Dementia and Divine Intervention: A Journey of Faith
Dementia—it’s a word that sends shivers down our spines, and today we’re diving into the chaos of it all with our guest, Walter (Buddy) Pierce, who’s not just a psychologist and a pastor, but also someone living with Lewy Body Dementia.
Walter’s journey is a wild ride, from the bliss of a loving childhood in small-town USA to the gut-wrenching reality of losing his mother to dementia and then facing his own diagnosis.
And let’s be real, the way life throws curveballs at us is just ridiculous; he’s had to navigate the rocky roads of relationships, loss, and finding purpose amid the madness.
We’ll talk about how he clung to faith when everything seemed to spiral out of control, including a near-death experience on a mountain that felt more like a divine intervention than luck. So, if you're ready to explore this rollercoaster of emotions, spirituality, and the absurdities of life, stick around—it's gonna be a ride!
Takeaways:
- Dementia can strike anyone, and its impact on families is profound and often heartbreaking.
- Walter Pierce, a retired priest and motivational speaker, faces his own Lewy Body Dementia journey.
- Finding purpose after loss is crucial; Walter's story shows how faith can guide us.
- The bond with God can strengthen through adversity, as Walter's experiences highlight.
- Day-to-day life with dementia includes challenges like exhaustion and memory lapses; it's a rollercoaster ride.
- Walter's commitment to serving others remains strong, even as he navigates his own health struggles.
You can connect with Walter on FB: https://www.facebook.com/budsps/
Transcript
Welcome back to another episode of A Warrior Spirit, the show where the inner warrior shines in the light, presented by Praxis 33, the company that aligns your goals, thoughts and actions to create your best life.
Speaker A:I'm your host, Darrell Snow.
Speaker A:And dementia has touched all of our lives in some way or another.
Speaker A:It's a disease of the brain whose cause is not fully understood.
Speaker A:And the effect it has had on the people who develop it in their own life is also not very understood.
Speaker A:But today we're going to be talking with Walter Buddy Pierce.
Speaker A:Walter is a psychologist, a motivational speaker, a clinical hypnotherapist, a Methodist pastor, and a now retired Anglican priest.
Speaker A:But Buddy also lives with Lewy Body Dementia.
Speaker A:And Walter, thank you for joining us.
Speaker B:You're welcome.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:Sorry for the jumbled up intro.
Speaker A:Walter, you have an extensive background.
Speaker A:Priest, psychologist, motivational speaker.
Speaker A:Where did you get your start?
Speaker A:Where did you grow up?
Speaker B:You grew up in a small town in Virginia on the West Virginia border called Bluefield.
Speaker A:Small town, usa.
Speaker A:What was your childhood like?
Speaker A:Did you have a pretty nice family dynamic or was it a little tumultuous?
Speaker B:It was beautiful.
Speaker B:My dad was a dentist, my mother an artist.
Speaker B:They were both great Christians, grandson of a Methodist circuit rider.
Speaker B:We were active in church and we had a really loving family.
Speaker A:So you kind of the epitome of the American dream.
Speaker A:You know, small town, usa, Growing up in a beautiful family was.
Speaker A:Now, sometimes when people grow up in a spiritual or religious household, sometimes it, it can be a.
Speaker A:Something that they're rebellious against or, or sometimes it's something that they fully embraced all the way.
Speaker A:Did you embrace it your entire life or was there periods where you.
Speaker A:You kind of were challenging your own thoughts on it?
Speaker B:No, I always loved being home.
Speaker B:It was always full of love and it was fun.
Speaker B:We just, we just had a great family.
Speaker A:So when did you start your own pastoral journey?
Speaker B:I was always curious about my grandfather's ministry.
Speaker B:He preached 65 years without stop and started as a horseback circuit rider.
Speaker B:He, he.
Speaker B:I was always curious about what his life was like.
Speaker B:He died when I was like 7 years old and wondered how it would be to follow in his footsteps, but had a really weird calling to the ministry.
Speaker B:It started after I had moved from Dallas, Texas to Salem, Virginia to care for my mother.
Speaker B:I had come home a couple months earlier and walked in the door and she said, son, where have you been?
Speaker B:I haven't seen you in 20 years.
Speaker B:And I thought she was kidding me, but she was serious.
Speaker B:And I discovered she had Dementia.
