a little bit by helping. So the book was. To edge thing, because it was helping him. And it was also preserving his legacy by telling his story. That is amazing and very inspiring to hear, because I'll be honest. I actually specialize in Alzheimer's for a long time. The first, yeah, the first half of my life, I was involved with assisted living returning. Industry. And my grandmother actually had Alzheimer's so I know it well, both personally and professionally. So I understand that and that that's such a blessing that doesn't happen to everyone. That's an incredible. And, you know, as time went on, they worked together for several years, getting all of this information. The book is very large. It's lengthy, it's packed with stuff. And I had also had an idea. I know I'm jumping around, but I had had an idea because he wrote so many songs that the names of the chapters could be names of his songs. And then at the end of each chapter, there could be the lyrics to that song because most of the songs were written because he was. What was happening to him at that time, he would write a song because the emotion was coming out. And so the songs came out that way too. But yeah, it is amazing that, that process helped him with the memory. I mean, there were days where he had bad days and good days, and then some days he would be on fire and he would be like pulling out stories that she was amazed that he would remember this. And then she would call me and confirm, and it was that right. I was like, yes, it was. So it was really cool. That is so amazing. So how long ago was he diagnosed? So I started noticing changes in him, uh, in 2010, but he refused to go to a neurologist because I don't think he wanted to accept it. You know, he was, he was really a genius. I know I'm his wife and I love him. And I used to love of my life. And I'm not just saying that you really was a brilliant mind and he fought it and fought it. But in 2014 I finally said, We got to go to the neurologist and get a diagnosis, see what's going on here. So it was actually in, um, in the, at the, towards the end of 2014 that he was officially diagnosed and we had an amyloid pet scan done at that time, which confirms that there's a plaque on the brain. And that's the confirmation. So, um, you know, there's lots of things that go into that. He was so hesitant to give up his keys, to be able to drive and, and to not be able to, to lose all this control, you know? Right. That's always the hardest part. How did you, and he take that official diagnosis once you were there, and once you saw the scan. You know, it's interesting because I scheduled the appointment and then I thought I could go back to work after that was not true. Um, I was devastated. He was devastated. We cried a lot and you know, what's weird is, I mean, we just were so sad to lose. So we had such a great story and life and. Love and so much happiness. I mean, I, I'm lucky that I had it for so long with. But we were just devastated by that diagnosis. And I don't know why, I didn't think, you know, his mom passed from Alzheimer's, it runs in his family. I just didn't think it was ever going to happen to him. I think a lot of us don't are in denial about it, you know? Um, right. For sure. For sure. And for those out there listening, who may be wondering, you know, or thinking like this is happening to my family member or my partner. What advice would you give them as to how to approach, you know, say that they're at the beginning and they don't know what to say or what to do, what suggestions now, looking back to the person. Yeah. Or how, yeah. They know like my significant other, I really think is going down that path. I don't know how to bring this up. I don't know what we should do. What do you do? It is very difficult. You have to remain strong no matter what you have to be. I, he picks up, he would pick up on my emotions. If I was sad, he was sad. And you don't want him to be sad. This is a devastating thing to have to realize that you're going to lose. Your brain, your, your cognition, your, your, everything, you know, it's, it's just, it's so horrible, but you have to be strong and you have to just say, you know what, everything's going to be okay. And we're going to fight this. It's almost like if somebody gets a diagnosis of cancer, you don't want somebody to say, oh my God, what are we going to do? We're just going to give in. We're going to tell the child. No, you have to say, we're going to fight. We're going to fix it. We're going to make it better and everything's going to be okay. I mean, that's my approach. I don't know if that's for everybody, but that seemed to help him be able to say, okay, okay. I can, I can get through today. I can get through tomorrow. Right, I agree. I think that's excellent advice. Now, what steps did you take? You know, what did the, you know, versus what the Dr. May have offered? What, what all did you do? Okay. So the first thing I learned, I did so much research. I, what I learned when he was diagnosed, I mean, I was doing research before, but what I learned when he was diagnosed is 50% of people with type two diabetes could, can get Alzheimer's or will get Alzheimer's. And it has