Welcome to Forum 360.

I'm Stephanie York, your host today.

Thank you for joining us for a global outlook with a local view.

In the studio today is author and two time Pulitzer finalist, I believe, Regina Brett.

Surviving cancer inspired Regina to write the famous 50 Life Lessons that became a viral sensation.

She has written several more books since then, and we are here today to talk with Regina about her latest book, Little Detours.

Thank you Regina, for joining us today.

Stephanie, what a pleasure.

Thanks for doing this and thanks for doing the show.

What a great thing for the community.

Of course, of course.

So before we jump into the new book, tell me a little bit about yourself, where you grew up and your career trajectory, you know.

Well, I'm glad you mentioned that because this is kind of graduation season and so many parents feel this pressure.

Their kid has to go to the right school.

So I come from Ravenna and we had 11 kids in our family.

So our college plan was to go to Kent State because it was our backyard.

We could just take a bus to Kent.

And when I went to Kent State, I didn't really know what I wanted to do.

I was afraid of my writing because like, sometimes you're afraid of the thing that you really love.

So I was going to go into botany and biology, but then I flunked chemistry.

I got a D in zoology.

So sometimes you hit those walls and I ended up then getting pregnant at 21, dropped out of school.

Looked like my whole life just kind of imploded.

Greatest gift in my life, my daughter and when she was six and went back to college and by the time I got my degree and changed my major six times majored in journalism.

I know it was crazy, but Kent State was amazing.

It was a great thing the professors were wonderful.

They helped me get my first job at the Lorain Journal, which is now the Morning Journal.

And I was only there six months and then the Beacon Journal called and wanted me to come for an interview.

I went there, I blew the interview.

I share this because so many parents think you have to do it right, or even all of us, right.

So the good year was in the middle of the Goodyear takeover attempt.

James Goldsmith and they asked me in this meeting of like, five editors with the yellow power ties like, “Regina, how would you write a profile of Martin Marietta?” I'd never heard of Martin Marietta, I thought it was a guy.

So I talked about Mr. Marietta and how I'd write a profile, and they're like cringing.

They go, “Well, it's a defense corporation.” I'm like, oh my God I blew it.

And so what I did, I said a little prayer.

I brought God with me, I'm kind of a spiritual person.

So I just said God, if you want me to have this job great, if not I totally get it.

So I said to them, I don't know business obviously but I can write a report.

And they said, “Well thank you for your time.” I went to the elevator and I thought I just blew my future.

And they called me back and offered me the job.

So I worked at the Beacon Journal, and then later got a column in 1994 became a columnist.

And I loved Akron the people were great.

The readers just so joyful.

And then I got married in 96 and I felt like my life was part in Cleveland, part in Akron.

So at one point, I left the Plain to I'm sorry, I left the Beacon Journal for The Plain Dealer in 2000, became a columnist there.

Right.

And then the 50 Life Lessons was so funny I wrote the column, it became the 45 Life Lessons when I had 45 years of life and I'd gotten through cancer, I thought wow, what did life teach me?

That kind of flowed out of me?

And I brought it to work and my editor I'll never forget he said to me, “You know, you'd be a great writer if you didn't write stuff like this.” Because it was way too touchy feely inspiration.

I said, “Just read it anyway.” It took off like this global sensation.

- People like touchy feely.

People do.

Thank you, wish you were in the newsroom.

And then when I turned 50, added five more and then somebody added Regina Brett who's 90.

And then it became even bigger because I thought I was wise and old.

Now, someday I hope to get to be 90.

- Best looking 90 year old I’ve ever seen.

There you go.

I keep telling myself that and people keep putting different pictures of 90 year olds on my column.

- That’s great.

So then I turned that into my first book, God Never Blinks, and that was like a grand slam.

And a lot of this is just the right moment, the right timing.

I kind of think there's these spiritual trajectories that kind of like the universe gives you that push.

So then I became an author and I've loved it and I never really planned to do all of this.

I mean, I kind of hate to say ruin my life early by getting pregnant at 21, but it was a great gift.

My daughter's in her 40s, I have three wonderful grandkids so you know, I always share that because people think you have to do it right and you have to kind of know the next step.

And sometimes just the little tiny step is revealed and then if you take that, then the next ones clear and then the next.

- Absolutely.

You know?

- I do.

So we're going to unpack a lot of this but, you're now you're still a columnist correct?

I am so, I left The Plain Dealer as a columnist and I think 2017 and the Cleveland Jewish News gave me a column and I love it.