Speaker B:So I went back to Texas and told my wife that since I had already retired, that I wanted to go home and take care of my mom.
Speaker B:And why doesn't we, why don't we both move?
Speaker B:Well, she didn't want to and she didn't have a good relationship with my mother for some reason.
Speaker B:And she said, you go ahead, join me.
Speaker B:You know, when, when she dies.
Speaker B:Well, she did die and ended up in her divorce.
Speaker B:And I find myself.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:And I didn't see any purpose at all.
Speaker B:So I started talking to God out loud and saying, I'm sorry, I can't go on like this.
Speaker B:And I planned to kill myself that day.
Speaker B:I was going to drive my car under a highway bridge, make it look like an accident.
Speaker B:And as I'm sitting in my front room of the house looking out the window, crying, I look across the street and I see my neighbor's door fly open.
Speaker B:And my 80 year old neighbor runs practically across the street and starts banging on my front door shouting, buddy, I know you're in there, open the door now.
Speaker B:And I didn't want to because I was crying and I was, I didn't want to see anybody, kept beating until I opened the door.
Speaker B:And the first thing he said was, God sent me over here to save you.
Speaker B:And that startled me pretty hard.
Speaker A:How old are you at this point, Walter?
Speaker B: This was in: Speaker B:I was 55 years old.
Speaker A:So how long were you with your mother before she passed?
Speaker B:Most of two years, 10 years.
Speaker A:And how long in that 10 year period?
Speaker A:Two years.
Speaker A:Sorry.
Speaker A:In that two year period, how soon did your wife decide she'd had enough of it as well?
Speaker B:Well, she never joined me and we stayed married after my mother died for about another 10 years.
Speaker A:So you had a.
Speaker A:You had two years with your mom, which was hard because she was losing her identity through dementia.
Speaker A:Didn't probably recognize you towards the end because of it.
Speaker A:Through that period, you're also losing your wife and now you find no hope.
Speaker A:So when your neighbor, did you have a lot of interaction with your neighbor on most occasions?
Speaker B:No, we just knew who they were because they had been friends of my mother and my grandparents who had lived in this house before my mother.
Speaker A:Okay, so you didn't have this close connection with your neighbors.
Speaker A:And then all of a sudden this person, person's knocking on your door and telling you, you know, God sent me over to help you.
Speaker A:What was your initial response other than the tears?
Speaker B:It frightened me knowing that, Knowing that God was watching over me.
Speaker B:And I'm sorry if I'd ever doubted that.
Speaker B:I no longer did.
Speaker A:You take all the time you need right there.
Speaker A:It's an emotional subject.
Speaker A:In that moment of disbelief and frightened realization, what did your neighbor say to you other than God sent me?
Speaker B:He said that he was going to make me go to church with him on Sunday.
Speaker B:He wanted to introduce me to everybody because everybody had known my grandfather and that he went to an early service that was contemporary and he thought I would like it.
Speaker B:So he gathered me up on a Sunday morning.
Speaker B:I wasn't going to go.
Speaker B:And he came down and knocked on my door, made me get dressed, took me to the church, walked in early, about an hour before the service started.
Speaker B:And I heard this band warming up to Led Zeppelin songs.
Speaker B:And I said, well, this is my church.
Speaker B:So I became friends with a lot of people there very quickly, especially the associate pastor, who was my age.
Speaker B:And he and I started hiking together.
Speaker A:I'm kind of chuckling because when I was a young teenager, a Christian rock band called Petra came to our town and they played rock music.
Speaker A:They're a wonderful Christian band.
Speaker A:But the lead singer came out and he said, the devil never made anything and we're not giving him rock and roll either.
Speaker A:And then they went into their concert and these two older ladies were sitting to the right of me.
Speaker A:And after the first six bars of their intro, they looked at each other and go, they're too damn loud.
Speaker A:And got up and left.
Speaker A:And I followed Petra ever since I was a young boy.
Speaker A:But I've also followed, you know, the major rock musicians as well.
Speaker A:Acdc, Led Zeppelin, you know, name all the big ones.
Speaker A:But it was my amusement that, you know, God never, the devil never made anything.
Speaker A:So we're not giving them rock and roll either.
Speaker A:And when you're, when you're talking about a church warming up to some Led Zeppelin, I, I, I chuckle inside and remember back that fondly.
Speaker B:Well, the following year, my associate pastor friend invited me to go on what is called the Walk to Emmaus.
