- This and more.

Coming up on the Whitney Reynolds show, I was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer and I was 24 at the time.

Mm.

I have learned to flip my attitude and my perspective to more positive because that's all I have.

- I was a homeless female veteran.

I went to school, I, I got a college degree.

I'm also a realtor, so I house homeless people.

Now - I just put out an album called The Waiting Room that wasn't just like a nice little name that was like, yo, I feel like I've been in the longest waiting season of my life.

- The Whitney Reynolds Show is supported by 10 West Real Estate Group, a real estate investment partner specializing in multi-family apartment investing and long-term wealth growth.

Kevin O'Connor Law Firm, when it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Respiratory Health Association, healthy lungs, and clean air for all.

Together at Peace Foundation.

Together at Peace creates hopeful spaces for grief and remembrance.

Through Comfort Club founder Christine Marlo shares her personal grief journey and Faith, which has led to healing hearts, faith-based programs, supporting healing in communities.

Joe perillo.com where you can browse a selection of pre-owned vehicles.

Joe Perillo is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

Children's learning Place, a school for our earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child with the power of learning center for beautiful living, empowering people to live rich, robust, and beautiful lives.

Additional funding provided by the Intrigue Yellow Chicago Lifestyle Foundation and Creative Lab FE O High five Sports Club Chicago Girl, strong empowerment apparel, and XOMD.

- Hello and welcome to the Whitney Reynolds Show.

- We are so glad you have found us.

We are taping with a live audience and today is about finding light in the battle through life's toughest moments.

We know you can prevail and today's stories will be proof of that.

Awakening the soul of our story.

Come for the stories, save for the heart.

Wear every journey might recognize a new look.

We are ready to take things to the next level.

You'll see - Whitney's here to share your dream.

It's the show - I watching the Reynolds show home.

Real voices lives - Every episode.

This is the - Show.

Welcome McKayla Day.

Leon, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me.

You know, we're talking light in the battle and I love to always be honest with my viewers.

I met you on a train.

- Yeah, - Yeah.

That was a very, that my first train ride I think.

Yeah.

It was so fun.

It was.

And you know what's incredible and I wanna remind our viewers at home, our tagline is everybody has a story.

And that could be the person in the grocery aisle or on a train across the aisle next to you aisle.

Yes.

Amtrak.

Yeah.

Yes.

So true.

Little did I know that you were battling stage four cancer.

It was one of those moments that I said, Hey, do you need help?

And you said, I actually do.

- Yeah.

- You have been going through so much.

Walk our viewers back through your diagnosis.

- Yeah.

I was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer and I was 24 at the time.

But I have learned to flip my attitude and my perspective completely a 180 2 more positive because that's all I have.

- Right.

When you hear stage four, would you have rather just heard, I have breast cancer or did you wanna know how hard I need to beat this?

- I wanted to know.

I asked for numbers and it bit me in the butt a little bit, but I asked for numbers, I asked for staging.

I wanted all the information that I could possibly gather to know how hard I have to beat it.

And you will.

Oh yeah.

- But let's talk about what you are doing.

When we were on the train, you whispered to me 'cause you're like, I'm gonna go see my boyfriend.

I'm like, oh, that's great.

You were like, wait, no, my fiance, wait, we're getting married in a few weeks.

And I'm thinking at this point, I'm like, what's going on?

And you leaned a little closer and you said, I found out I have breast cancer and I wanna get married before I lose my hair.

- Yeah.

- That was one of those moments for me.

Yeah.

That I was just like, this girl knows what she wants and she is gonna kick cancer's butt.

Walk us back through your wedding day.

So we got married in August.

A - Beautiful wedding.

Isn't it beautiful on the screen?

Yes.

We got married in August and it was a week before I started treatment and that's exactly how I wanted it.

I was really struggling with switching my treatment plan from hormone therapy to chemotherapy and radiation and surgery.

And it felt like I, I was just lost.

I was so disappointed that for my big wedding, what we were, which we were planning for next year and still are planning.

- Yeah.

We're gonna - Do two.