Kevin Edelstein is so sweet he's a CEO and publisher.

He took me to lunch and said, “We'd love you to have a column.” I said, “Well you know I'm not Jewish.” Gina Maria, it's kind of a Catholic giveaway.

He goes, “I just love the inspiration.” He goes, “I think it's bashert.” I’m like, “Woah.” I think that's like a pickup line by Jewish men, like meant to be.

- It was meant to be.

It was meant to be.

My husband said when we got married, meant to be.

And Kevin's been great, the Jewish News has been great, and I love using just kind of the Jewish values I've been exposed to.

And the whole time I was married you know, like the friends I met it's a community that it's a tribe I get to be part of and I have loved that.

So I write for the Jewish News and then I joined the Substack community.

- Yes.

So it's like a little detours with Regina, but on Substack and like instantly I've got a few thousand readers and I love it because I have no editor.

- Isn’t that great?

I’m Regina unplugged.

- That's great.

So it's been fun.

- So we're going to go all the way back to probably the first half of your first sentence.

- Oh geez okay.

- You're one of 11 children.

- Yes.

- Let's go back to life- - I am an Irish Catholic.

- Yeah.

Let's go back to one of 11 children, where do you fall in that?

And how was life growing up?

- You know, there was a lot of wonderful parts of having been one of this baseball team, we call it football team.

I'm number five and call myself five of 11, like the Star Trek character of whatever.

So my parents they say they plan on having ten kids.

I'm not sure my mom agreed to that promise when they got married, but my dad was from a big family of ten.

My grandparents are from Ireland and you had a family to survive.

- Sure.

Kind of had each other.

So we had the 11 kids, we grew up in a little Sycamore Street, Ravenna, and we didn't have a lot.

But my dad always said, “You don't need it.” He never said, we don't have money or we're poor, like in the world standard we probably were.

- Yeah.

We lived at the end of town where the railroad tracks are behind our house, the furniture factory five houses down, the ball bearing plant five houses up.

- Oh wow.

You know it was home.

But now I go back there and I'm like, wow we really were the poor in town.

And the good thing is, they send us to Catholic school so we all wear uniforms.

We didn't know we didn't have the nice things.

- Sure.

And I got to say the library in Ravenna, Ohio, Reed Memorial, R-E-E-D.

They gave us a passport to the world.

I love libraries because, you know, we didn't have money for books but, you know the library, we'd bring home stacks and you could explore the whole world through the library.

So that was our big thing.

We had a lot of fun a lot of you know, just there's stories you can't tell ever.

But silliness of having you know five sisters, five brothers and I got to tell you I love them now.

My parents are gone, we have each other and I mean stories like you know, my brothers were on the soapbox derby, but we would when they were done, we'd have the Derby car in the driveway.

We would put lighter fluid in the driveway light it like, as if they're flying down the road.

Things that could probably get you hurt.

- Sure.

But when you got all those siblings- - It’s what you do out in the country.

Put a firecracker at a marshmallow While somebody is lighting and they don't know what little you know, the things you do when there's 11 of you.

Thank God we all have our fingers and we're still here.

But a lot of joy, a lot of joy.

- Well that's good.

So you talked about being an unwed mother at 22?

- 21.

-21.

So tell us about that.

Coming from an Irish Catholic family.

- No they didn't expect that, well I was on parish council at Immaculate Conception Church at the time.

- Oh, awkward.

Yeah, a little awkward, like, okay, don't wear the sweatshirt that says Immaculate Conception might confuse people as a joke.

My parents were wonderful, but at the time it was such a crisis.

And this was in 1977 when I got pregnant and being an unwed mother was not something that was common in the world.

Now a very actress has children by different people and nobody cares and they're not married.

But back then I felt the shame of like, I didn't wait to get married.

You know what though?

My parents never put that shame on me.

But when I told them, I wasn't sure how to break the news.

So I called my first column I wrote him a letter and stuck it on the refrigerator like a magnet that said, “I'm pregnant.” I hope you let me stay.

It was the best I could do at the time.

I was like 21, but really like 16- - You had to get it out of the way.

I had to get it out of the way.

They were wonderful.

I lived at home until I got on my feet and they were the best grandparents.

I mean my daughter made them a grandparent, how can you not love being a grandparent?

And I got to tell you, I've shared that story and thank goodness I did because so many other people are on that journey.

