#16 Rob

Hello, what are your top three interests?

Did you say, what are my top three interests?

Yeah?

Is a job interview?

No, I was just what's so funny?

Why?

I just want to get to know you.

Better after forty years?

You want to give me your What's your top interest?

Probably my kids?

Children in general?

Children? Would you say, would you say couscous? I would not say you really like cuscus? No, I wouldn't, But I mean, so your children number one? Number two A close second is couscous? And what's three?

What do you tell me?

What? What do you just tell me?

Where number three is?

Go ahead?

What is my number?

Three?

Mmmmm?

Hanging up on me? Boom boom. Start the show from Gimblet Media. I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is Heavyweight Today's episode. Rob my friend, Rob Cordrey is a famous actor and the fact you think I'm resentful is ridiculous. No, I'm afraid that says more about you than it does about me. I guess you could say Robert and I have both

It was me.

Aside from a pocket full of nogi's and karate chops, I guess there wasn't a thing the Great the Rock could do for Robert. Rob is more your showbiz name, right, but it's also my name.

It is, Yeah.

Because of showbiz opportunities, Rob can't leave Hollywood. So he phones me from a studio in la Hey.

Come and start whenever you want, and we'll just keep rolling.

Once his studio operator Laura gets us rolling, Rob tells me his tale of woe. It all began with his daughter, Sloan.

My daughter is eleven and she tripped over a log and broke her arm.

Sloan was at school and she tripped over a log and fell, which was exactly how I broke my arm when I was a kid. When Rob was around his daughter's age, he was out in the woods with his boy scout Troop, and he also tripped over a log and broke his arm exactly like Sloane. Did you tell her this story about how when you were a kid, the same thing had happened to you.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Every connection I make with her I kind of cherish, and I thought there was just a funny one that we broke our arms in the same exact way. So she went and got a cast, and I forwarded the picture. It was this adorable picture of my daughter and her purple cast, and I sent the picture to my family.

Rob texted the folk to his brother, his sister, his mother, and his father, and so a text thread began. Do you have the texts on you?

I do?

I think I do. Yeah, it might take me a second to find sure.

Yeah, okay, is this it's I'm just trying to find the beginning.

It's so long.

There's a lot about my daughter here, a lot of ah man, that poor little girl, and so forth.

When the family asked how Sloan had broken her arm, Rob excitedly told them about the weird coincidence, and that's when Rob's troubles began.

My mother immediately shot back, you never broke your arm. My mother said, I do not remember that at all. Laura, do you remember that? Because my sister is the keeper of memories.

In a family, each member has their role the thing that the finds them. Laura's role is keeper of memories. And immediately she texted.

Back, don't recall any of this.

A second later, Rob's father weighed in with ridicule.

Was that the camping trip where you broke your arm and it healed over night? Rob shot back, I had a cast four weeks exclamation point.

Next, Rob's younger brother, Nate, chimed in.

Oh boy, here we go another I broke my arm. I broke my arm story. Look, I'm the broken arm guy. That's my role in a family. Those agreed upon rolls are reinforced through agreed upon stories. Rob says, the Corderies have about a half a dozen chestnuts that get told over and over. One of the biggies is about young Nate and how he broke his arm twice. Rob's mom is quick to confirm that's true, you are the broken arm.

This in spite of Rob's absolute certainty that he did break his arm.

It really it made me angry. It's very invalidating.

I felt like, you know, my mother didn't remember this experience, this this that her son was in pain and had to be taken to the hospital and was and was in a cast and for a long time, you know, And I think I felt, I don't know, for gotten.

Rob has crystal clear memories of the day it happened.

I was on a camp out my troop. My boy Scout troop would go on a camping trip one weekend out of every month.

It was the fall, so.

I assumed we were in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It was dark, and I was standing on a log, sort of a log that you would sit on in front of a campfire, and it was rolling. I was rolling it, and I think maybe I was just trying to make people laugh. And I fell and knew immediately that I had broken my arm. I've never felt that kind of pain.

One of the adults on the trip, an old friend of the family named Don Smith, took Rob to the hospital where he was fitted with a cast. Afterwards, mister Smith brought Rob back to the campground, and that night Rob slept in the back of a pickup while mister Smith's left up front behind the wheel of the truck.

And I remember waking up and being in such pain, and I think I waited there for it felt like the longest time that I was just laboring over waking him up.