Oh yeah, we're having - Two weddings.

Yeah.

I know.

I made my husband remarry me like we did a renewal.

But I love the idea of two weddings.

I think you should, everyone should.

Yeah.

He said No more weddings, Whitney.

That's enough.

Yeah.

I will probably want three.

- Okay, there we go.

Okay, there we go.

Three weddings.

I love that.

So we got married a week before treatment because I was really struggling with the idea that next year in November, I might not have my hair at the length that I had it at, or it might not come back as curly as it was.

And I will be flat, trusted.

And that was really hard for me as a 24-year-old girl to comprehend that I'm going to be flat in a wedding dress.

That's never how anybody envisions themselves.

So I came downstairs, I said to my mom, I will do chemo if I can get married.

And she said, well, it looks like we're planning a wedding.

Yes.

Good for mom.

I love that.

- I love that.

I love that.

So walk us back through the treatments you are doing because you had some good pictures when we were on the train.

You were showing me Yeah.

How your body was reacting, which was so positive.

- Yes.

So I actually started on some hormone therapy, which is like, you see the commercials for it.

Kisqali, Zenio, Ibrance.

I was on those and it completely got rid of the lymph node action up here.

- Yay.

- 68% uptake in my SubCal node in my chest wall.

And then the main tumor had shrunk by half already in three months.

Wow.

Which was excellent.

That is incredible.

And you're gonna keep going?

Yeah.

So I am currently, I finished five rounds out of eight of chemo.

Wow.

- Oh my - Goodness.

I have three more.

I finish in November and I can't feel the tumor anymore.

Yay.

That's wonderful news.

- Well, I was gonna say, you being bold with your story is so courageous 'cause it is hard to say, Hey, this is who I am on a national scale.

Yeah.

What do you want our viewers and audience to know about your journey?

- That your attitude influences so much about your own journey?

I see it as I have two options.

The first option is go in the corner and rock back and forth and think my life is over.

My life is over.

Or I can find the silver lining and look for something positive in everything.

And that's why I got married.

I found a silver lining.

You did find a silver lining.

Thank you so much for coming on.

- When service members come home, the expectation is stability, support a place to land.

But for thousands of veterans, the hardest battle begins after the uniform comes off.

- I grew up in a home with all of my older brothers and sisters in my great uncle in the military.

And my mom was so proud of them.

So she had their portraits on our mantle.

And I looked up to them and I said, you know, these are such regal men protectors.

I just wanna be part of it.

And then I saw that a couple of my brothers, they bought houses, whereas my sisters had student loans.

So I said, well, if I go to the military, I could have a house and no student loan.

- She enlisted believing service would create security instead, when she returned home, housing became her greatest fight.

Some of our fiercest fighters or most brave citizens that come home from serving or come home or get out and they don't have housing.

- Right.

- What made you want to solve that issue?

- Because I was a homeless female veteran.

I would run away and, and go to the VA because I'm still a veteran.

And they would tell me, there are no resources.

So where do I go in my car at a friend's house?

My family were telling me, well, you can't stay here.

It's too much drama.

My friend.

We're as young, I'm 22, 23, very pretty.

And you know, she would say, well, you can't stay here.

My boyfriend is coming over, so where do I go back to the unsafe house and just hope that it'll be safe for me.

I went to school, I, I got a college degree and I got a job working for the City of Chicago, department of Revenue Licensing SROs.

And, and so the job afforded me the opportunity to rent an apartment.

- When did you decide that you have to be the voice for people in similar situations?

- A few years after becoming a realtor, I'm also a realtor.

So I house homeless people now, homeless veterans for 22 plus years.

But now as a realtor and you know, we have to find solutions to help people move.

And we've got a lot of resources in our community that can pay for that.

But I learned over the years how to navigate those resources and use those resources to house these veterans.

- How many have you placed?

- Over 5,000.

Everybody can learn how to house a home as well.

Everybody can.

It, it's just simple movement is connecting the dots.

Mr.

