This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed human.

And we continue with our American stories.

And today we're going to hear from Shiloh Carosa, whom I got to know while teaching at Hillsdale College.

A couple of years ago, I was there doing a two-week seminar and storytelling.

I've been doing it ever since.

And I submitted that every student there had a story and I was seeking them out, personal,

something about their town, their family, whatever.

And Shiloh was a bit reluctant to talk and she looked a little out of it.

I was told she was such a good student and I was a little worried and so after the class,

I asked her if she wouldn't mind staying.

I asked her if everything was okay and if she wanted to opt out, that was fine too.

And she told me that she had just learned that her father was dying.

We talked for a bit, and then I said, well, maybe you'd want to write about that.

Well, since then, her dad passed, and here it is.

We all know growing up that for most of us, there will come a day when we have to say goodbye to our parents.

But nothing can prepare you for the day your father is rushed to the hospital because it looks like he's having a stroke.

And nothing can prepare you for the phone call from your mother telling you it's not a stroke, it's a brain tumor.

Nothing could have prepared me for the two weeks I spent alone in the house while my dad

underwent the first of several surgeries. Or for the next two years that we saw him gradually

lose his speech and grow quiet as the cancer took over his brain.

There are some memories from those last two years I would rather forget.

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