Structuring Chaotic Minds

Transforming Grief into Art: Zoe Martin's Journey of Photography and Resilience

• Zoe Martin • Season 3 • Episode 6

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What if photography could be more than just capturing moments—what if it could help you navigate life's ups and downs? Join us for a heartfelt conversation with talented photographer Zoe Martin, who transformed her passion for photography from a stay-at-home mom into a thriving career inspired by the iconic Anne Geddes. Zoe shares her emotional journey, including the resilience required to capture precious family memories and the loss of her grandfather during the pandemic. We explore how creativity becomes a lifeline, not just for preserving memories, but for processing grief and embracing life's challenges.

Engage with stories that underscore the power of being present—whether through photos, videos, or community projects. Discover the importance of legacy projects, born from poignant memories like a lost video of a road trip with a sister battling cancer, and the drive to preserve family stories through audio recordings. We also discuss the launch of a community-focused podcast with the late Mark Friedman, affectionately known as Frito, and how it continues to inspire listener advocacy for nonprofits. Tune in to celebrate the lasting impact of community and the bonds that make us resilient.


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Melissa Franklin:

Welcome back to Structuring Chaotic Minds, the podcast where we explore the complex journeys of navigating life's chaos and finding resilience on the other side, and this season we've been focusing on grief, regret, coping mechanisms and, ultimately, the power of resilience. Welcome to Structuring Chaotic Minds, the podcast where we turn the chaos of everyday challenges into structured success. I'm your host, melissa. In each episode, we'll explore innovative strategies, real-life stories and actionable insights to help you navigate the complexities of leadership, business and personal growth. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a leader or someone striving for personal development, this podcast will give you the tools to create clarity in the chaos. Let's dive in. Today, I'm excited to introduce our guest. Her name is Zoe Martin. Zoe is a talented photographer who captures life's most essential moments, and someone who's navigated her own deeply personal journey through grief itself. Zoe, welcome to the show.

Zoe Martin:

I'm so thankful that you invited me, Melissa.

Melissa Franklin:

Well, I'm so excited to have you here. Before we get into your story, can you briefly introduce yourself and share what brought you to the work of photography itself, like what drew you to this field?

Zoe Martin:

So I was a mom, a stay-at-home mom, I had three little ones and back in that day, ann Geddes was all the rage. She had the teddy bear calendars and sunflower, babies and things, and at that time there were no maternity and newborn photographers. As a matter of fact, Anne Geddes was told by other photographers that people wouldn't spend money on babies.

Zoe Martin:

Really, and so, yes, it was a really interesting story. Her journey. She opened the floodgates and obviously it became a thing. And so you know who didn't want pictures of their babies dressed up in a, you know, like a teddy bear looking outfit or in a flower pot looking like a sunflower. And so they were precious right.

Zoe Martin:

I had a book, I had a calendar, so I was not a photographer at the time, but I thought it would be really sweet if I could learn and take pictures of my babies. So I attempted and it was very much like the nailed it images. It was sad, but I tried. And then I thought you know what I enjoyed doing it, and there was actually a competition where you could get your baby on a product or something. And so I sat my youngest down and I got a chair and he's got gorgeous blue eyes. I'm Mexican. My husband, he's a Native American, but he's he's a mix, but we both have brown eyes, dark hair. He was born blue eyed and blonde, fair blonde, and I asked my husband, it was a cesarean. I said, did you watch them put the wristband on that baby? And he's like honey, he's ours, Uh, anyway. So it's too funny because, yeah, we're mexican and we're at.

Zoe Martin:

you know we have these ginormous reunions and celebrations and, yeah, he's the only one boy for sure that is hilarious so I'd taken his pictures and I put him in the competition, but I had red eye, a ginormous amount of red eye on that photo because his eyes were so light and I had so much light coming in and I didn't know how to fix it and anyway it wound up not being a great photo, but it was pretty good if I could have figured out the red eye. So I decided to educate myself and online learning was very important to at that time. It was important to creatives.

