Beth

y L A n d S dot com. Slash kind claims based on traditional homeopathropraptice. Not accept the medical evidence, not ft evaluated. Do you suffer from zoom fatigue? Otter dot ai is here to help. Use auter dot ai to get automatic meeting notes. You can even step away from the meeting and catch up any time. Get started for free at atter dot ai or download in the app stores. That's otter dot ai. Our lives are filled

with choices. What's not a choice addiction to opioids, But even with opioid use disorder, you still have a choice. Choose treatment and choose change. California bind medically a proven treatment options at Choose Change c a dot org. She was at the top of the seesaw and I guess whoever was on the bottom got off. She came down, She hit her head, but she went through the day.

She was okay. But later that afternoon she had a seizure and I noticed immediately that the right side of her face was drooping and she was talking out of the left side. That's Brian and Kathy Usher. They're talking about their daughter Beth. She had a very rare neurological encephalitis. Every minute or so she would have like either these jerks, they'd throw her to the ground, off a chair, fork would go flying, whatever was in her hand. It was,

you know, not a good time. The day we left Johns Hopkins, their last words to us, um it was go home and enjoy life and let's hope she has ten good years. And then that was in seven and Beth just turned forty. Thanks Mam and Gathy. Just more keep that off the podcast. I'm Carla Wallace and this is Finding Fred, a podcast about Fred Rogers from I Heart Media and Fatherly in partnership with Transmitter Media. Today.

Just one story, I really wish I could remember I was so young at the time, about Fred Rogers and a kid named Beth. I only remember through stories that Mom and Dad told me. It's slowly built up to where she was having over a hundred seizures a day, some so severe they would knock her down and she would be flailing, and we were worried she couldn't breathe.

And I would go into grocery stores or church or whatever, and people would look at me and look at her because she was black and blue from head to toe from falling. We were watching this deterioration happened, and every time we went to the doctor, they had no idea what was going on. It was so crazy that we even tore apart of bedroom, thinking maybe she was bit by a spider. Maybe there was a spider in the room.

You know, we were constantly calling all over the place to try to learn of new drugs, new studies being done. Didn't you doctor was checking and go into the library. I even borrowed a doctor's lab coat and broke into Yale University's medical library right because they weren't allowing anybody in there. We felt like we were on Twilight Zone because here something is obviously eating away at our child's brain.

We're watching it happen. You think like you have an ill child and the world should come together and make this child better. But no one had any idea what

was going on. We tried just about everything, and um in order for us to get ready for work in the morning, we had to PLoP Beth up with a bunch of pillows in front of the television set, and we instructed her older brother, he's Brian, he's older by two and a half years, to sit with her with his arms around her, and they were surrounded by pillows watching Mr. Rogers neighborhood and he called, he said, Mom, and I came running immediately, and he said Mr Rogers

is over with and Beth didn't have a seizure. And then the next day the same thing happened, and the next day after that, I said, this is very peculiar.

So then I sat down with her and I just looked at her, and her eyes were just she was inside that television screen, and it was like that he was talking directly to her, even so that when he would ask a question like shall we feed the fish today, Beth would say, yes, we should and at the end of every episode he would say I love you just the way you are, and Beth would say, I love you too, Mr Rogers, and she would not have one seizure.

After two and a half years of research, constant seizures, and makeshift treatments, Beth and her parents finally got a diagnosis rest Mussan's encephalitis. It's an extremely rare and progressive disease that attacks the brain. The only treatment is at that time, was to remove the entire left side of her brain. You just can't fathom that type of surgery and I couldn't imagine doing that left there. So now

we're not doing that. We even consulted a neurosurgeon at Yale who said that they would not even put a dog through that. And then Bethy kept getting worse, and I mean impacted her whole life, I mean her learning, her friendships. It was. It was a nightmare. We were all petrified. We didn't go anywhere. We shut down as a family. Um, we were afraid to leave her anywhere. We didn't. One of us was with our all the time, round the clock. Finally, I think what pushed us over

the edge. It was a holiday show and BETHI had prepared for it and singing a song with her classmates. I think you were in what first grade at the time, and it was bomb remember that. And so the night of the show, we were there and she has a seizure right in the middle. Bow had to help her fixed seizure, and she looked at us and said, I ruined the whole thing. And she said, these seizures, I

just want them to go away. So they decided to go ahead with the brain surgery known as a hemisphere ectomy, and they scheduled it for the following February. That gave them two months at home with Beth before the surgery. We knew that there was a possibility that Beth could fall into a coma, she could be paralyzed for life, and she could even die from this surgery. We wanted

to make the time before her surgery spectacular. So Cathy found the number for Fred Rogers TV station and explained to his assistant that her daughter was going in for a horrendous surgery. Kathy asked for an autograph photo of Mr Rogers to tape up in the hospital room, and she said, I will, you know, talk to Fred and get back to you. And maybe an hour later, I got a call and she said, Fred is going to call Beth at seven o'clock this evening. Is that good