Speaker B:And that's a Methodist movement.
Speaker B:But it's also, it's got other names and other, other denominations.
Speaker B:I think it started in the Catholic Church.
Speaker B:And that touched me pretty deeply that weekend.
Speaker B:And after that, my friend, his name's Bobby Picker, he and I would hike every Monday.
Speaker B:And we got to be.
Speaker B:We thought we were Studs.
Speaker B:Hiking Studs.
Speaker B:We hiked on the Appalachian Trail.
Speaker B:We got up to where we were hiking 20 to 25 miles in a day.
Speaker B:And it's pretty, it's pretty hardcore hiking.
Speaker B:So we found this hike up near Charlottesville, Virginia called Three Ridges.
Speaker B:And it was supposed to be the toughest day hike on the Appalachian Trail.
Speaker B:So we got there early on Monday.
Speaker B:We started hiking and we realized we were hiking the wrong mountain.
Speaker B:And funny, we hiked a mountain called the Priest.
Speaker B:And we hiked to the top of the Priest and we both took pictures of ourselves sitting in this big rock looking chair, the Priest chair.
Speaker B:And then we walked back down and we were disappointed we had not hiked where we were supposed to have liked.
Speaker B:Well, I decided that Friday that I would go do it by myself.
Speaker B:So I showed up early on Friday morning.
Speaker B:I remember meeting a group of Boy Scouts.
Speaker B:They were going to do the hike in two days.
Speaker B:I was going to do it in one.
Speaker B:And I took off at about 7am by myself.
Speaker B:And about an hour in I passed two people that warned me about all the rain that had happened and that the little streams that the map shows you jump across were now small rivers.
Speaker B:So I got, I got across both rivers and then I got lost and I looked for my trail for a good two hours and I couldn't find it.
Speaker B:So I decided I better do it another day and head back to my truck.
Speaker B:Well, as I hiking out back up on the trail, I step on some leaves that are covering some mud and I slide off the side of the mountain.
Speaker B:And my hiking device, my tracking device said I fell 500ft and I let, I landed in a river and I was seriously hurt.
Speaker A:But how many feet did you fall?
Speaker B:500.
Speaker A:500.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:I've got it mapped.
Speaker B:It's got the, the time of day and everything mapping on my machine.
Speaker B:So I'm laying at the bottom of this cliff and start talking to God again, thanking God for giving me more years.
Speaker B:And I knew this was it.
Speaker B:There was no way for me to get out of there.
Speaker B:Nobody had seen me, nobody knew where I was.
Speaker B:I'd done something stupid.
Speaker B:I hadn't told anybody I was going hiking.
Speaker B:And I think we've talked about this, Daryl, but I heard, heard the voice of God and he told me that he was going to use my speaking skills for his kingdom.
Speaker B:And then I don't really remember much except that I found myself back up on the trail, staggering out and a couple from Great Britain are walking in and they stopped me and they said, are you Okay.
Speaker B:I didn't respond.
Speaker B:They told me to sit down.
Speaker B:The female started bandaging me.
Speaker B:I was cut all over, tumbling down these rocks.
Speaker B:And the.
Speaker B:The man, he pulled out a bottle of Percodan and a bottle of Jack Daniels.
Speaker B:And he had me take Percodan and Jack Daniels because I was in such pain.
Speaker B:Then they left, and I walked seven miles back to my truck and then drove an hour and a half to the hospital in Roanoke where I checked myself in.
Speaker B:I had a dislocated shoulder and cuts and contusions all over my body.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And that was.
Speaker B:I've hiked back there with my friend Bobby.
Speaker B:And he and I both include that it was impossible for me to hike out of that situation, in that something happened that's unexplainable.
Speaker B:And, you know, he thinks maybe angels picked me up.
Speaker A:Something got you back on that trail.
Speaker A:And at a time when two hikers were coming by this desolate hike to provide you with care, it shocks me that they left you to hike the remaining seven miles out in the conditions.
Speaker A:I mean, the Jack Daniels and the Percodan is great, but getting you to some help would have been helpful as well.
Speaker A:However, again, the hand of God was on you that day.
Speaker A:You had more to do on this earth, and so you were raised off that mountain for that extra purpose.
Speaker A:Were you already a pastor at that time or a priest?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:No, I wasn't.
