American Cancer Socity

(music) hi everybody. welcome to valley views. what you see and what you hear in the coachella valley. many of you have asked about this necklace that i always, always wear.

and it is jesus with his mother and his grandmother. and so my friend who did my bracelet that has all my grandchildren on it, makes them. so if you're wondering, and might want to get one too, this is precious

to me. and you know what? in honor of our first guest today, who has two grandbabies, this is my favorite rock. children are often spoiled because no one will spank grandma.

(laughter) that's us. okay, let's see who's on our show today. love it. i truly love it. last week american cancersociety celebrated desert spirit 27th gala.

my goodness. so we're going to talk about that with kim waltrip and renã© madore. who are the co-chairs. and also, today, we will talk to. . . oh, my goodness,

cathy nustafness is coming up. we're going to talk about blinds, etc. because it's a time to kind of think about stuff around your house. so we thought that might begood. and gene shaw and lisa valenti lefkovitz, sort of like that, right?

they are the founders of our family stories. very, very exciting. hope you can sit back, relax, enjoy a valley views. we'll be right back. and so, today, we will miss melissa neiderman. (kissing sound)

because she's our girl. but with us, so happy to say, is kim waltrip and renã© madore. and you guys were the co-chairs last week. so, what happened over there?

it was fun. a fun night. it was outside under the stars. it was amazing. nobody had to wear high heels. ohhh. which is a great thing.

love that. it was polo themed at dick heckman's estate. in rancho mirage. it was spectacular. it was huge. and dick has all kinds of animals. he has fainting goats

in the back. there are kind of like if you scare them they just fall over. truly? nobody did that. (kim) yes. it was magical. it was wonderful.

the honored great people and we had such a wonderful night. remind me, who did you honor? we honored linda gray, fromdallas. sue ellen from dallas love her. loved her parents when they were here.

they had the jewelry store. and the van patten family. great, great family. (pattie) oh, my goodness. all the van patten's were here. including the mom. it was great. very, very nice. mom, jimmy. . .

well, i was out of town and i didn't get to go but i absolutely, absolutely love. . . and i saw, too that you did a tribute in memoriam for lee ames and gloria greer. which is so, so thoughtful.

two such special people. and we also honored a local survivor, tom davis, from the agua caliente tribe. very nice. great idea. and his children introduced him. ah, there is a tear jerker.

i know. we had a great time we had the dinner. . . well, the cocktail hour with all the silent auctionitems. and then we moved over to the other side of the property and all the restaurants were lined along the fences.

which is always great. we've covered that and loved every minute. yeah, exactly. so you get up and whatever food you want you just go and take whatever you need. and then you sit.

and music. and all the honorees. celebrities in the audience. can you believe that it's desert spirit 27? it's amazing. unbelievable. especially since i'm not that old, so. . .

(pattie) no. we were babies when it started. i just think that whether you have individually gone through a cancer bout, or someone in your family. almost everybody has connection to it. yes. they do.

we asked people to send photos even of survivors or themselves, people they know that have survived, anybody that has passed. and it is amazing. everybody is touched by it. every single person.

(pattie) yes, it's true. it's scary. i just can remember a couple of times when we've covered it and i always had to have tissue in my back pocket. because the stories are unbelievable.

and so many survivors, so many people that are doing well, and so much hope that is there. absolutely. and you can relate to it which is heartwarming.

the medical advances are just unbelievable. so people are living longer and surviving a lot of things they didn't used to. and there is so many great things like the runs for it.

long walks and all of that. my cousin did the long one that's in san diego. i think it's susan koman? yes. and she was going through atough time. a few illnesses in the family. she got up every morning, strapped on those tennies

and was out there and did it. that's great. i was so proud of her. that's fantastic. way to go, cindy. we just had another event, before this one. it was the rick springfield

concert. (pattie) yeah. it was stripped down. it was him on stage, all byhimself. he had four guitars behind him. he picked one up at a time and sang and told stories. so behind him he had photographs of just

his life, you know. so we went from beginning through today. and he told these amazingstories. and it was a wonderful way to experience him. (pattie) i love that. just by himself, on stage, telling stories.

it was fantastic. even people who didn't follow him afterward were we are rick springfield fans now. (pattie) yeah, for sure. (pattie) even his superhit, i love hearing it. jessie's girl.

