230. Breaking Barriers: Bruce Bryan's Triumph Over Injustice

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This is happiness solved with America's happiness. Coach Sandee Sgarlata.

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Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining me today. I'm so happy you're here. I'm Sandee Sgarlata. I was born in Virginia Beach and raised in the Baltimore Annapolis area and had very humble and tragic beginnings. And as a result, my life was a hot mess.

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Thankfully, 33 years ago, I got my act together, and since that time, I have dedicated my life to serving others and raising awareness that no matter what you've been through, you can choose happiness and live the life of your dreams. Happiness Solved is dedicated to giving you content that is empowering, motivational, inspirational, and, of course, a dose of happiness. It's my way to give back to the world and share other people's stories. This thing called life can be challenging, and my guests share their amazing stories, wisdom, and life lessons that demonstrate anyone can choose happiness. You see, happiness is a choice, and the choice is yours.

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Today's episode is amazing, and I am so grateful for you. Thank you for listening, and don't forget to leave a review and follow me on social media at coach. Sandee Sgarlata. Enjoy the show.

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Bruce Bryan. Oh, my gosh, my friend. It is just such an honor and a privilege, and I'm so grateful to be chatting with you again because we've had multiple conversations. Thank you. Thank you so much.

00:01:48
Yeah. How's everything going today?

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Yesterday was my nintieth day.

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I've been able to accomplish some of the 90 day goals that I have when I was incarcerated, I said the first 90 days, there are some things that I wanted to accomplish, and I've been checking them off my list. And the last one so far was getting my permit, so I've been driving.

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That's been fun. That's been great. Yeah. So I have my permit now. I'm just waiting to take the driver's test and get my license, so that feels good.

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Feels good. I mean, I was all over Manhattan and island yesterday, and everyone know, you sure you ain't driving all those years while you inside? Because you're doing an awfully good job now. So that made me feel it doesn't. It'S not like, well, you don't forget.

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It's like riding a bike. Like, people say that and you take but it was probably a lot easier than learning to use your iPhone. Absolutely. No doubt about it. Much easier than using an iPhone.

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So for those of you who aren't familiar with Bruce, Bruce was wrongly convicted of a crime and served over 28 years in prison. And you were just released in April of this year, april 24. 91St day. Wow. I'm processing every hour.

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Every day is a depth of gratitude, another step towards just saying thank you. I can't thank you. The people enough, the support enough. Just having my freedom again means everything. This means oh, no kidding.

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And I first heard you on Joe Rogan show with your colleague. He's now your colleague. You now? Yes, Josh Dubin, who's doing just amazing work. And I've listened to every episode that he's done even before you were on the show because I'm very passionate about this topic and wanted to talk with you today because my podcast, Happiness Solved, is all about sharing these.

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Incredible stories of human beings that have gone to so many different lengths, whether it be wrongly incarcerated, near death experiences. I talked to a girl once who was kidnapped and was tied up in a garage for a week. You know what I mean? There's just so many different stories of resilience. Yes.

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And hearing your story of resilience was just something that I couldn't even comprehend. But I love that you're free now and getting your driver's permit, that's just a whole nother level of freedom, right? Yes, that's right. Do you feel like a 16 year old little boy again? Like, woohoo?

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I'm going to be completely honest with you. It felt like another load was lifted off of my shoulders. And then getting behind the wheel, it felt natural, like, this is the way I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing. The reality is, I fought hard for close to 29 years to not internalize prison values, the prison system. So I always kept it in my mind and in my heart that I would be home with my family.

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Right. I kept that at the forefront from my vision board to my affirmations that I would have on my wall, understanding that where I was didn't have to define who I was and what I can become. I tried to hold on to those values and just stay focused and know that this is where I belong. That was abnormal. Driving and being home is normal, so I feel a sense of normalcy.

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Being able to get up, getting a car and drive, that sense of normalcy, which I missed for close to three decades. It's been an honor. And just like you said, like a kid in the candy store, just happy, deeply happy and deeply grateful.