Wilson was a homeless Coast Guard veteran in a wheelchair, living in a U-Haul facility for nine months until I got him housed downtown Chicago in a fully furnished condo, two bed, two full baths overlooking navy, pier, the lake.

He could see the fireworks.

He's been there for 11 years.

- More than 5,000 veterans housed more than two decades.

Turning confusion into clarity and proof that when the system falls short, individuals can still rise.

- I'm glad of the, of the hurt and the pain that I go through every day because it's what fuels me to keep going - For Yvette Jones.

Housing isn't charity.

It's justice.

And it's a reminder that when our veterans come home, - Home should be waiting for them.

I'm a 33-year-old - Single dad, and my daughter's 22.

My daughter is biologically my niece, but she's been legally my daughter for over a decade.

- Contemporary Christian artist Jeremy Rosado may stand on big stages today, but the path there did not happen overnight.

In fact, it was during his climb to fame where he chose to hit pause, stepping away long enough to listen to his heart.

- My sister has just struggled with addiction for a very, very long time.

And when I came off the show, I was about to pursue music and go to Nashville and I was there like about to like make it happen.

And I felt that it was time for me to step in and honor the promise that I made to God.

That I would make sure that this little baby girl had the life that she deserved and needed, that she could have some kind of stability.

And I remember I'm rocking this baby to sleep and she's crying.

She finally falls asleep.

And I tell, and I, I'm looking at her and I'm crying at this point.

'cause I'm thinking, man, this pain, I never wanna see this kid feel this pain ever again in her life.

It's incredible to see her now grown and, and as great as she is because, you know, the cards life dealt to her have not been great.

But by the grace of God and his provision, he's made ways for us.

- And during that pause, he dealt with those tough cards and that led to inspiration.

The moments turned into lyrics and those lyrics now helping countless others find hope in their own stories.

- I just put out an album called The Waiting Room.

And that wasn't just like a nice little name that was like, yo, I feel like I've been in the longest waiting season of my life.

It's okay to be honest about the pain of it.

You know what I mean?

And like the frustration almost with God, if we're honest in moments and in seasons where it just doesn't make sense.

And so to anybody listening or watching and and you feel like you are in that weird place of like this kind of tension of like, I know I've got this dream or I've got this thing I'm supposed to do, but none of it's working out yet.

Focus everything, everything you have as if this was the last shot you had at it.

I had this man come to my show.

He said I was about to use drugs at that very moment, just like I have the past 20 years of my life.

He said, that song met me and it stopped me.

He said, I checked myself into a facility that night and I've been clean for two months because of this song.

The weight of what these words are carrying.

Like that's the why - For more than four decades, Kelsey Grammar has given - Us characters that are sharp, heartfelt, flawed and brilliant.

Why are you choosing to use your voice, your clout, your power, your everything behind really a show with such a strong message.

- Right?

It's a good message.

It's a message that should be heard.

It's a truth that sort of echoes throughout the ages and, and has a story to tell again and again and again.

And when these things happen, we celebrate them.

- This was the moment that opened up something in him.

A reminder that there are stories preserved through time because they still speak to us.

Now, - The last time I toured the Vatican, I met a, a padre there, a priest.

The most extraordinary thing he did was take us behind the Sistine Chapel behind the, the what?

Just - A little behind the Sistine - Chapel, you know, the, the, and there's a little room back there.

I didn't know this.

And he said, it's called The Room of Tears.

And inside that room is a small papal vestment.

And whenever the guy is elected, the new guy is elected, he gets up, walks into that room, and they say at that moment is when they always cry.

- Mm.

- 'cause what's happened is extraordinary.

Right.

And suddenly they're carrying the keys.

You know, it's, it is an extraordinary thing.

- Amazing.

- And I, I've been grateful to him ever since.

It was an extraordinary thing.

And he said to me one day, he said, you know, I've got this fellow Pierre, this French guy, blah, blah, blah, who's doing a, a musical about St.

Bernadette.

Can I introduce you?

Yeah, sure.

And then Pierre sent along a, a video of it and I'm sitting at the You breakfast to go on.

Hey Kate, check this out.

You know, like St.

