Beek on being

Daddy-o Daddy-o we miss you so! It’s been ten years since our father passed. So today we reminisce. There is laughter, tears and of course something inappropriate! Samie Jo and Jesse are back in the studio for a little March madness. This is Beek on being a SISTERS SESSION March 2026

Creators and Guests

SC
Producer
Steven Chen
Songwriter/Composer, Producer, and residenet Recording/Mixing/Mastering Engineer at Penthouse Studios Miami. Credits include: The Emmys, Tyler Perry, French Montana, Love & Hip Hop ...

What is Beek on being?

A podcast on shared humanity; discussing personal and professional perspectives. From serious to silly to sublime, coming from kindness and curiosity, it is all about connections.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Hi. I hope you're well. This podcast is a place for people to share personal and professional perspectives, talk openly, and ask questions. From serious to silly to sublime, it's all about communication and connections. Always coming from a place of kindness and curiosity, we talk about shared humanity, discuss ideas, and highlight people creating a better world.

Melissa Shere Beek:

We've got to keep learning, keep growing, keep being. I'm Melissa Beek, and this is Beek on being. Today's episode is Beek on being a March SISTERS SESSION. A little March madness, if you will. In studio, I have Sammy Jo the blonde.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Woo hoo. And Jesse, baby. You've already heard of our mother, Ruthie, and her rules. And if you haven't, you gotta go see that you that on YouTube. It's a great episode.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But our father had no rules. Well, there was that one about the boys. But he really let us do our own thing. Whatever we were passionate about, he supported and encouraged. He was a builder, a boat racer, a photographer, an artist, a dreamer, a daddy, and so much more.

Melissa Shere Beek:

He also had business cards for every one of those little adventures.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I have them still.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

You still do?

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Uh-huh. What's up?

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Sorry. I love it. I grew up on a construction site, sitting on top of floor plans, drafting homes. I learned to build and make everything on my own, drive a truck by the time I was 12, and create art, much to our mother's chagrin.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I thought he taught me how to ride a bike. Turns out he was just running behind me the whole time, holding on to the handle of my banana seat Schwinn Stingray. He built the homes of our entire neighborhood. I don't even think he realized that he curated the most incredible childhood for us with an extended family for us that still exists today. He was quiet.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Someone had to balance our mother. He was generous. We found out so much we didn't even know until after he passed on how he supported and paid for people's rents, cancer treatments. He was a fighter. He fought for seventeen years to live through so many unsurvivable assaults on his body.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But he never gave up, and he never asked me why. Oh, Jess. Is that how you keep going? I'm sorry. He pushed forward with love in his heart and being present in every way possible for all of his children and grandchildren.

Melissa Shere Beek:

And though it all taught us and through it all, it taught us the most important lessons in life. Just like building homes with him, I learned the importance of a solid foundation for everything in life, especially family. And our daddy gave us all that. Oh, I'm sorry you're crying.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

No. It's good thoughts.

Melissa Shere Beek:

So today, as we come up on the ten year mark of his passing

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, shit.

Melissa Shere Beek:

We're gonna reminisce Today? No. Well, no. Today's episode. Oh.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Not this exact We're gonna reminisce about him and talk a little bit about our daddy o.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yep. Our

Melissa Shere Beek:

daddy o.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Daddy o. I don't know how he got that name.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Daddy o. Daddy o, daddy o, we love you so.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Daddy o.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Okay. What was one of the most important lessons daddy taught you all?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, shit. I think he

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I wish she gave the questions before.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

No. It's so much better when she doesn't. I think he taught me to live life. Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

And not be so, like, stuck on something. Maybe.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He was a free bird.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. He was a

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

free bird. He a free bird. He was. What lesson did he teach? God.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He was easy. He was just so easy. Yeah. Mean, coming sometimes he can get real mad. Real mad.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

But you have to really piss him off.

Melissa Shere Beek:

You have to push him so far that he's like

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And that was usually mom.

Melissa Shere Beek:

It was

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

mom Yeah. Who did was gonna say

Jessica Shere Coggins:

mom is what made him go off the air.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

A lot of broken broken plates with mom.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He just was such an amazing man. Yeah. Such an amazing man. Really. I I I can't even

Melissa Shere Beek:

yeah. I think he taught me to be kind and loving. He was so not just generous in a monetary way, but generous of spirit with everyone, I think. Oh Jess. I'm fine.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

It's gonna be the whole episode, so it's okay.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Alright. It's okay.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

You okay to do it? Yeah. It just is what it is.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. It is sad.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

It's sad that my kids and I can't it's hard because when he left, before he left, he was so sick. And now I feel like he can watch over all of us. Yeah. Though I do miss the presence of him.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I miss his wisdom. I miss his just being there.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

He was funny too.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He was sad funny.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. I have that in here.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

But I think towards the end, like I remember him coming in the wheelchair to see the girls in the theater. It just got so hard that it wasn't fair. Even though we had him for dinner, it was so hard to watch. Yeah. Have him we were all eating, he couldn't Hard for

Melissa Shere Beek:

you all to watch?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. Because I felt bad. You can watch us all the time, anytime.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

And it got to a point where, you know

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. I felt bad too. I felt bad for our

Jessica Shere Coggins:

listeners and watching us.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Right. So for our listeners, the brief recap is he fought for his life for seventeen years when he was 54.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, that young.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah, was younger than me, and just a little older than Sam is now. And he had a dissection of the pica artery. Had like eleven, twelve, 15 brain surgeries. Mean, he had a shunt

Jessica Shere Coggins:

in Then his

Melissa Shere Beek:

he was okay, survived with less than half a percent of survival rate. He survived and learned to walk and talk and do everything all over again. And then he got lung cancer with a pleural effusion, and again, they told him the same thing. They told him the first thing with the brain bleed, Get your affairs in order, you're not going live. Well, they didn't tell him that the first time.

