Stories of Hope

THE STRENGTH OF ENDLESS LOVE...
The Dave and Martha Story
by Charles Foster

Sometimes you are introduced to people and feel you have known them forever. This unique connection was the case with a special lady named Martha. One of our business partners had been friends with Martha for years, and one day, while looking for a healthier lifestyle, Martha decided to join our company. We met Martha and knew from our first conversation that there was something special about her. As time progressed, we discovered just how special our relationship became.

Martha and her husband, Dave, were married for 53 beautiful years and had three exceptional children together. We got to work closely with Martha and had not met Dave yet except for a couple of conversations on the phone, but just like Martha, he made us feel like life-long friends.

Our relationship was one of those relationships where you had only known each other for months, yet it seemed like we had known them forever. They lived in the Houston area for many years, but before we met them, they had moved to Alabama. Dave, a highly decorated Army officer, had commanded a post in the Houston area and loved his platoon, but his heart was always in his home state of Alabama, where his dream was to retire. When an opportunity to command a post in Alabama came available, he took it, even though he loved his soldiers and staff in Houston. When we met Martha, they had already been in Alabama for a while.

As I said, Martha is one of those special people you meet, and you feel like you have known her forever, and she is such a friendly person that you instantly fall in love with her. She worked hard to settle in Alabama and helped Dave understand he needed to care for his health. He has always taken care of everyone else yet neglected his health. Martha is one of those dedicated wives that did everything for her husband and family. That steadfast Spirit would be valuable because what her future held would require her to use all her skills and talents.

Shortly after we met Martha, she told us they had a trip planned for the Holy Land in a tour of a lifetime. They got to see that sacred land where Jesus walked and witness the sites that changed world history. On our trip, Dave had the opportunity to be Baptized in the Jordan River. Martha said it was the trip of a lifetime, and this experience had even brought them closer together as a couple, even after 53 wonderful years.

The next event for them was the wedding of their middle daughter, but they both enjoyed the trip so much that they booked a river cruise later that year.

Not long after returning from the trip, Dave began having stomach pains and went to see their doctor. After running a battery of tests and waiting over a week for the results, they went in to hear what the doctor would do. This day, thought to be a typical easy fix, upset and turned their world upside down forever and would set in place a whirlwind of activities they never expected to face.

Making that trip to the doctor to get the report they had expected to be an ulcer or some other simple problem was a shock when the doctor informed them that Dave had Cancer. That statement alone was difficult enough to hear, but the doctor continued. Dave has Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer, which has spread all over his whole body. That devastating news took time to digest as they discussed what they would do. This power couple was not the kind of people to give up. Dave was much more willing to listen to doctors than Martha. From what Martha knew, she respected modern medicine but also believed in common sense. When a medical professional doesn't consider the facts backed by science that nutrition can help the body heal, Martha knows she will have to intervene on Dave's behalf. Even though modern medicine can help, without all the tools, modern medicine is just a band-aide and not a solution. When a terminal diagnosis is said to you, and you can eat whatever you want because your life only has weeks, that does not make common sense. Martha was not going to accept such a foolish idea. Martha put a plan to save Dave's life or at least extend it. After 53 years of marriage, their lives were just getting started.

Surviving a life-treating disease was a huge mountain to climb, but as all good parents do, they were thinking about their children. The fact that their middle daughter had planned her wedding added to the size of the mountain, and the wedding was still about four months away. The biggest obstacle was the doctor had told them that Dave had less than one to two months to live. The event was four months away and involved air travel again outside the U.S., away from any U.S. medical facilities. This wedding would take place on a beautiful Caribbean Island, Paradise, yet the doctor did not think he would make it long enough to attend.

Martha was not going to accept such a thought. She took charge of the situation over the doctor's advice. The doctor told Dave not to listen to her but for him to do whatever he wanted and eat, drink and be merry for the time he had left. Martha knew better and was not going to give up. First, she put her foot down and changed his food intake. She also made some phone calls and got a natural plant-based protocol that would give his body fuel and give the body precisely what it needed to repair. It usually takes time for the body to respond naturally, and time is minimal. She was relentless in caring for him. The doctor said to give him whatever he wanted, but Martha said, I want him here, and your prescription would only put him in an early grave. The doctor left, and Martha took charge.

Martha, wanting her husband to survive for as long as possible, put in place the necessary care and a healthy protocol for Dave. They did come to Houston for some treatments because Dave wanted to try Chemo, yet Martha kept providing the natural plant protocol she knew his body needed.

Wow! What a story. After his first Chemo treatment and being on the protocol for only two months, Dave's blood work came back with excellent results. The Houston doctors said they had never seen anyone respond to Chemo with such great results. Martha knew it wasn't the Chemo but the healthy way she fed him. She felt the Chemo was only weakening him, and her care for her husband and many people praying for Dave were getting great results. She kept the protocol going even though the doctors did not like her helping because what she did was beneficial. The poison Chemo treatments were weakening his natural defenses. The doctors could not believe Dave was doing so well, yet Martha felt he would be doing better without the chemicals getting in the way.