Zoe Martin:

And there was a course called Creative Live, which is still in existence, and I like dove into it. I would watch it day and night. And then I took a course at the community college and then I started my business and newborns were my main source source of income there for a while, and then I got hired at a studio. So I've evolved since then and I've I've added a lot of different photography, but now I'm a member of the Dallas Professional Photographers Association, the Texas Professional Photographers Association and the Professional Photographers of America.

Melissa Franklin:

I love that that journey definitely is. It's almost like the hobby. You really love it and it keeps taking you in that direction. But it evolves because it really is your passion and that's so cute that you bring that up. About the babies, I've always wanted one of those pictures where they were wrapped in like almost like a cocoon and looking all cutely.

Melissa Franklin:

But yeah, I couldn't afford them at the time, so that was definitely that's something we had. They got their Walmart portraits. That's a good thing, but they'll be okay, it'll be fine. I'll probably do it with the grandbabies. Um anywho thinking about, I can tell you definitely want to capture meaningful moments. I know your journey has also included navigating some incredible challenges that were really emotional experiences. Can you walk us through those experiences that impacted you so emotionally and how did you begin processing them?

Zoe Martin:

How did you begin processing them? I've shared some of it with you, but in reality we could back up a little bit, because during the early 2000s grandpa had a sickness and we were worried that we were going to lose him.

Zoe Martin:

And everybody went to the hospital and I remember I was always the family member who had the camera and before cell phones were a thing, I had the camera in my hand and I was always getting pictures of family moments and memories and I had my camera at the hospital. Grandma and grandpa gave each other a hug and then they held hands and I remember I still have this photo and I absolutely love it of them holding hands and his little, his wristband you know, from the hospital there on his hand. It was precious because we didn't know if he was going to make it out of the surgery. And then, um, that I mean obviously when you have moments like that, they're they're meaningful, not just for for the person who's taking the photo, but obviously grandma and grandpa at you know he came out of the surgery and he was OK. We lost him during COVID.

Melissa Franklin:

So that was tough.

Zoe Martin:

Yeah, and when that happened, I, that's actually when I had the idea for legacy projects, but I never did anything with it. So then my, I have three sisters, I also have a brother, and one of my sisters was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was almost six years ago. She was 35 years old and so you can't see it very well. I am wearing pink and I have a little breast cancer pendant here and then I'm wearing her bracelet, but we'll get to that part in a minute. So she was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer when she was 35 and she had one child my niece this is so, so hard when she was 40. Wow, we had a surprise birthday party and it was the cutest thing, she was so adorable. So imagine before she was diagnosed she was a surprise birthday party and it was the cutest thing, she was so adorable. So imagine before she was diagnosed.

Zoe Martin:

She was a marathon runner, she was fit, she was a teacher, she was very involved in her daughter. My niece played, she was in gymnastics, she played, or she was a swim, swim meet and just super involved in anything that my niece would do. My, my, my sister Christina was there for everything, and when she was diagnosed with cancer. She, because she taught she would purposefully plan things around her teaching schedule. The double mastectomy was during Christmas break. Her chemo and radiation would be on her time off. You know, when she had breaks during the day she didn't want to miss teaching. And it was really hard. It was so hard to watch her go through the chemo and the radiation and the steroid shots, you know, losing her hair and the weight gain. And then during COVID, there's a good possibility that one of her blood transfusions was done with a COVID patient's blood because she lost her sense of smell and she lost her sense of taste and she wasn't hungry anyway but then she had to eat with. You know, you can't smell or taste anything. And yeah, it made it hard.