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Yeah, you do. Right. Things that people often take for granted, you learn to appreciate deeply.

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And I apologize for interrupting you. I didn't mean to do that, but I was just about to emphasize that and make sure that the listeners really hear that your everyday being, driving a car for the first time, all of those things is back to normalcy. And we do take it for granted so often. And this is such an amazing reminder to everybody, to every day. What do they say about the present?

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Not to use some of these old sayings, but yesterday's a gift. It's a present. It's a gift. This is a gift. Talking to you from New York to Virginia, right?

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Meeting amazing people like yourself, this is a gift. And for me, there's no greater gift than relationships. Life is about relationships. Not the quantity, but the quality. Of relationships that you develop and that you build on.

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I deeply appreciate you having me. Well, we're the only ones that know this, so I'm going to share it. Anyway, this is our second go around because the first time the Internet connection was bad. So we're getting to have this conversation all over again. So I'm so grateful for that.

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I was reading a couple of the articles that were written about you after you came home, and you went into a lot of detail in this on Joe Rogan show. But the T, when you were incarcerated, they made a clerical error and they put a t at the end of your name, Bryant, with a T. So now that you're home, you were able to get that error corrected and it was almost as if this was a new birth for you. But here's the thing that I wanted to really point out here. It's that hope that you had and experienced every single day that kept you going.

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Can you talk a little bit more about that? Because it's one of those things that obviously we don't know what we don't know. One of the main things I want to emphasize with you on this podcast is to let the listeners hear that you didn't take that incarceration as just like, okay, and just give up on everything. Quite the opposite. You turned everything around for yourself.

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You got a bachelor's degree. You did community outreach programs. And that is not something to be taking lightly because it was the mindset that resilience that strength, that grit that kept you going. Can you elaborate a little bit more about that? Thank you so much.

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And I'm humbled by those compliments. I mean, you have to be able to make up your mind that when you change the way you look at things, things literally change the way that they look. Circumstances. Conditions. I used to say I'm not under the circumstances.

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I'm over the circumstances. Meaning that I'm able to cope and deal with them and thrive despite where I am. Early in my incarceration, an old timer gave me a pamphlet called Constructing a Prison Life, meaning that despite being in prison, you can set small goals for yourself and objectives that you want to achieve, and you can go on pursue them as if you were free. So they incarcerate you physically, but your mind still there's a level of freedom that you have mentally, and you always have to have vision for your life, the vision of where you want to be. The Bible says my people where there's no vision, the people perish.

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Right. So I've always had a vision of doing more and being more. And early in my incarceration, I made a conscious decision to not serve time, but to have time serve me. So that meant taking those hours and utilizing them. Right.

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Utilizing the cell that I was in as a space where I utilized as my office. I didn't just go in and lay down. I went in and I read books, or I wrote or I studied or I prayed and meditated. I did things that everyday people do, you see, because when I would leave and go to the yard, that was like my time. Going to the gym to work out, to exercise, to keep my physical.

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Then during the week, I will go to Bible study or I will go to church to nurture my spirit. So it was about nurturing mind, body, spirit, and understanding that there is something in front of me that's greater. There are people out there that need me. My mother needed me. My family needs me.

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I needed them. I think that hope comes from prayer, and it comes from people who you love. They become the wind beneath your wings. After losing my father in 2017, I was still in college. I lost him February 6, 2017, and I didn't graduate until June 6, 2017.

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So oftentimes I would be sitting in the classroom studying for school, or the teacher may be the professor may be giving a lecture, and I would find tear just dropped down my eye, right? But even in the midst of that tear, I would always remind myself that somehow my father is watching and wants me to continue to do what I'm doing. He wants me to thrive. And it's hope that allows us to thrive. Once a person loses hope, their life stops.

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You're only existing. I refuse to simply exist. I wanted to thrive. So I would write, which was cathartic for me. I would write down my thoughts, I would write down my goals.