I felt so bad waking him up.

Eventually, the pain became so severe that Rob had no choice but to rouse mister Smith for a painkiller. I asked him what else He remembers the way it smelled the cast.

Yeah, I mean, you know, your your arms covered up in plaster for five to seven weeks, and so you know, it smells like a gym locker that hasn't been cleaned in five to seven weeks. And I remember liking the smell, that's the weird part. And getting it off. I remember getting it off. I remember getting the cast off, and it smelled terrible, of course, but good to me. I just pretended that it smelled awful while I was drinking it, and my arm had just withered to nothing. It looked

Rob fired off a series of texts to his family, recounting those memories in exhaustive detail, the camp out, mister Smith, the cast. When he finished, his mom was the first to text back.

I'm afraid you were hallucinating, sweetie.

Rob tried to laugh it off, but he couldn't stop thinking about it. That evening, Rob shared his frustration with his wife.

And she patiently listened to the texts, and afterwards she smiled and she said, I'm on your family's side.

Gently, his wife reminded him that he's kind of absent minded. He doesn't always have the memory. Also, in their sixteen years of marriage, Rob had never once mentioned a broken arm. Maybe Rob's mom was right, Maybe he was hallucinating.

Either I'm telling the truth, Jonathan, or I'm completely insane. And it could be that I'm insane.

Is Rob insane? Or had he really broken his arm? I was going to find out, but before setting forth on something like this, I need a call to arms, something to stir my inards.

Good.

So we're going to do this. I'm going to do it.

Yeah good.

My innerds remain unstirred, so I'm going to get right on this.

All right.

Great.

But just when I think that Rob will never give my inards the stirring they need.

Hey, Jonathan, Yes, go get him, you son of a bitch.

That's what I was good for. Yeah, that was good.

That's good.

I was going to say to that or get those bastards, but I'd have felt weird call my family bastards.

After the break, questioning some dirty, rotten bastards.

All right, great, all right, I love you very much.

Oh, thank you, thank you? Right back at you there.

I want you to say it.

I love you.

Yeah.

So what.

I just you know, hello, ullo.

Yeah, I'm still here.

So Laura is there as well.

Yeah, you dropped out a little bit there, Jonathan.

Oh you should repeat what you said.

That'd be great.

Rob.

Is Rob still there here?

I'm still here?

Yeah, we're both here.

I think there's one little section.

Where you dropped out of it.

I think you know what section that was, Jonathan.

I was just I was just asking if you were if you were still can you hear me?

Laura Hello, Hi.

Is this Robin?

It is Hello?

Hey?

Is this Laura? It is Nate? Yes, mister Cordy, Yes, is this an okay time to talk? My search for the truth begins with the Quardrees. Rob's brother Nate. I'm comfortably sitting in a chair, his sister Laura right now.

We're in Disney World, his mother Robin, I'm.

In my car in front of a post.

Office, and his father, Steve, I'm in Florida. What makes them all so certain that Rob never broke his arm?

No one in the family can remember it.

His own mother, no broken arms for Rob, his own father.

I certainly don't remember coming back in the cab.

If there's anyone's memory in the family that I would trust, it would be Lauren.

Yeah.

I don't think it happened. I typically remember everything from every situation in the family, so.

And you've not been long before.

No.

My first thought is that maybe around the time Rob broke his arm, something traumatic happened in the Cordery's home life, something that might have overshadowed the accidents and thus erased it from the collective memory. The death of a grandparent perhaps, or a house fire.

No, nothing, Well, we got cable one summer, so that kind of derailed the entire neighborhood.

What about Rob's distinct memory of that first night in a cast? I asked them sleeping in the back of a pickup truck.

Mister Smith never owned a pickup, and we knew the Smith's a long time.

It lived across the street Funtains for a number of years, never had a pickup.

Mister Smith has since died, so I can't turn to him for confirmation about the truck. But it isn't just the pickup that's suspended, it's the hospital too. Rob claims he got his cast at the Jordan Hospital. Rob's mom was a nurse with strong opinions, and she says the Jordan hospital was a quote snake pit. She'd be damned if she allowed any member of the quadry Klan to set foot in that hospital. Shaped Butcher's College, there were strict orders.

If any of my kids get hurt, do not take them to that hospital.