I hear it in book signings, a parent whose child just got pregnant, or they're going through it.

And then a woman came up to me years later and said, “A friend just got pregnant, 20s, can you help her?” And so I did, I became friends with her, helped her, invite her for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving morning she calls us says, “Can I bring my brother?” And I said, sure.

Thanksgiving day she walks in with James, my daughter married him three years later.

- Oh my gosh.

So I tell people the guy might show up on your doorstep you never know.

- Beshared.

It was meant to be.

And she and James married.

I have three grandkids from them and just beautiful how life like gives you something that you get a detour you didn't want to be on.

- This is why we're going through this.

But while you're on the detour, it becomes this great gift and it becomes the path you're meant to be on, but one you wouldn't have taken.

I'd never planned of it that way.

- Wouldn’t of chosen it that way.

I mean gosh, I got a daughter better than I could imagine.

So a lot of these choices you know, it's just what God or I call it God, the universe, whatever life gives you.

But instead of resisting it to create an openness to say, well here it is, let's go with it and see where it takes me.

- I love it.

So the books you've written include God is Always Hiring, - Yes.

- Be the Miracle, God Never Blinks, and the Little Detours and Spiritual Adventures.

So it's not that there's a religious component, but there's there's like a faith that's woven through all of these.

Does that come from your Irish Catholic upbringing?

I'm sure it does because we were like, I tell people super size Catholic like and I'm not joking, the crucifix over our TV set was at least this big.

We had a statue of Mary that was at least that big in the house.

It looked like a church exploded in the Brett house.

Dining room we had the Last Supper, picture of the Pope, picture of John F Kennedy, - Oh my god.

rosaries under the pillow, you know.

So kind of God was everywhere and I love the richness of the Catholic faith for the saints and the mystics.

It's sad all the abuse that has happened to so many people that has made it difficult to be Catholic and remain Catholic.

but it gave me a core sense of like you're here to serve others there's like a mission in life.

Like as kids, we hardly had any books in the house because we didn't have really the money for them, but we had the lives of the saints.

So you'd read about these saints that were martyred and like, that's your role model for who to be in life.

You're like, the bar's pretty high but it's all about how can I be of service to others?

How can they use the talents I've been given in a way that makes the world better?

And that's why I feel like God is Always Hiring was about finding your mission in life and I think it's great for new graduates, people facing graduation, and being lost.

Because I would never have planned that path for me.

- Right.

But you just keep saying yes to the turning points in those moments and then like, I mean I blew it at that interview at the Beacon Journal but like, it was great.

I found out later they hired a copy editor who spelled her name wrong on a resume.

- Oh wow.

Oh wow.

- They saw past the tiny mistake they knew that one- - Everybody doesn't define you.

- Yeah.

- Everybody's human and we all make mistakes.

And I love that about the Beacon community.

So I tell people, “Pay attention to what's happening in your life.” The stuff you didn't plan could be where life is actually calling you.

And I found that so true when I wrote this book, I went back and I call them lottery tickets now my first chapter is about the lottery tickets in life that you get, but you really don't think you want.

You might have a child with autism, or you might have been diagnosed with bipolar.

And maybe you're supposed to embrace that and share that with the people in your life and somehow use it to help the next person along the way.

You know, I love Sherry Bevan Walsh’s son who has autism, and she is so open about it she shares about her son.

And like what a beautiful way to invite others to that table and say, “This is a unique gift.” It might not look like it to the rest of the world, but we know better.

- Right.

I wrote about Rob Snow in this book whose son was born with Down's Syndrome.

Didn't know it, hadn't planned it.

All of a sudden they have a child with Down's Syndrome and they're pediatrician turned around and showed him her daughter on her computer who had Down's Syndrome.

They had no idea when they picked that pediatrician.

I’m getting goosebumps.

- I just reread that chapter last night.

- And it was beautiful.

- It was so cool.

And Rob is a comedian, so he combined comedian and Down Syndrome and he teaches people with Down's Syndrome how to be funny and how to do a comedy show.

And it helps him be out in the community and talk one on one and like he looked at that is not as a crisis.

Just like my pregnancy, you should call it crisis pregnancy, and it was.

It is a crisis that you turn into this amazing opportunity for the world to see that those people differently.

And there's so much right now the whole thing about autism, is it a gift is it a curse?

It's the gift of that person.

It's the uniqueness of that child or that adult.

And so I think that's what this book is about you know, when I got cancer nobody wants cancer.