Zoe Martin:

And, um, the last two weeks of her life I was with her through hospice and Christmas Eve I lost her. I was there. I was there. My um head was on her mattress. I slept beside her and yeah, that was really tough, slept beside her and yeah, that was really tough. But the hardest thing was there in those two weeks because we'd known for five years and she had had a plan to write her daughter letters. One of my sisters created stationery, cecilia had Disney characters and things from Disney envelopes and stationery and I'd forgotten that my sister was going to write these. But Christina woke up in a moment of clarity and was like go get the letters. And I thought, wow, she remembered. And if she hadn't have remembered, you know nobody. There were people that knew but we wouldn't have thought to go look for them. And, long story short, she knew exactly where they were. I got them, I came into the room and I was so happy that she remembered and I opened up the letters and there was no writing. She hadn't written a single one.

Zoe Martin:

And then I thought she's on this medication that is making her groggy. You know she's sleeping a lot. She couldn't hold her cup, much less write a letter. And I knew that I wouldn't be able to write fast enough to say what she needed to say. And I said, sweetheart, we're going to, we're just going to record these and we'll worry about getting pen to paper later. And I got my cell phone and I recorded her saying what she wanted to say to her daughter. And after the first letter we recorded a second one and then she fell asleep and just later that day we tried to record a third one, but she was so groggy from the medication that we could barely understand what she was saying. So I put those three videos together and I talked to her her mother-in-laws and I said I don't want to write these letters. It's not her handwriting, it's not really from her. And we all agreed we would just give her daughter the videos.

Zoe Martin:

So the night of the celebration of life, I laid down on the bed with my niece and I said, sweetheart, I got something for you. And I pulled out my phone and I gave her the letters and I explained to her that her mama had wanted to write these letters, but she didn't get the chance. And what made it worse? We're sitting there on the bed and the dog is at the foot of the bed, and as soon as she heard my sister's voice, that dog whipped her head around and that made it worse. We both just started bawling. Um, so we have those videos, but that that is not the way she wanted to be remembered her hair gone, you, she was so thin and oxygen, you know that's that's not how she wanted to be remembered. So brought me back to legacy projects ah, I appreciate you for sharing that.

Melissa Franklin:

Um, I think I moved. I don't want to make it about me, but it definitely hit in so many ways. When my son was born, they found a lump in my breast shortly after he came home from the hospital. After he came home from the hospital and I had surgery on both sides, and so I understand those pieces and not knowing if you're going to be there for your kids. And then my grandfather was in a nursing home and he contracted COVID and he passed away during COVID and all those things have carried over into like who I am and why I speak up for the things I speak up for, because a lot of the medications or different things over years have impacted me, but we never think to stop and share the story. I can be so busy trying to advocate or share those things as you share.

Melissa Franklin:

Right now I have patches of hair coming out because there's so much going on, um, and I forget to record those moments. So I think what you're doing is so special and it's important, but we never want to think about it in a morbid way, because we never want to think we're going to be left. And I totally resonate with that because when I ask my clients all the time, who do you want to be when you die? That's probably the most morbid question I could ask them and it becomes uncomfortable. So I think what you're doing is definitely important, but a lot of people don't think about it until it's a little bit too late. So, um, I really love that it's, it's different and it's a.

Melissa Franklin:

It would get me into the question that I was going to ask and how did you cope with those specific times and how did you manage to work through them? Um, so it's important to acknowledge those struggles. It's important to acknowledge what we've gone through and those similarities, because a lot of people go through those things, but we just kind of don't acknowledge the grief and give it the attention it deserves, if that makes sense. So thank you for sharing that. Um, since people listening might be going through something similar right now, I want to shift to something else that we often experience with grief, and that's regret. How has the regret, or even witnessing other people's regret, played a role in your journey and how has it changed the way you're living your life now?

Zoe Martin:

I have a lot of regret with my sister, because it was five years that we had her and I guess we just thought she was going to live forever. It didn't matter that it was stage four. She kept on having birthdays and so I took for granted the time that we did have together. There was a trip that we got to take, just her and I we've drove to Arizona, I think three years ago, just her and I drove the whole way there and the whole way back we went to pick up, um, one of our or both of our nieces, one of our nieces, so they could go to a family reunion with us. And on that trip we had so much fun and she slept a lot, but when she was awake we were jamming out to the music and there was, uh, cindy Lauper. Girls just want to have fun. Came on, I'm driving and I got my cell phone because she leans over and we're just singing and it was maybe, maybe a 15, 30 second clip of video, but for some reason I deleted that video. And a huge regret. So yeah, I would. I would love to have that back, but I'll have that in my memory.