Melissa Shere Beek:

They told mom and I and you guys because he was in coma.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. No. They told us he can get more action out of a bowl of jello.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yes. They told us that.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

They told

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

me that. They told mom the light switch was turned off and never turning back on. Right.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But he survived all that, walked and talked and and

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Walked me down the

Melissa Shere Beek:

aisle. Did everything, walked me down the aisle. Nobody would get in the car with him at first though when he was driving, we were all a little scared.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I was so scared.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Then he had lung cancer, and then they couldn't do anything here, then he went to New York and had surgery there, he survived the lung cancer, then he took a medication that ended up causing him to stroke and then he stroked out and he was an invalid, but he was really with it mentally. Was perfect. His brain was perfect, he was talking to anything, but then he eventually died six years after that, after the stroke of So, blood but what you guys are referring to, I just needed my listeners to have context, what you guys were referring to is that we would have him present with everything. He was in a wheelchair, but like, he went everywhere. When we traveled, he had, like, this super wheelchair that went onto the beach.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Mean,

Melissa Shere Beek:

the The man view didn't miss anything.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Public.

Melissa Shere Beek:

So I do I do feel bad seeing him that way. I mean, it crushed

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

my I don't think he liked to look like that.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But but not He was with happy

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

to be with the family.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Us. He was gonna say because when I would look at him and and feel bad for the situation he was in, you could see, like, in his eyes and in his face. Oh, Jess, I'm so sorry. We're

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

not gonna this.

Melissa Shere Beek:

He wanted to be with us. He was so thrilled to

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

see Thank you

Melissa Shere Beek:

so much. Jess. Yeah. You were 21 when this started.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

When it first started, she was 21.

Melissa Shere Beek:

You wanna take a break?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. No. I'm fine. No. No.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Just I'll be fine.

Melissa Shere Beek:

You want tissue?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. He's here. Right here.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Well, I know he's here. I told you this before because when I came in here, Steven said to tell us this. I didn't tell

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

you this?

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. The first time I ever came to

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

the studio to meet I

Melissa Shere Beek:

thought you meant say Steven.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, yeah. I thought

Melissa Shere Beek:

you meant same thing. Daddy always said, I'm Steven with a v. And then then he had on Dave Brubeck. There was a couple of other things.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

And I

Melissa Shere Beek:

was like, okay, daddy, I see you. I hear you. I know

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

you today there was another episode another

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I thought something happened when she No. Didn't

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. Okay. After he passed, was there anything that you realized that he did that you didn't realize before he

Jessica Shere Coggins:

was alive?

Melissa Shere Beek:

Go tell me.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

You go first.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, god. I gotta think about it. Like, because I knew everything.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I just don't

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

think I I

Jessica Shere Coggins:

don't know if I, like, appreciate it at all, because I was young. I think there were so many more years for me to have with him. Yeah. Yeah. My kids don't really remember him.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Okay. Well, I'll lighten the mood.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Okay. Okay.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I didn't realize he was such a stoner.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, that's one of my stories. Did it really? That's one

Melissa Shere Beek:

of Oh, by the garage?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. But that story came to light for me when he had the bleed to brain.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I had no idea about any of this later on. Can't. We were on show.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

But I didn't know that

Jessica Shere Coggins:

he smoked pot from the

Melissa Shere Beek:

entire child. He's a stoner.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I had no idea. But I I found out

Melissa Shere Beek:

When the doctor said that they

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

found And the out hospital. Yeah. They pulled me aside.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. They told me.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

What did they say?

Melissa Shere Beek:

They will they said he's comatose, get more of jello, whatever. And we just need you to know that we did his blood levels. Yes.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

And he

Melissa Shere Beek:

had and we're like, all of a sudden

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And he smokes, but it's not the kind of smoking you're And mom is like That's what he said.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Mom was like, yeah. So?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. They sat us down.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Not that it was like so. I just didn't realize he was such a stoner. And then all the things came back to me about do you remember when there was that door between the laundry and the garage and then that other door in the garage, and there was like that big hedge? Yeah. Every time we go into the well, no.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

No. In his dark room.

Melissa Shere Beek:

It was dark room. But every time we'd come to the laundry room, he'd be like, hi. Yes. He's flinging. Fling the joint somewhere, and

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I didn't even realize that.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I didn't remember that.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I thought he was just so happy to see his until later

Melissa Shere Beek:

well, I thought it a was cigarette. But until later, I'd see him under the bushes, like digging Looking for for yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He was looking for the joint. I just I didn't

Jessica Shere Coggins:

thought it

Melissa Shere Beek:

was just a cigarette he was hiding from mom because he always tried to quit smoking, but I thought it was just cigarette smoking. I realized

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

it just remember in the hospital, they sat me down. Yeah. And they told me that your father is

Jessica Shere Coggins:

And what happened when mom said that?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And she was just like She thinks, like, She's was like as if we should've always Yeah. She knew? Of course.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I was like, oh, okay. I mean, I didn't realize, but

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I was like, alright. Well, mean, I

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

knew about the drinking, because he would always have a drink when he got home.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

But he wasn't like a heavy.

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. But it's just cocktail when he came home.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I think it was just the way it was presented to us. Like, the doctor sat us down. And it's like, I need you to know. Yeah.

Melissa Shere Beek:

We found this in

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

his blood cell. Right. Exact it was exactly Like, it was a huge thing? Oh, yeah. It was a lot.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he was

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Like a lot of pot? Or it was like a big thing?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

A

Melissa Shere Beek:

lot. For them, they thought it

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

was a big thing.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Mom was like, yeah, I don't care.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. That was

Jessica Shere Coggins:

That's funny.

Melissa Shere Beek:

So you said something, Jess, about, like, your kids don't really know him know him? Like, how

Jessica Shere Coggins:

They to just don't have, like, you know, they don't have anything experiences with him

Melissa Shere Beek:

Right. To go back So how do you keep him present for your kids?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I'm still emotional.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Really? I don't

Jessica Shere Coggins:

like when I bring him up, I think that's how the kids,

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

You're crying now. Oh, you're crying too? Shit. I'm the No. Main

Melissa Shere Beek:

I'm not crying. I'm not crying.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I just

Melissa Shere Beek:

feel her pain

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

because she missed a lot. The baby. But you're also

Melissa Shere Beek:

her children were so much younger. Like, I feel like my children and some of your children really got a lot of time But with your children got I shafted, I

Jessica Shere Coggins:

think I did as well.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Aiden got a Aiden Aiden got

Melissa Shere Beek:

a of

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

time with him.

Melissa Shere Beek:

A late Aiden and my two girls got a lot of

Jessica Shere Coggins:

time

Melissa Shere Beek:

with him. But the rest of them, the other five didn't really.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I feel like if you ask my girls what they remember, and it would be him in a wheelchair at their the at their musicals. Yeah. That's that's their memory.