(pattie) yeah, i don't carewhen. in fact my daughter was very, very young when that came out. she was a rick springfield fan from the get-go. she wouldn't have missed that if she'd been in town. it was very cool.

very intimate and cool. and he still looks fabulous. amazing. i think, what? well we don't want to tell hisage. he looks really great. and a nice guy. but take a look at this rendering of rick.

he looks like he used to look. we have that for you. that is a painting that mike emery did of rick for the gala. so that was auctioned off. and he did the painting before the concert and had rick sign it at

the concert. (pattie) niiice. it's so beautiful. and i love all the colors. and that artists, he also did a painting of my son, too. (pattie) he did? yeah.

he's so talented. give him some pictures and. . . you know. i don't know how he does it. but he does it. he is incredible. i remember when your son was just a baby boy. now he's 22.

22. it's crazy don't you love it? so, you can continue to make donations at desertspirit.net. and that's always a great thing to do. thank you guys for all the wonderful words.

thank you for having us. and much, much love to melissa. she's a hard worker. so special. and a mom. she's amazing. melissa is everything. she's an amazing woman. she really is something.

thank you. see you next year, if not before. hope it's before. be right back. i read a wonderful article recently and it was about being sure to say thank you. and so 25 years ago,

when my husband and i were building our home here, and we were dealing with rick job. thank you rick. unfortunately, our architect is gone now, but he was amazing. anyway, the one person

whose product is still in this house, because she did such an amazing job, is kathy gustafson. and just at the drop of a dime, i said could you come and be on today? so i want to say thank youkathy.

because nothing else is the same in this house as it was 25 years ago except my wonderful blinds. you have blinds, etc. still. correct.yes. and you offer lots, and lots of different things that i want to get into.

but a couple of shows ago when we were talking about st. jude's, i spoke with my friend cathy's grandson had gone to st. jude's. and she brought a picture ofhim. and i want you to tell that story, if you could. well, at the age of two he

was diagnosed with a brain tumor. and the only way they could take care of this with the proper chemo was to send him to tennessee. st. jude in tennessee. they did the operation here at loma linda.

it was at the base of the brain, so luckily, it was operable. we were very lucky. four stage cancer. he was right at two years old. they did the surgery at loma linda and it came

out the size of a golf ball. and it was intact so they just feathered it away. but he had to go in to st. jude's in tennessee t o do four months of chemo and two months of

radiation. and he's wonderful today. and let's take a look at his picture. he's now seven. his name is isaiah. (pattie) isaiah (clapping) he was just the best.

those are the stories we like the most. and you guys were all very brave through that. and cathy has just this wonderful group of friends. she does amazing things at her gorgeous home. that's my favorite place

to go and sit out back and have just one glass of wine. that's all i'm allowed. talk to us about business. 25 years ago. . . 35. . . .how has it changed? 35. i meant 25 since me.

but 35 all totaled. i started my business in 1981. i've always been on highway 111. i started out just doing window coverings. and now i do carpet. i don't do hard surface

i just do carpet. i do window coverings i do shade shutters, draperies, custom draperies, upholstery. we do interior, exterior biggin motorization. i have the same installer,

he's been with me now for 32 years. whoa. we're a small company. and both my boys work for me. 15 years david, my younger son. sean was with me 18 years.

though when his baby got sick he lost everything. lost his cars. put everything in storage and away he went. and now he's studying to be a doctor. don't you love it? so very proud of him.

