00:00:00
This is exactly right. Isn't some far off concept? It's already here. Next starts now.
00:00:33
Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Goodbye. When a charming neurosurgeon rode into Frontier Town
00:00:39
selling a persona of confidence and care, patients trusted him. He wore cowboy boots in the operating room
00:00:45
and became sought after by patients. He promised to heal them. Instead, he left a trail of broken bodies.
00:00:51
This is a story of greed, betrayal, and a fight for justice. Listen to Dr. Death the Cowboy wherever you get your podcasts
00:00:58
or binge the entire series right now only with Audible. Goodbye. Where does summer take you?
00:01:05
Maybe it's a coastal road trip or a quiet morning with the windows wide open. Summer smells like bright citrus, warm sand,
00:01:11
and endless possibilities. With Pura's smart diffusers and the new summer collection,
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00:01:20
Find your summer escape today. Visit Pura.com to learn more. Goodbye. My favorite murder
00:01:35
Hello and welcome to My Favorite Murder. This is the mini-sode. Oh, right. Yes, it is.
00:01:47
This is the mini-sode. We've been doing this for years. It's fine. We know what we're doing and we always have.
00:01:54
Trust us. Trust us. With your life. And your emails, which you sent to us. Yes, you did.
00:01:59
And we're going to read them. Good job. Good intro. Thanks so much. You want to go first?
00:02:02
This is for Mother's Day? Oh, yes. So we're doing kind of an unconventional salute to mother-like figures or mothers or mother's situations.
00:02:13
The way they've shown up for you in different ways. In any way a mother or a mother-like figure can.
00:02:18
Right. No one's going to check this. We can do it any way we want to. Okay. Okay, this one is from a fan cult member named Erin, and it starts, Sadako made my childhood better, my adolescence tolerable, and my adulthood enjoyable.
00:02:35
My uncle's mother-in-law, Sadako, a tiny, feisty, funny Japanese woman who brooked no shit from anyone, something?
00:02:44
Yeah, brooked, well, it's brooked no something. That's like an old-fashioned saying.
00:02:51
Who brooked no, what's it called? Quarter? Yes. Really? I think so. Led Zeppelin.
00:02:58
That's purely from Led Zeppelin. Boom. Yeah. Who broke no shit from anyone, made my life so much better.
00:03:04
So this is the mother-in-law of her uncle, which is like so random and you don't even
00:03:08
have to be nice to that person, but she's. Yes, exactly. But those are the people that like the family functions where you're like, I need to go
00:03:14
sit by Sadako because she's the best. Okay. She would slip me candy, clean the glass doors so well.
00:03:20
I walked into them more than once, made me feel seen and encouraged me to live my life before doing anything my other relatives expected of me, i.e. marriage, children, and all that BS that was pressed upon me starting at 14.
00:03:33
Gross. I love that she slipped and cleaned the glass windows so we walked into them.
00:03:38
Yeah, like that's how dedicated she was to whatever she was doing. It sounded to me like two pluses and a minus hidden in there.
00:03:45
As an adult, my home intentionally was located near hers. We would do store runs, lunches out, picture all 90 pounds of her eating a massive Wagyu burger the size of her face, shared treats from her family in Japan, some great and some I learned were absolutely foul as I ate it, much to her joy, and generally demanded that any event I was required to attend that I would be the one to chauffeur her so we could bail early and just have a nice drive home where we would take detours to just drive through all the green and sunshine in spring and summer.
00:04:18
She passed April 16th, 2022, and I cherish the memories I have with her. While the rest of my extended family doesn't understand or even really know how much she meant to me, she is still a light in my life.
00:04:29
Pictures I have of her holding my firstborn, a daughter, and her telling me that I did everything right and that she was so proud of me in whatever I did carries me through when times are hard.
00:04:40
She is loved and missed every day. May everyone have someone like her in their life, Erin.
00:04:46
And before we started, you were like, you're going to cry. No, no, but you said, I'm going to cry.
00:04:50
I'm going to break. And I'm like, I don't break for mothers. But this is what I want to be.