Go to the Jordan hospital.

That would never happen. He said. He went to Jordan.

Hospital in his make belief pickup, and most damning of all, I broke my arm twice.

The only one that I remember having a cast on his arm.

Was his younger brother, Maids, my younger brother.

Nate broke his arm, broke.

His arm twice.

I had to be in traction with in traction for two weeks, two weeks, for fourteen days.

So the quderies aren't just a bunch of broken arm deniers. They all remember when Nate's arm broke, and who broke it.

That was running out of the family room onto the back patio, and it was it was concrete, and I ran and I tripped and I fell and I broke my arm. And for all of the for my entire adult life, I had thought that my shoelaces were untied. That is not the truth. Many years later, Rob said, you know, it wasn't your shoelace.

I tripped you.

He stepped on my shoelace. He was behind the door, and I was like, hold on, hold on, you tripped me.

Rob didn't bring up any of this.

Oh what a surprise.

According to Nate, Rob's false memory stems from guilt. Laura agrees, saying that seeing Nate in traction was traumatic for Rob.

So I don't know if he's feeling responsible. So now he's trying to make up for it by saying, well, I also broke my arm.

But Rob's visceral memories, the smell of the cast, the sight of the withered arm. How could he have just invented such concrete details.

He was with Nate when Nate has his.

Cast removed, and he remembers the smell of Nate's cast.

I remember the smell of Nate's cast. So he took it off. His arm was like yellow, and it looks like it was like molting. It was nasty and it smelled so bad.

Oh.

I asked Laura if she would describe the odor as reminiscent of, say, a Jim Locker, and Laura says, yes, exactly, a Jim Locker.

I think he might have tried to steal my memory.

Even if you're famous, you shouldn't go around stealing people's memories.

Hello, Jonathan, Hi.

How are you? After speaking with the Cordrees, I decide that I no longer believe Rob. It isn't like I think he's lying. It's more like I think he's insane. So I need to tread carefully. So I wanted I was calling me because I wanted to report back to you on some of my findings. I can't wait easy, does it Johnny boy? Okay, well, I don't know that it's looking great. So for one thing, I spoke to your dad. Yeah, and he said that Don Smith, the Scout leader, doesn't even own a pickup truck.

Oh, he would never He would never have owned a pickup truck.

No, he's not that kind of guy.

I'm not sure if it was his.

As Rob flounders for an excuse, I try my best to understand the logic of his deranged mind. Don Smith might have like found a pickup truck that wasn't his, that you guys slept in together.

Yeah, yeh, I assume, like whoever had the most comfortable vehicle to sleep.

But what about the snake ridden Jordan hospital?

I ask?

His mom swears that she'd written on his medical form that he was never to go there, but Rob brushes that off with another half baked excuse. It was so late at night. He says, she probably didn't think it was worth making the trip to take her wounded son elsewhere.

You know, she's already in her robe. Her stories and drinking dia coke and smoking.

Rob's explanations were becoming increasingly far fetched. But he was sticking to his story. I had no choice but to bring out the big guns. The other thing that you failed to mention to me. According to your family, you were responsible for Nate's broken arm. Oh no, Rob says, Nate's arm is something he still feels bad about, which is why he doesn't like bringing it up. So I turned to the one piece of evidence I know Rob

Exactly my story. Yeah.

So, I mean there's being forgetful and then there's completely fabricating like reality. I mean that that's Yeah.

It's made me, I don't know, it's made me.

Kind of look back at my entire life and realize that I don't remember a lot, and it makes me very sad.

It's finally beginning to sink in maybe Rob didn't break his arm. Before we get off the phone, Rob asks me if in spite of all this, I'll keep digging a little longer, and I promise him I will. I'll reach out to you when I have something new.

Great and Jonathan, Yes, I love you very very much.

I hear you, buddy, and you know what what, I'm in a crowded area.

Hello.

Yes, my name is David Orcott. You had called him up the message.

After reaching out to several of Rob's childhood friends who remembered nothing about a broken arm, I eventually hear back from David Orcott. David and Rob were in the Boy Scouts together, and Rob recalls them taking a group of girl Scouts on a hike during the autumn of his broken arm. I filled David in on the alleged broken arm and all the holes in Rob's story. Every single person in his family said, what, you're crazy. You never broke your arm, and they were quite positive of this.