Melissa Shere Beek:

And Maya used to climb him like a mountain in the Oh my god. That's true. Yeah. He was too.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

His tongue sticking out.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, I

Jessica Shere Coggins:

think He was that's little. He was little. I mean, I always talk about him. There's stuff that remind me and I'll bring him up. Right.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

But yeah. They don't

Melissa Shere Beek:

You continue to share stories?

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Like what?

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Like But I don't, like, sit them down. Yeah. Something will happen and I'll be like, oh, my dad did this or something. Yeah. Organically.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Like that. And then they get it.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I think a lot

Jessica Shere Coggins:

But it's weird. I we I'm you do too. What? Grew up with both sets of grandparents.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, yeah. And great grandparents.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Day at school, there was four of them there.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Now we

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

got one.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Well, I've got three.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Now we got no. It's nobody. We got mine. My kids too.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I have but I have You have your in laws.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

But we don't have them on. We don't have in laws, and my kids never had, like, a second set of grandparents.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. It's different. It's weird. Different. Yeah.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I was

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

gonna say something. I Oh, no. A blonde moment? I definitely a blonde moment.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

At least she doesn't have a blueberry coffee anymore. That one. She was I

Melissa Shere Beek:

swear they slipped something in that coffee that day.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I've moved on to their fudge brownie one now.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, that's good.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Geez. That's really good. Rich? Very so good. I was gonna say though.

Melissa Shere Beek:

How you shit with

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

your children. Go ahead.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I thought you just said how you shit with your children. Okay. I was like, what?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I think with daddy is because I built my house. A lot of things that I refer to is Saba did this, Saba did that. This is what I'm

Melissa Shere Beek:

Saba is the name is is the in Hebrew grandfather that

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

we're referring

Melissa Shere Beek:

to our dad to

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

our kids. A lot of the times, it's remembered because of the building of the house. Mhmm.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Mhmm.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Yeah. I love that when we redid our house, I was

Jessica Shere Coggins:

just Oh, I take my kids by. Like, have you seen that? My Yeah, ma. We've seen it like 10 times.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I drive past it on the studio every time.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Every time I go to the studio,

Melissa Shere Beek:

I pass it every I'm sorry.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I probably kicked it.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Kicked it.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I I yeah. Every time I go to the pediatrician, I say

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I just want

Jessica Shere Coggins:

someone to be at the door so I can be like, can I come I've

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

gone in? You have?

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. I love told my dad but it looks different.

Melissa Shere Beek:

They were talking about our old house that we all grew up in.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Ugh. The best house. The best

Jessica Shere Coggins:

neighborhood. It was great.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. It was. It it yeah. I don't I don't think daddy realized that all of that community that he built for us literally built for us you need to get that? Oh.

Melissa Shere Beek:

That it stayed with us still to this day.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I look at it. The names are still on.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But no. I'm talking the people Yeah. In the neighborhood are still three generations deep now. We're still connected

Jessica Shere Coggins:

to the It's amazing.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

But are you close with your neighbors? Here?

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. In the new development?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. Like Well, you're close.

Melissa Shere Beek:

See, I'm not.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I mean, I'm close to them, but we literally

Jessica Shere Coggins:

But it's so

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

not like it's not like how we grew up. And I don't know if it was now technology and a TV.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Different because

Melissa Shere Beek:

my neighbors are nice, but their children were never the same ages as my children. So our neighborhood, everybody was our ages.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

But it's also different times. People are in their room, in their phone, on their phone.

Melissa Shere Beek:

We were out on

Jessica Shere Coggins:

the street.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Not on

Jessica Shere Coggins:

the street.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Basketball, riding the bike.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I remember when the street flooded, you you and daddy got all the pool floaties from the from the pool. And we were floating down the street, but somebody else used your pool floaties. So you ended up getting into a garbage can.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I remember. No. But I remember it was like the garbage can. Can, but I remember like the The garbage can bottom. Because you put the garbage can on top of a roller.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. Yeah. And I remember sitting on top of like Yeah. Looks like a frisbee The can. Little roller.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I remember sitting on that.

Melissa Shere Beek:

We're all in pool floaties.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

There's so much with dad still to this day is he used to put post it notes in every book that he gave me.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I still have them.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

So I still have them and I've taken some out and like posted on a mirror and like I have like Hope you can read this at some point. XOXO, daddy. So I have all that all around.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I have them in

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

my art books.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. And in my my bathroom, I have a mirror, and I have tons of pictures of just him and I. Aw. Yeah. It's cute.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I love that.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Aw, daddy's girl. We all were daddy's girl.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, hell All of us.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

All of us. God. Yeah. Yeah.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Do you get visits from him? Like, do you feel his presence now or anything like that? In songs, in dreams, in anything?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

You know, I'll tell a story. It wasn't so much of a visit. So when we were wanting to move, we looked at a lot of houses. And there was one house that we put a contract on. And the weirdest thing is, like, we got our contract it was a two story house.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And we got outbid, and it was outbid by a person in a wheelchair. And we couldn't figure out how does someone there was no elevator in this house. And it was kind of like as if dad was saying, this is not the house for you. It was very weird.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I heard that.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And then so then we decided we're gonna go build. And we went and we met with our builder. And I kept saying, I need to see a sign. I need to see a sign. And the builder came out and was showing us these plans of a home in Pinecrest that he was gonna be the first builder to build a mikvah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And I went, wait, what? Daddy did that. My father built a mikvah in a shul behind Sunnyland. He was so proud of himself, of all the studying he did, of all figuring out how the rainwater would become the water for the mikvah. And he was it was his biggest pride.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And I said, that's it. There's my I said, thanks, dad.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And and then we ended up hiring him and he built and there were other signs when we were building the house and I was doing something on the doing some of the roof ties. And all of a sudden out and I have a picture of out of the sky, the clouds just like disappeared and there was just a hole. And there's a picture of me with the hole right behind my head as I'm doing the roof ties. And I'm like, hi, daddy.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

That's cute. Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That's nice. There's other like, not as much as I would like. I think a lot of them happen in my dream and I can see his face and he's always young.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Always can't. Don't know at what stage I remember him at.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. When you're thinking of him right now, how do you see him?