But you turn it into something that becomes a way to make it easier for the next person.

- Well, let's talk about that.

You got married and then a year later, you were diagnosed with cancer.

- Yeah.

- Tell me about that journey.

Will you make those vows for better for worse sickness and health of like okay, here we are.

-Some point but the next year - - down the road 20 years.

So I got breast cancer at 41 and my dad's three sisters died of breast cancer.

So it runs in my family and my aunt Francy, aunt Veronica, my aunt who is a nun, Sister Maureen.

But at the time we didn't know we had this gene we just thought, wow there's a lot of cancer in this family.

When I got it, I was scared of dying because in my family if you got cancer you die.

So, I had to really hit it head on and I had a great oncologist, Jim Savior's, wonderful man and a great surgeon, Leonard Rozanski.

Those guys saved my life and a nurse, Pam Boone who is no longer with us but my team.

You got to have a good team and once you have your team like it's doable.

When you first hear the word cancer, It's like the game of life you used to play with a little car.

The plan, it flies in the air, all the pieces gone.

And you know what?

They land differently and you realize this isn't what I need anymore, this is not essential.

How I look in the world, when you're going to be bald, it really doesn't matter.

- Right.

- You're fighting for your life.

And so you know, I was going to lose my hair to chemo.

My chemo, I love this It was Adriamycin, Cyotoxin, and 5-FU I said every cancer drug should FU behind it.

- It doesn't?

I mean, it does.

-And you know what?

You do everything to save your life because you're worth it.

You know, it's not about saving your hair like how you look in the world.

So I went bald.

I bought this wig that, we thought this salon was going to style to look like me.

I had really long, brown, wavy hair.

The Beacon Journal I got cancer when I was at the beacon and, the salon ruined it.

They overpermed it.

By the time I got it back, my hair was starting to fall out.

So I did the old- We call it tumor humor.

You got to laugh.

You're talking to someone.

You say you're like, you're making me tear my hair out and you take out like a clump - oh my gosh.

- You're eating your Cheerios and all of a sudden there's bangs in the Cheerios.

I'm like, okay, that's.

So I got the wig back and it looked like roadkill on 480.

Like like I mean it was bad and I didn't have it in me to fight.

And the salon owner, I'm like, you know what?

We're just going to have to go with bald.

So my husband at the time, Bruce, who has since left me and we'll talk about that, he was wonderful at the time.

My hair was falling out, we shaved my head.

I looked in the mirror and I have, you know, five brothers, five sisters.

I'm like, are there going to be scars on my head?

For getting whacked, I don't know, the toys.

And I looked in that mirror and I saw the same eyes, the same smile.

I saw his love in his eyes.

I'm like, you know, we're going to do this.

And we did.

And I walked around bald.

And then I use my experience later to create a wig salon for the Gathering Place.

- We're going to talk about that in one second.

I want to remind our viewers and those who may have joined late, that we are here with author Regina Brett.

We are discussing her newest book, Little Detours and the detours in her life that inspired her writings.

So let's continue.

Let's hear about that.

- Well, thank you.

And I'm sorry if I talk fast.

- No, I love it.

- Part of it is when you have ten siblings, you got to talk fast to get your words in there.

- You got to eat fast too.

- You gotta eat fast, talk fast, move fast.

Borrow clothes fast.

- Yes.

So after I had gone through the cancer journey and I went through, you know, six weeks of radiation, four rounds of chemo, two surgeries, and then later had my breast removed because we had this gene in my family.

BRCA1.

And it's all hard, you know, we can do hard, but it's still hard.

You got to get your team.

Jim Carney, great guy at the Beacon Journal.

His sister Patty had cancer and Jim helped me learn from her experience.

She created committees, a beauty committee, a humor committee, - That’s amazing.

And she was CEO of her cancer team.

And I got to thank Jim for introducing me to his sister It was such a gift.

So I had those people that showed up and wash my hair when I couldn't because I couldn't look my arm because of surgery.

And you're not alone in this, you know.

So after I got through the cancer and Eileen Saffron started The Gathering Place as a community, everything free.

You have Stewart’s Place.

- We have Stewart’s Caring Place.

Yeah.

- And what a great asset in the community.

They weren't around when I had cancer.

What a gift.

And I love that I can refer people to there.

- Right.

- So, Eileen, told me about a place in Indiana that needed a speaker about cancer.

So I went to the and I gave this talk.

I was in, Cancer Services of Northeast Indiana.

