When Dawn Wecker's hands shifted from the art of hair styling to the microphone of podcasting, "Dawnversations" was born. Join us as Dawn, with her infectious passion for spreading kindness, recounts her journey of transformation and resilience in the face of COVID-19, navigating from salon tales to a wider world of heartwarming stories. With me, Mike Rathbun, we share candid reflections on the challenges and triumphs of adapting to new normals, both in our professional lives and in the stories we tell.
Embarking on a new chapter, Dawn found a calling in lending a hand to the elderly, an experience that echoes the care and connection she fostered while snipping locks. Together, Dawn and I exchange tales that showcase the profound impact of companionship on our aging friends and their families, discussing the peace of mind that comes from in-home care and the joy of simple acts like meal prep. Our conversation is a tapestry of emotions, woven with personal anecdotes and the shared belief that whether through a podcast or a plate of food, kindness truly matters.
You can connect with Dawn and her podcast via the following social media links.
.Facebook
Instagram.
Did you find this episode uplifting, inspiring or motivating? Would you like to support more content like this? Check out our Support The Show Page here.
When Dawn Wecker's hands shifted from the art of hair styling to the microphone of podcasting, "Dawnversations" was born. Join us as Dawn, with her infectious passion for spreading kindness, recounts her journey of transformation and resilience in the face of COVID-19, navigating from salon tales to a wider world of heartwarming stories. With me, Mike Rathbun, we share candid reflections on the challenges and triumphs of adapting to new normals, both in our professional lives and in the stories we tell.
Embarking on a new chapter, Dawn found a calling in lending a hand to the elderly, an experience that echoes the care and connection she fostered while snipping locks. Together, Dawn and I exchange tales that showcase the profound impact of companionship on our aging friends and their families, discussing the peace of mind that comes from in-home care and the joy of simple acts like meal prep. Our conversation is a tapestry of emotions, woven with personal anecdotes and the shared belief that whether through a podcast or a plate of food, kindness truly matters.
You can connect with Dawn and her podcast via the following social media links.
.Facebook
Instagram.
Did you find this episode uplifting, inspiring or motivating? Would you like to support more content like this? Check out our Support The Show Page here.
This podcast is part of the Deluxe Edition Network. To find other great shows on the network, head over to deluxeeditionnetworkcom. That's deluxeeditionnetworkcom.
Dawn Wecker:Kindness, we see it all around us. We see it when someone pays for someone else's coffee or holds the door open for another person. We see it in the smallest of gestures, like a smile or a kind word. But it's different when we turn on the news or social media. Oftentimes what we hear about what outlets are pushing is the opposite of kind. Welcome to the Kindness Matters podcast. Our goal is to give you a place to relax, to revel in stories of people who have received or given kindness, a place to inspire and motivate each and every one of us to practice kindness every day. Hey everybody and welcome. This is Mike Rathbunner, host and you are listening to the Kindness Matters podcast. I hope you're having a fantastic week.
Dawn Wecker:Let's dive into the episode in just a second, but first let's talk about the new February podcast of the month over at the Deluxe Edition Network. First up is Films and Fermentation. This is a podcast that follows three friends who like to talk shit about movies while getting well shit-faced. Your hosts, kevin, mike and Leo, discuss various movie topics in conjunction with their favorite libations. It's a podcast about alcohol and cinema Cheers.
Dawn Wecker:Next up on the podcast of the month over at Deluxe Edition Network is Friends Talking Nerdy. Friends Talking Nerdy is a podcast hosted by Professor Aubrey and Tim the Nerd that delves deep into all things geeky and nerdy. With their passion for pop culture, science, mental health and technology, the hosts offer insightful commentary on the latest trend and happening in the world of geekdom. Through their engaging banter and lively discussions, professor Aubrey and Tim the Nerd create a fun and informative space for all nerds to come together and explore the latest trends and ideas. We hope you join them. And now on with the show. Hey everybody, we have a great show for you today. My guest used to be a hairstylist. Stylists, just one, one stylist. It's a Monday, trust me, but she does a couple of things now, and one of them, well, they're both really kind, to be honest. One is she has her own podcast, Dawnversations.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Dawn Wecker:Please welcome to the show. I need to get some applause. I swear Don Wecker. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:I'll clap for myself.
