Welcome to Nobody Told Me.

I'm Laura Owens.

And I'm Jan Black.

On this episode, it's an honor to talk with Adam J.T. Robarts, the author of the book 19, 19 insights learned from a 19-year-old with cancer.

It is a book of 19 lessons learned from Hayden Robarts, Adam's son, whose short life

profoundly changed all of those around him. It combines a personal memoir, universal lessons,

insights from religion and science, and perspectives from

Hayden and his parents. Adam, we thank you so much for joining us. It really is an honor to talk

with you. Wow. Well, the honor is mine. Thank you for the invitation. I'm looking forward to this.

This book is wonderful, and we would really recommend it to everyone, wherever they are in life.

Tell us why you decided to write the book, and what's your goal with it?

You know, I wrote the book partly because during our travel with Hayden, I described travel meaning

our journey with him through cancer. I was writing about once a week emails to family and

friends just to update them, many times just also asking for prayers because it was an arduous journey and fraught with difficulties.

And as a result of that, when Hayden passed away nine and a half months after this began,

some friends wrote to me and said, you must publish those emails. They were inspiring, they were informative, they were beautiful.

And I thought, hmm, maybe there's a book in there somehow.

So actually that's where it began.

It began from collating those emails and thinking we could make a book of it.

But then actually the emails got left behind.

It really just was a springboard.

And I chose to make the book not just a story of our journey with Hayden through his brain cancer,

...