Speaker B:That was when I was called, when he told me at the bottom of the cliff that he wanted to use my speaking skills.
Speaker A:Pretty big way to get called.
Speaker A:I mean, you know, falling 500ft off a mountain isn't the typical calling we hear.
Speaker A:It is definitely a calling that you obey at that point.
Speaker A:How long were you in the hospital before you decided to answer that calling?
Speaker B:Well, this is the sad thing.
Speaker B:I was in the hospital overnight, and I didn't answer the call.
Speaker B:But the following year, I got invited to go to Holy Land.
Speaker B:And we went during Holy Week.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:It was our first full day in the Holy Land.
Speaker B:We were in Jerusalem, and we walked the Palm Sunday road up to the Mount, up the Mount of Oz.
Speaker B:And Guide got us into a private section of the Garden of Gethsemane, and we had a service which was really powerful.
Speaker B:And then we were told we had an hour where we could find a place to pray on our own.
Speaker B:So I found a place where I could see through the olive trees and I could see the East Gate of Jerusalem where Jesus would have walked in on that same day.
Speaker B:And as I'm sitting there, I heard the voice again asking me why I was waiting and did I love him.
Speaker B:And that scared me to death.
Speaker B:And then on Good Friday, we're walking the Via del Rosa, the.
Speaker B:The walk, the Walk of the Cross.
Speaker B:And we're in the Church of Holy Sepulcher, and we're approaching the cross, and I just collapsed.
Speaker B:I didn't feel worthy to even be there.
Speaker B:And my pastor that invited me was right behind me and helped me.
Speaker B:And I roomed with him on that trip and he ministered to me rest of the time we were there.
Speaker B:So to answer your question, Darrell, when I got back to Roanoke, Virginia, I was introduced to what the method is called lay speaking.
Speaker B:And I went to a course of study to become a certified lay speaker.
Speaker B:And I had to preach in front of a group of pastors to qualify me to become a certified speaker.
Speaker B:And I did a sermon on Nicodemus, I remember, about how he came to Jesus in the dark.
Speaker B:And I preached on how many people go to Jesus in the dark and afraid to reclaim him in the daytime.
Speaker B:And I did the sermon and they told me to have a seat, they'd be right back with me.
Speaker B:And an hour and a half later, they come back and get me and they.
Speaker B:And they tell me they're sorry to keep me waiting, but they've been trying to figure out a way to convince me to go to seminary.
Speaker B:So right after that, I got a phone call from the district superintendent offering me a lace lay supply position, low paid pastor of a church that needs one.
Speaker B:So I accepted it.
Speaker B:And a year later I entered seminary so I could become an elder in the Methodist church.
Speaker B:Well, I went to Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky.
Speaker B:And while I was there, one of my professors told me, he said, you're really not a Methodist.
Speaker B:You're really an angle.
Speaker B:And I had been.
Speaker B:I got married during that time, remarried to a woman that I believe was the love of my life.
Speaker B:And we both prayed.
Speaker B:Neither one of us thought we'd ever get remarried.
Speaker B:Both been, you know, I've been married, she'd been married.
Speaker B:But we got married and immediately got transferred to a small town in southwest Virginia where we had two small churches during that time, Covid hit.
Speaker B:I missed a year, had virtual service church the first year I was there, and then in person the second year.
Speaker B:And then the Methodist church went through some turmoil over gender, and I approached the Anglican Church and was offered a position back in Ronoke, Virginia, where I had a house and everything.
Speaker B:Was sort of a.
Speaker B:It was God.
Speaker B:It was a God thing.
Speaker B:And shortly after I got married, I came down with restless leg syndrome.
Speaker B:And I was kicking my wife all night, you know, and.
Speaker B:And I started acting out my dreams and sleepwalking.
Speaker B:And I was diagnosed with hemochromatosis, which is too much iron in your blood.
Speaker B:My doctor thought it was too little iron, which was making me take, that I had too much.
Speaker B:And I got a call from my doctor telling me that I had cirrhosis of the liver from accumulating iron my whole life in my liver.
Speaker B:So I went down to Duke Medical center in Durham, North Carolina and had a liver biopsy and it was negative.
Speaker B:I did not have cirrhosis.
Speaker B:And I think that was a God thing.
Speaker B:I had to have phlebotomy every week for a year where they took a pint of blood out of me and that lowered my iron.