Dawn Wecker:I'll clap. How are you there? You go, I like it, and the crowd goes wild. How are you, don?
Speaker 3:I'm doing great. Thank you so much for talking to me. I'm so excited.
Dawn Wecker:It's fun to have people on and it's fun when you get to do it in the same time zone.
Speaker 3:That's true too. Yes, I've been on that side. Trying to make the time's work is not always easy.
Dawn Wecker:Yeah, I had a call a while back with a gentleman from Great Britain. As a matter of fact, his episode is my current episode right now. I was doing it like 7am, so it was one o'clock in the afternoon his time.
Speaker 3:He's bright-eyed.
Dawn Wecker:He's all refreshed, he's been out for a run. His day is half over right now and I'm like gulp of the coffee between talks. But yeah, that's part of it, isn't it Part of the whole experience of podcasting?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is. I enjoy having other podcasters on my show because they can relate. It's fun to talk to other people as well, but podcasters we all know the difficulties that we deal with sometimes.
Dawn Wecker:Yeah, for sure. How did your podcast come about? Everybody has an origin story, right?
Speaker 3:Right? Well, I started it because I did hair for 30 years and so my son thought I should start a podcast and talk about that, about doing hair just being behind the chair and the stories we hear.
Dawn Wecker:Oh my God, the story.
Speaker 3:Not what is typically out there, which is a lot about how to build your business and all that. I wanted to take the different spin and just kind of talk about the fun part of doing hair. So I started a podcast about stylists and it was called Salon Versations. My son's friend helped me come up with that and he did my logo, which was a blow dryer and all that. Anyway, long story short, I hurt my elbow and it wasn't getting any better and I decided you know, after 30 years it's time to make a change. And so I retired and I still wanted to continue the podcast, but I thought I want to talk to anybody and everybody. I didn't want to just keep it exclusive to hair. And so I got with that same guy, jake, and I said, jake, I need another name because I don't want to just talk about hair. And he was like how about Dawn Versations?
Dawn Wecker:Because it does seem so logical, right it?
Speaker 3:does, and then you're like why?
Dawn Wecker:didn't I think of that?
Speaker 3:That's exactly what I said. So here we are and so, yeah, it's a variety show and I just get to talk to anybody about things that interest me. Honest to God, it's just whatever pops into mind. Or if I see a commercial or a show, I just. Yeah, that would be an interesting topic, and so I try and find experts, and here we are.
Dawn Wecker:Oh for sure my mind is still reeling with the possibilities on everything you might have heard behind a chair in the salon. I'm sure you probably had years of worth of stories.
Speaker 3:Yes, there were a lot of stories, but it was a lot of talking about how we dealt with COVID, because that was so so fresh, and so we were talking about how it ended up becoming so political. You know when people would come in and get their hair done. It ended up being a lot of you know. Can you please just wear your mask? We're just trying to do our job here, you know so.
Dawn Wecker:And survive.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, and it seemed like we were the last to get called off the floor and the first one's thrown back on the floor when COVID was happening. So I was like I felt like we were guinea pigs there for a while. Are they going to see if all the stylist are?
Dawn Wecker:If the stylist survive, we're okay. Oh my God.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's what.
Dawn Wecker:I felt, yeah, my wife and I have we have had whatever started a home cleaning business in 2006. It was still going when COVID started, and up here in Minnesota, I want to say it was like towards the end of February or very beginning of March, they said, okay, you know, these businesses have to close and you can't do business anymore. And one of them were house cleaners and we're like we're sanitizing, isn't that a good thing? But no, I tried over and over and over again, I would write banging out letters to you know, the governor and anybody else who I thought might listen. And but no, and I think we opened up the same time as barbershops and salons. It was early Mayish, I want to say.
