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

of 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 and need to bring closer,

someone you want to feel your appreciation or admiration or both.

This is thanks for being here comes from Leah McFarland. She writes, in the summer of 2022 my husband Brian and I went on a

vacation with our three daughters who were 16 almost 17, 24, and 26.

We had met in our college years. I was 18, he was 19. I grew up going to the beach in North

Carolina with my family every summer since I was born and Brian had joined us when we started dating.

And we went almost every summer with our own girls.

First with one, then with the second, then the third.

On July 6, four days after my 56th birthday,

Brian went in the water to do some body surfing, something he had done there every summer.

My brother Tom was swimming at the same time.

Tom came up and thought Brian had gone up to the house.

A few minutes later we heard sirens and my youngest daughter saw

lifeguards doing CPR on someone. Swimming under a partly cloudy summer sky in an ocean full

of swimmers. Brian, a strong swimmer himself, had, we later found

out from the autopsy, drowned. This is the eulogy I gave for him at his funeral on July 6, 2022 to try to speak to who he was and what we have lost.

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