{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Space In-Between","title":"The Space Between Illness and Healing: How Rick and Carol Wagner Chose Joy Through Cancer and Life's Transitions","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3522,"description":"Some conversations just settle into you differently. This is one of them.Friends, today I'm sitting across from two people who touched my life long before they ever knew it. Rick Wagner first showed up in my world through his daily scripture reflections on Facebook, steady, grounding posts that kept appearing during one of the darkest seasons of my life. I reached out to a man I barely knew and asked if he would meet with me. He said yes. That quiet act of presence changed things for me. And today, he and his wife Carol are here to share their story with all of you.Rick is a permanent deacon at St. Pius X Parish and president of Guerin Catholic High School. Carol is an artist, a woman of deep faith, a cancer survivor, and someone who has been choosing joy in ways that will genuinely stop you in your tracks. Together, they've been married 42 years, raised four children, welcomed 10 grandchildren, served in mission work in El Salvador for over 20 years, and last year, they walked through Carol's uterine cancer diagnosis together.What unfolds in this episode is one of the most honest, tender, and faith-filled conversations I've had on this show. We talk about what it means to be a sacramental presence for someone you love: literally revealling grace to the people around you, even in the middle of your own suffering. We talk about Carol's prayer \"Lead me, Lord,\" and what it actually looked like to live that surrender in real time. And we talk about the haircutting party. If you don't know that story yet, just wait. I dare you not to cry.Carol also shares her pilgrimage to Lourdes as a malad, a sick person seeking healing, and what it felt like to have strangers wash her feet while a choir sang her name. We talk about learning to receive love when everything in you wants to push it away. And we talk about the beautiful, uncertain, slightly terrifying space they're in right now: downsizing, simplifying, and moving onto their daughter Laura's property, not as a...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/yhyIrYSsY73zG1DF6CqYxNm8fAUSC7eOlo-PL_10MkU/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzQ4NzE5LzE3MDUz/NDE3NjgtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}