Speaker 3:But yeah, exactly, that's exactly crazy time. Patrick's Day was our last day, and then okay and May 11th, and it was just a really tough time for everybody, obviously, you know. But just, it was a whole new dynamic and so you know I was sad to leave the business but with all of that kind of thrown in the mix, it made my decision a little easier, I think.
Dawn Wecker:I was you left.
Speaker 3:It's time yeah.
Dawn Wecker:You retired after COVID or? Yeah shortly after COVID or during shortly after I.
Speaker 3:I've been at my job for a year and a half, at my current job that we're gonna talk about today, so, yeah, okay. Yeah, all right.
Dawn Wecker:Yeah, it was talk about unkindness or Not kind. Those were some not kind times and just you know regular people doing their jobs. As you say, we're getting Harassed and yelled at right, and I think I told you too.
Speaker 3:You know it was just kind of like I Don't. It has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with your political stance. Like I just want to do your hair, and can we just talk about your garden or your grandchildren?
Speaker 3:Children you know anything else like what would you like to cook these days? There were other topics, but it would just seem like it was so In your face and it just got really old and it was really hard to keep a positive attitude For yourself and your co-workers and your other clients. You know, you just wanted everybody to just have. For sure people could go and relax and not hear about all the the negativity.
Dawn Wecker:Yeah, I Love the fact that you don't on your on your podcast, that you don't talk about anything in particular, it's just all these organic conversations. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Well, I it is, you know. I just really wanted to keep it open. I love that I can talk about anything, that there I don't have any constraints, and it makes my demographic Little kids all the way up to the elderly. You know, I try and keep it cussing to a minimum, if at all. I just wanted to be where if, if you see the topic, you can get on and listen in your car and your kids can be in the car too and it's no big deal.
Dawn Wecker:Yes, for sure, I know I am. I joined a network of podcasters and I love these guys. They're great people, but some of their content is very NSFW. Yes, I mean I Was in the service. It takes a lot to make me blush, but there are times Listening to some of these other people's podcasts like, oh, can you say?
Mike Rathbun:that.
Dawn Wecker:That's the other thing about podcast. It's not like radio, right? It's not like the. We're not regulated like the like George Carlin. What was? What did George Carlin had that seven dirty words you can't say on? Right, yes and I won't go through them, because this is one of the I'm very little. Do I have a beat button here? I need a beat button. But yeah, it's just that's so. You've been doing Conversations for did you say a year and a half?
Speaker 3:I'm actually I'm going on my third year, starting in February. I'll start my third year. Hey, it's very exciting. I've had lots of episodes and I'm still having fun with it. So until that stops.
Dawn Wecker:Yeah, it kind of starts as a hobby and then it becomes more like a job, but you still love it right, yeah and there's so many people.
Speaker 3:I mean, you can't Discount there's so many people all done. It's just so cool to meet people all over the US, all over the world. It's like, yeah, neat platform to be able to just talk to people.
Dawn Wecker:I know, I know, I think I posted that on Facebook the other day, I've after I'd finished another show and I thought, you know, if I had not started doing this, I Would have missed out on meeting so many amazing people with so many great stories. I never would have known them and. I, that's. I'm blessed To be able to do this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I'm kind of over. I mean, I haven't watched the news since 9-11.
Dawn Wecker:Good for you.
Speaker 3:I just, it gave me nightmares and I just thought, you know, although I watched Dateline before bed every night, but that's another story.
Dawn Wecker:But that would give me nightmares. Some of those stories are go ahead. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know, but I I feel like With podcasting it's just I can pick and choose what I listen to, and on the news it's kind of a lot of things thrown at you at once. And so I just I really like that podcasting is a platform where you can just really listen to whatever you want and you don't have to hear all the the junk if you don't want to.
Dawn Wecker:Yeah, I know, yeah, what's up with true crime podcasting?