to do with something called insulin resistance. And my husband had type two diabetes. And that was not just because, you know, it wasn't type one. It didn't run in his family, but we both got a little heavy, we stopped exercising. So my number one goal was to reverse that type two diabetes. And what I was going to do with that is we got a personal trainer. We started eating clean and healthy and organic. We got this cookbook by Rebecca Katz called healthy cooking for the mind. And it's all these foods that you eat and you make an, um, herbs and spices and everything you put into your food. That's going to help you. With your brain and help you with, you know, the healthiest, eating, the cleanest, eating and stuff like that. So it was diet, exercise, supplements. I went crazy giving him, you know, tumeric and, um, colostrum. We need to build up the person's immune system when you get Alzheimer's or even when you have type two diabetes, your immune system is weakened. So the best thing we can do is we're trying to fight. The best thing from the inside out. So we're going to make our bodies as healthy and as strong as we can. We're going to do everything to build up our immune system. So there was personal trainers, healthy eating. I used to joke. I would only go to whole foods. You know, I called it whole paycheck because you spent so much money on everything. Organic. And just everything. We did a lot of stuff. I mean, I tried everything. We played ping pong. I've heard ping pong is good for the brain. We did crossword puzzles. We did everything you could possibly do in the beginning before we even got more into with the neurologists, giving us stuff, to fight things and to improve Now at that time in the early onset, did the doctors suggest any medications right away or. We sorted drugs on the market, uh, for Alzheimer's Namenda and Aricept. And, um, they're really just band-aids they really don't do anything to help and they have a lot of side effects. So we took a more holistic approach and we started working with our, neurologist who also was interested. In Eastern medicine. So we started with a ton of, Eastern medicine supplements, ashwagandha. We want it to help with the mood. We started doing mindfulness meditation. We did all kinds of stuff. I mean, unfortunately he was taking it. I was forcing him to take, um, 22 supplements a day. And the funny thing is, is it was actually helping, it was helping. So, I mean, it's a lot of work, but I think it's worth it. You know? And we were doing things like coconut oil, you know, you want to get rid of plaque. They say coconut oil is good. Somebody was doing spoonfuls of coconut oil, unfortunately for him, but it was a good fat, so it's okay. Good fats are good for the brain, right? Lots of omega. Lots of omega3s oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. We were doing all of that, you know, just like you and there's so many resources out there it's through out, the process with the two of you, what have you found to be your greatest resource one for both of you, but then one also just for you as the caretaker. Gosh, that's a good question. Um, I. Well, our neurologist was great. Um, I did reach out to Alzheimer's association a little bit when I would have my meltdowns, but it's mostly, family support. I swear my family. They've got it for my family. They, they really got me through this, just being there and understanding what I was going through and going through it with me as much as possible. And. I mean, I did a ton of research, but it's also, it's different for everybody. Alzheimer's is such a weird disease that every person experiences things differently. Um, so I did join support groups and I did do that stuff. And, but mostly it was my family and my friends, such a blessing. I'm so glad that you've had that. You've had that support. Oh my goodness. So now take me back to the beginning when you and Freddie Mac. And then bring me a little bit up to today to where we are. Okay. Well, it's a long story. I'll try to summarize. Okay. So ready was, is a lot older than me. He's 17 years older than me. And so my older sister was friends with this girl in high school. They went to Fairfax high school, which is a local high school here. And, um, her friend was named. Or do me. And so do me, uh, said there was this guy who played in this band and he was amazing. So they had to go see the bag. So my sister, my older sister and Jimmy went to see the band and they loved it. And then my sister would come home and tell me, and I was only 13 at the time and I couldn't get into these clubs, but she would be like going on and on about this band and how great they were. And I was like, I want to come. I want to come. And so she, they would sneak. I was way too young, but they would sneak me in and I got to see the band and I loved the music and I loved just the whole vibe of it. And it was great. So I became really good friends with Freddie and dummy, but mostly with Freddy, Freddy and I had a connection and I was young. We were, we were just friends, you know, but he decided to teach me how to learn guitar. So I got a guitar when I was 13 and. I learned how he taught me how to play guitar and we would just hang out before all of us would hang out. And then all of the people, you know, that were involved were hanging out. And then when dummy became famous, um, she kind of dropped him like a hot potato, so they were doing so it's fair to say. They may have been. They were dating at the time that we were friends for a year. Okay. Got it. All four of us, all three of us need Freddy to me. I was in their wedding. Um, my sister was in their wedding. We were which, which wedding do me and Friday's. Oh, I'm sorry. So if anybody that can't see my face right now, I did not realize, and not a lot gets me speechless. I did not realize that they were. Give me more. Got the more from shredding more again. Mouth is open. Had no white. How did I not know this? Oh my gosh. Okay. Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. So, um, do got general hospital and, and, uh, blame it on Rio and just started doing all this stuff. And so she was gone all the time and I was still hanging out with Freddy. By this time I was like 16, 17, and she decided he wasn't going to make it as a rockstar. So she had to move on. And she wanted bigger and better space, no fault to her, whatever. So she moved on and she moved out, they got divorced and he was alone. And I was still friends with him. We were just friends and we would hang out all the time. And, um, finally he was like, you know, I'm really sad or lonely or whatever. And I said, well, you know, start dating. And so he went out with this girl, which was, who was exactly like to me, I sure you should be doing. He said, I don't know. And then I said, well, he said, well, who should I be dating? And I said, me. So he said, oh my God. Okay. So we just, we kind of got together and, um, it was weird cause we were friends, but then it was just the best thing ever. Now, how old were you when you officially got together dating then? Wow. Such a, he was a lot older. And my Pam with my family was totally against it because they were like, he's too old. I'm Jewish. He's not Jewish. And even my friends at high school were like, oh, he's so all he's so old, but you know, he's a young spirit and I'm the youngest. Uh, my family and I have a lot of older sisters. My parents are a lot older. I was a surprise. So I'm kind of more mature. I was much more mature than I my year. And so we kind of just fit together. And, um, it's funny because we ran into Jimmy once and she said, I always knew you guys would end up together. So, um, And she does talk about me in her book that I was always there and I was always around, but I don't, well, she didn't want him. Right. Um, anyway, so we had a great, we had a great time. We just had a great time. He and I just we'd fit like peas and carrots, you know, it's just, it was wonderful. We just had so much. That is such a wonderful love story. I love how that unfolds and oh my gosh, how much? It's just amazing every day. What you learn something new, just crazy. It's kind of crazy. It's crazy. But it is such a small world out there in Cali. Like it really is everybody is connected somehow. So how is life for you and Freddy? Okay. That is really hard because we're really far into the disease. I mean, I was in denial for a really long time for the first, I would say the first five years I was in total denial or even more, um, that I was going to fix him. I would talk to everybody. Oh, I'm going to fix them. I'm going to fix them. Yeah. I'm going to cure this even though there's no cure. Um, so, you know, I thought I was going to do it, but, um, I wasn't. But anyway, so now he's very far advanced into the disease. He's in a memory care facility and he's been there since 2019. I couldn't take care of him. I did take care of him by myself for a long time. In 2016, he had a stroke. And after the stroke, I couldn't do it anymore. I needed help. So I had a caregiver come in during the day. She would stay with him during the day. And then I would take over at night, but in 2019 he became incontinent and I could not do it anymore. I couldn't, I was taking care of him. I mean, we're talking a hundred percent everything, bathroom. Showering him feeding him everything you could possibly do. But when it came to that, I couldn't, I didn't know what to do first. I didn't know what to clean first, you know, and I just couldn't do it. So I moved to, into a memory care facility, which is very close to me here, like five minutes. So I can go visit him all the time. And the reason why I chose this memory care facility is because I had been taking him there for daycare and for activities because they had a lot of music and I liked that they had music programs, they had drums circle, they had, you know, music all the time and activities. So that was good. Um, but anyway, uh, now he's very much declined. Uh, He barely recognizes me when I go see him. I mean, he kind of does, but he's not really talking about much and he sleeps a lot and he just, um, he has to walk around. I don't know what that is about. Alzheimer's maybe, you know, a little bit more of it. They have to walk around and he walks around and then he sleeps and he's just kind of in his own world. it's really heartbreaking for me to go visit. I