he's into cancer research of the brain. see? he's in his third year. and he's doing wonderful. i am so, so happy for you. and proud of him. yes i am very proud. but it touches the

whole family. we were just talking about the american cancer society in our last segment. and it's not just about a patient or somebody who gets that diagnosis. it's everybody that's

involved. that's right. everybody. your mom was so amazing. and there were fundraisers, i remember. a lot of fundraisers. there's a lot of support. a lot of prayers. just have to have the faith.

have to have the faith. you do. that's huge. it's huge. and you know what i think? i mean i think you would agree. people who are on

the fence about religion and prayer and all of that. if they are touched by a cancer diagnosis or others. they can somehow find themselves the peace and the guidance in prayer. i think father lincoln

would agree with that. i'm very grateful for all the prayers that were answered. he's doing wonderful. and ed? how is ed at doing? he's doing better. he's fine.

he looks amazing. he's been through a lot. unfortunately he had a surgery that went bad. but he's surviving and he has a very good attitude. and isn't that a good word? attitude plays a huge part. he has a very good attitude.

wakes up in the morning with a smile. hello! good morning! it's great. probably a better attitude than i'll ever have. well i just wanted you to come on.

i just wanted to tell you how much we appreciate all of our window coverings. they are the one thing that's lasted here. and i've always wanted you to be on. talk a little bit about business here.

but mostly to talk about st. jude's and isaiah. and what a really wonderful journey it's turned out to be. thank you for having me. and valley views will be right back. you know, a lot of

things come across my desk, i'm happy to say. sometimes it's hard to choose, you know, topics for the shows. but we always think about all of you and what you may need to know or want to know.

listen to this. lisa valente lefkovitz and gene shaw are the cofounders of a company dedicated to helping families and individuals capture and preserve the stories, traditions and experiences

that make them unique so that they are available for future generations. that is so up my alley. and i want to do this desperately. gene and lisa, help me. we are here to get you through the process.

because it is a process. it is. and i think it's something, well i know a lot of my friends would love, love, love to do this. but if you think about this, when you're as old as i am, all the pictures, the lot.

there's just a whole lot. my kids call me a borderline hoarder because i keep . . . i've got, the pictures they drew when they were little. so how long does it kind of take to

get it together, do you think? on average? i think it's kind of a it depends sort of thing. and i think lisa would agree with this. it depends on how

much time you'd like to put towards it. it depends on how much you'd like to cover in the course of your actual story. we make it, and lisa's so good at this, it makes it really easy

and painless for you. we can get you through theprocess. people stress out over this when they're thinking about it. i would think so. because it's so important to them. i can't think about it,

we'll make it really it's too much. easy for you. and because they stress out, they don't do it. and that's a bad thing. but the good thing is that we can do it in different

time segments. so we can do a short version, a medium version or a longer version. and that goes back to what gene was saying about choosing what's important to you. someone might want

to do capturing holidays or simply philosophy of their life. but we put together what's important to you. and it's really done through not fact, not data. not research of dry, boring material.

it's stories that you tell. and when someone personally tells their own story it captures that person's personality, voice, facial expression as they tell the story. and it's there forever to share and to have forever.

but, lisa, can i tell you i mean thinking about this, i could cry. ask my guys. it's just to me the most personal, wonderful gift that you could give. that's exactly right.

there's a commercial that's running right now. it's for one of the major online genealogical services that you can get. it's a commercial with two twin brothers sitting side-by-side. and in the commercial

they're talking about what a thrill it's been for them to be able to trace some of their family history. to see signatures of people that they have heard about but never met. to actually look at some of the pictures of the people.

and at the end of the commercial one guy looks at the camera and he says now all i wish is i could go back 100 years so i could actually find out who these people are. that's what we do. we actually give you

the opportunity to capture you as a fully functioning, living, breathing person. telling your experiences, your life stories your values and the things that are uniquely you in a format that is fun, entertaining and that will last for

generations. well you know this, because you work in video. meanwhile, i have to say, not to deny what we do, is that somebody needs to do it. whether you sit down and write it out.

