Elizabeth Phillips

She suffered a massive stroke and, uh, half of her face is paralyzed.

She's in a wheelchair.

Um, and for her 40th birthday, I gave her $40,000 personally to put a child sexual abuse prevention plan in place because some of those kids are nonverbal.

You would, I mean, how are you gonna know?

And she was so grateful, and they'd already done something.

Her husband's an attorney.

Like, they'd already done a lot to keep kids safe at that camp, knowing they're extra vulnerable, that population.

But the parents go with the kids to that camp, which is neat, too, because parents who are in a position of raising a child with special needs, they have camaraderie, right, and encouragement in that community.

Um, and so, really grateful for Catherine Wolfe and what she, I think, what they've done at Hope Heals Camp, bringing in some consultants, some real subject matter experts to make sure that these kids are safe there.

That's so important.

Um, she's also the friend, I met her a month after Trey died.

And, um...

She was in her wheelchair, I'd never heard of her, met her before, and was with a mutual friend, something in South Carolina, and she grabbed my hand and she was like, what are you going through?

And I was like, I just lost my brother to suicide a month ago.

And she, in her eye that works, she like, one tear came down her eye.

And she was like, I just want you to know that there are treasures in the darkness.

Isaiah tells us that there are treasures in the darkness.

I didn't really know what she meant by that in that moment.

But as I've been through this grief journey and met so many other grieving people, I understand it now.

Like, I would not be connected to a lot of these people I consider now some of my closest friends if we hadn't both endured the darkness.