He did break his arm. I've got a picture of him with a broken arm. They need the picture.

Yeah, this is crazy. Do you still have this photograph? Oh?

Yeah, wow.

Well, you're the first person that I've spoken to who's confirmed this. This is kind of amazing.

The only reason is I believe I have a scrap book that that picture's in there.

That's fantastic.

I could check that tonight and verify it if you want, and then if you need a scan copy or scan of it, we could do something along those lines. It won't be a problem.

Maybe Rob wasn't as insane as you people thought. Sorry, folks, but according to the Gimlet Media Employee Handbook, when you've got this much dramatic tension in a story, you have to amp it up with a plethor of advertisements.

So take a.

Bathroom break and fix yourself a snack, not at the same time, of course, and I'll catch you on the b side as promised. A couple days later, I received the photo from David Orcott. Rob's on vacation in Hawaii, a paradise island populated by celebs like Tom Selleck and Don Ho. But I just can't wait to share the news. Plus, I've never talked to anyone in Hawaii before. Hawaii. Are you in Hawaii right now?

I am. Yeah.

Once Rob's done bragging, I tell him I have something to share. Okay, here we go. I'm texting it to you right now. It should be on its way.

I just got a text from Jonathan Goldstein that image.

Whoa.

The photo looks like it was shot on a nineteen eighties in Stematic. In the foreground is a group of girl scouts sitting on a ledge and behind them there's.

Me in the back row with a broken arm.

The picture is pretty grainy, but you can see a rob like boy looking little for his age compared to his friend David, who stands beside him. Rob's arm is covered in something big and white. Is it just like he remembered it with it?

Yes?

Yes, with a huge, huge cast and look and not looking happy either.

Armed with this? I mean, what can they possibly say?

I don't know.

I almost feel bad for them.

Evidence in hand. Rob organizes a conference call with the whole Cordery clan and to best enjoy the moment, he also writes a victory speech. I'm very proud of it. Do you need to practice it? Yes, let's hear it.

I can't imagine what you're all feeling right now. How would I react if I had forgotten that my son or brother spent five to six lonely weeks of recovery shoved into a cast so bulky, so glaringly white. It would not.

Surprise me if strangers who at the time had been cursed to catch a glimpse of me lugging that albatross around still jolt awake at night, screaming. Man, that kid sure did have a broken arm.

I'll never forget. It was a big cast. Your son, your brother, will always be here to remind you that when I was a kid, I definitely definitely out a doubt broke my arm.

That's beautiful, understated, but beautiful.

All right.

So you know what, why don't we call into this conference line just so we'll be on the line before they will, so we could greet them. Okay, just like in those movies, you know what I mean, We're like someone walks into the room and then the person with the evidence is sitting calmly, cross legging in an armchair. Hello, family, glad you can make it.

Please make yourself comfortable.

Okay. So I'll call in and you're gonna call in as well.

Right, I'm going to call in, yeah, in one in one minute, okay, joining conference now?

Hello, Hey Jonathan, you have Nate so far?

Oh h oh, Hi Nate. I was I was hoping to get in here before everybody.

Mama code is here.

Hi, Hi, Hi, It's Lara.

Oh hi, how are you, Laura. It's so nice that you're all here. I just got off the phone with your brother Rob.

Your hell.

Oh no, you beat us, We all beat you. Everybody's there.

Yeah. We were one minute into Rob's victory conference call, and already his family was ruining his moment. I can tell Rob needs a minute to collect himself to get back into that Aloha state of mind. So, taking my cues from a Southern lawyer and a Hannah Barbara cartoon possibly portrayed by a large rooster wearing suspenders, I take the stage. The reason I've I've brought everyone here together is because I've uncovered a piece of evidence that I

Here we go.

I'm about to hit send you all set mm hmm, Okay, here we go. I just sent it.

Oh wow.

There's a moment of silence as everyone studies the photo. I worry that maybe it isn't clear enough that the Corderies will contest it's even a picture of Rob, But then.

Does look like Robert in a caf it does.

With Rob's identity confirmed, I give it two shakes of a lamb's tail for the apologies to start rolling in, so Rob can put this whole business behind him and enjoy his two o'clock hula dancing class with a free and easy mind. But two shakes of a lamb's tail becomes three shakes and then four shakes. So do you all like believe now, like definitively, that Rob was right and you guys were wrong?