can't, I can't go that often, as often as you would, like, I would like to go. But it's just hard on me to see him and to see how much he's aged and have Alzheimer's takes such a toll on the person. If it just ruined it, it dehumanizes them so much. And to know how amazing he was to see what he is now. It's, it's quite devastating. It is. I'm so sorry. You know, this is, I always say this is this disease. I never wished it on anyone. It is not, it is not kind. It's not kind to the individual. It's not kind to the family. Oh no. I just, the only thing that keeps me going is that I did, we did get his memoir done. I see everybody can share in his story and know what an amazing person he was. We have a ton of resources for his legacy and that's, what's, that's what helps me feel good, you know, and that I want to educate people about Alzheimer's because people are so. I don't aware of how much this takes away from the person and how hard it is, you know, it's like, it's really difficult to say, you know? So did he read the book? Many people ask me, do you read the book? Um, no. He hasn't been able to read for many, many years. Um, well, does he know, you know, this or, you know, it's, it's just, they just don't know and they don't know what to say. And it's hard to know, you know, it is, it is. I wonder, these are just suggestions from, from my, my days we would have pictures in an individuals. Of the family and on the back of it, we would always write the person's name and the date so that no matter who came in the room, they could help have a conversation that way I wonder. And I'm sure that you've done this, you know, because he, he definitely could not read his book, but to share and read his book to him. We have been reading. Good, good, good. That's wonderful. Yeah. And we do, we do have pictures of me and him all over his room. Um, he does point to it and, and it's like, he'll smile. So he, he knows that there's an emotional memory that he does know. He knows about me and us and stuff like that. There is, I think what's interesting about Alzheimer's and I don't know if you've found this is that the body on the inside begins to deteriorate. Quite quickly. And while the mind is going, it suddenly doesn't go as fast. And then all of a sudden, and I remember when the doctors came in and told my family this, they said, you know, you did too good of a job with your grandmother. You actually kept her to. And where we're like, yes, all they said this to us all the time, because like you, I mean, we, we did a holistic route. Then we did, um, a trial. We had her in a trial. I mean, we, we really like you, like, we were honed in, we were going to do everything that we possibly could. And we did, I think, plus them to the fact that that's what they said. We kept her do healthy. She too had a stroke. I think that's very, there are similarities in some cases, um, when that happens and. It's interesting. And I will throw this out there because I feel like you may be receptive to this. When we went through this with my grandmother and at the time she was still home. So my mom was, was the caretaker, the main caretaker. At that point, I would go to intuitive advice. And I would have readings. And the first time that I did this, I had a reading and the woman was telling me all this stuff about my grandmother and reminded me when I was little and how we would sing and dance. Now, I only had one grandmother who had passed at that time and I thought this doesn't match up. So I laughed. I went home and she called me and she said, I have to tell you that your grandmother will not leave until I tell you that this is your mother's mother will. That was my grandmother who was still alive. So what transpired was? I told my mom and she was like, well, that's really interesting because your grandmother was acting very strange this afternoon. So I, of course at this point started going kind of regularly. And every time I went and I wouldn't tell my mother, she would call me and say, you went today to. Because for half an hour, your grandmother just sat there on the couch. And that was how I was conversing with her because it becomes this they're still in their bodies, but there's this spiritual aspect that begins to go where you're almost in between worlds. It, it was wild. It was beautiful. I would say. It's worth a shot. I love this idea. I love that I'm willing to do anything. So, you know, I mean, I think, and I had no idea going in. I mean, I didn't I, to this day, I don't remember even why went to get a reading at that time. It wasn't like I was so new to, to all of this world. Um, it was so amazing to go, oh my gosh. And I wish I knew then what I know now, because I would have been act, I would have been asking so many different questions, but I was just in such awe of it. So, you know, I suggested as, you know, may I throw a life raft of hope, you know? And I think having any kind of hope is wonderful in these situations because it's so challenging as a caretaker. And it's so challenging as the individual going through it. You're exactly right. And it's hard to have hope and to keep that alive because you know, you just see, it's just sadness. It's just sadness