Episode Thirty-Six: The Byte-Joy Clausen Soto

I got out of the hospital,

I turned on my phone,

And I found out that my grandpa had passed away.

And so I called my aunt and I said,

I just found out I'm cancer-free.

And she's like,

That's great.

I said,

But when did he pass away?

And so I was trying to,

You know,

Make this jive.

And it did,

Because after I had my scans,

Before I found out from the doctor,

But after I had the scans,

Was when he had passed away.

And so then it was,

You know,

I was a complete mess the rest of the day,

Because that's all I could do was tell the story of how I found out I was cancer-free,

And my grandpa,

Who was holding on until he knew that I was okay,

Passed away the same day.

There's one thing that I talk about in my book,

And it's about my grandpa,

Who used to be a Catholic priest,

Actually.

And he left the church in order to marry my grandmother.

And so he wasn't at home.

He was in his mid-90s.

And I remember just going to visit him,

And it was like he was just waiting to die.

You know,

He was watching the clock.

And it just seemed,

It just seemed like a sad ending.

And I was,

At this point,

I started to get sick,

And I found out that I was diagnosed with cancer.

And there was one point where my aunt gets the call from the nursing home saying,

He's about to die,

You need to come here.

We're,

You know,

Getting someone to read him his last rites.

And so my aunt goes there,

And she says goodbye to him.

And she said,

Now you know what you need to do when you get to heaven.

You need to pray for joy,

Because I was going through my battle with cancer.

And then the next day,

And she comes home,

And she tells me that.

And then the next day,

She gets a call from the home,

And they said,

We don't know what has happened.

We've never seen this before,

But he's back up,

And he's joking around with the nurses.

But he was about to die last night.

We don't know what happened.

My aunt got off the phone,

And she said,

I bet you anything he's holding on until he knows that you're okay.

Which I thought,

Oh,

Well,

That's a nice sentiment,

But come on,

You know,

Is that really something?

You know,

That's not really going to happen.

So time goes by,

It's been a couple months.

I've gone through,

I think,

Two or three rounds of chemotherapy at this point,

And it's on Valentine's Day.

And on Valentine's Day,

I go to get a scan of my body to see what's happening with the cancer.

And the whole time I'm saying,

I'm cancer free,

I'm cancer free,

I'm cancer free.

And I remember finding out that I was cancer free,

And that there's no evidence of cancer in my body,

Which was just a miracle.

And I got out of the hospital,

I turned on my phone,

And I found out that my grandpa had passed away.

And so I called my aunt,

I said,

I just found out I'm cancer free.

And she's like,

That's great.

I said,

But when did he pass away?

And so I was trying to,

You know,

Make this jive.

And it did,

Because after I had my scans,

Before I found out from the doctor,

But after I had the scans was when he had passed away.

And so then it was,

You know,

I was a complete mess the rest of the day,

Because that's all I could do was tell the story of how I found out I was cancer free.

And my grandpa,

Who was holding on until he knew that I was okay,

Passed away the same day after he knew I was okay.

So there was this one day when I got a call from my friend,

And she,

Her mother was going through cancer.

And I remember her telling me a few times that her mother wasn't doing as well,

But she had a plan to visit her in three weeks.

And I kept saying,

You should go and visit her sooner.

And she's like,

Well,

That's a plan.

And she wants me to stick to it.

I'm going to stick to it.

I think she was also scared to see her mom,

You know,

Because she didn't have hair,

You know,

It's just,

It's just scary.

And you don't know what to say.

And so I kept saying,

I think you should go.

And then one day I had a day off,

And she wasn't even working in the same area as I was at this point.

So we didn't see each other as much.

But I had my day off.

And then I had taken maybe two or three additional days just to kind of think about my life because I would do this.

And where I am,

What direction I'm going in.

And I get a call from her.

And she said,

I got a call from the hospital and my mom's not doing well.

I mean,

What should I do?

I'm like,

You should go up now.

She's like,

Well,

I don't know.

I don't I don't think I should.

And I said,

Well,

If you want to go,

I'll go with you.

And so she said,

Okay,

Well,

Let me think about it.

Okay,

I'm gonna go home,

Pack my bag,

And I'll drive to your house.

And if you want to go,

We'll go.

If not,

Then we'll hang out together.

And so I drove to her house and she said,

Okay,

Let's go.

And so we took her car and we drove from San Diego all the way up to San Francisco,

Which is,

I don't know,

Eight or nine hours.

It's a really long drive.

And we get there and we see her mom and her mom's so happy to see her.

And I remember like these tender moments they had together,

Like where my friend was rubbing lotion on her hands and just,

You know,

Like these loving mother daughter moments.

We have,

We got a picture of all three of us together.

And then her mom was super happy to see her.

And she said,

Okay,

Well,

Now you guys just go out and have a good time in San Francisco and I'll see you tomorrow.

And so we went out and we,

You know,

Had dinner and everything.

And the next morning she got a call from the hospital and her mom had passed away.

And so I just think that we come into each other's lives and we don't know what the purpose is,

But we affect each other in different ways.

And I feel like I was there during that moment to help bring her to her mom and to make sure that they had a moment together.

But I've had those moments where people are there for me and,

You know,

They didn't have to be,

But they kind of pop up into my life miraculously at the right time when I really need them the most.

This has been episode 36 of Bite Sized Blessings,

The podcast all about the magic and spirit that surrounds us.

If only we open our eyes to it.

And whether you choose to listen to our Bite Sized offerings for that five to 10 minutes of freedom in your day or the longer interviews,

We're grateful you're here.

I need to thank the resilient Joy Claussen Soto for sharing her story today,

As well as the creators of the music used Frank Schroeder,

Music L.

Files,

Edie Key 20,

Brian Holtz Music,

Alexander Nakarada,

Kevin MacLeod,

And Raphael Crux.

For complete attribution,

Please go to the Bite Sized Blessings website at bite-sized-blessings.

Com.

On the website,

You'll find links to other episodes,

Change makers,

Art,

And books I think will lift and inspire you.

Thank you for listening,

And here's my one request.

Be like Joy.

Figure out how you can be of service,

And then go for it.