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I would take statements that I created or something that I read that jumped out at me, and I would write it and tape it on the wall in the cell. When I knew I had a lecture for school, I would stand in the mirror and pace in the cell, only a six x nine cell. I would walk back and forth practicing my presentation. Wow. So I just try to change the way I looked at my entire environment, and I tried to encourage others to do the same.

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Because my motto is to lift as you climb, right? You can always pull somebody up while you're moving forward. I watched my father do that his whole life. He's always pulled others from our country, antigua, West Indies, his relatives. He's always tried to pull them as he climbed.

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Many of our relatives lived with us for many years. So I watched my mother and father do this, and they are my strength. My mother is literally my strength. She's downstairs now doing well, thank God. I'm blessed to still have her.

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And it's people like them and my siblings or my nieces and nephews that just keep me going and give me the energy and the strength that I need. People need people. No man is an island. We all need each other. We're social beings, and we all need that lift, that boost, that word of encouragement or that silent prayer that helped Bruce keep going.

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That makes a huge difference. I'll be honest with you. I would implore anyone who has someone struggling with incarceration. It doesn't have to be physical incarceration. It could be a prison of the mind.

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It could be the prison of addiction, you see? It could be the prison of mental health, right? It could be the prison of a poor of an unhealthy relationship, a marriage, domestic violence, whatever it may be. I implore someone. If you have a loved one or a friend that you know is dealing with some level of imprisonment, give them some encouragement.

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Give them some words of advice. Let them know that you believe in them, and more importantly, encourage them to look in the mirror and tell that person that they see in that mirror that they love them, and that person is worthwhile, and that person's life is meaningful. And that's what got I mean, for years, every morning for decades, I would look in the mirror and say, I love you because you're important, and self love is the foundation for it all. Wow, we could end right there. And that was so much amazing content.

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I know before when we talked, I was like, oh, that's the name of a book for you, or something like that. Well, you just described your next book. Just saying the fact that you were able to compare being in prison to every type of other imprisonment, and I'm using air quotes for those that are just listening, that's brilliant. And what better person can really I don't want to say poster child, but you know what I mean? You're the perfect example of someone who is able to really have the equation solved, happiness solved.

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It was like you solved an equation there of how to survive. I never looked at it that way. But you did. You did. How else can you I mean, you know, there's so many stories know, people know survived the Holocaust and Nelson was it Nelson Sandee, Sandee of Sandee that survived that imprisonment and was able to make that shift.

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And it just came to me, really. I mean, that's almost like if there is a solution to solving that equation of life and happiness, you're a prime example of that, and it's incredible.

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It really takes a lot of deep introspection and reflection to have that paradigm shift in the way that we think, because for the most part, we've been socially conditioned to think a certain way. Oftentimes we define our worth by the things that we have, by stuff, not by the quality relationships that we have, not by the people that we love and that love us. You see, we've been taught and we've been conditioned to define our entire existence by our material gain. But life is so much more. Relationships are so much more meaningful.

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People have so much more value. You can touch a person's life or a person can touch your life from a million miles away. That's right. And sometimes it's just a single act of kindness that allows you to begin to shift and see people differently and see things different and see situations differently.

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Yeah, so true. Unbelievable. Okay, so as I told you before, when you were on Joe Rogan, you talked about the GoFundMe and I immediately went and donated to your GoFundMe page and I'll make sure that that is in the show notes as well for people to click on. Because when you think about it of course no, I mean think about it, everybody. I've never asked my listeners ever to donate to anything.

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It's everybody's choice. But what people aren't recognizing is that and I just remember when my ex husband, because I was there the day he was released from prison, you have nothing. You're starting over from scratch. And it's an expensive world out there. And so I'm so grateful to see that people have been contributing.

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But have you read any of these, the comments? I've read quite a few. Can I read one of them? Yes, you may, because this is so important and I actually think about this as well. And this person by the name of Stuart said, hey, Bruce, I'm a 59 year old white alcoholic trying to quit for the second time and struggling.