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Jesse. I see a bunch.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Okay. The thing is I would love him to be back here with us, but not the way he left. If I was to have him back, I'd want him not

Jessica Shere Coggins:

to be

Melissa Shere Beek:

in a wheelchair.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I would I don't want him in a wheelchair. I don't want him suffering. I don't want any of that.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I would yeah. I wouldn't want him to suffer. That's the thing. I wouldn't want him to suffer. I want him to have a full and complete healthy life.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

But ten fucking years is a lot that Yeah. He's been

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I always tell people when people lose someone, it doesn't it to me, it doesn't get better. No. You just learn to live with Exactly.

Melissa Shere Beek:

A 100%.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

That's what

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

it The first couple of birthdays, first couple of anniversary But it's

Melissa Shere Beek:

like every day. It's little moments and big moments. I don't think grief escapes you. I think you give adjust to a new reality. That's all you can do.

Melissa Shere Beek:

You can't it's it's it doesn't wane and it doesn't turn off and

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Right. There are many times when we were building our house, was like, daddy, where are you? Daddy, where are you?

Melissa Shere Beek:

I thought daddy with me when I redid the house.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Because I did when I was pouring when we we did the first concrete pour. I The cornerstone? Yes. I put in the floor. I put one of his tea rulers.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Put one of his One of his pamphlets is building a couple of his business cards. And then I did pennies with the years of all my kids birth and our wedding anniversary. I think it's the year. It's all underground in the first pour. I love at this Right.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I know exactly Yeah. Where it

Jessica Shere Coggins:

That's really cool.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That was that was me incorporating dad into the house.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I love that.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. Was very hard to not I I always promise I always thought I'd go into work with him. I always thought that I would work for him.

Melissa Shere Beek:

He developed he did three star development for

Jessica Shere Coggins:

the I three of still do we never did anything with that. Wish we kinda did. That's a whole other

Melissa Shere Beek:

What's a whole other story?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. The three star anyways No. I Daddy promised me that we would go into business together. And I really wish that he was there with the home. Like, there's so many times when we were building my home with all the permitting.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

What would daddy do? What would dad why can't you be here, dad? Tell me what to do. Yeah.

Melissa Shere Beek:

We knew. He taught us well.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

But I'll tell you, everybody knew him. Every builder, everybody knew him.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

They always had a good story too. Like, he helped me with this. Yeah. He did this.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That stuff we found out when once he died. That's

Melissa Shere Beek:

for sure.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

No, but in general, people are like, Oh, your dad was the nicest.

Melissa Shere Beek:

So when he was in the critical care unit at the end, the respiratory place, and we were waiting for this special, this godlike physician who was the most incredible person from, I don't know if it was Sloan Kettering or somewhere else, it was like the respiratory doctor. And everybody was like, oh my god, him. He's so famous, he's so fabulous, he's gonna be the best, he's gonna be the best. Mom and I were waiting, so we were anticipating maybe he'd have some answers for daddy because they kept typing him up. And we met him and we introduced ourselves and we said our names.

Melissa Shere Beek:

And he said, Wait, what? What's your name? And we said it again. He goes, Oh my god. Steven Chen?

Melissa Shere Beek:

What? My god. He's so cool. And then the respiratory doctor, this big maha from wherever kept saying about daddy, and how daddy was the greatest of whatever. It was so funny, the perspective totally switched for us, but it was really funny.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But he yeah. He was yeah. I don't get so many I get little hints and visits occasionally, but I got a lot after he passed. Because he passed and the only other person that had passed for us was Poppy Bert. And so soon after daddy passed we don't have these in our neighborhood, but these two peacocks would show up.

Melissa Shere Beek:

And they would come into the back of my house, onto my patio, and put their faces up to my window where the kids were eating breakfast every morning. And they would just sit there, and they weren't scared away, and they would like talk to us. And then in the front of the house at the end of the day, when we were driving up the driveway, they'd be like waiting at the front door for us. And you know, I was like, okay, guys. I see you.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I know you're here. But it was really funny.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

We were building our house,

Jessica Shere Coggins:

there was one in the back.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Always. Always. And I'm like, hi, daddy.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. Hi,

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

daddy. Hi, I've

Jessica Shere Coggins:

got no peacocks because it makes I hate them.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Now I have 20,000,000, and they're definitely not dad.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I would be like

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

When I when I was building, it there was one peacock for sure that was it was daddy as the project manager for sure. He was the I mean, I remember the the guy who did all the railings and all of our our glass doors. And he was the funniest. He goes, your friend's here again. I forgot what's my name.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Forgot the name of what a peacock is in Spanish, but he would just be there. And literally, he was in these front of the big windows just staring out like project manager.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Totally daddy.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

It was dad. And I would say, hi, daddy. How are you, daddy? Yeah.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. It's funny because when I took Sydney to college, dad had always done that with me solo. We would take my car up and he would move me in and it was like the best time. I wouldn't have gone if it was mom.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, god.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

No. And we always had the best time, so I kinda miss that.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I was so

Melissa Shere Beek:

glad that you were the kids when I went because you were seven and you were like 10 or 11 when I went. And so mom stayed home with your school and I was like, thank god. But daddy spent

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, daddy was the best.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Weekend Like building. Crying.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Oh, yeah. Did? Ryeing.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

When I left. When he dropped And me off in

Melissa Shere Beek:

then he found out I was in a coed dorm and he had a meltdown and like Oh, he was

Jessica Shere Coggins:

cool with me.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, well, he was a third.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

He was

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

a I fifth. When I moved to Chicago and we drove we drove my car, which was like a Ford Explorer, we had a U Haul attached. And it was just him and I from Miami to Chicago. Made this road And I'll never forget, he taught me to when we pass a tractor trailer to pull your arm down like a toot toot. And then sure enough, if he did it, daddy and I would get so excited that they acknowledge us with me while they're like passing us because Oh, daddy.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I got a U Haul. Was so dad was the worst

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

driver on the on the far right hand lane. But it was

Melissa Shere Beek:

Far right hand lane and people on bikes were passing.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

He taught me road rules though.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, he had he