Speaker 3:That's a big deal.
Dawn Wecker:Like I said, I like there are a lot of people who want to know about murderers and such it's very true.
Speaker 3:I think it's just the solving. You know, hearing that it gets solved or what, as all wanting to be our own little detectives and trying to figure it, figure the crime Out. It's interesting.
Dawn Wecker:We're basically a whole nation of people that want to be private detectives. It's true, seems that way anyway, we all have the internet so when you, when you retired from your your salon job and you started doing the the podcast. But the top podcast Probably doesn't pay the bills. We'll be right back with my interview with Don Wecker, but first let's hear from a deluxe edition network podcast member. This is the quad pro quo podcast.
Mike Rathbun:Hello listeners and welcome to quad pro quo. Right now you are probably thinking to yourself oh great, another movie podcast. Well, dear listener, you would be right. But throw in a couple of marriages, decades long friendships and a shared property line and you have just another movie podcast with a shitload of drama Inspired by the iconic quid pro quo scene in silence of the lambs. Each week, one of us will pick a movie. It could be a childhood favorite, a classic film noir, an Academy award winner or a complete dumpster fire that brings joy to that person's heart. The selectors objective to get us to love are, at the very least, not hate their pick. Will our marriages, our friendships and our neighborhood survive? Find out each Thursday on quad pro quo no.
Speaker 3:No, it pays zero bills for me. I do it all for free actually some goes out.
Speaker 3:But yeah so no, I needed to have some income. I still have bills and my husband works very hard and he definitely helps more in the arena of finance. So he just said if you can get out there and get a good part-time position. So I realized how much I missed the dynamic of being around people once I left the salon. I was getting it through the podcast by talking to people, but I I wanted to do something that involved helping people, for sure cuz.
Speaker 3:I was that's what I was used to with doing hair. Sure, yeah, so I got a job Helping the elderly. It's. I don't. I don't know if every state has it, but there's companies that Like at home instead, if I can say that home instead was one of them. That's not the company I work for, but it's it's. There's places that help Take people into the elderly people's homes and help them so that they can stay in their homes as opposed to going to a nursing care Type of facility, for as long as they can, you know, as long as their a mental capacity is there and also physical and so, yeah, that's what I'm doing now I I'm loving go ahead.
Dawn Wecker:That's fantastic. As a matter of fact, I'm gonna be doing a show with a woman who owns that type of business. It's called no place like home in North Carolina.
Speaker 3:That's so sweet.
Dawn Wecker:And she got into that business for that reason that this is. This is great, though, because I we talk about Loneliness in this country and I want to say was it, was it the Surgeon General or the National Institute of Health or somebody like that came out last year and they said Loneliness at this point in the United States is an epidemic.
Dawn Wecker:Yeah and I think what you do Helps to relieve some of that, and especially for these, the seniors so many of them. You know I used to marvel at my grandma. She passed in 77 so it was like but this is a woman that was born in 1900, so she literally Saw humans. I Go from walking or riding a horse to automobiles, to airplanes, to a man landing on the moon. Yeah, I'm like.
Speaker 3:Such a huge experience in their life right, yeah, so much, so many stories and a lot of the times you know they're their friends have passed before them. So they don't have a lot of peers around them and and yeah their family may or may not be tired of hearing the same stories over and over. Yeah so for me I'm a good audience.
Dawn Wecker:You know, I knew I'm fresh and yeah, you haven't heard all the stories already.
Speaker 3:Or the jokes. But yeah, no, I mean they just, they just want the company, they just want somebody to talk to you for a little bit and and my care is more companion, because clearly I'm not a nurse and I I could style their hair. I mean it's never really come up, but but I mean that is an option. If it ever did come up I could style their hair if they needed. But it's mainly like there's a gentleman, he's going to be 98 in July and I go to his house every Wednesday and I make him a full-on breakfast. So on the other days he makes himself cereal. Okay, I, I make him the eggs and bacon, or sausage and hash browns, and it's so simple. But he looks forward to it every week, just knowing that I'm coming over and I'm going to make him a big breakfast. It's the little things with with elderly.
