Patty Wetterling
speaker
95 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jan 2024
last heard Jan 2024
Patty Wetterling’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
But when they started coming forward and sharing their story, it opened up the answers. That's how we got this guy to come forward. And so she was very helpful. We started writing before Jacob was found, and it was yet another tool to keep everybody looking. And then when he was found, I just quit writing. I was like, done. I lost about two years. It takes time. You have to give yourself time.
And everybody else went back to work, but that was my work. And I quit doing a lot of the things that I had done for a while. I still kept up with law enforcement trainings because they need to know how to interact with families because they absolutely are lifesavers to the families. and keeping them going. So I did that. But anyway, when he was found, then it became a different book.
So we almost had to start over. And Joy was really good. It's like, tell me about growing up. What was your mom like? So I started writing about things that were fun and happy memories. And And then she would just give me little note cards or assignments. And so we built our way back. And I'm proud of the book. I think it's a story of hope and resilience and persistence.
And everybody, I was just a stay-at-home mom. I think a lot of people need to know that they can do it, that you can do this. If you see something and it needs change, you can be that change agent. It doesn't take...
college degrees or special anything it takes commitment and heart follow your heart and that I think we need to do for children more and more so it really helped us and then when doing the book signings it was a sense of community that we were talking about earlier people have overwhelmingly shown up and the stories that they share are heartwarming it's like you helped me process this and
I had a long conversation with my now 11-year-old son. Many of the kids are now parents of 11-year-olds, and they have to deal with their own memory of missing their buddy and now parenting their own children. So it's an opportunity to have discussions, build safety into their world, keep open communication. So it's been really heartwarming. to get the book out. The U.S.
attorney, Andy Lugar, read the book three times and he had a whole list of pages of how can we do this better? And he invited Joy and I and Jared and the other victim and my husband to present to his staff because that's how you make things better is revisiting what was and what it's not faulting. I can't fault
law enforcement for what they did in 1987 or 89 with today's standards we didn't have those tools right right they did a phenomenal job and they never quit yeah that's the other message is like don't give up life's hard but but stay in there if it's if it's worth fighting for and to me the 11 thing was important because it got us gave us a chance to celebrate how jacob lived
not how he was taken, not how he died, but this, this is the boy that I knew. I can hear him. I can hear his voice. I can hear him, you know, saying something wasn't fair, you know, this kid got in trouble and he didn't even pass the note, you know, it's like whatever it was.
Yeah. One child.
Yeah. You're presenting opportunities in a path and a vision that's different than what they saw before. And I love that sense of community coming together. And I think our world is thirsty for that once again.
together on this planet and we can build great things when we work together. And we experienced it. My strength, I didn't do any of the things that you gave me credit for alone. I was nurtured and supported by agencies and individuals and community members. And we need that. We need to rebuild that. That's what this country was formed on and what I think it's the glue.
I think that's the vision I share with you.
To me, it's belief. Believe in the world as you want it to be. And then you can take the steps to getting there. But if you lose hope, you don't have that clarity of vision. And I think that we need to honor children because they are the future. And they can, given we've got so many tools for them now, the Search Institute has all kinds of tools. things that kids need to be healthy and strong.
And we can build those if we pay attention. It's not about the money. It's not about the title or the, you know, power. It is really about the nurturing of one another and caring for one another and believing, um, in that and people that you interact with.
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