Martha would tell you that she believes in good medical care and in doctors who have the patient's interest first, but when a patient has no hope and a short time to live, why add more poison to the body along with the disease? Why keep trying new experiments and tests only to weaken the body? Maybe the medical profession doesn't know any better, but how can a doctor go to school for years and not know much science about the human body? Money's bottom line drives our medical work.

The purpose should be to give the body the tools to fight a person already in a weakened state, and the chemicals weaken it. The bottom line was that Dave listened to Martha, and he was able to attend his daughter's wedding. He walked her down the aisle and enjoyed the peaceful tropical paradise and relaxing time with the whole family. Even though the doctors did not think he would ever make it that long, he made it with flying colors and felt better. Martha continued her protocol. She knew that if she had not taken charge of his health, Dave would have never made the wedding.

When they returned from two weeks in the Caribbean and came to Houston for a checkup, the doctors told him that he was doing so well that he could return to work. Great news for Dave because he loved his work. They returned to Alabama to continue their routine and would be back in Houston a month later for the third time for another treatment.

After that treatment, Dave began to weaken. Martha believes the chemicals continued to tear down his system to the point that her healthy protocol of giving his body a chance to heal naturally derailed. This time, when the doctors told them that he was getting worse, Dave lost hope and began a downhill spiral quickly. Martha knew that if Dave knew the doctor suggested she put him under Hospice care, he would give up and not last long. She did find an excellent Hospice care facility not far from the hospital and told Dave it was a self-care facility to help him get better. A wonderful place where the family could be there, yet provided meals that were an excellent help for Martha and the family. Dave was there less than three weeks before his body gave up and expired. His whole family surrounded his bedside as he passed in peace. A loving family lost an extraordinary man who had done much for his family, community, military, and others. He had waited until all the family was present to give in to death. His love for his family overshadowed even the pain of hanging on. In life, like in death, Dave was a man of honor.

The following week, a memorial service held in Katy, Texas, honored Dave by the Veterans of Foreign Wars post he had commanded for years. We heard more stories of this remarkable man's service and the legacy he left behind. One week later, Martha and the family held an even larger memorial service in their hometown in Alabama. Like in Texas, the Alabama memorial service honored Dave with Military honors.

Dave passed in peace, knowing two things. First, his steadfast love and devotion for Jesus Christ, and second, that he had left his family well-equipped with his legacy to face the future in his absence.

One month after Dave had gone home to Heaven, Martha decided to take that special river cruise she and Dave had planned. Martha took her brother and sister-in-law with her on this trip.

A bittersweet time for Martha as she sat on her balcony, watching the beautiful view that she and Dave had wanted to take together, yet knowing the view Dave sees now is unlike anything in this world. Still, it must be very hard without your life-mate beside you to share such an experience. One comforting thought for Martha is that she did everything possible to help Dave and took care of him as no one else could. There must be some comfort in knowing that Dave is with her in Spirit, even on this trip. While traveling, the loneliness and solitude will be cathartic, healing, and sad, yet Martha must feel that she continues to complete the plans they set together.

Martha's strength over their 53 years of marriage allowed her to finish strong in caring for the man she loved. Martha is a testament to her genuine and authentic love for her spouse. She demonstrated that love in her relentless care of Dave. Even to the point of completing what they had planned together, even after he was gone.

What an excellent example for her children and grandchild as the family continues to build upon their father's legacy. Martha validated her love, fought the good fight, and finished what they had begun together. Now, she will not only survive the loss of her spouse but will continue to make Dave proud as she survives her loss to live a life of meaning and purpose.

Stories of Hope

I heard this story a few days ago and wanted to share it with you as a story of encouragement.  What do you do when all hope is lost, the pressure mounts, you lose it all overnight, the foreclosure of your home, the repossession of your car, and the food pantry is your only food source?  It did for this lady when you thought it could not get any worse.  Statistics show that many widows and widowers suffer financially after losing a spouse—especially widows. I believe you will find the answers here.

For years I did not feel good. I was tired and felt like I needed a nap every day. I would wake up at two a.m. and be up for hours. I did not feel good, and my body was stressed; I did not know why, but something was wrong.

My neighbor had told me about a system that allowed her to lose weight. She looked great and had all this energy. So, I told myself, you know what, I have got to do something. So, I got on the system four days later; I began to feel great and said, what the heck just happened? I called her and asked, what is in this stuff to make me feel so much better? She chuckled and said, why don't you come over to the house and let me tell you all about it? When I went over to her place, she told me about the business side of what she was doing. She said, we have all these fantastic products, but there is a business here. The products work, but she had my attention when she said there was an income opportunity. I had felt the power of the products, but there was more going on in the back of my head that only I knew.

Six months before that day, my husband and I owned a company remodeling, and we did pretty well in the industry for 17 years. Then an employee embezzles a lot of money amounting to half a million dollars at the tail end of 2007 when the economy took a nose-dive, shutting the company down.