Dawn Wecker:Well, you know, and you think it's simple, it's just making bacon and eggs. But it's huge to him? Yeah, because not only is he getting a really big breakfast, which is awesome in and of itself, but he gets somebody to talk to.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, he's a widower. His wife passed, like 18 years ago and he still has a big picture of her, you know, displayed and so I always make sure I dust that.
Speaker 3:And he likes talking about when they were snowbirds and they would go from Nebraska to Texas in in the wintertime so that they could be where it was warm and just their friends and, yeah, he just tells me all the stories and it's just, it's great for me too, because I I just love Love, being there for them and hearing what they have to say and just knowing that I'm helping them and helping them feel better too. It's just sure great.
Dawn Wecker:Yeah, that's, and this I mean, but this is not just. I mean, it is for them, obviously, but you get something out of this too 100%.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and there are small, small drawbacks. Like one of the ladies that I was helping, she ended up having a stroke back in October, so she is in a home now. And that was really hard, because we got into our groove and I'd been going there for over a year and, all of a sudden, four days out of five that I was spending with her, I Wasn't anymore, and so I missed her. I missed her company, I missed making cookies with her and you know it was you form of a bond with them sure you would a family member, so that's a drawback, but other than that it's very fulfilling.
Dawn Wecker:Yeah, I, just knowing what kind of impact you make on their lives has got to be, as you say, fulfilling, because, yeah, you just can't beat old people. They have so much experience and, yes, it's, you know, easy to go. Oh, what do you mean? You don't know how to work this iPhone or what have you, but They've got so much, there's so much more to them than technology and I, I, I think it's fantastic that you, now you're, you're not a volunteer, you, you do this for living, but still, I think that's the thing when they say thank you before I leave.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much and it's like, well, I am getting paid. But my mom even said she's like, don't, even if you got fired tomorrow, you would still go back and make marty breakfast. I'm like, yeah, you're right, I would you would, you absolutely would.
Speaker 3:Oh, my god, I mean it's, it's such a, it's such a rewarding thing and, and again, it's just so small things that making your bed, you know you just make your bed, you just get up and you do it or you don't, because you don't want to, right, and there's a level of they can't you know it's for them to go around to either side and or just washing the dishes, to stand that long in front of the sink To wash the dishes, because a lot of them don't want to use a dishwasher, so they're old school and, you know, want to do it by hand, and yeah, yeah. So it's just the little things and it makes you feel like wow, very grateful for what you have when you leave, like wow, thank god, like take care of your body's people, because you really don't know what true story.
Dawn Wecker:True story. I would imagine that a lot of your, your I don't know how to put it clients Do you come clients or you bet. Okay, okay, clients, they have varying degrees of what they're able to do and not able to do, I would imagine that's right, yes, so if they're, too far gone it's.
Speaker 3:There's more nursing staff that would come into play. But I'm for. I'm there for the people that are pretty self-sufficient. They just need some eyes and ears there. Make sure the food's not expired in the fridge. You know little things. And then cleaning, cleaning bathrooms, you know detailed kind of stuff. That's just none of us like to do.
Dawn Wecker:But we can, yeah right. And they can't, right yeah. As a house cleaner, I can tell you that that is not a job for wooses. You're bending over the tub trying to scrub it. I mean when you get into your 80s and whatnot, and that's that's almost impossible to do. Yeah so yeah, I could see that. Oh, that is so cool, um, and, and you love it and they love it, and and their families.
Speaker 3:It puts peace of mind to their families because if they go through an extensive background check and stuff before they hire people to do this job, you know, to make sure everybody's on the up and up. But you know, I've gotten close with their, their children, who live across town and can't be right there, and they say, you know, how is? How are they doing today? They getting around. Good, you know, is everything fine over there before they can come over and say the evening or that weekend? And so it's basically helping the families too that aren't able to always be there all the time because they still work.