Bernadette and the young woman who plays St.

Bernadette is remarkable.

And I just thought, this is a performance that people should see.

- A story that first met him through friendship now calls him to advocacy.

You said there's this truth, there's this truth that runs through that people need to know.

What is that?

- It's about witnessing, I guess, the witness of, of the strength of God, of strength of, you know, this, this, this relationship we have with the creator and, and the gifts that he continues to give to us through any number of people and, and experiences and revelations.

- When did that happen for you?

- Well, it happened to me all through my childhood.

And then of course I lost it when my sister was killed.

So I, I I went through a, you know, a a sort of a crisis of faith.

But I mean, I honestly, I just dismissed faith through a good time in my life when I was a young man.

As a result of that, maybe acting sustained me in a lot of ways.

'cause it is, it is, it deals in the same things.

It deals with truths.

- His characters made us laugh, his performances made us think behind it all was a man navigating grief and rebuilding.

What is, do you have a favorite character you've played?

- Well, my favorite role that I ever played was actually Tom Kane, the mayor of Chicago.

- Okay, well welcome home.

- He was a wonderful 'cause.

He loved Chicago, he loved it.

And you know, with all its blemishes, with all its faults, the city of Big Shoulders, I, and he was a king.

- What do you hope in this moment with this play coming out that the audience walks away with?

- What I hope to find is that they can understand that there really is something beyond all this.

Something that actually, as they say, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

It means it's, it's right there.

You can - Always, you can always reach and get it.

Sometimes it's the place where everything - Feels lost, where new dreams begin.

You had a very big high and then you hit a very big low, but then you came out on top.

- It started, I was four years old, my mother in an abusive relationship with my father.

So she left my father.

She literally hit the road with the five kids, changed our name, left family, everything.

From that point, my mom started working two jobs.

You know, I was being brought up by the older siblings, a little bit on myself and had a rough goal.

You know, as I grew up, my mom got remarried and my stepdad and myself weren't really getting along.

So I was on my own at 15 years old.

At - 15, - I dropped out of school, high school, started working some labor jobs and ended up meeting some of the wrong people.

And I started growing cannabis at 25 years old.

- You were ahead of the times.

- Yeah, exactly.

And people ask me that question all the time, how do you feel about going to federal prison for something that's completely illegal?

I said, listen, I, I was not just growing cannabis, I was laundering money.

I - Was, there was a lot of encompassed in that.

- I got busted in 2010 and they, you know, pretty much took everything we had.

I have three children and I was married to my wife Carol when I went to federal prison.

I was 48.

- How long were you sentenced for?

- 11.8 years.

- 11.8.

And how long did you serve?

- I served four years.

- You served four.

- Thanks to Law Changes and I believe Divine Intervention, I turned myself in and they didn't have a bad for me, so I had to go to the hole.

If you know what the hole is.

- Yeah.

- It's, they call it the Shoe Segregated Housing Unit.

And you don't leave there.

There's no windows, there's no nothing.

Right.

It's a little slot where you get your food and couldn't call home, couldn't, there's no contact whatsoever.

The only thing that was in there was a, a old beat up bible on the top bunk.

And I said, you know what, I need this more than ever.

Right.

And I just started reading that Bible and it changed, you know, it changed my life.

- What made you want to get into writing?

'cause here you are, like you said, you're doing all these things, but yet you also wanted to become an author.

- So what made inspired me to Write The Keeper was I was also an ice hockey goalie for 27 years.

And I started very late in life.

So I started playing and I got to a level where I was skating with Ex Pros.

And then I started skating with current NHLs from all over the country.

I was invited to pre-training camps.

I just had this major passion for hockey all of a sudden.

And then one day I came home, I was sitting on the couch and this story just hit me, hit me really powerful.

And I was like, wow, that would make a really cool screenplay.

So I called a friend of mine, big Mike, and I said, Hey, I got this idea for a screenplay.

And he said, well Bob, you, you need to write a book first before you write the screenplay, you have to write a book.

And I said, okay.

So I didn't know anything about writing a book, but I took it on and just started.