Jessica Shere Coggins:

had

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I

Jessica Shere Coggins:

learned he explained it to me.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Do talk about that. What we'd still talk about. Wanna talk about my kids and the lessons from dad? That is definitely one of them. Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That as soon as the light turned green, doesn't mean you have the right to go. Right.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

The other thing he taught me is cirrocumulus clouds and cirrus clouds.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, gross.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I swear to God. And then he told me you can tell when rain comes from clouds.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah yeah yeah. He loved that. Yeah.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

And he did my, like, hurricane project. He put a screwdriver on the top of the box and the hurricane would go. So cool.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

His his definitely definitely had driving rules and that was one of them. Yeah. Just because the light turns green doesn't mean you have the right to go.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Right. Yeah. And to not turn too far in an intersection because someone goes behind you and pushes you, then you're in.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, yeah. You can never turn your wheel when you're waiting to make a turn out of an intersection because somebody bite bumps you, then you're gonna go in the trajectory of

Jessica Shere Coggins:

that. Yes. You're in the intersection.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That's one thing I remember daddy did. There's other things that I'll

Jessica Shere Coggins:

share with you.

Melissa Shere Beek:

He was cool.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Daddy He's

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

the best. Yeah. He was the best.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. He had we I mean

Jessica Shere Coggins:

His parents weren't. So No. I'm surprised he came out as cool and nice as he did.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Well, Growing up, daddy daddy was a bit of a shit stir. He would he had a great sick sense of humor. He used to ski naked.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, was so fast.

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. It's fun.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That's what I'm saying.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. The sea is

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

so bad. Well We used to call him a bad beach boy.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. He was a bad beach boy. He wasn't bad. But he would ski naked past the tourist boats and, like, freak out all the tourists on Miami Beach. He put rocks in the trunk of his car because he wanted, like, a low rider.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

No. I Didn’t know that.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, again, bottomed out and had to call his grandmother to come pick him up because his parents were like, not even there. But he had like he had a great zest for life and a really great sense of humor.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And He loved that.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Daddy and I would watch Mel Brooks, Peter Sellers, Cheech and Chong, and we would laugh. Like, laugh till we would lose our breath. It was hilarious. But we

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

we Christmas vacation. Okay.

Melissa Shere Beek:

That's was gonna say. Even when he was battling in a hospital, he would go into respiratory distress because we would laugh so hard. And then Sam would come in.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, my god.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

He would

Melissa Shere Beek:

go into respiratory distress because he was we were hysterically be like and then Sam would come in and she'd do this Jim Carrey bit from Ace Ventura. No.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

It was actually, I saw that on TikTok. Like

Jessica Shere Coggins:

What? With my ass?

Melissa Shere Beek:

Be dirty. Yeah.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Be dirty.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. Not that one. No.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Will you bend

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

over? Oh, can I ask you a favor? Ask you

Jessica Shere Coggins:

a question.

Melissa Shere Beek:

You a question. Be one. But he was she was talking with Ask her you a a few few

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

felt like he would bend over and, like, talk to you.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

He loved it. Fell out of the bag.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh my god. But that got him There was also, like,

Jessica Shere Coggins:

a coffee place in Colorado with the moose or something. There was a shirt he used to like.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, boogers in Colorado.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Boogers in something else. He loved it.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. He just had

Melissa Shere Beek:

a really sensitive That one kid asked you

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

a question. And then there was something else. There was once we were at the circus, and the lady next to us, like, where she was in the wrong seats. And she said something with an accent and dad just laughed so hard.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. He's probably high. I

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

mean, I don't know if this is a laugh or this is a funny thing. But I remember, I don't think you were around. Daddy When

Jessica Shere Coggins:

were in

Melissa Shere Beek:

college when a lot of this shit happened.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

When daddy had the And then took brain. And you were 21. You were just

Melissa Shere Beek:

just just just just just just After college.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

You just When daddy was in the ICU when he had the bleed to the brain. And he had they had they given him the the tracheotomy. And he wasn't allowed there was no way he could talk out of it. And The woman who came in? No.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

The Cantor. Cantor Kula came in

Melissa Shere Beek:

and you don't know what a Cantor is, a Cantor is someone who is a professional singer at a synagogue.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He would come in and he would sing whatever tune he wanted to sing to daddy and whatever.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Make daddy feel better.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

All of a sudden, daddy turned to me and goes, when I get out of here, I'm gonna give you singing lessons. Swear to god, he was dead serious. Are Dead serious. And he wasn't supposed to talk out of this thing. No.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

But all of a sudden, he talked. Yeah. And he says, when I get out of here, I'm gonna give you singing lessons. He did something to somebody else too.

Melissa Shere Beek:

We I have a really bad

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Mister Shelley.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

What? The nurse?

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, no. No. Not yeah. The nurse. This this The

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. Okay. So let me just My daddy was You already laughed. You don't have to cover it anymore. Daddy was one of the girls.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Erin Kobetz was there too and we were Dying.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I'm gonna tell this story. But before

Melissa Shere Beek:

that, our listeners need to know that daddy was one of the girls. So he would come out and he'd be like, where's my nightgown and panties? When he was looking for, like, his robe and underwear.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

But where's my Blouse?

Melissa Shere Beek:

So he had girl terminology.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Total girl terminology. Okay? And in our house and in our family, the greater larger family, we had names for body parts. So your vagina was called a nush. Like your butt is called a tush.

Melissa Shere Beek:

So it's a nUsh and a tush.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Or nushie.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Or a nushie and a tushie. This nurse came in while my

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

father thinking wrote on the board.

Melissa Shere Beek:

She wrote it in big letters.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Nushie.

Melissa Shere Beek:

And so we started to giggle a

Melissa Shere Beek:

little bit. But then she leaned over him, and she's like, no. Nushie’s gonna be so good for you. No.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Nushie’s gonna be all over him. No. She's no. She's gonna no. Nushie’s gonna take care of you, and no.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Nushie’s gonna make everything good. So essentially, she's like saying vagina's gonna heal you. I was I was dying. We lost our shit. We were die

Melissa Shere Beek:

and I felt so bad because the woman kept going about how Nushie’s gonna heal everything. She didn't know what

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

was funny didn't and we had because

Jessica Shere Coggins:

that was

Melissa Shere Beek:

her name and we'd never heard

Melissa Shere Beek:

of anybody by that name. We completely blew up.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Erin and I still talk about it to this day

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

because Who's name Nushi? I think

Melissa Shere Beek:

Nushka was her name and her nickname was Nushie, but

Melissa Shere Beek:

the way she was leaning over daddy. And then daddy started laughing so hard, was like Wait. Reason we had

Melissa Shere Beek:

to get like

Melissa Shere Beek:

a respiratory person and come suction him, but he would almost fell off the bed. He was laughing. Oh. And his laps were belly laughing.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, his laughs were sick humor

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I remember going when I came down, which you have to explain the story of me coming down. But when I came down to visit Uh-huh. All of you were in there. And, like, so he had the the

Melissa Shere Beek:

The brain bleed?