00:04:55
That's your bumper sticker. I don't break for mothers. I don't break for mothers.
00:04:59
But this is what I want to be in someone's life when I'm older. Because I don't have kids.
00:05:03
You are. With Micah? Like with your nephews? They don't care. I think a girl. They don't act like they don't care.
00:05:10
I mean, they act like they don't care. But they do. Because that's the other thing is I think that anti-position, it's not about you giving them anything.
00:05:18
They give to you and you just kind of follow. And that's the piece of it. Okay. You know?
00:05:24
This is what I aspire to be is Sadako. Sadako. Yeah. May we all. Yeah. Okay. I don't break for mothers.
00:05:31
I don't break for mothers. And people are driving behind you like, what is her problem?
00:05:38
Okay, the subject line of this is that one time my adoptive parents stole me lighthearted
00:05:44
And it says i'll just jump right in I was removed from my home when I was eight years old and raised by my aunt and uncle who would eventually become my parents
00:05:52
Before this happened though I seen some seriously bad parenting for a few years My biological mother tried to get sober many times and during one impromptu rehab stay she left me at her sleazy friend Lainey apartment
00:06:05
This woman liked pills a lot and frequently fell asleep while driving me around.
00:06:10
One time she thought she was parked and took her foot off the brake, and we slowly crept down a small hill into oncoming traffic.
00:06:17
I got to save the day that day. Eight years old. I mean. I don't ever remember telling anyone all the crazy shenanigans this lady got us into, but somehow my badass aunt and RN knew I wasn't safe.
00:06:33
She came up with a sneaky plan that I never knew about until years later when she nostalgically asked me,
00:06:38
Remember that time I stole you from Lainey's? I did remember being there for an entire summer, but couldn't remember details.
00:06:46
Her plan was to tell Lainey that they were having a birthday party for my cousin and she would pick me up
00:06:50
and they could make arrangements to return me after the party. Later that day, Lainey called to ask if I was ready to be picked up,
00:06:56
and my aunt answered with a simple, no thanks, we've got it from here, and never brought me back.
00:07:03
Oh my God. Okay, it's going to get me. I had no idea any of this went on since I was used to being shuffled around
00:07:11
and these people seemed nice. My aunt, who eventually became my adoptive mother,
00:07:15
SSD GMed and got me the F out of there. Stay sexy and when in doubt, steal your niece.
00:07:22
Side note, I realize I was one of the lucky ones. Hold on. God damn it. This is what this whole thing is about.
00:07:31
I know. The people who understand how at-risk children can be even when it's not the worst situation.
00:07:39
I realize I was one of the lucky ones. I was not one of the many children who have to gather their belongings in trash bags and be thrown into a scary situation.
00:07:47
I'm forever grateful and pay it forward whenever I can. Love you all. Sarah. Oh my God,
00:07:53
Sarah. Sarah and her badass aunt. That's just like, no, no. Yeah. Yeah. It's gorgeous.
00:08:00
So good. While the world watches the stars at the FIFA world cup this summer, Hyundai has its eyes on the next generation of talent.
00:08:08
The future soccer stars who are already turning heads at age 14, making plays that end up on everyone's feed,
00:08:13
scoring from angles that don't make sense, rewriting record books that barely had time to gather dust.
00:08:19
Because Next doesn't wait for an invitation, and Hyundai doesn't either. Hyundai has always moved the future within reach.
00:08:24
Hyundai did it by making advanced safety standard on every vehicle. Hyundai did it by engineering EVs with ultra-fast charging capability.
00:08:32
And Hyundai continues doing it every day. From robotics that change how people live to young athletes changing the game,
00:08:38
the future isn't some far-off concept. It's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA.
00:08:44
Goodbye. Pandora jewelry brings the sparkle to summer, now with even better prices.
00:08:50
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00:08:56
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00:09:01
Terms and conditions apply. See pandora.net for more details. Goodbye. Okay, this is wedding dress treasure.
00:09:11
Dear fellow LA peoples and creatures. In 2008, my mom was diagnosed with mesothelioma, that bitch of a cancer caused by asbestos.