Zoe Martin:

And the hardest part about that was after I left Christmas Eve I came home and my husband was driving and the song Girls Just Want to have Fun came on and I immediately you know that that overwhelm of regret hit me and I don't think I talked the rest of the way home and he's like are you okay? And I'm like, you know, I don't know what okay is anymore. And, um, the other thing that I really regret is she. Oh I I don't know if I can actually tell this part, because that one's going to be too hard. There's a lot of regret. There's a lot of regret, but one of the things she I didn't tell her I had where my sister lived in Longview, texas, and that's where we lived before we moved to the Dallas Fort Worth area. So I had a lot of friends in Longview and I contacted one of my photography friends and I said my sister has breast cancer. She's not going to be with us much longer, but all of the sisters are going to be together. We hadn't had a professional portrait in over 30 years. I said would you please come so we'll have one more picture together? And she said absolutely. And then one of my sisters she lives out of state and when she came to visit, she hadn't seen my sister's regression I had. She was at my house just a few weeks before that and so I knew the decline that, and so I knew the decline. But Stephanie didn't. And when Stephanie saw her she was just. I think it took her breath away to see her frail and laying there in a hospital bed with oxygen and no hair, and so I called the photographer and I said Christina doesn't want to be remembered this way, so I canceled her and we didn't get that picture, and that's another reason.

Zoe Martin:

Legacy projects it's always been in the back of my head that people need to take. They need to take time to enjoy the moments that we have with people. We have phones, we have the ability to take pictures and to take video, but are we really capturing the moments that matter? Do you remember family home movies? We used to sit down and have the whole wall where you'd have the family movies, right, because grandpa or somebody in the family, uncle, recorded the milestones, right, the celebrations and go around in people's faces and these candid moments, and then we watched them together. We don't do that anymore.

Zoe Martin:

You're not wrong, and then we watch them together. We don't do that anymore, you're not wrong. So that's one of the options with the legacy projects is let me come in and capture that for you, because you need to be in the moment, you don't need to be the one that's taking those pictures and video. You need to be in the pictures and video, especially if you're a mom, especially if you're a mom, right?

Melissa Franklin:

I love that you point that out. I'm always so. There's no pictures of me. Was I there? I don't plan everything. What happened? Oh man, it's really powerful how regret can reshape our priorities. But something that's really stood out to me about you is that you found a way to turn those experiences into something meaningful. Can you talk about how you found the strength and the purpose, I guess, to channel that journey into your work?

Zoe Martin:

Oh yeah, I'm glad that I did. I wasn't going to Like, I said I had considered doing it after grandpa passed away, and then I've had great conversations with grandma since then and every now and then, like she's got a great memory. We just celebrated her 85th birthday, is that? Is it 85th? Oh no, her 95th. Wow, like, two weeks ago is her 95th birthday.

Zoe Martin:

And every now and then, because her memory is so good, I will get out my phone and I will put it on video. But I'm recording the audio really, cause she doesn't want me to record her face and I'm. Audio is great because you, you, when you hear someone's voice, you don't have to ask who it is. When there's someone that you love, you know their voice, right. So I ask her intentional questions Tell me about when you were growing up, tell me about your mom, tell me about your sisters, and I have so many videos that are audio only of grandma and remembering these things that she's not going to remember them much longer. She's not going to remember them much longer. She's not going to be around much longer, and so I'm going to have these precious times that I know I'll be able to remember, when we sat across from each other and I asked these questions that were important to me.