for you? And I said he's going to call her. The phone rang and I picked it up and I said to Beth, Beth, a friend is calling for you. And at this point Beth had no friends, so thinking that a friend was on the line was really unbelievable. And she ran over and I gave her the phone and she's skwheeled. It's squilled Mr Rogers. Bummy, dad, it's Mr Rogers. Brian and I left the room. We were peeking over around the corner because she we wanted her

to have this real, genuine conversation with him. Was over an hour. She was talking to each and every character on Mr Rogers and Neighborhood, and all of a sudden we heard her say, I'm afraid I'm going to die and leave my brother and my parents. And then we heard her say really, Mr Rogers, really, King Friday, and she hung up the phone saying, I love you too, Mr Rogers, thank you so much. I love you King Friday.

I love you Elaine Lady, Elaine fear Child. And I love you, Daniel Strike Tiger, thank you for calling me, and I am going to be okay. And she hung up the phone and we were in a puddle. We just couldn't believe it. That February, the family made the trip to Johns Hopkins for the surgery. The operation was long, about twelve hours, and at first things for Beth looked good. The surgery went well, and then later that night she fell into a deep coma. We were killing ourselves, like,

what did we do? You know, at that point we thought for sure we made the wrong decision. We were begging, praying to God, please just let her wake up from this. If she can't walk or talk, we don't care, just let her come out of it. And we did not leave her side. We were in the intensive care the entire time. Brian and Cathy said at Beth's bedside night after night for weeks, and one source of constant comfort

was the music of Mr Rogers. Before her surgery, after he spoke to her on the phone, he sent her a huge box of tapes, cassette tapes, and we had this little tiny Fisher Price battery operated tape player and all around the lock we would play songs it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood down You'll never go down the drain, and we would play them over and over.

When she was in a coma. One of my vivid memories is going into the intensive care unit and she was strapped up to every thing imaginable, all kinds of ivys and her head was swollen like three times the size.

Her eyes were so swollen shut and you could hear the beat beat beap of the heart monitor and the dripping of all the i vs. And in the background you hear there are many ways to say I love you, Mr Rogers in the background the music that was constantly going on in the room, many ways ways more from the ushers in just a minute. Teething can be a

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l A n d S dot com. Slash Kind claims based on traditional homeopath a practice, not accept the medical

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a deep coma. Her parents, Kathy and Brian, kept Mr. Rogers music playing in her room. One night, a nurse came into Pet's room and said, Kathy, there's a man with a voice sounding like ms to Rogers, claiming he is Fred Rogers and he'd like to speak with you. And I went to the desk and I picked it up and he said, Cathy, this is Fred, and I'm

getting concerned. I wanted to find out how Beth was and I said, um, thank you so much for calling, but unfortunately there were major complications and Beth has been in a coma now for a couple of weeks. And he said, I'd like to come. I won't stay long, I promise, and UM, so we said okay. So a couple of days later and he walked with a clarinet case.

He placed it on Beth's bed and he opened it slowly and took out King Friday, Lady Elaine Fairchild, Daniel Striped Tiger, and Mia Mio pussy Gat and Beth had her own neighborhood show. I just remember he was so genuinely concerned about Beth. He insisted we take pictures with the puppets and Beth he's got her feeding tube and she's hooked up the machines. And I think what touched me the most was when he sang, I love you

just the way you are. It was my dad, your mom, a few of my sisters, and we were just outside the door of the room. And I remember hearing that outside the door, and I looked around at everybody, and even my dad had tears streaming down their faces, and I remember just thinking, what am I seeing here? This is incredible, and I honestly believe eaved Beth was going

to wake up, that's how magical it was. And when she didn't, I'm sorry, Mom, you know um, but I remember afterwards we held hands around her bed and we prayed, and that really gave us so much comfort. I just remember feeling as though things are going to be okay. Don't don't worry. It has a happy ending. Beth Asher finally came out of her coma about three weeks later. Mr George left all of his puppets around my bed so I wouldn't wake up and be alone, so I

knew he came somehow. The surgery, Um, it left her heavy please check, paralyzed on the right side, but it also took away her right field of vision in both eyes and and speaking and speaking because half of her tongue is paralyzed. I talk it goodly now, but her hearing is perfect, So it's now. Beth and Mr Rogers corresponded throughout the years. He wrote many, many letters and even called Beth her birthday. Kathy and I both worked

at the University of Connecticut. Mom was put in charge of finding someone for the commencement speaking and so I suggested, why not get Mr Radgels and my mom and my dad will both nervous that college kids I won't get to listen to Mr Djels And I said, no, no, I think they'll listen. So I went ahead. I wrote him a little He got right back to me and he said he would be delighted to under one circumstance, if I help him write his commencement address. I was

only twelve years joad at the time. So Mr Rogers came and Brian and I have been involved and intended a lot of graduation ceremonies, and we could never quite hear the commencement address. The champagne corks going off, the balloons and balls that are being bounced around in this ceremony, you could hear a pin drop. And during the address, he pointed to Beth in the audience and he said, these words were provided to me by my good friend