I don't know how Dad and I and Laura and they could not remember this?

Again, A hush falls over the conference call. How could they not remember?

It?

Just didn't make sense unless I think.

That was the camp out that they were practicing first aid and they were using robins they getting big on how when they broke an arm.

With that, the floodgates are open and everyone begins forwarding a theory.

It does vaguely look like a pretend cast because of it, like an Adobe photoshow.

Maybe you just wore that cast when you were away from a health Oh right, we thought it.

From here, all of the Corderie small theories converge into one grand theory, which they trumpet in much the way villagers in a Broadway musical.

Might it kind of looks like a sling phone, Not really.

It does look like a sling.

Yeah, that's what you're saying, is a sling. So maybe sprained.

It was some sprain or that's what it was. Yeah, okay, I say if it was a sprain, then why wouldn't you just remember a sprain?

A sprain is not that memorable, just doesn't just doesn't look right. The sprain in a sling that big.

Right, So then it can't be a sprain. It has to be a broken arm now.

But there would still be an enormous cast on a small, slight.

Boy in the face of the evidence. I wonder if Rob's family is clinging to this whole sprain thing because they just feel bad for not remembering. Do you think it's a denial out of guilt, you, guys.

I don't feel guilty.

I will say that my memory is imperfect and it's altogether likely that you did break.

Your arm, just just likely, not one hundred percent though I do have zero memory of it. But what about even seeing the photographic evidence.

I I'm not one hundred percent convinced, because nobody remembers it.

In this way, we go around and around. Since no one remembers it, then it didn't happen. And if it didn't happen, how could anyone remember it? And all the while Rob is silent. I imagine him on the other end of the line, seated alone at a luau table, sadly picking the weeds from his grass skirt and taking sad slow SIPs from one of those drinks that come in a flaming pineapple, the kind famous people are forever throwing at the paparazzi. Suddenly Rob lets his frustration be known.

I cannot believe that you guys are working this hard to not believe that I broke my arm.

I did not expect this.

I did not expect this reaction.

It seems it's going to take more than an old photograph to change the Quderi's cemented version of history, and it's going to take the Cordery's belief in Rob to make him feel sane again. So I asked the family what they'll need to accept that Rob broke his arm?

Well, where's the medical records?

Then I would believe it.

Yeah, of course, Yeah, of course, of course. And if we're able to present medical records attesting to the fact that Rob broke his arm. Would they then all apologize.

To Rob if this is all true, if he deserves an apology, I would apologize.

Yeah, I would definitely apologize.

I would feel terrible.

Absolutely, Yes, yes, I'll.

Be the first to stand up.

But do you think that's going to happen.

No, I don't know.

I don't know if this is the time to bring up the speech.

But I mean, yeah, I wrote a speech. I wrote a victory speech.

In spite of everything. I knew that Rob was proud of that speech, and since he'd already written it, I figured he might as well read it.

So I cannot go Actually, oh, I'll start again. I can't imagine what you're all feeling right now.

How would I react by and forgotten? The corderies want written proof? But do hospitals even keep records from so long ago, let alone a snake pit like the Jordan Hospital. Since Rob can't be expected to interrupt this Hawaiian holiday with the trivial business of procuring paperwork, I decide to handle it myself. And who better to help me handle it myself than someone else? And who better is someone else than an actual doctor, Jackie.

I'm just walking home from work.

I'm actually not far from your old apartment.

Oh really, can you check if I have any mail for Let's get right to it. I explained to Jackie that a friend of mine, a famous friend who for his own privacy I'd rather not name, was in need of medical records. They were probably like easily over thirty years ago. Do you think they would still exist, Well, it.

Depends, but they might either get rid of them or they might have gone into deep storage, but they may have a record as a doctor.

Would you be able to get the records out of deep storage?

Nobody can request them himself.

He doesn't need me.

Well, first of all, he's a very busy man. Did I mention that he is?

I'm not busy?

Right.

This isn't going at all the way I'd hoped. Instead of offering help, Jackie is offering jealousy of Rob. I explained that she's being ridiculous, that she's also my friend, but that Rob just has VIP needs the needs of a very importure.

Let me reiterate what I already said to you.

Would I say, yeah, you said you too bad?

You said your famous friend what can your famous friend do for himself?