Speaker B:And it's normal now.
Speaker B:But then my restless leg kept happening, my sleepwalking, acting out my dreams.
Speaker B:My wife told me I got up one night, I was boxing somebody in my sleep, and she heard me say, satan, I'm gonna whip your ass.
Speaker B:So I had a sleep study done.
Speaker B:I had a home sleep study done first.
Speaker B:And the sleep technician told me that I probably had sleep apnea.
Speaker B:But it didn't.
Speaker B:It didn't come out that way.
Speaker B:It came out to where they diagnosed me as having REM behavioral sleep disorder, which basically means that I can sleep all night and not get restorative sleep.
Speaker B:As an example, Darrell, last night I slept nine and a half hours and I only had 19 minutes of REM.
Speaker B:So what that does, that puts plaque or protein on my cortex, which turns into either Parkinson's or Lewy Body dementia.
Speaker B:So my wife and I decided last January that we would go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, hold his place on Earth.
Speaker B:And I went through another switch study and I ended up with this op sweep neurologist in the world.
Speaker B:And he told me I had mild cognitive impairment which could turn into Lewy Bodies.
Speaker B:Also had.
Speaker B:He called it a periodic leg movement disorder and two other leg disorders which put me in the one percentile.
Speaker B:He told me to go back to Roanoke and have a neuropsychological test and brain scan.
Speaker B:And I did all of that and they all showed that I had Louie body dementia.
Speaker B:Well, I had a follow up exam with the doctor from Mayo and he confirmed it seven, eight months.
Speaker B:I think it was in December of last year.
Speaker B:No, it was in the end of.
Speaker B:End of the summer last year.
Speaker B:He told me that one day I would wake up and not be able to walk and talk.
Speaker B:And I said, well, when he said it could be a day, a week, a month or a year, he said, we know so little about Lewy Body Dementia.
Speaker B:And he said, in the meantime, it's going to be a roller coaster.
Speaker B:One day you may feel normal, and the next day you may be just not feel like you can do anything.
Speaker B:And that's the way it's been.
Speaker A:Let me ask you a couple questions.
Speaker B:Go ahead.
Speaker A:Dementia is something that hits a lot of families.
Speaker A:We've seen it in people we love, in people we care for.
Speaker A:We understand what it looks like from the outside in that capacity.
Speaker A:When they stop recognizing who we are, they stop remembering the little things.
Speaker A:In your case, living with it, waiting for this final prognosis to evolve that the doctors have given you.
Speaker A:And I know it has cost you your marriage because your wife didn't want to be a caregiver, in her words.
Speaker A:So that cost you your relationship with your wife.
Speaker A:It's also made it so that you've had to stop doing certain things that you used to do on a day to day basis.
Speaker A:How is this playing out and how is it affecting you on a day to day basis?
Speaker A:Have you experienced the momentary lapses in time and memory and what's it like when you come back into your full body in consciousness?
Speaker B:Yeah, so I have, from time to time I have mild hallucinations because of that.
Speaker B:I voluntarily gave up driving, which is the hardest thing I've ever done.
Speaker B:And just telling people I was going to give it, give it up wasn't enough.
Speaker B:I actually just sold my cars who I couldn't drive.
Speaker B:I didn't want to have an accident because I was doing fine one minute, out of, out of touch the next.
Speaker B:And you know, my doctor told me I'm going to end up in a memory care unit.
Speaker B:And I can't hardly stand the thought of that.
Speaker B:My biggest day to day thing, Darrell, is I'm exhausted 24 hours a day.
Speaker B:And I've learned to live with that.
Speaker B:I just walk around exhausted and naps don't do me any good.
Speaker B:Nothing, nothing really helps.
Speaker B:I sleep great, but I don't get restorative sleep.
Speaker B:And you're right, my wife on September 29, just a few months ago, just out of the blue, told me she was leaving.
Speaker B:And that really was a setback for me.
Speaker B:She was keeping up with all my health records and helping me, feeding me nourishing food.
Speaker B:And I thought we had a great, loving life.
Speaker B:Together, but it wasn't to me.
Speaker B:And, and I'm going to this right now with her ending our marriage, which is, I don't, which I don't want to do, but that's out of my control, it looks like.
Speaker B:So my church, when they found out that she was leaving me and I was grieving, they told me I had six months period of time where I wasn't to be able to preach.