Jessica Shere Coggins:

No. He had the filter going into his stomach. Remember to The shunt.

Melissa Shere Beek:

That went shunt. And it didn't work.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

So you had to move it in his heart. Right.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But every time he would go

Jessica Shere Coggins:

to stomach and fail, he would be like, DCBGA. And you guys would be coming running in, and

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

you'd be like, it's failing. It's failing.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Okay. Nobody believed us. No. He got like monster stare when this shunt failed.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Oh, got so different.

Melissa Shere Beek:

And we knew, and it his affect, and we knew his nuances. So we kept saying, and they're like, nah, nah. We're like, no. We're telling you. We're telling you.

Melissa Shere Beek:

And thank God doctor Ebar's who's like the greatest brain surgeon I in used to text him all the time but

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Is he still practicing?

Melissa Shere Beek:

I don't know. But he stays a miracle worker. Then he realized we knew what was happening too.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, his eyes would glass over. No.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

He got like he would regress. Yeah. It would get weird.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Well, could much fluid on the face.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

His shunt would get clogged and would just back up And you could the talk because he'd

Jessica Shere Coggins:

be talking normal and then all of a sudden be all gibberish. And you're like, wait, what?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Remember the time that somebody tripped over his he had a

Melissa Shere Beek:

peg. Oh my god. What a peg. The person nurse tripped over.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Oh, and pulled it out?

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yes. And then he got like sepsis. It was like a whole thing. Was like

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Also, you remember

Melissa Shere Beek:

he was These are wonderful stories.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

She's like The problem with him, he was a picky eater.

Melissa Shere Beek:

He was a horrible eater.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And so in coffee, he must We used have to have to tell him that we had private chefs for him. He believed you? Oh, yeah.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Believed Samantha? I never said

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

that Yeah. To We had private chefs I wanted all to get,

Melissa Shere Beek:

like, coffee on, like, a sponge chip.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, we did.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

We used

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

to dip She in did the

Jessica Shere Coggins:

the snotter with my

Melissa Shere Beek:

mom because every time he'd be at dinner and he really wanted

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

to We'd eat him. We'd just eat shit. We'd sneak like

Melissa Shere Beek:

whipped cream and frosting.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

On a knife that was like 10 inches thin.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Not mom. No. I gave

Melissa Shere Beek:

him on my finger. I would just give

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

him frosting. Probably me. It was for you.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Because mom would get mad at us and we fed.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, we would just slice the like

Melissa Shere Beek:

finger crusted.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, he would salivate.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Smack is litzen.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Matt's not eating. It was so it became so difficult to see him at dinner because I wake up

Melissa Shere Beek:

that I felt so bad. Next. I couldn't imagine

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Oh, don't. I'm not a foodie. Oh,

Melissa Shere Beek:

yeah. I get sugar. Bring cookies every day.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He didn't care. He did not care. He wanted to be with his family. That's all that mattered to him.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

He did. But I'm sure some of it really bothered him.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. He just wanted to be alive.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I think he also wanted people to know his brain was fine. I think what people

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

would be

Jessica Shere Coggins:

like He was so sharp. Steven.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But it like that he was physically limited. But mentally, he would tell you all these stories that he read in the newspaper or thing he had seen or documented.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He just And if watched people would come in and they would talk to him strange, I'm like, you can talk to him normal. Like, he hears you. You can talk to him. Yeah. Right.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I get that though. But people thought his

Jessica Shere Coggins:

brain wasn't there. And I was like, oh, trust me. My mom would have put a pillowcase over and a long time ago.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, yeah. Because she didn't she has a living will. She don't wanna live this way. And daddy was like, no.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Well, she

Melissa Shere Beek:

am not going until God takes me.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Should we tell them how it happened? Do you wanna Well,

Melissa Shere Beek:

I gave a brief description.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Okay.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But I wanna tell a funny story about my people with them. Oh, okay. You wanna go?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

You go. No.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I was just it was when you were talking about how people's perception of him, those who loved him and knew him, which were like Jerry and Neil, his bestest friends. They they would come over every day and hang out with him. But one day, Jerry came over. Do you remember this

Jessica Shere Coggins:

story? Mm-mm.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, this is such a great story. So daddy, you know, daddy always liked to look presentable. He liked to get dressed, you know.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Oh, know this story.

Melissa Shere Beek:

So it was the end of the night. He was gonna get ready for bed. He was just in his boxers and in a t shirt or whatever, and he was sitting there and

Jessica Shere Coggins:

He changed.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Jerry dropped by. No. Jerry dropped by and daddy got all upset. He was like so upset because it was like he wasn't dressed, and he wanted to be dressed and stuff like that. So Jerry dropped his pants and took his pants off.

Melissa Shere Beek:

And sat in his boxers. Daddy laughed so hard.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Jerry used to carry a picture of the two of them in his wallet. I wonder if he still has it.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I think he does. Yeah. Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That's one of his best friends. Yeah. So here's my story.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Tell me your

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

funny My funny story. So I was the athlete in the family.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Aw. And so

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I used to play basketball. And your daddy used to And call me dead then I was the one who used to shoot BB guns with him in the backyard.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

So Oh, I didn't know that yet.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, yeah. I loved it was it was be it was oxygenated guns. So they were like little pellets. And we love to go out during the locust the locust season. We would just Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

We would just boom them. We'd kill them right A lot of them, like, in the middle of having sex, and dad thought it was the funniest thing.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Well, that's a way to go out.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

So anyways, he would used to set Poor locust. He used to set me up Who am I locust? We used to set up cans, like, you know

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Coke cans on on the wall, we would shoot them down. So one day, we were out shooting. And all of a sudden, go, ow. I touched I touched the back of my leg. And daddy had missed a shot, hit the wall.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