00:09:21
Horrible. She underwent chemotherapy and refused to lose a single hair on her head because she was too stubborn and vain for that shit.
00:09:27
How did she do that? I don't know. Wow. Super glue? I mean, that's amazing. Like, I'm not doing it.
00:09:32
While her long-term prognosis wasn't great, she was doing pretty well and underwent cancer-related surgery in February 2009.
00:09:39
the expectation was for her to come through the surgery and my siblings and I were planning on
00:09:43
taking turns caring for her after the surgery back in our hometown in Pennsylvania. But things
00:09:48
didn't go as planned and she died from complications from the surgery on her 69th birthday. So we ended
00:09:54
up unexpectedly planning a funeral and packing up her house in the weeks following her death.
00:09:59
I was going through a cardboard box of photos from the 60s and at the bottom of the box under
00:10:03
all these photos there was a crumpled up plastic bag with what looked like a lace tablecloth.
00:10:08
My mother was exceedingly organized, so it was odd to have something stuffed randomly in there, but I pulled it out to see what it was.
00:10:15
I shook it out, took it out of the plastic bag, and was surprised to see that it was her wedding dress from when she married my father in 1965.
00:10:23
White dress, knee-length empire waist with long lace sleeves, one that Georgia would love.
00:10:29
And I have a photo of it, and it looks identical to my actual wedding dress. For real?
00:10:33
Pretty much. That's amazing. Not a stain on it, not a tear, not a riff, basically in perfect condition despite being stored in the worst way for over 40 years.
00:10:42
I tried it on because, of course, and it fit me perfectly. Sweet, right? But it was especially meaningful because right before her surgery, I had told my mom on the phone that my boyfriend and I were looking for a house and were planning on getting married.
00:10:55
My first marriage had gone down in flames, and the fact that I was getting remarried to a man who loved me and my two young daughters made her incredibly happy.
00:11:05
According to my sister, she was singing going to the chapel when she came out of the surgery.
00:11:10
In 2010, 10 months after my mom died, I wore her perfect dress and walked with my two little girls in the backyard of our new home to marry my amazing husband.
00:11:20
I feel like it was my mom's way of being at the wedding, even when she couldn't be there.
00:11:24
Below are photos of my mom, Kathy, and dad, Dan. Good job. Thank you. On their wedding day and one of me in the dress on mine.
00:11:33
Oh, and please make those fuck you, I'm remarried sweats. Oh. Because I need them.
00:11:40
Why have we never thought? Brilliant. Thanks for all you've done in so many ways, SSDGM.
00:11:46
And remember to not pack cool family heirlooms and Ziploc bags and cardboard boxes ever, Julie.
00:11:52
And so I think we can show the photos. Look at that dress The origin It amazing And then let see That is your dress Julie it is It crazy Like the scallop top Yes So beautiful
00:12:05
I'm not trying to cut in on your thing, but that also looks like my wedding dress because
00:12:09
I wore my mom's wedding dress. Yeah. You wore your mom's wedding dress. Yeah. And similar vibe.
00:12:13
Yeah. It was just longer. Yeah. Pretty. So pretty. You know what? Maybe it's the thing of they're like, it's not the classic Mother's Day because her mother
00:12:22
died. Right. Right. But I love the idea of a mother that has fucking mesothelioma.
00:12:27
It was like trying to like get through every day and it's like, I have to make sure she finds this dress.
00:12:33
So she sticks it in a box. Okay. So this one, the subject line is surrogate mother.
00:12:41
It says, hey folks, growing up, my mother was a raging narcissist with the dead eyes and emotions of a 400 year old shark.
00:12:48
Wow. That's the best description I've ever heard of anyone. I'm like, I know what you're talking about.
00:12:53
I mean, right? Let's just get it right out there. My dad was a vodka-soaked guitar player still chasing his dreams of stardom while mentally being stuck in the 80s.
00:13:02
They did their best to raise me while still being kids themselves, but there was always a very deep lack of emotion in our relationship, and I felt alone a lot.