Hey, you said that he could phone up and he could.

Find out he can get them himself, Yet you need his signature on a piece of paper.

In the midst of tearing me a new bee hole, Jackie runs into a friend of hers named Jeremy. I'd never heard this tone in her voice before. Could it be that an unplanned social encounter with a friend was making Jackie happy?

Don't tell you, Oh, it's.

So good to say hi to Jeremy.

Medical records.

This is Karen.

How can I help you?

Hi?

There?

I have a question. When I explained to Karen when I'm after, I expect her to say something like medical records from the nineteen eighties. Dude, this is the Jordan Hospital. I'm performing open heart surgery with a spatula as we speak, and I'm the mother f and switchboard operator. But to my surprise, we do have records that go that far back. We have a copy service correspondence team and if they're able to find anything, lots of times they're on microfiche,

Inside my turtle neck?

Is that okay?

You're wearing a turtleneck?

Yeah, it's nice about a turtle neck? Is that has no arms?

So it's just a neck.

Yep.

Rather than risk another dust up by suggesting Jackie might not be wearing a turtleneck at all, but rather a neck brace, I instead text her the records so she can take a look.

I can't.

I can't do that while I'm driving.

Can you pull over to the side of the road, to the shoulder of the road.

Absolutely not.

You cut out there for a second. Did you say yes?

I said absolutely not.

You cut out again?

Did you are?

You're pulling over?

Stop telling me I cut out.

I did not cut out, and I'm not pulling over.

I think you cut out again, So you're pulling over? Okay. So did you look at what I sent you?

No?

I didn't look at what I'm I'm on the highway, John, John, I'm on the highway.

Just dart your eyes between the windshield and the papers that I just sent you. No, Because Jackie's neck brace seems to be constricting the flow of kindness from her heart to her mouth. I decide to just read to her what little I can make out. It was an exam med Richard's forty ugh Like, where does it say if he just broke his arm? FX of right distroll rady radius FX.

Means fracture of dystole radius.

FX means fractured. Yeah, so he fractured his arm. Yep, so is that the same thing as breaking? Yes, so he broke his arm.

He broke his arm?

Looks like it.

This confirms he broke his arm.

Wonderful?

Are we done?

In high spirits? I get Rob, who's just returned from another vacation back on the phone. Welcome back from Fiji.

Thank you very much.

Everything must seem like sort of like in black and white.

Now Fiji is not all.

It sounds more exotic than it is.

When Rob's done bragging, I tell him I have some news I wanted to share with you. The er report cool.

I'm nervous. It's because because if it's because if I didn't break my arm, then I mean I got to shut everything down and live in therapy.

You broke your arm? I did you did? Yeah?

Of course I did I know.

Joining conference. Now, an impromptu family conference call is arranged. Eight is traveling and unable to make it, but we get everyone else on the line. Any last minute predictions anybody wants to make. Don't think there's a record of it, anybody else.

I'm thinking a screen.

Well, according to the hospital report, Rob broke his arm.

Wow, gourd, you're kidding.

No, what did the hospital record say?

I texted over and since Rob's mom is a nurse, she decodes the report for the rest of the family.

Okay, complained of pain, swelling, risk, tripped over, log landing on wrist.

It was just as Rob had said, right, risk.

Distal forearm, the fracture distal radio. Wow, my full apologies, Robert.

The medical report has done the job.

I am sorry that I don't remember this incident at all. I mean, I remember a lot of other incidentss, but yeah, this one I don't remember it. But that doesn't mean that it didn't happen.

You've got me in two years, and I believe you.

Nothing to be in tears over.

As his family begins to apologize, Rob begins to backpedal.

I can't imagine making you apologize for this but like I could do that. No, this is I'm just it just makes me uncomfortable. I think it's kind of understandable that a group of four people would forget something like this because it was it was fairly trivial.

No, I disagree. I this was not trivial. It wasn't a little thing. You broke your arm and I have absolutely no memory of it. That makes me crazy.

That kind of makes me feel bad that as a parent, I don't remember it.

With Rob's broken arm confirmed, his parents go from doubting their son to doubting themselves. What kind of parents were they? All the agreed upon rolls are called into question. How can Laura be the keeper of memories if she failed to keep this memory? And Nate, how can he be the broken arm guy if now there's some other broken arm guy. This is the moment when Rob should be delivering his victory speech. In its entirety, he should be saying I told you so in a sing songy voice

You weren't there for it. You probably had to write me a note to get out of zet, which was great. That's probably here at the extent that you're involved.