all the time. And I'm not a, normally a sad person, but I have been for years because of this. And so I love this idea. And if you have any recommendations of who you would want me to talk to, I would love it. Okay. Yeah. I, I definitely, I can send some people your way for sure. Yeah, definitely. You know, it's worth, it's worth it. It's worth the charge for sure. I love this, right? Yeah, no, absolutely. Thank you. Of course. Of course. You know, it's, we're all about helping any way we can. This, this is the end for some, it's a very long process for us. It was a very long process for those that it's a short process. God bless you. And God bless the individual. You know, it's a blessing. It truly is a blessing because we kind of say, he's not really. You know, there's so there's so much that has been lost and he loved his brain. He loved his brain so much. He, he really nurtured it a little. Red. He studied. He would, he was voracious about that. And so what's left of him is so not what he would be happy with, you know, right now. Right? Yeah. So I'm so sorry again, I know how challenging it is, and I'm glad that you've had your family to support you. And I'm really glad that you've reached out for support because that's so hard being a caretaker because you think, well, no, one's going to. No, one's gonna understand this. Right. You know, but, and to take that step, to ask for help and receive it, you know, I give you great kudos because really good. I'm thank you for doing this podcast because this is very helpful to me. I mean, talking about this therapy truly, truly, I will say the other thing that we did and, um, there's some miss thoughts in terms of hospice. Hospice is an incredible resource. To have through any stage of illness. It doesn't mean just the ending days. And we D we learnt that with my grandmother and they were such an incredible resource. I would hands, I would hands down suggest that, um, because they came in at a time and just sort of helped guide and how these angels on earth know down to the hour. When things are transitioning is amazing to me. So that's something else that I, I truly suggest is hospice, um, a hundred percent reaching out. They have been amazing. We use them for my grandmother and recently for my grandfather. And I mean, they still call me to check in to say, are you. I don't know. That's just amazing. Yeah. I liked that. I they'd been talking about putting him on hospice and I was afraid of it. But now that you say this, I think it'll just mean more care. It's more care. And from our perspective, and, and I've only really dealt with hospice here in Florida, they came in and I get goosebumps thinking about it. It was just. Sorry. I get emotional. It was just angels angels coming in to go it's okay. And we've got this, but we also have. And I know that at the time my mother was the main caretaker and she needed that so much. And they were just so incredible. And then again, with my grandfather, I mean, it was just such a blessing to be able to have this support who really knew above and beyond. Like you think, you know, cause you've been through it with a friend or a friend's family, or like I've been there when you're in it. It's all it's everything goes out. Right. And it's an incredible resource. The therapy that they offer the counseling is hands down, amazing their care. I mean, I definitely, you know, suggest it for your situation for anyone listening, regardless of, you know, what type of disease or ailment it doesn't hurt to reach out because they're an amazing service for that, for them to support. Really, I appreciate you so much. Oh, of course. You know, everything is divined and this was meant to be, yes, this was very much meant to be. Let me ask you this Renee, let's switch a little bit. Let's let's lift our vibration a little bit. What is one thing that maybe no one knows about you and Freddy? That no one knows we had our own language. Really? Yeah. I mean, he made up all the words mostly, but we called each other pet names, but they were made up pet names and, um, we just had. We could say things like you didn't, you know, you didn't even have to worry about that. I still use these words that nobody would know, you know, it was just like, I still call these things words and he made up so many funny things. He was so creative. I think the song writing was just amazing. And, um, and, and he did that with everything. So I think the one thing that nobody knows is that we had like an unspoken language and, um, It's very rare to find your soulmate. This is my first boyfriend and my only boyfriend and husband. And that is so rare. And I am so lucky that I got that incredibly lucky. Now let's, let's look at it this way. How many years have you been together versus how many years have been married now? Okay, so we've been together. I want to say God 30 years. Wow. 30 something. And then we, we'd only been married since 2005 because we didn't think we needed to get married for a long time. We just lived, you know, we had our own apartments, we dated and we were just together. And then we moved in together after the Northridge earthquake happened here, his apartment fell down. So he moved in