They had a free wig salon.

I took a million pictures because I'm like, wow, free wigs.

This is what I needed!

- Because they're expensive.

- They're expensive.

So I came back and I gave Eileen a couple checks for my speaking engagements because I said, let's start.

When she goes, well, we're gonna need some money.

I'm like, how's this to start?

She's like, okay.

And now we have one at the Gathering Place, East Side, West side, Metro Hospital there’s a Regina Brett Wig Salon.

And then when I had 25 years cancer free two years ago, I said, I want to do something big.

Can we raise $25,000 in 25 days?

Like, I don't know, it just felt like let’s dare mighty things - And could you?

- And yeah.

So the new CEO, Michele Seyranian, she said, I would love to have a way to take the gathering place into the community, because a lot of the inner city of Cleveland to come to Beachwood is out of the comfort zone.

Beachwood is very white.

I'm just going to be blunt.

And you have a lot of communities in downtown Cleveland Central neighborhood, you know, kinsmen neighborhood.

- They need wigs, too - They need wigs.

And a lot of African-American women, especially.

Hair is such a cultural symbol of who you are.

And to lose your hair, it's even more devastating.

And there are some women who won't do chemo because they don't wanna lose her hair.

My God, God, this is a lifeline.

So I said, get goosebumps again.

Let's raise money for the traveling wigs a lot.

I call it the sisterhood of the traveling wigs.

- I love it.

- So I said, let's start with 25,000.

We raise it in 12 days.

- Oh my gosh, fantastic.

- Yeah, Danielle Wiggins at WKYC in Cleveland I used to work with her at WKSU.

We had the Regina Brett Show on the NPR.

- I’m going to hire you to be my development director?

- I know, I know and so I met Danielle and she had just been diagnosed.

She got on the bandwagon, the two of us together.

I love Danielle, she's such a powerhouse.

She talks faster than me.

And the two of us together worked.

We raised the money and then we needed more.

So we kept having meetings and the community added another 0 - Oh my gosh.

- Probably about 250,000 completely.

- Oh my gosh.

- The community stepped in.

The van just arrived and it's going to be amazing.

And not only wigs but to take cancer prevention cancer - How to find that lump in your breast to do your breast exams.

- Screenings - Screenings.

That saved my life And so I saw the van the other day and I'm like, oh my God, I cried.

They have the wigs.

And I had just found out that week there was a young girl at Beaumont High School who needed a wig for prom.

- Oh, - What a cry.

So the gathering place got- special Ordered her the blonde long wig she wanted so that she can go dance and not think about cancer for a few hours.

So I'm like, that's what this is about.

And it all happened because this guy screwed up my wig.

- That's right.

I did something about it.

So if somebody treats you poorly in life, the best way to get even is make it so it doesn't happen to somebody else.

you know what I mean?

- So, you've referred to yourself as flat, fearless, fearless, and fabulous - You know, it girl.

- Do you still feel that way?

- I do, I do You know, when I have my breast removed, it's so hard because, oh my God, this culture, like you watch the Oscars and everybody's like bras, bras, bras.

And you think, you know, you go to the grocery store and every Cosmopolitan, everybody's got to have giant bras and you're like, wow, who am I as a woman, you know, to have my ovaries removed, too, because I don't want to get ovarian cancer.

So you have this sense of like, I have no ovaries, I have no breasts.

Like, wow, what kind of woman am I?

I'm a bad- - - woman.

- Yes, you are - I am one that wants to live.

And so I changed for a while.

I wore prosthetic breasts because I really didn't know like my clothes.

I would, you know, i wore like a size ten because I, you know, I had breast needed clothes big enough.

And then I was like a size four without breasts and like I had here a who am I?

And so I, for a while.

I wore prosthetics, and a woman at The Gathering Place helped me.

She did the same thing and she said, they're your bosom buddies.

Be friends with them.

So I named them Thelma and Louise.

- Oh my gosh.

And I'm like, and then once my daughter had this surgery because I gave her the gene, unfortunately, and she said, you know, I don't want them to define me.

I'm not going to- I'm just going to go flat.

And she's very petite.

I'm like, you know what?

If she's going to do that, I want to be a role model for my two granddaughters, that that's okay to walk around this world.

- Really good.

And there's an online community at the time, flat and fabulous.

And I'm like, you know what?

There's so many people that like.

And there are a lot of people now that do doing preventive mastectomies.

And I got to tell you, I no longer have the fear of getting cancer like I did.