To reassure them, Rob falls back on the old Qudrey family chestnuts.

I can think back to seeing little Nate in traction in the hospital, and even today can probably cry over it. That's that's that's memorable.

And just like that, things begin to snap back into place once again. Nate is the broken arm guy. And Laura, I.

Mean, I'm surprised that I don't remember it because I remember stupid things like what color sneakers I had.

And I remember one day we went for dinner or lunch at either Burger King of McDonald's, and Laura found ten dollars under the table.

It was Brigham's.

See I remember this, Yeah, I remember.

Where we were sitting.

And just like that, once again, Laura is the keeper of memories. After everyone gets off the phone, I stay on with Rob. The calls left him feeling kind of bad, especially for his mom. Before we'd all signed off, she apologized yet again, despite Rob's reassurance, she was still feeling guilty and unsettled by your lack of memory.

Hi, this is Robin.

I can't take your call.

Right now, so Rob and I give her a call to check back in, but she isn't picking up.

Thanks for calling.

Hi, Mom, it's Robert William. My friend Jonathan's here. Hi, and I love you.

Oh, I love you. Oh sorry, I.

Was talking to my mother that time, Jonathan.

Eventually, my friend Jackie did read Rob's medical report, and then she texted me. This is notable for two reasons. One Jackie never texts me, and two she began the text by saying, I read the report, and truthfully, the most interesting part was the remark that the patient was pleasant.

Oh well, that's very nice.

And she goes on to say in an er setting, no one would ever bother writing that.

Oh man, I remember getting along with the doctor and him saying that.

I was a champ.

I just swallowed your pain.

Always.

I took great pride in being a champ.

In the er.

Rob was pleasant in the pickup truck. He didn't want to bother anyone for a painkiller. A couple weeks later, and he was leading girl scouts on a hike and ultimately maybe that's why no one remembers Rob breaking his arm, because whether it was a big deal or not, he acted like it wasn't. Rob liked being a champ, and he still likes being a champ, making people laugh, joking

He's the funny guy.

He was funny, he was the funny one.

He always started sayings at the dinner table.

Rob isn't an insult comic. The joke's always on him, the jokes always to make everyone else feel better. You're pleasant, I'm good, I am. I hope you feel good about that.

I do. I actually do. I ho hope that that's what people say about me.

He is really funny and caring and sweet, and I love the soft side of him.

This is Sloane Rob's little girl who broke her arm, whose picture in a big purple cast set this whole thing off in the first place.

He doesn't really have a hard slot, and he's someone who you can always go to and he's not gonna yell at you or tell you like that you did something wrong.

After Sloane broke her arm, Rob told her the story of how he had also broken his arm on a log, how he was rolling on top of it to make his friends laugh.

Anyway, it was just comforting to know that, like, I wasn't the only one who tripped over a tree, because that's embarrassing.

Rob told me that when no one in his family believed him, not his mother, father, sister, or brother, not even his wife, there was one person who did.

Yeah, I did. I just felt like he was telling the truth. He was very frustrated that no one believed him, so I wanted to be nice to him too.

In Rob's new family, everyone is still growing into their roles. So for now, Sloan is the bookworm, her little sister Marlowe is the rocker, always playing her electric guitar. And Rob, to them, isn't the funny one or even the famous one. He's the soft one, the sweet and caring one.

Thank you, Jonathan, Thank you Rob, and hey John, Johnny. Yeah, I love you very much.

I love you Rob.

Yeah.

Okay, good bye, okay, bye bye.

Now that the Fernitures return to its goodwill home, Now that the last month's rent is skiming with the damage the bottle. Take this moment to deserve, if we meant it, if we talk, we felt around from far too, from.

Things that accidentally. Heavyweight is hosted and produced by me Jonathan Goldstein, along with Khalila Holt, Peter Bresnan, and Stevie Lane. The show is edited by Jorge Just, with additional editing by Alex Bloomberg. Special thanks to Emily Khn and Fia Bennen, Ba Parker, Matthew Nelson, Sandra Cordery, and Jackie Cohen. Thanks to to our friends at Maximum Fun, with whom we