It ricocheted off the wall and nailed me in the Yeah. We kept this secret from mom for so Oh,

Melissa Shere Beek:

now everybody's gonna tell.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Because he knew that I had rollerblades. And he said, I won't tell mom you have rollerblades if you don't tell mom I shot you. How does mom not know you have roller blades? I don't know how she did it. I don't think they were allowed.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

It's like the makeup. She took it in the car. And then she

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

changed I think was some into stupid Ruthie rules that I never

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Even listen to. Secret things about

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I getting out of that won't daddy and I still I wish he was here. To this day, would belly laugh over the ricocheted shot because it was just

Melissa Shere Beek:

know that's good idea. Would

Jessica Shere Coggins:

never forget. It was out

Melissa Shere Beek:

in the front such good one.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And I also go, ow. And it ricocheted off of dad.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Did he laugh first before he checked you out?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. He laughed over

Jessica Shere Coggins:

time.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And then it was like, don't tell mom I did that. He was a kid. Don't tell mom I did a that. He was big kid. He was the fucking best.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Daddy was a big kid.

Melissa Shere Beek:

When Doug and daddy would go together to do something, because They played tennis. They played tennis They were besties. They were besties. But the the funny thing is is that, like, daddy had if he was into something, he had like every accessory that went with everything.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

The three tennis rackets, the back, everything.

Melissa Shere Beek:

So Doug had

Jessica Shere Coggins:

started the ball hopper.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh god. And they went and they said decided they're gonna play tennis because they both like to play tennis.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

You said when Doug came home a lot.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I said that. To Doug, like, did you have a good time? He goes, wow. Well, first of all, your father's way more agile than I thought. Mhmm.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But he came with a headband.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, god. Yes. Headband. Sweatbands.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I have them.

Melissa Shere Beek:

He came with sweatbands. He came with the ball hopper. He came with three different rackets. And that time, the rackets were the ones that you would screw on and off to, like, keep him straight.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. They weren't.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

He had a normal racket.

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. He had that wood one that he loved.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

No. He had a normal racket.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He had two. No. He did have a

Melissa Shere Beek:

little bit Fiberglass ones.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He had one. Yeah.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But I said, well, that's great. He goes, yeah. But have you ever seen your father in short shorts?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. It's like my lipids. It's like no. He They was were just like hairy. No.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

But they were They

Melissa Shere Beek:

called daddy bear for a reason. Right. He was super super hairy.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

You okay?

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I've done that twice.

Melissa Shere Beek:

And he was wearing short shorts. His short shorts barely covered his ass. So when daddy came They were like, the house bear it. But it was like, he was a bear. He so Doug's like, have you ever seen your father in short shorts?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I loved it.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

It was so cute. Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

It was very cute.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I went away with

Jessica Shere Coggins:

him a lot. Like, I remember playing a lot of his model homes now. I remember going out to Ravenna? No. Where did he build out West?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Palm Point.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

No. Fort Myers? Fort Myers. When he was building in Fort Myers, I would go with him a lot. Like, we did a lot of things like that.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Did you get on the plane with him? Because he was flying a plane.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Don't think mom let me.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. I remember all

Jessica Shere Coggins:

the But he brought back those lollipops with the

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

What about the key lime pies? He always The stuffs like houses had the big crayons. I mean, the big crayons. I remember the beds. The beds did not have mattresses.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

They were hard.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Or just

Melissa Shere Beek:

a rock. Well, they were model homes.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I remember it was grounded once, and I wasn't allowed to go to the ravina opening. Then I'm ungrounded because

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Oh my god. I remember Yeah. Playing in

Melissa Shere Beek:

Of the model homes that he was building.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

They were, like, upstairs, downstairs.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He was the best. Like

Melissa Shere Beek:

He was he was a funny traveler though, because you said something earlier.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

So, Oh, like my son has this traveling thing if you're gonna talk about it. That they have to pee five minutes before you get on a plane.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Okay. So I was gonna say that

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

My son does

Melissa Shere Beek:

not had, like, maps and a plan and a schedule. I mean, she didn't even stop to

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

eat for us. No. Didn't.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But daddy was like a wanderer, an explorer. He would get lost. Like Sam said, like, we'd be boarding the plane and he'd be like, I gotta go to the bathroom.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

In the

Melissa Shere Beek:

bathroom, he would go to be like, in another terminal.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That's Aiden.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Terrible. Terrible.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Aiden got that from dad.

Melissa Shere Beek:

And on our trips, it was like the Griswolds. It was like totally the Griswolds where we're like going around the circle. Look, kids. Big band in parliament. Because daddy was just like

Jessica Shere Coggins:

all over National lampoons. Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That was national lampoons. We would say that every time.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Do you have a a funny thing, like, about a trip or anything like that with daddy?

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I mean, I'm sure, but I just miss going on trips now and he's not there.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Do because there's one funny thing I remember about all of his trips.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

My

Melissa Shere Beek:

So we like, new accessories and stuff like that. Right? So Ma would be like, get a picture of us, Steven. Get a picture. And then he would dismantle the Betamax, the VHS, the new camera with all the accessory and all the lenses.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Then he would take out, like, the instruction manual.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He would

Melissa Shere Beek:

take out a tripod. And this would be going down and this man still had to put the whole thing together before

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

When he did everything he Well,

Jessica Shere Coggins:

in the white room. Remember we had prom and he would throw the that trombone up in the back.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Not the

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

white room. Doors.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Okay. But he had would take professional professional.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

But he did. He took some pictures. Did

Melissa Shere Beek:

all of our pictures when I would go to prom and everything like that. And even even the boys, our neighbors

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He had photo session, my session at the

Melissa Shere Beek:

front doors because there's a whole wood panel, but then he'd have lighting and, like, white But screen and a whole by

Jessica Shere Coggins:

the time we were, he had a white screen on had my a

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

photo session. My kid my friends came down for spring break for college. That's when mom used to call me a fat fucking pumpkin face because I Oh, Samantha. Because I got burnt on

Jessica Shere Coggins:

the This is really her therapy session.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Clearly. Oh, my kids know this story. Yeah. Called called me doesn't? Yes.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

But my mom called me a

Melissa Shere Beek:

okay. We got it. Because you burnt your face and

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

it was because I red didn't and put on sunblock.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Right.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And dad decided he wanted to take professional photos of me and my friends. Their mom was calling me names. But that's okay. I still have those pictures.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

You're not damaged

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

or anything. Not damaged

Melissa Shere Beek:

at all.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

There's not nothing wrong. Yeah. She still does not think of that. I love you, mom. Don't you remember

Jessica Shere Coggins:

the neck thing that he used to have on the bed

Melissa Shere Beek:

with the No. The thing that he would hang upside down to

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

stretch himself.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

And he had a water bag as a weight on one end. It was so weird.