the problem is that a lot of people are not skilled writers, or are afraid of writing or they won't take the time to write it. or they think i won't do that. or there are books you

can fill in the blanks that prompt you through it. or, you could do an audio where you sit down with questions and you face a camera . . . not camera, just a recorder and you record those stories. or there's ancestry.com which

is research for data. but that's not what we do. we go to the video which shows someone and their personality as they tell their stories. but, i have to emphasize, most importantly, is that people do something to pass onto

their future generations. and it's not something to do when you're 92 or 96 and can't speak and can't remember where things are. and that's coming up close for me. maybe for all of us. you've got another

40 years, at least. i just, maybe my situation is a little bit different. because i have every tape of every show for 22 years. i have everything carson's done. i have everything quinn has done. photographs, tape.

it would be a long process. we'd love to do it. but we can add in video. it's like watching a television show. we can add not only the photographs. and actually we could bring in other people

to interview about you. so there's lots of ways of doing this. well that gets dangerous. (laughter) well, you've been in the public eye for a very long time. the thing most people

run up against is the fact that most of us don't think our lives are important enough for anybody to ever pay any attention to. really? and that's why a lot of people never think

about doing this. it's because. . . i did a talk where i met a where i met a wonderful 90 year old lady at the end of my talk. and i asked her what she thought about

the talk. and she said you don't really want to know. and i said yes, i do want to know. sit down and let's talk. she said why would i do this? i'm nobody. nobody's interested in

what i've done. oh no. and then she sat there and she told me the most amazing story. and i'll tell you very quickly. when she was a child, s he was a middle child of seven children.

her father was determined that when his children grew up they would have no prejudice against anybody. so every time mom got pregnant they moved to a different country.

so throughout their lives all these children, every one of them, was born in and grew up in at least two different countries. a nd got the experience of those countries and the people who lived there.

and i looked at her and i said how in the world could you possibly think that nobody would be interested in that story? it was most amazing story i'd ever heard. i did one on my mother. which i'm so grateful i have

because actually lost her eight years ago to today. (pattie) wow. and i have it. and i watch it. and it's like being with her again and it's just so wonderful to have that.

but when i did hers, she said well, i was a mom, i was a housewife. i did the pta and so forth. all the important jobs. but it wasn't like a successful business or i'm a scientist.

and in that interview i found out, no one in our family knew this, that our parents ran away and eloped and didn't tell her parents for two weeks. oh my goodness. and i said, are you

kidding me? anyhow, as an interviewer, as you know, you can bring out instances and parts of people that are just so unique. you guys. i'm right there

with you. get out your calendar, we'll set a date. it's a good thing. we should do that. thank you so much. thank you, pattie. great being here. so many people are

going to be so happy, i think, to know you can do this. i hope so. and we'll go now to father howard lincoln. father lincoln. (guitar music)

much of our life is taken up with thoughts about the future. in fact if you're like me you sometimes have trouble staying in the present moment. because you're always thinking about something

coming up. we all think about the future. little children in school yearn for the holidays. older students plan for graduation. young spouses look forward to the birth of their child.

and older couples await the time of retirement. although the future may at times hold something unpleasant or even tragic, the human spirit is

usually undaunted, hoping for the best. and that is the way it should be. with a clarity that i can only dream of, malcolm muggeridge said that there is a certainty surpassing all words and

thoughts that i am an infinitesimal particle in god's creation. i am a participant in his purpose. which is loving and not maligning. creative and not destructive.

orderly and not chaotic. universal and not particular. and in that certainty there is a great peace and a great joy. so keep thinking and hoping and dreaming of the future. you can look forward

in faith to a bright future of everlasting life. thank you father lincoln. father howard lincoln, sacred heart church. i want to thank all my guests today. so interesting. i want to thank you

for joining us. until we meet again remember yesterday's history tomorrow'sa mystery. today's a gift that's why we call it the present. live in the now moment. enjoy our valley views, those you see and you hear.

and be sure and put them on something that you'll always have, you can always remember. so go back and watch and do it. i'm going to do it. thank you guys. see you all soon.