Zoe Martin:

So, with Christina, honestly, I didn't know that this would be something. I would start for my business, and the hard part about it is that I still have siblings who are alive, right? So, cecilia, stephanie, ray, david, they're, they're all part of my life, but I'm constantly talking about Christina, and so I'm not trying to to leave them out, but I still have them, right? So, because I lost, we all lost Christina. Christina was our best friend, as a matter of fact, among the sisters. Christina was kind of our glue and even though she was my little sister she was 10 years younger than I am Um, we all contacted her when things were going on.

Zoe Martin:

I don't know why it was that way, but we did. And so, for the legacy projects, I was telling someone about it and I said you know, one day I want to do something to honor her and I want to give back to the community as well. And so I presented the idea that this was my thinking, whether it be having people create, like, a video like this where they're documenting, maybe, information that they haven't shared. You know, there's some things that we haven't told our kids that someday we'll tell them right.

Zoe Martin:

Maybe, Right, okay. Well, what if the someday is? We record it now, I hang on to it, I keep it in a safe place until you say it's time, and if that time is after you're gone, that's when I'll release it. So it can be private, it could be personal or it can be something, maybe family history. You know, like I couldn't. I couldn't smell anything. There was a shampoo that if I smelled it, I about gagged.

Zoe Martin:

So you know funny things. You know through a pregnancy cause all pregnancies are different remembering different things and making these stories unique to each of your children or to your siblings, or to your parents or your grandparents or your aunts or uncles. I mean, the thing about the legacy projects is they're personal and they can be as in-depth or as subtle as you need them to be, but the idea is that you're leaving a legacy behind and they can be photos or they can be video or they can be both, and I think there's just so much power behind this. And when I was telling some people about the ideas they're like this is incredible. I said well, here's the thing to honor Christina. I want 10% to go back to some kind of breast cancer nonprofit and I, at the time when I lost my sister, I reached out to the cancer support network of North Texas and I got into a group uh, a loss group, and that was that actually was harder for me.

Zoe Martin:

It was supposed to be a support group, but I am extremely emotional. Every time I heard somebody else's story I was like, oh my word, let me, you know, let me come into my circle, let me help you. How can I help you? And so in reality, that's who I am Like. I'm very emotional and I love to help people. That gift of mercy.

Zoe Martin:

But it actually wasn't helping me, it was making it worse for me. So I had to step out of the support group and then I called them and I said, look, I know you deal with all kinds of cancer, but to honor Christina's legacy, I want to donate back to breast cancer of some kind, some kind of nonprofit. And they referred me to an organization that helps underserved communities in DFW with breast cancer resources and that is the Bridge Breast Network. So I was very fortunate last week, this week, tuesday, I got to meet the executive director of the Bridge Breast Network and I hosted her on the podcast. So she's going to be sharing the story of her 20 years there with that organization and 10% of every legacy project is going to be donated back to the Bridge Breast Network in honor of my sister.

Melissa Franklin:

I love that. Congratulations.

Zoe Martin:

Thank you.

Melissa Franklin:

I think it's inspiring. You're able to turn that grief into a purpose, and that is not a small feat. It's definitely takes a lot of courage to do it and to keep going with it and keep pushing. So I think it gives hope to many who might feel stuck in that place right now, that they don't really feel like they're ever going to find the other side, or the sense of peace on that other side, or the sense of like this is why. So, for those that are audience, who might be struggling to find their way through their own grief, what advice would you give them about finding resilience and eventually like being able to move forward?

Zoe Martin:

I don't know if you saw the smile that just like it couldn't help spreading across my face there. As soon as you said purpose I think that is what that brought me out of my grief was I realized that, yeah, I just our whole entire family, had this huge loss. But what was the purpose Like? What can be birthed from this? And it was the purpose of the legacy projects and then being able to give back. I think that is an incredibly powerful thing inside of us as human beings believe most people are good and find a way to be that good by giving back, and that's why I decided that the legacy projects would be. It's not just for me to make money, it's for me to create a history, a legacy for families and then from that, to encourage other people to find resources for breast cancer. So giving back is is a big, big deal to me, and that's why the podcast that I created was again, it was birth, because the the gentleman I don't know.

