(and Stephen!)

You are a person to be admired and destined to inspire others with your life.

I was particularly touched by your story of your Mother’s death. I lost my mother too and although it was not recent, I still think for a second about calling her on the telephone to tell her something funny that happened. I forget she is gone!

I did her eulogy at the funeral and I said,
“We have all lost the best sudience we will ever have!”

You never get over losses. They change you forever.

I’m trying to do the same thing by visiting my parents as often as I can – they frequently drive down from New York to Virginia to visit my brother. When they are there, I make time to visit at the same time. I always leave feeling grateful for the connection. Like your folks, mine are in their 70′s and in “relatively good health.” They have some health issues but appear to be doing good despite them.

Isn’t it amazing when you hear from other people, it changes our perspective on things? In other words, you heard about Barbara’s devastating loss of her father and how that pulled the siblings together. When compared to your own perceived losses, they turn out not to be a big as we thought they were.

Life is indeed a matter of perception.

Isn’t it interesting how this interview gently brought her out from behind the veil? I am proud of how that happened because as you can see, it attracted a flood of comments from people all over the world who were touched by her stories, including you.

Way cool!

And I have been a fan of yours too! Your own story in dealing with incest in a public forum is absolutely incredible. You have more courage than a hundred people in a room!

I’m so glad you’ve been enjoying these interviews because I see they’ve touched you in a deep profound way like the one with Barbara. That alone makes my day.

It was my pleasure to share Barbara with the rest of the blogging world. I’m grateful to have a place to do this. It was almost a year ago when this interview series was born and I had no idea what would come of it. I’m so lucky to find good people like her to be interviewed.

I second your sentiments about Barbara having a video of that monkey spinning around her. That would have be uproariously funny!

You’re right – laughing at ourselves is pretty liberating indeed. I take advantage of sharing those moments at speaking engagements because they make me seem more human up there. We all have them. It takes courage to share especially embarrassing moments.

Oh my dear Barbara – you and Jennifer will forever remain in the archives! In fact, your names are prominently displayed on an increasingly longer page at this location where I list every single person I’ve interviewed. You can think of this spot as the “hall of fame”:

http://www.adversityuniversityblog.com/stephen-hopson-interviews/

I’m glad you enjoyed the questions Patricia – you’re welcome. Thanks to you for being a part of this special series too! I’m grateful it made a difference to your life in some way, form or shape.

It’s why I do this!

I know what you mean about “that phone call forever changing your life.”

Our life is a series of defining moments like that. When you look back and you see your life unfolding, you’re bound to see a bunch of significant moments that “forever impacted” you on a deep level.

That phone call that you got was one of them. I’ll bet you have many more!