00:13:12
My childhood best friend's mother became my surrogate mother. Her name was Barbara.
00:13:17
A teenager growing up in the 80s, she had the best stories. She partied with some of the musicians I was obsessed with.
00:13:24
She encouraged me to be myself, but she also called me on my bullshit. Since the second grade, she bought me clothes, meals, and let me sleep over at her house whenever I needed a break from my own.
00:13:35
Sorry. I knew it. I was reading this. I was like, Karen is going to fucking lose it.
00:13:39
I mean, it's like, A, did I not eat breakfast? But B, that's how my mom grew up because both of her parents were alcoholics.
00:13:46
And my Aunt Kay Kirkpatrick, Anton Giovanni, was her best friend. And she was raised by them.
00:13:53
So when we were growing up, we had my grandma who we loved and was great. But then we had the Kirkpatricks that I was always like, who are these people who are also our grandparents?
00:14:02
Yeah. I mean, I was thinking about like your friends and neighbors and this person and you call people cousins.
00:14:07
Like you have a huge. Huge. Yeah. So I was like, she's going to cry at every single one of these.
00:14:12
I'm going to relate to every single person. If we do a cat episode, I will cry at every single one.
00:14:18
She even drove me all over town for an entire day looking for an apartment to move into when I was 17.
00:14:24
And my own mother told me she couldn't afford to have me live in her house anymore.
00:14:28
She was riotously funny, sarcastic, and I loved her. She adopted me as her own child, and her house became my safe space until I was almost 20.
00:14:38
She taught me a lot. Barbara passed away in her sleep from a heart attack in her late 40s in 2018.
00:14:44
That's tough. Wow. Mostly I miss hearing her voice because it had a charming, calming quality to it.
00:14:50
I found that same feeling in the voices of your podcast. God damn it. Wow. Also, it was on the second page.
00:14:59
Yeah. Surprise. Hold for emotion. You both have similar voices to Barbara. and very similar senses of humor.
00:15:13
I know she would have loved your podcast, and I would have shown it to her if I discovered it back then.
00:15:19
Sometimes when I listen to the podcast, God damn it. Sometimes when I listen to the podcast,
00:15:24
I can imagine what it would be like discussing current events with her if she were here.
00:15:31
This is... Oh my God. I do that all the time with my mom. You do? Well, yeah, she would fucking love this so much.
00:15:39
She would think it was amazing. Like, oh, my God. Sorry. God damn it. No, it's good that one of us.
00:15:47
That was like, I think this is the point of this, which is this is what Mother's Day is like for people whose mothers are gone or who never had them in the first place.
00:15:56
It's just what it's like. This is just one of the many reasons why I love what you do.
00:16:01
It helps combat the loneliness of losing someone you care about deeply to remember them fondly.
00:16:07
And you both helped me to do that. It's truly a gift. And then it just says jazz.
00:16:11
God, I never thought of us in that way. I know. I mean, we call each other aunties all the time, but like actually.
00:16:18
What that means. Yeah. Jazz, you said? Jazz. Jazz. Thanks, Jazz. Thanks, Jazz. Thanks for making me cry on TV, Jazz.
00:16:26
Very unprofessional. We contain multitudes. Karen has all the tears. You also look pretty when you cry, which is fucking hard to do.
00:16:35
I don't look pretty when I cry. That's hilarious because to me, I look like the second I have emotion, my eyes turn bright red.
00:16:42
No, they don't. It always looks crazy to me. Same for me. Yeah. We're criticizing our appearance while we're having an emotion.
00:16:51
What the fuck? That's old. That's 90s shit. That's weird. Get rid of it. Yeah. While the world watches the stars at the FIFA World Cup this summer, Hyundai has its eyes on the next generation of talent.
00:17:02
The future soccer stars who are already turning heads at age 14. Making plays that end up on everyone's feed, scoring from angles that don't make sense, rewriting record books that barely had time to gather dust.
00:17:13
Because Next doesn't wait for an invitation, and Hyundai doesn't either. Hyundai has always moved the future within reach.