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Now I'll think of you when I want to pick up and hopefully say to myself, you can't just give up this one thing when that man has endured so much and is so gracious. In other words, I want to be better. Thanks for the inspiration. And now I'm going to cry. Because there are times, Bruce, when I remember your story, because we've all been through hell and back.

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They're just different versions of yes, each. And every one of us. We all have just a different version. It's just there's not that many things. There's a couple of things I can think of that could be worse than what you endured, but there's really not that many, right.

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And then of course, it's all your perception, right? It's all your perception of how you see it. But I do know for me, that's why I've been on this journey for 33 years, because I went through so much pain and continued even when I started on this spiritual path in my journey, I still had things happen because that's life. And we're always going to have struggles and we're always going to have pain. It's stories like yours that make me take pause for a second and say, wait a second, stop.

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And it's okay because we're human and we're always going to be having these negative thoughts. We're always going to have them, right. So that brings me to one thing that I did want to ask you because yeah, while it was a very long time and a huge portion of your life devastating. Being convicted wrongfully. There had to be moments where you wanted to give up if and when you had those moments.

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Because we're human, right? The brain is going to be like, what did you do? Because it's okay, everybody. And I'm always here to share on my show that we're going to have our bad days. We're going to feel angry and we're going to be upset, and we're going to get jealous, and we're going to feel all of these emotions.

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And as humans, the happiest people are the people that experience the full range of emotions because that's normal. It's normal to be angry. It's normal. Okay, so when you got those, how did you make that shift to flip that switch again, to keep going? One of the things I realized is that you said something about the happiest people are those that experience the range of emotions.

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I've also found that the happiest people, despite where they are, are those who have committed them, their lives to a cause, to something that is more greater than themselves, something that is greater and something that is meaningful, that gave them, allowed them to live a purposeful life. And I found myself incarcerated and I decided that it wasn't just about me being incarcerated. Those moments when I was deeply depressed, when I cried, those thousands of nights that I cried myself to sleep, I realized that I can still do something. And what that something was, I can still pick someone else up because someone who cried themselves to sleep the same night that I did didn't wake up because they decided to tie a bedsheet around their neck and kill themselves. And I can tell you of countless instances such as these, countless instances of suicide, countless incidents of drug overdoses in prison throughout New York State prison system.

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I mean, guys that you talk to a guy today and he seems normal, and tomorrow, five in the morning, you find out charlie just hung up. He just took his life. He didn't make it. So in those moments, I realized that people were in worse conditions than I were, especially those who were in the mental health, suffering with mental health crisis, dealing with bipolar schizophrenia, not really understanding what it is that they're going through. And many of them were suicidal.

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How could I contribute to them and pick them up? And in picking other people up, I picked myself up. Right. When you recognize the humanity in others, it helps you understand that your humanity is inextricably intertwined with theirs. Race, creed, color, those are social constructs that is designed to keep us separate.

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We're all alike. We all share 99% of the same DNA. We're part of the human family. The same struggles that you have, the same range of emotions that you go through. So I would pick myself up by picking someone else up, by finding programs to get involved in where I would speak to younger guys and tell them about the error of their ways, right?

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To discourage them from engaging in gang activity, to discourage them from becoming involved in more criminality while they're inside. Discourage them from using drugs and encourage them to get in college, get in school, take advantage of some of the programs that will keep you busy. Because the idle mind is the devil's workshop. And when you bury yourself in growth and development, you're going to have those moments of sadness. But when you start growing and developing and realizing that you can turn your pain into purpose by committing yourself to a cause that is greater than you, that's when you realize, I can pick myself up today.

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I may be sad, I might be hurting, I may have lost my father a day ago or a week ago, but I can pick myself up. I can pick myself up because somebody else needs it. Somebody else may be about to take their own life. You never know what the next guy is going through because it's easy to wear masks. Many guys in prison, they wear masks all day.