Speaker 3:Or they have their own children, that they're running back and forth, so it really is a good Well I don't want to say happy medium for them to have somebody there.
Dawn Wecker:Right, well, no, it's gotta be. It's gotta be a piece of mind kind of thing, knowing that there's somebody who's been fully vetted and is taking care of mom or grandma or dad or grandpa or whoever uncle.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly.
Dawn Wecker:Yeah, to know that there there's a person who also cares about their loved one, yes, very cares about their well-being and is there Looking after them even if it's exactly. Even if it's just one day a week.
Speaker 3:Yep, yep, exactly. Yeah, they set up a plan to how often they think that somebody needs to be there and for some people it's out of pocket. Some people the government helps, some people, if they're VA, might help, you know it. Just they're able to afford to get it, get the services you know, that's does. Medicare cover that some Mm-hmm. Oh really yeah.
Dawn Wecker:Nice. Yeah, I'm gonna be eligible next year asking for a friend.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it really is. It's a great thing. I'm super proud to be a part of it and I wish more people would do it, because I think if they knew exactly what it did involve and how rewarding it was, more people would step in and do it, even if it was on a volunteer basis.
Dawn Wecker:There's a lot of programs out there like well, meals on wheels. Do you guys have meals on wheels? Down there, Yep okay, I think that's national. Yes, but yeah, just delivering meals to an elderly person who's Shut in, and they again same thing, similar. They're probably not cleaning, they're just delivering meals, but just seeing that face. I Don't know how often they do it, but you know, maybe once a day, once a week.
Speaker 3:Yep, yeah, whatever they need. Well, and a lot of those people live alone, and so they say I'm not gonna go in the kitchen and whip up spaghetti for you know 10 people and have leftovers and all the cleanup and everything. So for them, I think they start to lose an appetite a little bit, and then just the actual Process of going in and making something for themselves to eat is a real chore. That's just something they don't want to, don't want to do, they don't have the energy, and so to have these meals dropped off for them is so great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, very helpful that I can help make you know while I'm there, I try and do that too.
Dawn Wecker:So you said you made breakfast for, was it Marty? Yeah, first of all. Hey, marty, tell Marty I shouted about. But have you ever done that where you like, make a lot of meals and then freeze them for?
Speaker 3:yeah, I have helped. I've Cooked up burgers before and then put those so that they could have burgers throughout the week, because they've obviously, if they can't Cook in their kitchen, they're not gonna go out and start the grill up, you know, but it's just like that. You know, I again, it's just things that we all just take for granted. We do going and just throwing something together. If they, I think it's just so much energy that they just don't want to expend doing that. They'd rather expend their energy to get from room to room.
Dawn Wecker:All right, yeah, from the couch to the bathroom and back, or what?
Mike Rathbun:have you yeah that's.
Dawn Wecker:But you, you bring them dignity. I think when yeah with what you do, because If you weren't there, coming into their homes and helping them out, where would they be? Would they be in a facility?
Speaker 3:more than likely. Yeah, I mean, it definitely is. I Wish I could think of the word that I'm trying to think of. But it's a good interim, so that they can stay where they're at for a while until it just comes to the point where there's no other option but for them to go to some type of assisted living. Usually, I would say I'm more in the place of like I am assisted living Until they have to actually go to a nursing home.
Dawn Wecker:That's a nice way to look at it.
Speaker 3:Right, right. But yeah, it is. It's super rewarding and it. They're just great people and it's nice to know. I would want somebody to do that for my parents if I wasn't around. I would love it to know that there was. And one of the ladies said everybody needs a dawn.