00:17:19
Hyundai did it by making advanced safety standard on every vehicle. Hyundai did it by engineering EVs with ultra-fast charging capability.
00:17:26
And Hyundai continues doing it every day. From robotics that change how people live to young athletes changing the game, the future isn't some far-off concept.
00:17:35
It's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Goodbye.
00:17:41
Pandora Jewelry brings the sparkle to summer, now with even better prices. Shop now for up to 50% off select jewelry featuring personalized pieces to must-have summer favorites.
00:17:50
Timeless jewelry made to move with you through every moment. Shop in or online now through July 5th Terms and conditions apply See Pandora for more details Goodbye Okay Not all spirits like the dark This is my last one
00:18:05
Get ready to cry. Okay. If you don't cry at this one, something's wrong. Hey, my favorite Murderino babes and four-legged friends.
00:18:13
So my best friend Sierra's mom passed away unexpectedly in 2015, and it shattered everyone who knew her.
00:18:19
She was the neighborhood mom who took care of every child as if they were her own.
00:18:24
And since I grew up with my best friend, her mother was like a second mom to me.
00:18:29
Because of her unexpected passing, her landlord was very kind and gave us extra time to arrange her belongings and get everything removed from her condo.
00:18:36
Sierra and I were finishing everything up and left only a single lamp in the house, a cheap dollar store six-foot lamp, shut all the lights off and locked up.
00:18:45
When we were pulling out, we looked back at the house one last time, trying to remember all the great times we shared there, and noticed that the lamp that was left in her mother's room was on.
00:18:55
Thinking one of us must have not flipped the switch all the way or some bullshit, I parked my truck and went back in to turn off the light.
00:19:02
This time, I knew 100% that the light was off and continued to lock up the house.
00:19:07
When we went to leave, the light was on. At this point, we thought someone's playing a dumb prank on us, so we both went in and took one last look around.
00:19:16
Of course, the house was empty, so this time, for good measure, we unplugged the lamp,
00:19:21
and Sierra even moved the lamp away from the outlet, which was by the window, to the opposite side of the room,
00:19:26
and we closed the door, thinking that it must have been some freak occurrence, or that we were both just mentally exhausted from the recent events.
00:19:34
When we walked outside, we both looked up at her mother's bedroom window and saw the light was off,
00:19:39
And we laughed for a second, climbed back into my truck and went to leave. When we reversed out, Sierra took one last look and I saw her jaw drop.
00:19:47
The fucking light was on again. And the lamp was back by the window. Whoa. At that point, we said, fuck it and agreed that her mom prefers the lights on.
00:20:00
Looking back now, we laugh about it and take solace in the fact that she's still with us and still finds ways to make us smile.
00:20:06
Thank you for bearing with me through this email. as I am not the best writer. That's not true.
00:20:11
Yes, you are. That was a great story. I also want to say thank you for helping people be more aware of mental illness
00:20:16
and helping erase the stigma that comes with having a mental illness. I used to be so ashamed and scared of my mental illnesses,
00:20:23
but over the years, I have learned that my mental illnesses don't define me or control what I am capable of.
00:20:30
Much love from Columbus, Ohio, Allie K. Allie, my mom would be so excited to hear you say that.
00:20:37
that's so beautiful yeah that was her life's work totally but also i mean if i was in that
00:20:44
in that parking lot and i looked back up i would have just been like yeah someone call the police
00:20:49
or something like holy shit no it's so i love those little unexplained things that you're just
00:20:54
like of course it's what it is yeah of course it's that they just need you to know that they
00:20:58
love you yeah it's like a little wink yeah okay here's my last one it says, my honorary mom, this is subject line. It says, hi, KNG. Been listening since 2018.
00:21:11
Love you, gals, et cetera. My honorary mom was Mrs. Hamstra, my seventh grade math teacher.