I be, it became as passionate.

I was about hockey, about writing this novel.

I did so much.

I got my GED in federal prison.

I, I did multiple exercise programs and classes and I did, like I said, bible studies, tons of Bible studies.

I was making things to send home to my, my daughter.

I was afraid she was gonna forget me.

And so I would write, I would send her a card every week.

- So when you got out, was it more pertinent than ever that you had to get this book?

- I had my wife send the book into federal prison and the papers that - With your handwritten - Handwritten, so I started rewriting the whole book in there and added a lot of, there was some spiritual stuff I added in there, did my writing got much better.

- What do you hope your book does?

- Well, I hope it inspires people.

I know that, you know, I I it just came out and I read some of those reviews and it literally touched my heart because of the, it did inspire some of these people, you know, and it makes you want to, I've had people tell me that they joined a sport that they used to play after reading the book.

It makes you want to do a comeback.

It makes you inspired to do something, you know, healthy and good, you know.

- Do you feel like you've had your comeback?

- I do.

I do.

I feel like I had, I'm a completely different person.

I was, I believe that it was God's way of showing me a different path.

- Well, today we learned that even in life's toughest battles, light is always there and just ready to be seen.

Remember, your story matters.

- The Whitney Reynolds show is supported by 10 West Real Estate Group, a real estate investment partner specializing in multi-family, apartment investing and long-term wealth growth.

Kevin O'Connor Law Firm, when it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Respiratory Health Association, healthy lungs, and clean air for all.

Together at Peace Foundation, together at Peace creates hopeful space for grief and remembrance.

Through Comfort Club founder Christine Marlo shares her personal grief journey and faith, which has led to healing hearts, faith-based programs, supporting healing in communities.

Joe perillo.com where you can browse a selection of pre-owned vehicles.

Joe Perillo is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

Children's learning place, a school for our earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child with the power of learning center for beautiful living, empowering people to live rich, robust, and beautiful lives.

Additional funding provided by the Intrigue Yellow Chicago Lifestyle Foundation in Creative Lab, FMO High Five Sports Club Chicago Girl, strong empowerment apparel, and XOMD.

- On season 11 of the Whitney Reynolds Show, we leaned into stories that taught us what it means to truly be human.

- So I was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, couldn't speak till I was seven years old.

And it was definitely a rough journey trying to figure out who I am and what I wanted to do and trying to figure out my identity.

Basically, you know, going through bullying and, you know, trying to find myself and try to fit in and doing a lot of crazy stuff just to fit in with everybody and stuff.

And I just realized, you know what?

I need to stay true to myself and allow the drum to use me - From moments of heartbreak to powerful breakthroughs.

We saw courage firsthand.

- I was kidnapped at the age of 15.

The highest misconception about human trafficking is that once you're out of the life, you know you're safe, you're good, you're out of, you know that dynamic, but it doesn't leave you through it - All.

One truth kept rising to the surface.

Your story matters.

- You know, I want to turn childhood bullying into strength.

I want to turn grief into love, and I want to turn invisibility into representation.

All of those layers influence how I write and how I teach and how I show up for queer youth all over the place.

- As we close out this season, we carry these moments with us, not as memories, but as for reminder of what's possible when we show up, speak up and choose to believe again.

- You know, I think my entire career path has been about rolling the dice and taking risks on me.

The main thing you have to do, I believe, is believe in yourself.

Life actually is about you editing yourself.

You creating your own signature style.

But you have to believe that it's in there.

You've gotta go digging for it.

And of course, it doesn't just mean that it pops out of nowhere.

Hard work is a, is a, is a part of it.

You know, knowledge is power.

- Here's to the stories that inspired us and to the ones that still wait to be told.

- We've served kids here as young as 11 who are living a really hard life and lives that you would never dream of or imagine.

But we say it only takes one caring adult to change a child's life.

And we really do mean that.

- Want to stay connected to all things.

Whitney Reynolds will follow us on social media and you'll get exclusive content and updates from the show.

All episodes are available for streaming anytime.

Hi.