Dawn Wecker:Everybody needs a dawn and that is the truth. Yeah, my mom was in Independent independent living yes facility and I was. I mean, she didn't have the, she didn't need the care until she went in hospice. But yeah, that's because you hear the horror stories about the facilities, right? Mm-hmm and how bad they are.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and that's what I think my grandpa he lived to be 99 and he would always say that he did not want to go to a nursing home because he said You're only coming out in one way, you know how you're coming out and he just did not want to do that. And I get it. You know, the older you get, the more you understand, because I would think, although it'd be so nice to be around more people their age. But I think you know, first comes the losing of the car and you know it's just like all these things get taken and taken, taken, and then I just feel like Hopeless. So to be able to stay at least in their home, where they feel most comfortable for them is just like a huge feeling of.
Dawn Wecker:Oh, for sure, for sure. Yeah, I know you were talking about the car. My mom she was 83 and and she was they told her she needed a valve replaced in her heart and she lived through. My dad had had a valve replacement back in the 70s and I think that image was stuck in her head and she, she said nope, absolutely now we're. And I went with her to the cardiologist when this conversation took place and she said no, I'm not doing it, I am not having that done. And and the cardiologist looked at her and he said do you have your car keys with you? She said yes. He said give them to your son because you're not driving anymore, if you're not going to get this surgery.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh.
Dawn Wecker:My mom was devastated All my life. That was the one thing I heard from her is you're never going to take my car keys from me.
Speaker 3:It was so huge for her. Oh, that's, so sad.
Dawn Wecker:Yeah, I mean I understood why he said that. Because you know If your heart is actively failing, you could be behind the wheel and yeah, danger yeah. It could be dangerous. So I understood where he was coming from, but I also understood that this was a huge source of pride for my mom.
Speaker 3:Of course.
Dawn Wecker:And that was yeah, but yeah, to be able to stay in their own homes is absolutely paramount for them and it's such a huge and I say pride. I don't know if it's really about pride, but independence.
Speaker 3:I think it is. Yeah, it is. They're very proud of themselves as they can still be on their own and, you know, at an older age like that, knowing that they are very self-sufficient I mean, I'm not there 24 seven.
Speaker 3:Right they definitely are there enough. But you know it's just things that we all have to do, you know, turn on the TV and having it not work, you know, for us it's like, oh, I'll get this figured out, and for them it's like, oh, I didn't have TV for three days because I couldn't couldn't get it figured out, so I just made. Do I just, you know, or they can't read if their eyes are that bad, or they're hearing you know, all these things that you don't think about.
Speaker 3:And and I help them write out letters, I help them fill out their birthday cards, because one of them has really bad shaking and it's just those kinds of things it feels so good to be able to help them keep doing the normal things that they've been doing so that their families feel like, oh, they're still thriving, you know, not not gone yet.
Dawn Wecker:Yeah, yeah, for sure. Ah, don, it was so cool having you on. Thank you so much for what you do. Don Versations.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Dawn Wecker:Apple Spotify.
Speaker 3:Everywhere, yep all over and I just started doing YouTube videos, so YouTube as well, yep.
Dawn Wecker:This may end up as a YouTube video, by the way. Oh, all right, it's an audio only podcast. But then I realized so yeah, check out Don Versations, folks, and be kind to your senior friends.
Speaker 3:Very much so yes.
Dawn Wecker:Thanks so much for being on, don. We'll talk to you later.
Speaker 3:Thank you, mike, take care.
Dawn Wecker:So much fun to talk to Don Wicker today. You know, I think a lot of kindness comes down to how we treat others who are less fortunate than we are, and when we talk about, when we think about how fortunate we are you know we have a roof over our head or clothes on our back or food to eat, and I think we sometimes forget just how fortunate we are. And if you can help someone else, whether it's a homeless person or a single mom or a senior, I think that's the highest order, the highest calling for kindness, and I hope that maybe this conversation inspired some of you to reach out and be kinder to somebody else. That will do it for this episode of the kindness matters podcast, until next time, and there will be a next time. Until next time, be that person who roots for others, who tells a stranger they look amazing and encourages others to believe in themselves and their dreams. You've been listening to the kindness matters podcast and I'm your host, mike Rathbun. Have a fantastic week.