00:21:17
She helped me overcome the intense feeling of failure after a very terrible year of sixth
00:21:22
grade math. Not only did she help in still confidence, but she taught in such a way
00:21:26
where math no longer felt hard to me. I mean, that's a great teacher. Mrs. Hamstra opened up her classroom to me in the early mornings
00:21:34
when I had to be dropped off at 7.30 and school didn't start until 9.20. I'm a teacher now and there's not a snowball's chance in hell
00:21:43
I'd be at work that early. For real. I had a teacher that let me in at lunch when I didn't have any friends
00:21:51
and like eat lunch in her. And then I didn't have lunch too. And so she gave me lunch, like half her sandwich or whatever.
00:21:57
Yeah. She listened to me, laughed with me, and allowed me to be my weird middle school self,
00:22:04
all while encouraging and reminding me that though math was hard, I was capable.
00:22:10
Middle school should be illegal. It's the fucking worst. You are at your worst hormonally, physically, mentally.
00:22:19
Like, none of it makes sense. I bet there's a family picture of me and I'm in seventh grade and I'm still wearing like those little mini ponytails like my hair's down but then mini ponytails and like overalls.
00:22:32
And I was just like overalls. Yeah, I'm dressed like I'm in fourth grade. You like haven't figured out if you're this or that yet a grown up or a kid.
00:22:39
Right. And then you call break recess and everyone makes fun of you. I mean, I was just recess a year ago.
00:22:46
The rules keep changing. Yeah, it's bullshit. Okay. Okay. Fast forward a few years, Mrs. Hamstra and I kept in touch and I learned the devastating news
00:22:56
that she had ALS. She sold all of her belongings and moved to Columbia to become an English and
00:23:01
math teacher. She said she wanted to experience life before she could no longer. Mrs. Hamstra
00:23:06
had the adventure of a lifetime. And though I never got to hear all these stories, not long
00:23:11
after she returned back home, her ALS got worse. Despite battling such a terrible disease,
00:23:16
She always made sure to make her friends, family, and former students feel heard and seen and loved.
00:23:23
Mrs. Hamster passed away in 2022 after a long and valiant battle with ALS. She's the reason I am a teacher today.
00:23:31
Come on. And I hope that I can make my students feel confident, seen, and heard.
00:23:37
Because middle school sucks, but one teacher can truly make a difference. Thank you, Tyler.
00:23:44
She, her. Oh my God, Tyler. Tyler. Also, all the themes here, women. Total. The power of women, women knowing their responsibility.
00:23:56
Their empathy, their connection to humans. Humans in a way that. That really. They can make up for so much horror.
00:24:07
And just that Karen kindness and awareness. The Karen kindness. The Karen kindness.
00:24:13
Murderinos. You can be this to someone else at some point in your life. So always look for opportunities where you can do that for someone.
00:24:19
Yeah. For someone else. And it's just so meaningful. Pick a middle school girl. They need you.
00:24:24
Dude. Yes. Please. And stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie?
00:24:35
This has been an Exactly Right production. Our senior producer is Molly Smith and our associate producer is Tessa Hughes.
00:24:47
Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo. This episode was mixed by Liana Squalacci. Email your hometowns to MyFavoriteMurder at gmail.com.
00:24:54
Follow the show on Instagram at MyFavoriteMurder. Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:25:01
And now you can watch My Favorite Murder on Netflix. And when you're there, hit the double thumbs up and the remind me buttons.
00:25:07
That's the best way you can support our show. Goodbye. Vacation planning should feel like a breeze not a deep dive into countless travel sites searching for the best deal With Cheap Caribbean Budget Beach Finder you can search every destination and every date all in one search
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00:25:42
Goodbye. This may surprise you, but clothes that feel good and look good don't have to be mutually exclusive.
00:25:48
Designs that make you feel as good as you look is what Hill House is known for. Hill House Home invented the viral nap dress.
00:25:54
Hill House makes fun, versatile fashion that elevates your look. I now own three nap dresses.
00:25:59
I love them. They're so comfy and cute. Pockets for days. Pockets for days. You know.
00:26:04
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00:26:20
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00:26:26
Timeless jewelry made to move with you through every moment. Shop in-store or online now through July 5th.
00:26:31
Terms and conditions apply. See pandora.net for more details. Goodbye.