Speaker B:And in the meantime, the shock of her leaving has made my dementia worse.
Speaker B:So now I have a live in caregiver who was a member of my church and I was a friend and it's a great, great situation.
Speaker B:I can still drive, I'm planning, I'm going on trips, but any day now I could be.
Speaker B:I could be full blown dementia.
Speaker B:I've had two episodes, Daryl.
Speaker B:One morning I woke up and I couldn't move my legs for 30 minutes, so I couldn't get out of bed.
Speaker B:And it happened one other time where I couldn't get out of a chair.
Speaker B:But today I'm fine.
Speaker A:And people don't understand that sleep is not the issue.
Speaker A:It's that REM sleep where the restorative part takes place.
Speaker A:You can sleep 20 hours and still be tired because you didn't go into the REM phase of the restorative sleep where your body heals and repairs itself.
Speaker A:During the course of this ordeal, what has it done to your relationship with God?
Speaker A:Because you were pulled off a mountain, you survived suicide.
Speaker A:You had occasion to have the word of God in your voice or in your head to where you actually heard his message.
Speaker A:You were to be used for something more impactful and more powerful.
Speaker A:And now to go through this, has it altered your relationship with God?
Speaker B:No, actually, it's not.
Speaker B:Actually, it's stronger.
Speaker B:In the book, in the book of James, James, the brother of Jesus, talks about pain and suffering and reminds us that it all leads to joy.
Speaker B:Which is hard.
Speaker B:You know, it's hard to think that I've got to go through that first.
Speaker B:And my bishop, my bishop reminded me early on that I just need to focus on being in God's arms.
Speaker B:I've even set the ringtone and my phone to a casting clown song called Praise him in the Storm.
Speaker B:And I just, I want this.
Speaker B:I want, I want to live for years, but science is against me.
Speaker B:But only God knows I'm actually.
Speaker B:You've planned a trip to go to Ireland in May with one of my friends.
Speaker A:If God can pull you off of a cliff with a 500 foot fall, he can repair Your brain, if that's the will that he wants for you.
Speaker B:Well, you know, it's funny that a lot of my.
Speaker B:I mean, my bishop, I think, has even told me I'm not gonna be.
Speaker B:I'm not gonna be healed.
Speaker B:Not physical.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:My cortex is being eaten by this.
Speaker B:This protein, this body protein, and.
Speaker B:And I can sense myself getting.
Speaker B:Getting worse that's just recently started.
Speaker B:So I'm just.
Speaker B:I'm just trying to live as a good example and trying to be brave, hopefully, that I can be an example for somebody else.
Speaker B:Lewy Bodies.
Speaker B:Unfortunately, it's just the least known on how to treat.
Speaker A:Well, you saw your mom go through dementia, and you witnessed that close up and personal, and now you're experiencing your own version of dementia.
Speaker A:Were you able to use any of that knowledge that you gained by caring for your mom to help you?
Speaker A:Currently?
Speaker B:Well, she had.
Speaker B:She had frontal temporal dementia, so she lost her executive functioning.
Speaker B:The strange thing about Lewy Bodies is that he's telling me, I'm not going to forget anybody.
Speaker B:My memory is not going to be affected that much.
Speaker B:It's just my brain's gonna.
Speaker B:Just going to quit communicating.
Speaker B:And that sounds similar to what a.
Speaker A:Stroke victim goes through, where the synapses and the neurons quit firing in the proper fashion.
Speaker B:Hardest thing for me is I've visited so many people as a pastor in memory carriers, knowing that I'm going to end up there if I live long enough.
Speaker B:It's just hard.
Speaker A:So what are you doing to take steps to not, A, end up there, and B, not take yourself out like you tried before?
Speaker B:I've got what Bobby Pickle, my hiking friend called Pallet friends.
Speaker B:And you know what a pallet is?
Speaker B:It's a board you carry things on.
Speaker B:Well, I've got pallet prints.
Speaker B:I've got friends that will do anything for me.
Speaker B:Nobody, no matter what I need.
Speaker B:And I've had people tell me that I've got more friends than anybody they know.
Speaker B:And I am blessed.
Speaker B:I have people stop by almost every day to see me or to take me to lunch or just to bring me dinner or to go for a walk or smoke cigar or just anything.
Speaker B:I'm surrounded.
Speaker B:I'm not alone.