You know, if if cancer is going to scare you, let it scare you into action so you can kind of flip it off and say, I'm still here.

Cancer.

- So one thing you say and you live by is create a life you love out of the life you have.

- Yes.

So how do you live by that motto?

And can you give me an example?

- Yeah.

The life you have.

It's like life's going to zig and zag and you just got to go with it.

Because, you know, I come from the community of recovery people that we live by the Serenity Prayer, accept the things you can't change, courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

So, and I'm sure, because I've shared this publicly.

I met Bruce, my husband, 32 years ago.

We were married 28 years, and in January this year, he just said, I'm out.

Total shock to me.

And I don't know all the ins and outs of his decision, but all of a sudden, I'm going to be 69 at the end of May and I'm like, going to be single.

Like what?

I mean, I'm still stunned by it.

I feel like I've been on a roller coaster ride I didn't want to be on.

And I don't love roller coasters.

- Another detour.

- Yeah, another detour.

In fact, one of the chapters is we're in it for the long haul.

I'm like, hey, can you read this verse?

You know, I mean, I'll joke about it, but - You have to do an addendum - Yeah, a little addendum, yes, asterisk.

And it was just leveling.

I mean, just at first I was like, well, I was trying to make peace with it and kind of like, well, like maybe that's okay.

And it was kind of you get so blindsided.

You're in your own denial of how this is going to change things.

And he left January 25th.

And since then there have been days where I'm like, just weeping at the abandonment.

And it brings back childhood issues, too, because, you know, we had 11 kids.

My dad ruled with a belt and he did his best to love us, but there was a lot of sense of abandonment and being alone.

Even when you were in a crowd.

My mom was overwhelmed with 11 kids.

She did her best, but there are times where you just felt alone and it brought back all the pain of any time you've ever been abandoned in life will come back, but I think those things come up to be healed, you know?

And so right away, I got a counselor.

Really wonderful.

You know, my friends in recovery say you have a higher power, which I call God.

She was.

But God have hired powers, had to have an attorney, a financial planner, a counselor.

And you know what?

It cost some money.

But I'm worth it.

Instead of blaming him like it's costing me all this money, it's like I'm worth it.

I'm a precious person.

And, again, it's not a detour I would have picked, but I'm on it.

- And you're creating the life you love out of the life you have.

- So you're going to love this.

He was packing up his things to move out.

I thought, you know what, Regina?

You got to own this.

You can't be a victim.

You got to own this.

- Yeah.

So as soon as he moves some things out of his dresser, I'm like, okay, my summer clothes that are in those little crates and boxes I'm going to- I get a new dresser as soon as he put his stuff out of the closet, I'm like, - Oh, now you have two closets.

- all my favorite clothes are going in that closet.

I mean, I just thought, I gotta own this.

I've always loved Ireland.

I've been in Ireland seven times, so I turned the bedroom into, I call it like, Irish forest bathing green and gold.

And I have this dark furniture in there.

I'm like, I bought all new, a mattress -Oh my gosh, love it.

- bedding, rug because I'm like, - Give it a new feel.

- New feel.

And my friend Katie.

Katie the car lady, I love her She's in the book too about choosing joy.

She said what you're gonna love best as you can starfish.

You got the whole bed now.

- That's true.

- So I love it, like - - And you and Mac, your dog?

- Yeah.

My dog.

So to me, you create a life you love out of it.

It is sad.

And every night, it feels weird to not have somebody to share your life with and be your witness and like, it’s okay that he left.

And there's a great book, Let Them by Mel Robbins.

And she's like, if they want to leave, let them hold the door open.

And somebody said, and hold it, keep holding it so the next person could come in to love you better.

- I love it, and I think people should get this book and read it, because you're going to get all these tidbits.

- I hope so.

- and more.

Thank you, Regina, for the great discussion today.

Your personal stories obviously influenced your many books, and your resilience in the face of life's detours is admirable and inspiring.

We are happy to know you've created and are constantly creating a life you love out of the life you have, and I know others will do the same.

I certainly love getting to know you more today, and I know our viewers did too.

I'm Stephanie York, thank you for joining us today on Forum 360 for a global outlook with a local view.

Forum 360 is brought to you by John S and James L Knight Foundation, the Akron Community Foundation, Hudson Community Television, the Rubber City Radio Group, Sha, Jewish Community Center of Akron, Blue Green, Electric Impulse Communications, and Forum 360 supporters.