When the company shut down, it also shut my husband down. He went into a deep depression, went to bed, and stayed there. I also had three little kids, four, eight, and eleven, and I did not know what I was going to do. I was unwilling to leave him; I was worried about his mental state and could not leave the kids with him.

We had exhausted all our assets trying to keep the doors open, and now we have no support or income.  Could you imagine walking out to take the kids to school, and the car was gone? The kids were freaking out because they thought someone had stolen the car, but I knew what had happened. I knew why the car was gone, and I developed this sinking feeling and thought, what would I do without a car?

I began to go to the food bank to feed my kids. It is not far from my house, but to get there, I would have to pass the beautiful park crowded with people in the summer. I prayed for rain so no one would see me. The walk across the parking lot was long, and there were no grocery stores nearby, so when people saw you carrying bags of groceries, everyone would know why.  So, I was in a pretty desperate state. It was my 40th birthday, and when everyone went to bed, I would go into the bathroom because it was the one room nobody could hear me in. I sat on the floor, sobbing because my life was no longer the same, and I had this tremendous pity party.

After my pity party, I got up, took a piece of paper, and wrote out what I wanted my life to look like as if it had already happened. I wrote about traveling the world and my fantastic career that continually inspires me without knowing what that would be. I wrote about having this vibrant life and feeling healthy in my body, but where I struggled, my pain point was that I needed something.

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Now, this is where I left off earlier. The very next day, introduced to this business

opportunity. Sometimes you put it out there, and it materializes. The secret is you must be open to it, and I was available. My mom had purchased the primary system for my 40th birthday present, and I had begun to feel better and get my energy back when I went over to my neighbor's house and she told me about the business; all I could say was, what do I need to do to make this work? She said, come to the Celebration with me and find out what it is. I said, what is that? She said it is our annual convention which is in four days. I asked where it was. She said it was in Las Vegas. She had no clue that I had a negative 237 dollars in the bank and did not have the money to get the electricity turned on because the power company had turned off my electricity.

I said, let's do this, but then I thought, what is wrong with me? I have four kids; I can't do this.  It felt like an out-of-body experience. How am I going to do this? But then I thought, what if this could change my life? I also knew I had put something out there; maybe this was it. When I saw how it worked, I could not sleep for a good reason.

I asked my neighbor, do you mean I can earn an unlimited income with no capital, overhead, or risk? How is that possible? She said I don't know; it just is. I kept thinking, how is this possible? But then I looked at the compensation plan and saw how it was possible. In a traditional business, you must deal with accounts receivables, payables, taxes, purchasing, insurance, government forms, inventory, employees, legal, IT, deductibles, distribution, research and development, and the list goes on and on. This company does all this and more plus; I can run my business from anywhere in the world with a cell phone. That is incredible and scalable without renting a space, equipment, or anything. You can grow it from your living room from a small to a million-dollar-a-year business.

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That sounds like what I needed. Things were terrible, and I found hope when I found this company. Hope is a powerful word, and I saw a way out of my situation. I could pull my family out of this situation and begin to live again. Because of my despair, I did not stick my toe in; I capitulated and was all-in to making this work.  I began to work on myself, I worked on my business, I asked everyone I could find every question I could think of and asked for advice, and I took it. I listened well and did exactly what they told me, which made them successful. I believed that if someone were more successful than me and told me to do something, I would do it without question.

I advised them to begin my business and get to the executive level first, and I did it. It took time, and there were some bumps in the road, but I did it because people told me to do it. This company pays daily, weekly and monthly, so I could earn the needed income quickly and begin to build my business. My husband finally got out of bed, hooked up with his old girlfriend, and left. Did I think?  Really? After all, I have done?

But today, I now live this extraordinary life. I live in a beautiful place. Last summer, I took my daughter to Italy for a month and allowed her to do whatever she wanted, eat where she wanted, etc., but guess what? I made the whole trip and did not put any limits on what we did.

You know, this all started on my 40th birthday when I sat on my bathroom floor crying, and for my 50th birthday, I got to celebrate it with my daughter for a month. Both my sons go to private universities. I live an extraordinary life because I said yes and put in the work and time.

So, my 40th birthday was my worst day, and my 50th was my best so far. When I heard this story, I had to write it down to encourage you. No matter what life throws at you, you can overcome your darkest day, and your life will improve. I never thought that to be possible until it happened to me. The loss of my wife was my darkest day, but today, I live an extraordinary life, and so can you. The loss of a spouse is one of the worst tragedies in life, but what we experience prepares us for the future. Hardships make us more robust and resilient with a desire to survive. As a surviving spouse, you are not disrespecting your deceased spouse when you continue life. You honor your spouse when you continue living and make the kind of impact that would make them proud. You will find, as I did, that you make mistakes less often because of growing through those mistakes.

We are all on this planet to make an impact. That dash between our "birth date and death date" must be something. Make yours count.

I told you this story and if you want more information about this income opportunity, call Pam at (713) 882-4702; she would be happy to answer your questions.