Beth Usher. And what what what was the main point of your advice to him when you wrote back to him, do small kind eats for other people, then they will do small kind eatsful other people, and maybe we'll start a chain reaction. And he also did the take a moment two, think about someone who helped you along the way. Fred Rogers did this often in speeches, asked crowds to sit quietly and reflect on the people they love and

the people who love them. Like in this commencement address at Dartmouth College, I'd like to give you all an invisible gift, a gift of a silent minute to think about those who have helped you become who you are today. Wherever they are, if they've loved you and encouraged you and wanted what was best in life for you, they're right inside yourself, and I feel that you deserve quiet time on this special ocasion to devote some thought to them.

So let's just take a minute in honor of those who have cared about us all along the way, one silent minute. I have goose bumps now when you look around at the audiences and students and parents, you just see them like these big burly football basketball athletes with

tears streaming down their eyes. Um when when they were asked to think about somebody who really helped them along the way, Whomever you've been thinking about, Imagine how grateful they must be that during your silent times you remember how important they are to you. At the end of the speech that Mr Rodgers gave the President of Yukin gave Mr Rodgers a present and it was this engraved jewelry box and he hands it to my brother O'Brien

and said, keep it until we meet again. He was so aware that Beth's brother was kind of in the background, and everybody was paying so much attention to Beth, as they should. He made a point of asking him about his life, about what he enjoyed doing, and Mr Rogers paying attention to him really was huge, and he knew that. One day I came home from work. I was making dinner.

I remember it profoundly. I was trying to make spaghetti and meatballs, and I was rushing around multitasking, and the phone rang and I picked it up, and he said, Kathy, is this a good time to talk? This is Fred? And I went, oh, no, Fred, this is perfect. How are you? He said, I just have a quick question. Beth and Brian seemed to have such great self esteem, and I just want to know what your philosophy is and how you go about raising your children to have

such great self esteem. And I'm going on and on and in the time Brian comes home from work and he's kind of listening to my side of the conversation. And I said, okay, Fred, Oh, love to you and Joanne and and I hung up the phone and Brian said to me, who are you talking to? And I said Mr Rogers And he said you we're telling Mr Rogers about children and self esteem like and afterward I went, oh, my goodness, what did I say. I'm telling the Guru of children. Um. But that that was how he was.

He didn't feel he had all the answers he was asking everybody else. Fred was always learning, always curious, always listening, and he was always there. I mean, there's so many stories about Fred showing up in surprising places, about his kindness to people that he didn't even know. Kindness in present were what Fred believed in, maybe because that's what God was for him, what goodness really meant, love and availability. So that's what he did as much as he could

in person and through his show. Next time. Fred didn't call Mr Rogers Neighborhood a show, and he didn't call it a program. What he called it was a television visit. Think of what a visit is. A visit is you and me together. He was talking with us, not to us. Finding Fred is produced by Transmitter Media. This episode was produced by Jordan Bailey. Our editor is Sarah Nick's Special thanks to Michael Garofolo. The executive producer for Transmitter Media

is Greta Cohne. Executive producers at Fatherly are Simon Isaacs and Andrew Berman. Thanks to the team at I Heeart Media, and thanks also to Beth Brian and Kathy Usher. Our show is mixed by Rick Kwan, music by Blue Dot Sessions and Alison Layton Brown. I'm Carver Wallace. Thank you for listening. Teething can be a real nightmare for your little ones. Highlands Naturals Baby oral pain relief tablets can

help ease the pain. It's gentle, natural active ingredients like camemeo and arnica soothe your baby's mouth, and gums made with ingredients derived from plant minerals and other sources free of harsh chemicals. You can count on Highlands for serious pain relief for your teething baby. Highlands is a kinder way to care for teething. Visit Highlands dot com slide kind that's h y L A n d s dot com slash kind claims based on traditional homeopath a practice,

not accept the medical evidence, not ft evaluated. Do you suffer from zoom fatigue? Otter dot ai is here to help. Use atter dot ai to get automatic meeting notes. You can even step away from the meeting and catch up any time. Get started for free at autter dot ai or download in the app stores. That's otter dot ai here at Freddy's Sweet could tell you how our original double is this steak burger made with lean ground beef, cooked to order with deliciously crispy edges, and finished off

with our Freddie's famous seasoning. But we'd rather let her original double speak for itself. I couldn't have said it better ourselves. Enjoy food made fresh the Freddie's way. Tap now or learn more at Freddy's USA dot com