with me and, um, we were living together, but we didn't get married for a really long time. And, uh, in 2000. Five. He said, you know, I really want you to be the one to make any decisions for me in going you going into the future. And I want to be there for you. So let's, you know, what had happened was a friend of his got into a motorcycle accident and he was on life support and they wouldn't let the girlfriend in and he was afraid that something would happen, you know, that they wouldn't let me in and he didn't want anybody else. So. That's when we decided to get married. Uh, so we've been married since 2005. Wow. Well, congratulations. That is such an amazing love story and journey and adventure that you two have had together. Yeah, it's so weird because now I'm so not used to being just me. This is part of why I was really interested in your podcast because you talk a lot about empowering and. Becoming the person you want to be and all of that stuff. And I'm now just Renee. And it's weird because I used to be part of this couple for very long time, very formative years from 16 to now and now I have to figure out who I am too. So it's, it's a whole different journey. And I would say if I may, you're not just Renee, you are VR. Zebra name or the Rene share. You know, you are the Renee who has lived this renowned, incredible life, incredible love story. Who could inspire those who have maybe never even found love yet. I know I met people. Who've said I've never had a love like that. I wish I did. I wish I could have. I it's it's I feel very fortunate. I do feel very fortunate. It is unfortunate what has happened, but I do feel very fortunate to have had what I had all those years. Right. I always say there is a beautiful blessing in every situation. We just have to really dig for it. So. We do. Yeah. And I'm so lucky I would not be, I wouldn't be this person without him, his encouragement and his support. And I mean, I went to college. I went to, I did all these things and I, I w I feel like I, would've never been able to get through it without him. Oh, so what's next for Renee? What, where is, what's the next steps for. Well, my goal right now is to do a lot of podcasts and promote the book and just get his story out there, just so that people become more aware of him, a kiss of Alzheimer's of being a caregiver. Um, this is a great thing for me and, and having. I'm really proud of the book. I think he would be proud of the book. It's the way his story he wanted. It told. So it's sort of like preserving his legacy, but it's also great for me to be able to talk about him and keep his memory alive and to educate people or to share my experience to go through than what I went through with other people and maybe make a lot of connections with this. And I mean, I love talking about it. So I think this helps. And helps me grow. So that's my plan. That's wonderful right now. I love it. Well, any way that I can help support you and Freddy, I would love to do that because I, I understand and I get it and I want to help and support you any way. Thank you so much. I would love it. If more people would buy the book, it's not a rumor. R U N O U R. and it's on Instagram and Facebook and there's a page called it's not a rumor.com. There's also my blog. I did a blog, um, a while ago when this first, when I first started to get the book going, I started documenting every, I was blogging every week. What was happening, but progression and my whole story from the beginning to end is on my blog and that's on, it's not a river dot. So, um, thank you so much for letting me share that. Of course. Well, I would say if I may, Renee, there is another book here in the works that you just haven't even looked at yet. I, people have said that. I hope so. I hope that you're continuing to blog and continuing to open up. And, doing that because this will make an incredible part too, of where does the story go? And then part three will be, where does, where does Renee go? Exactly. Yeah, that would be great. There we go. If we just did it for you, I love it so much. You are so welcome. I am so honored to have had you on the show. Thank you for sharing your story. Freddy's story and being so open and honest. I know this is going to help so many of our listeners around the world. Well, thank you for all of the advice you, I love what you told me and I, I really appreciate all of it. Absolutely. And I'll let you have a wealth of information. Thank you. Absolutely. I'm so grateful that this was divine that we got together and that we could share this and then I can help you and help others in the process. And we'll continue to stay in touch and we'll, we'll get you through. Great. Thank you so much. You are so welcome. We'll as we say until next time. thank you so much for tuning into another episode. Please remember to rate, review and subscribe to empowered within with Jennifer Pilates. Your feedback is important. It helps me to connect with you and gives me insight into who you are and what you're enjoying about the show for today's show notes and discount codes from today's sponsors. Head over to Jennifer. Dot com until next time, may you live an empowered life from within.