Zoe Martin:

Did you ever know Frito Mark Friedman? He was? I don't know. Did you ever know Frito Mark Friedman? He was? He was with the ticket and anybody who DFW, who listens to sports, knows who Frito is Frito. And I started that podcast because we wanted people to find what, what drove them to give back to the community. And there's. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is that feeling when you're giving back to people. So find, find your passion and give back.

Melissa Franklin:

I love that. Zoe, can you tell us more, then, about your podcast, where people can find you and this whole legacy project? What is that?

Zoe Martin:

Yeah, I'd love to, and I didn't mean to bring up my podcast. No, I want to hear about it.

Melissa Franklin:

Definitely I'm like, oh, giving back to the community. I'm there so I can listen to podcasts all day. It does not have to be mine. Mine are usually maybe 20 minutes. There's other stuff to listen to throughout the day, but tell me more about yours.

Zoe Martin:

Okay. So Mark Friedman, frito and I had started a podcast. Last year in July I went to him with an idea. I have a giving circle, it's called caring for Collin County, and the idea is that we get a hundred different people to donate a hundred dollars four times a year. So collectively, four times a year, we're able to give $10,000 back to a nonprofit organization. So I haven't worked out all the particulars. We won't have 100 members yet, but when we get there, that's the goal.

Zoe Martin:

And because I wanted to get there, I went to Frito and I said, listen, I've got this giving circle. I can't get it off the ground, but I know that people love to give back. What if there was like a one-stop resource where they could find out how they could give back, but not just like find a website, hear about it? Right, could we, could, could we start a podcast, or can I? I mean, can you help me? And he said, zoe, I love that idea. I just pitched it to a sponsor five months ago but I haven't heard back from them and I was like, oh heavens. I said, well, if you get it off, so we had some technical difficulties there.

Melissa Franklin:

No worries, can you continue telling us about your podcast and what that does for the community?

Zoe Martin:

Yeah, okay. So I I told Frito that if he started it that I would be interested in helping. He said can you co-host? I've never been on a podcast, I don't know. He's like you can do it, trust me. And I was like, okay, so this is July, what do you think? January? And he said no, september. I said that means we've got to like hit the ground running. He's like yeah. I said that means we've got to like hit the ground running. He's like yeah, let's do it Okay. So in August I lined up guests, we started recording in September. We aired in October.

Zoe Martin:

He passed away unexpectedly October 1st and I had talked to him that Friday and I said Frito, my sister's getting out of ICU, I need to go see her. Can we record Tuesday virtually. And he said, oh yeah, go see your sister, take care of her. Always, family first, right. So Monday morning I woke up and tons of text messages Zoe, you need to check Facebook. Zoe, have you checked Facebook? And I got on there and I saw that he'd passed away on Sunday. Facebook. And I got on there and I saw that he passed away on Sunday. And I was Lord, completely unexpected, and I drove to my sister's house. It was almost three hours and I cried the entire way because Fredo was my soul, the soulmate for giving back. He and I were knit at the heart and I loved the friendship that we had, because that was what it was. It was a friendship for giving back.

Zoe Martin:

And so, when the podcast ended, nobody had access to any of the passwords, any of the backend information, and everything that was not aired is gone, and so I had people that told me that they would be interested in producing it, but nothing ever came around. And the power of connections, melissa, you know how important connections can be I mean you and me and I mean just so incredible. And I had a one to one with someone and I was mentioning the podcast and how I'd love to get it off the ground again. He said you know, you're the third person this week who's told me about Frito. I'm going to connect you with somebody. So he connected me to Buddy Broyles and I didn't know Buddy, and so Buddy didn't know Frito and I was.

Zoe Martin:

I was really confused. I'm like I'm not sure why he connected us and he said well, I have a podcast production company, it's Studio VLS, visual Learning Solutions, and I would like to produce the podcast if you want to host it. And I was like, are you serious? So after that phone conversation we met in person and we talked some more and you know what this could look like and what it looked like when Frito and I did it. And so, um, and I think he and I talked in August and then in September we started recording and then we launched October 1st in honor of Frito's passing it was the one year anniversary and the really cool thing about that is our very first guest was Casa of Collin County.