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And when they get in that cell and it's just them and themselves in that cell and they have to look in that mirror, it's, what do you see and what do you think of that person? And my self talk, I used to have self talk. That paradigm shift in the way that I thought about life while I was deep in a mess. I realized I can turn my mess into a message and it can help someone else, right? I can really dig deep and turn this painful experience into purpose that can change lives, that can touch lives.

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Just like I'm completely humbled by the story you just read of the guy who donated and talked about his life with addiction. Some people that were physically free were deeper in mess than many of the guys that are incarcerated. And it's hard for us to see that when we're behind bars. But the reality is it exists. It exists and I see it every day when I get on a train and go to work and I see the countless homeless people, right, or when I'm leaving work and I'm bringing food from work to give to someone that I just saw in train station earlier that day.

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You see, because all of our humanity is connected and we have to be able to dig deep and realize that our life has purpose, our life has meaning. So despite the pain that I'm going through, I still have to find the purpose. And sometimes I would cry myself to sleep in the middle of the night. I would get up and I would just write I would write a letter to God. I've written thousands of letters to God expressing my pain.

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Just and that was my way of getting it out. Yeah, right. So journaling helped me tremendously. Being able to write to my even if it's just saying, god, it's too much for me to deal with right now. Just give me a sense of peace so that I can rest tonight and make it through tonight.

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Tomorrow will be better. Maybe I'll get on the phone tomorrow, I'll get a visit this week from Mommy, and I'll get that hug and feel that vibration from my loved ones. You see? Yeah. Because love is so much more than a word or an action.

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It's also a vibration. Yes. It's a vibration that we all give off, that we feel and that we internalize. Right. That's got to be recognizing and internalizing and hold on to it.

00:28:06
Yeah, hold on to it. So my prayers, whether they be in writing or they be in those silent moments or if it's just some soft music that I turn on, these are the things that prevented me from giving up on myself and giving up on life, from giving up on my family, from giving up on the goals that I wanted to achieve. And I'm so grateful that I had those moments because I'm here today talking to you. And I'm better because of those moments. Yeah.

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I'm better because of those moments. Oh, my gosh.

00:28:43
You're just the first person I've ever spoken to that has just so much wisdom, and I thank you so much. The last thing that I wanted to touch on, because this was something that really hit me, because I had never heard anybody say this before, but apparently you were writing letters to Josh Dubin and he didn't see them for a while, but every single letter that you signed, you signed Oceans of Gratitude. And I love that so much. And it's like, I wish I came up with it because I would love to just close every email out with Oceans of Gratitude, but I can't. Or if I do, I'll say OK.

00:29:21
This is from Bruce Bryan. This is his saying. Right? Because I can't say things unless I give people credit. But I love that it is so oh, my gosh, it just embodies what you must have been feeling like to just reaching out and know, please, I'm so grateful for anything you can do.

00:29:42
Yeah. And realizing that so much of our planet is made up of water. I think there's no greater way to express my gratitude than to say, my gratitude is the depths of it is far beyond I could ever express in words. Or indeed, the best thing I can do is show you who I am and the transformations that I'm making in my life in expressing those oceans of gratitude, as I do with my peers, with people like you who provided me with this platform to share in hopes that not just telling my story at this point, but it's really about inspiring someone and giving someone hope and letting them know that they can do it as well. That they have the wherewithal within them to rise above the fray and to continue to thrive despite where they are despite where they are in life.

00:30:43
They can pick themselves up and they can do something because people care. Because I care. And I understand that this human family, it's all of us or none of us. And I internalize that in terms of getting to the next level, getting to a greater space, a space of harmony where we can all have a harmonious life, right. It's all of us are nominated.

00:31:09
And so we really need to understand that it was my way of really expressing just how deep my gratitude is. My gratefulness is for the people just in such a deep need. When you're fighting for your life, you just want someone to listen. Because it's that hope that you wanted. Right.