Speaker B:I know God's with me.
Speaker B:I know people, hundreds of people are praying for me, and I'm praying for them.
Speaker B:Just like we're praying for our friend Brian Flanagan right now.
Speaker A:My.
Speaker A:I told you off camera, my wife has been ill for 10 years now, and she has had a relationship with God that to Me is amazing and unbelievable because like you, her illness has strengthened her connection with God.
Speaker A:Her love for service of God has grown exponentially.
Speaker A:And she says, just like you do, if this is what God's will is for me, I'm going to use it in the best I can to serve him the best way I can.
Speaker A:And finding people like you and my wife, who in spite of the trials and tribulations, grow closer instead of further from God, is truly a blessing and an amazing journey.
Speaker A:As a caregiver for my wife at times and someone who has watched and with my own close relationship with God, I know that people can be healed in an instant, just like you were carried off that mountain in an instant.
Speaker A:So from the outside, it's very difficult because we pray, we service, we do the things that God are asking, and yet the suffering continues.
Speaker A:So from a loved one watching this, I rail at God more than she does.
Speaker A:I try to find the justice in the unjust situation.
Speaker A:And every time I do that, she tells me to stop and she tells me to take it back and she tells me to apologize.
Speaker A:And I know God knows that we're human, so we have that human emotion.
Speaker A:And that is a reaction that is understandable.
Speaker A:But to then see her, to still tell me, you can't do that.
Speaker A:We are so blessed.
Speaker A:We have so many beautiful things that God has done for us.
Speaker A:You can't be angry at him because I'm not healthy.
Speaker A:And I see that same love and devotion in what you're saying here today.
Speaker A:It's truly inspiring and truly amazing.
Speaker A:So thank you for honoring God in the way you do in spite of what you're going through and the hardships you're dealing with.
Speaker A:If you were to talk with someone right now who is also facing dementia or going through their own process with it, either externally or personally, what would be your message to them?
Speaker A:What would you say to them?
Speaker B:Boy, I don't know.
Speaker B:It hit me out of the boy out blue.
Speaker B:I never dreamed that I would have something like this.
Speaker B:I saw my mother go through a horrible experience.
Speaker B:I mean, you need to cling on to.
Speaker B:You need to cling on to God.
Speaker B:God's will for your life, no matter what it is.
Speaker B:Jesus never said it would be easy, said we would suffer, and.
Speaker B:And I am in that.
Speaker B:I miss being a pastor.
Speaker B:You know, my wife leaving me said she.
Speaker B:She had lost her identity.
Speaker B:Well, I have two.
Speaker B:I thought I had a loving relationship, loving congregation and a long preaching.
Speaker B: st graduated from seminary in: Speaker B:You know, I showed there's a movie called the War Room about a lady that's got a private prayer closet.
Speaker B:Well, I made one for myself last week.
Speaker B:And I've got a room, a private room, big walk in closet that's empty except for the literature of people I pray for.
Speaker B:And that's what is.
Speaker B:That's what I the advice I would give.
Speaker B:Pray for others.
Speaker B:Just trust in God.
Speaker A:I appreciate that you still have the heart of service and take it still to others who are in need as well.
Speaker A:I'm going to ask you one last question that I ask all my guests.
Speaker A:Walter.
Speaker A:Buddy, what does a warrior spirit or having a warrior spirit mean to Buddy Pierce?
Speaker B:Well, I mean, I didn't give up on God and I want to keep letting people know how much God loves them no matter what.
Speaker B:You know, I used to preach that even on your very worst days, Jesus is not standing across the road shaking his head like this, looking at you.
Speaker B:Instead he's walking over to you, wrapping his arms around you and telling you, reminding you just how crazy he is about you.
Speaker B:He took the nails for us.
Speaker B:How can we turn our back?
Speaker B:How can we be mad?
Speaker A:Well, I appreciate you coming on and sharing your journey and sharing your story.
Speaker A:And we will continue to pray for you and your health and your loved ones as well as you go through this.
Speaker A:And consider my wife and I someone who will join your palate.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:And if you'd like to connect with Walter, you can do so at his Facebook page.
Speaker A: at it means to follow Matthew: Speaker A:And as always, I want to thank you for joining us on this edition of A Warrior Spirit.
Speaker A:Be sure to like or subscribe to catch all the episodes and may you have a blessed day as well.