Zoe Martin:

Somebody asked me about the podcast. They listened to it and immediately applied to become an advocate. So I'm like full circle, like that is what Frito and I wanted was to show people how to give back. This is an opportunity for you to give back. And I think another thing people don't often think okay, with a nonprofit, I need to give my finances. That's not the case.

Zoe Martin:

You can and it's appreciated. But man your time volunteering, organizing, being someone sitting at the table in an event, helping with fundraising, spreading the word, telling other people about it, liking, commenting, sharing their information there's so many different ways you can support a nonprofit. So, shameless plug. If you are in the DFW area, we would love for you to check out our podcast. But more than that, if you are involved in a nonprofit and you post about it, if you will tag part of NTX, then we will randomly choose guests to come on to the podcast so that you can tell us about how you chose the nonprofit that you did, what you're doing whether if it's with your coworkers or your family or your friends, maybe it's just you and tell us why you chose that nonprofit and what you did for them. We would love to feature you.

Zoe Martin:

Legacy projects legacy projects that's like my heartbeat right, and I found it through this journey of grief and it's really it's intentional photo and video, whether it's family history that we're documenting, if it's milestones I have one planned for November that I'm super. This is an incredible story. The person who wants to do this has four, three, three sisters. No, she has two sisters and a brother. Their mom is completely deaf and raised these four kids four hearing kids and so the three sisters are going to get together. This is the original plan. The three sisters are going to get together. This is the original plan. The three sisters are going to get together with two of the daughters and the mom. The sisters and the mom don't know about this, just the person who's hiring me.

Zoe Martin:

And so I said what do you, what are you thinking? Let me, let me just write this down. Tell me everything you love about each one of them. So we have all of these things written down. And then she said she is brilliant, she is amazing, she is, she's giving me these adjectives, she's going to make t-shirts for each one of them that have these adjectives. I am, and. And so these sisters and the mom don't know this is happening. But today she came to me and she said Zoe, twist to the story, there's going to be another sister. And I'm like what? And so, ancestrycom, there's another sister that didn't grow up with them, that they just found, and the sister just booked her tickets to be here. So I'm like what? So, yeah, this is going to be incredible, yeah, and I'm going to do photos and videos and the way that we're finessing it is. The sisters think they're going to be part of an article in a magazine. That's why that's why I'm going to reach out to them and ask them questions.

Melissa Franklin:

I like it. I like it. Well, I'm definitely going to have to. I know you've already met Alyssa, but you guys will have to connect a little bit further because her next project with her podcasting is going to tie into yours as she's pushing her nonprofit and trying to give back now on the other side. We'll definitely have to connect more on that.

Zoe Martin:

I just want to put in oh, are you pausing?

Melissa Franklin:

Go ahead.

Zoe Martin:

I just wanted to put in a plug, because you have amazing kids, like all of the things that they're doing, and, man, I love that you're so supportive and encouraging to them and you can just tell they're going to flourish. I love that. Good job, mama.

Melissa Franklin:

Thank you. I appreciate that. I just like to say I gave birth to that, so I can take the credit for that. Well, thank you so much, zoe, for sharing your story and insights. Your strength and vulnerability today truly is going to resonate with so many people. I know your work will continue to inspire others and help them find that healing and the purpose that they need in their own lives and to our listeners. Thank you so much for joining us for another episode of Structuring Chaotic Minds. Remember, resilience is a journey and no matter where you are, there is always a way forward. We'll see you next time. Thank you for tuning into Structuring Chaotic Minds. If today's episode resonated with you, don't forget to subscribe, share and leave a review. Remember, the key to success is not avoiding chaos, but learning how to structure it. Stay inspired, keep growing and join me next time as we continue to transform challenges into opportunities. Until then, take care and keep structuring your chaotic mind.