00:31:32
You see, it wasn't just receiving a letter back on words. That letter was correction officer walks by yourself and he stops with mail and says, what's your last name? Your last name is Bryan. And he puts mail on your bar and he comes and says, oh, you got some legal documents. He's not just giving you paper, he's giving you hope.

00:31:54
That's right. He's giving you hope. Yeah. And I'm not quite sure correction officers or staff really understand that, but every time you go by an incarcerated person's cell bars and you place that legal mail on their boss, or you place that letter from their mother or from their loved ones, you're providing them with hope. And hope is the essence of what takes us through life.

00:32:18
Without hope, there is no life. We wouldn't be anywhere. We would never make it past a certain age, for sure.

00:32:30
Wow. So tell everybody what you're doing today because you're doing some really great work. And I know know talk about paying it forward like you're in there in the grind every day helping out other people. So could you talk about that a little bit? Currently, I'm blessed and fortunate to work with Josh Dubin at the Pearl Mother Center for Legal Justice at Cardoza Law.

00:32:54
Our clinic is called the Freedom Clinic. We're working to get guys and girls out on clemency, guys and girls out on wrongful convictions right. Now, we recently had a special guest on Yesterday who served 38 years in New York State Prison, and she told us about the need that some of the women have, but so many of our incarcerated sisters have been subjected to domestic violence. And now there's a Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act that is pending, and we're able to utilize that to get some of our clients into courts. So we're looking at every angle we can to help free people, to help people get home to their families and change their conditions.

00:33:45
We have about twelve scholars, some Sean Carter Foundation scholars working with us, and some Cardoza Law students working. With us. And I get so much energy from them every time I see them. They're young, they're vibrant, they're ready to win. They're ready to rumble.

00:34:02
They're ready to take in all the information and the experience that we have. They're reading letters. They're reading cases. They're looking to help change lives. I think there's no greater feeling than seeing a child born.

00:34:21
The second best feeling is walking a person out of prison. It's equivalent. That's right. It's helping someone walk out of prison is probably the second best feeling in the world. And it's something that we are working know we are devoted to.

00:34:38
Two weeks after I got out, we were able to help a guy, Sheldon Johnson and go to court for him. I had to step in the courtroom and then he got his sentence cut in half. Then we went to the prison to receive to pick him up on the day of his release. Oh, wow. Oh, man.

00:34:56
It's just a great feeling to be able to help men and women achieve their freedom and give them a sense of hope. I know what that feeling is like. I know I shared this with you before. My ex husband, he was driving drunk and hit a motorcycle and killed two people and served a little over seven years, which was his maximum term. They didn't let him out early for any reason and he was totally fine with it.

00:35:28
He's like, you know what? I am here for a reason and I'm going to pay my debt to society. And he did what you did, tried to make it a better place for everybody in there. But watching my son be reunited with his dad after all that time was just the most incredible feeling.

00:35:53
So I can only imagine when you're actually helping somebody who is wrongly convicted to be released, that's even more of just there's just nothing like it. Yeah. And it's amazing you mentioned your son because since I've been home, I've been able to visit the organization that I've also been working with while I was inside called Children of Promise NYC. Children of Promise NYC has two locations, one in Brooklyn, one in the Bronx, and they cater to children of incarcerated parents. Currently they have over 300 children in both locations, 150 in 1150 in the other.

00:36:28
And they're providing full wraparound services. They have an onsite wellness center with licensed clinicians to help young people who are impacted by parental incarceration deal with the trauma. They have letter writing days where the children gather together and write letters to the incarcerated parent. They have the sports, they have mentors, they have tutors. They have art therapy.

00:36:57
The staff are amazing. Since I've been released, I've been able to stop by and talk to some of the kids. I've been asked a few tough questions that brought me to tears by some of the young people and I really had to take a moment. But so many of these kids who they're like invisible victims. It is something I'm passionate about.

