Good afternoon, thank you all for joining us today. I'm Christine
Wilkinson, Senior Vice President and also president of the National on my
Association and on behalf of the Association and the sound of a cup? I'd
like to welcome you to what is going to be a very inspiring session with
both Marie tillman and Anthony today. You think it just for people here
and I know a lot of people are interested in your book. Kind of give us a
quick synopsis of what it's about why sort of the direction. Um, the book
is not something that I thought that I was ever right. Um, and but there
did come a point in time where I felt like I was more willing to talk
about the experience and was in a better place and found that actually
makes helpful to other people going to the whole time and certainly other
people's stories was something that I sought out when I was trying to find
, sort of what is the key to get through this. Um so in thinking, you know
, what, what is it that I wanted to write about? I wanted to write about,
you know, our life together, but also what it's like to lose somebody and
how you get through that. And um really the, so the crux of the book is
this letter that Pat left behind. So it's called the letter, which
essentially wasn't adjusting case letter and tasting call. Um and a very
simple thing that he left for me was, you know, I want you to live. And so
that's really the theme of the book is, you know, very difficult time. How
do you how do you do that deal with the right to go to get that
opportunity? I didn't get interested and I just wanted to be a national
champ. That was my dream started. It's one of the ring. And so the book
came afterwards is amazing opportunity. And I do a lot of people when
you're speaking, you're only up on stage 30 minutes or so, so you can't
really put everything. And by writing the book is able to put my old lab
store after the challenges are based on off the mat challenges we face it
and throughout all their becoming unstoppable. So there's a lot in there
that talks about that and I apologize for comfortable saying, yeah, you
know, just some certain situations by experience, but it was therapeutic
for me to write it. And also I wanted people to read it and be able to get
a sense of encouragement no matter what they
imagined. For both of you, there were parts that were difficult to write
the magic, particularly, there's one part most challenging and how did you
get fruit? You know, I really sort of played a game with myself when I was
writing and Anthony was talking uh you know, things that you actually
wouldn't tell people in person, but that for some reason it's okay to
write down because it's it's a very strange process where it's just sort
of your computer and you feel like you can sort of bare your soul and so
uh huh you know, a lot of it is actually difficult to look back on and
read, but the writing part was pretty clear. You know, I journal a lot
after Pat was killed and and a lot of that went into the book and I think
particularly those first couple of years after he died, it was, there was
a lot there that I wasn't sure that I wanted to share. Um, but I also
think that a lot of that is what people connect to the most in the book
because I tried to be honest with what I was going through, certainly the
support that right after that was killed. We always said it was amazing to
know that there were so many people that were impacted by his life and his
death to kind of have that outpouring of support. Um you know, I was not
used to being the public eye and um it took me, I think that when there's
something that's different about you or something happens that sort of
makes you different, um it's easy to start to identify yourself that way.
And so it took sort of figuring out that I could determine who I was and
how I was going to take this experience and what I was going fat and to
kind of, you know, push away some of the outside noise and influence that
was I felt trying to sort of put me into this box of no, this is
Patrolman's widow and this is how we expect her tax write and be talk
about your mother who we saw out here. It looks like 20. Just can you talk
about just the way she crazy just to face life. Okay. It was pretty neat
because I was born missing my leg. Doctors couldn't explain that to. And
so I was a kid. I didn't really, I didn't understand for the longest time
. I have one grocery store family way kids and adults were just kind of
looking, it's whisper staring me with my eyes and something was wrong. And
so I struggled with that for quite a while because the way my mom raised
me, I didn't, I didn't see myself as any different even though outsiders,
they treated me differently, look differently. It helped me knowing that
no matter what happened when I got home, I was just Anthony, you know, I
wasn't the poor kid in his leg, the handicapped heroes and that really
encouraged me to not look at whatever, not see that negativity and just
focus on what I want. Hi,
I'm Brenda Simpson. I live in Tempe and I'm an alumni. I'm Evelyn drove. I
live in Chandler and I am also an issue tonight. I really enjoyed it. It
was the first time that I've actually gone to an event like this and
listen to authors and when their authors that are personal to us to the
issue family, it made it be a very, very rewarding experience. I was just
amazed. I was delighted by their insights. I was inspired by what they had
to say and I was really, really pleased that both of these individuals
wanted to give back to the community how inspiring they both were to us.
All right, Bill Class of 1999 former U. S. Army veteran and college
athlete. So I feel like I had a special connection with Anthony and today
was very powerful to hear their stories and to get a little glimpse into
their lives and be a part of this.