Hi everyone, welcome to thanks for being here a short weekly pod to remind us of the many essential

and beautiful ways we affect one another. Every Sunday I'll read a submission from a listener,

Kelly Corrigan wonders, could be wedding vows or about mitzvah toast, a eulogy, or retirement speech.

We believe this is probably the loveliest way to tap into our better selves and remember our

highest values. We encourage you to share this podcast each week with one person you love.

Maybe someone you miss need to bring closer, someone you want to feel your appreciation or admiration

or both. This is thanks for being here.

This week's thanks for being here is from Heather Husker.

Hi Kelly and team, I listened to your podcast regularly and I'm regularly inspired by it,

tucking away snippets of conversation meaningful phrases that helped me better understand

myself and others. This past August I went home to Massachusetts, I live in Seattle,

to visit my mother who has Alzheimer's. She has been steadily declining acutely for the last five

years, less acutely for longer. In August she no longer knew me and I took comfort in a quote

from George Saunders that I heard when you interviewed him for Kelly Corrigan wonders.

At some point in the interview, he referred to himself as mostly love now, a paraphrase from a

Hayden Karuth poem. When I visited my mom who no longer knew me, I took some small comfort in

realizing that she was at that point, mostly love now. When I returned to Seattle that quote launched

an essay, when my mother passed away three weeks ago, that essay became a touchstone and a channel

for the deep, ambiguous, acute grief of losing someone to Alzheimer's. I read it at my mother's

funeral, it was one of the hardest and most fulfilling things I have done in my life.

I'd like to share it with you and I would love to have the opportunity to share it with a wider

audience through thanks for being here. Thank you for everything you do, Heather.

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