00:37:25
It's something I gave a TEDx Talk about while I was incarcerated. Because these children are often overlooked. They're marginalized. You know, many of them already come from impoverished background. And then to have a parent or both parents moved out of the household due to incarceration, and to be left with a grandparent or foster care, these kids have it extremely difficult.

00:37:52
They do. One way to break that cycle of intergenerational incarceration is to go out there and talk to these kids. And I would implore anybody, you got a free hour, free hour or two. Find a local nonprofit that caters to at risk youth or children of incarcerated parents and volunteer at the moment and go and talk to these kids. Share with these.

00:38:13
I think everyone who has experienced incarceration should stop by an organization like Children of Promise NYC and talk to the children. Talk to the young girls whose mothers and fathers are not there. Talk to them, donate some time. Sometimes your time is so much more important than just your dollar. So if you can give them time, resources, whatever, you can provide them.

00:38:41
While I was incarcerated, we were able to provide them with school supplies, backpacks filled with notebooks. Sometimes we were able to get coats. Now, school is about to start in probably about another month or so. Yeah, that's right. These young people, they need things.

00:38:59
The Bronx is the poorest borough in New York City. Brownsville. Brownsville, Brooklyn, is the poorest community in New York City. Many of these kids come from the vast majority come from these marginalized, impoverished communities. So time, resources, book supplies, school supply, whatever a person can provide to help these kids, it makes a world of difference.

00:39:26
But more than anything, stopping by and sharing a word of encouragement, providing these young kids with hope is so important. It's so important. And there's the word again, hope. And that was something that I talked to my son about after our last conversation. And he's like, that's exactly what I want to do.

00:39:49
He's like, I want to start a nonprofit to help children of incarcerated parents. Because he was one, and he didn't have any support other than me. And there was a few people in the community that were nobody would ever talk about. It was like, how are you doing? And he'd be like, I'm good.

00:40:06
And his friends were. He had a good support group and everything. And I'm really proud and grateful and blessed that we were in a community that really helped him because we weren't in an impoverished type situation. So the stigma was a little different for him. Right?

00:40:28
There was still a stigma. Oftentimes children blame themselves. They oftentimes blame themselves. And it's so important. I think that's brilliant that he wants to start that.

00:40:40
I think that's any help he needs from me, tell him to let me know. We can connect him to the founder. Yeah, well, he wants to come and visit and go to one of the centers with you, and he would love to talk to the kids. I would love to do it. Yeah, he's finishing he's 22.

00:40:59
He'll be 23 in September. He's finishing up. He's got one more year of college, so we'll fit it in at some point in the next year or so. But yeah, this story would mean so. Much to these young.

00:41:12
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, Bruce, I could talk to you for hours, and I always joke that this is not Joe Rogan, so we're not going to sit here for two or 3 hours. But I just appreciate any time with you.

00:41:26
I can't wait to meet you in person because I know we're going to plan something and get together and just thank you for everything that you're continuing to do. And you're just such a blessing in my life, and you're a blessing to every single person that gets to listen to this when they hear your story. So thank you. Thank you so much. My life is full of because of people like you.

00:41:48
I'm inspired by you and what you do. And I just want to extend my oceans of gratitude to you and to your listeners and to your lovely son, your ex husband. Please give them my oceans of gratitude. And I appreciate will. I will.

00:42:05
Thank you. And you know what? Last time, if you need me for anything, don't hesitate to call. Absolutely. And what is your venmo?

00:42:15
Because I'm going to have the GoFundMe. But what is your venmo in case people don't want to go through? I believe it's. My name Bruce Bryan. Okay.

00:42:24
I'll confirm it before this goes out. Okay. Thank you so much, Bruce. Great talking with you again. Thank you so much.

00:42:33
Thank you, everyone.

00:42:45
I certainly hope that you enjoyed today's interview. Thank you so much for joining me. And as always, I hope that you and your family are healthy and safe and that your lives are filled with peace, joy, and happiness. Take care, everyone.