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. He got into things. Whatever he got into, it was, like, a 150%.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

It's funny. I was talking to mom the other day and she goes, oh my god, your father collected so much shit. Oh. She says to me, I have reams of paper for years.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. For ten years,

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

she's still using the she same paper he had. Goes I all of a sudden I hear go, ow. I go, mom, are you okay? She goes, he's got balls of rubber bands. And every time I poke one, it snaps

Jessica Shere Coggins:

because they're old

Melissa Shere Beek:

shadows, mom. After he died

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He's she's still finding shit.

Melissa Shere Beek:

We put together a list of things that we needed to do. Right? And so I did all the like, the billing stuff and all that stuff. She goes, I got other stuff we gotta do. And I was like, okay, I'm in.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I'll help you, whatever it is. She says, I need your truck though. And I was like, okay. And I show up and she's like, get all this stuff in the back of the truck. We're going to Costco.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I

Jessica Shere Coggins:

never But she returned everything.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. And to home to Office Depot. Yeah. Everywhere. First of all, she's not allowed back in Costco.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Really?

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. No. Because she returned too much. It was crazy. It insane.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But daddy had all this shit.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

No. No. She returned stuff from like 10 years old. Yeah. No.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Off the depot was terrible.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh my god. Where was I?

Melissa Shere Beek:

Okay. Storing all this stuff. Daddy okay. Daddy had this like emergency kit thing that if like the floods came because they live by the water, that he had this thing that you could open up the rooftop and get through, and he had these like blow up

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

racks. He made us carry in our car emergency car kits.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, We always had emergency car. We knew how to taught

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

us how to fix a

Melissa Shere Beek:

flat and everything. Oh, not me. No. Yeah. That third case?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. And he had the flame, like, it came with everything. He told us everything. Oh,

Melissa Shere Beek:

yeah. We had flare guns. Yeah. Had

Jessica Shere Coggins:

not the and we

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

had the window breaker.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, we had the got I

Jessica Shere Coggins:

have that too. Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That was another thing I made my kid. That was something

Jessica Shere Coggins:

He was prepared.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He was always He had the cranking radio when the hurricane would hit. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The radio that cranked.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

No. We didn't talk about the van.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, I love the van.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

The van.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But then that we told the story about the van about the joining.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, Oh. Oh, he used to dress up for Halloween in the scary mask.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Okay. So that was another thing that I had here about

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Scare all the kids in the neighborhood.

Melissa Shere Beek:

So for decorating for Halloween

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, favorite thing.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Was like beyond anything you can imagine day even. And so in the seventies, he had cobwebs all over the house. He had witches that were flying on ropes that he brought down, that they would move when people would walk up and they'd come down from the trees. He had spooky music that he'd set up in all of our bedroom windows that went out. He had, like, all of this all of this stuff.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But but talking about not just decorating for Halloween and being into everything, but you remember, like, in the winter? What about his costume's great?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He had a costume every time he opened up the front door, had that mask.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. He scared

Melissa Shere Beek:

the children. But do you remember what he

Jessica Shere Coggins:

did in winter?

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, my god. For like the one day I was cold, he'd he'd put the fireplace on. He'd light up the fireplace. We get marshmallows.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Maybe he didn't do it. That room was there so bizarre.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, well, that room we weren't allowed to touch. But so wait. But then we put on couldn't

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

walk and your feet.

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. We had this game because it was shag carpeting. Yes. It's like

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

We had a

Melissa Shere Beek:

walk vacuumed it.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And you

Melissa Shere Beek:

can't go in there and you're not allowed. And I used to play piano all the time. Oh, that piano freaks She said I out had to draw stand on the seat and sit down. I couldn't even walk into Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

To get over the seat.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Just to piss her off.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Going down.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But just to piss her off, I would walk the entirety of the room just on furniture. Yeah. That I'd never it was like it was like, I guess, the floor is

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

hot Yeah.

Melissa Shere Beek:

We now did

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

that too. The worst No. But he would make

Melissa Shere Beek:

it out some more.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And he

Melissa Shere Beek:

put on Johnny Mathis.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

We used to do s'mores outside though in the barbecue with dad.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Well, that was later. But like

Jessica Shere Coggins:

We had good parties outside.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, yeah. Great parties outside. Mhmm.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

We had

Jessica Shere Coggins:

great

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That pool. That pool with that that slide. Nobody I had felt a bad when we left

Jessica Shere Coggins:

with those three trees he built for us.

Melissa Shere Beek:

He built a whole city of trains.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, trains that went down.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Had to go down underneath it and come up behind mountains and

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

were like, was so cool. Into the playroom.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I remember he had was do whole In

Jessica Shere Coggins:

the back corner.

Melissa Shere Beek:

He built this whole city. Remember In the garage.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. But then he brought it into the playroom when we were growing up. Yeah. And it was I'm not gonna kid you, it was the length of this couch.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I go to Hobby Lobby and I see the miniature trees Yes. And like the

Melissa Shere Beek:

walls Everything. I think

Jessica Shere Coggins:

of him.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, We we

Melissa Shere Beek:

go to rec sorts and craft, like,

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

all the time. Oh, he lived at Pearl's.

Melissa Shere Beek:

So we lived yeah. But the best thing is I still get, like, such good energy in in an Ace Hardware store. Like or or it's Shell Lumber. I'm like,

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

oh, yeah.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Used to have

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

a credit. Yes. But he is always like, yeah. An account.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. He never had

Melissa Shere Beek:

to use

Jessica Shere Coggins:

the card.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Ace Hardware. And at the paint store.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. And all of the Yeah. Because I do all this. I I hire subs when I do stuff. And so I I go in and I still have the same guys and I still use the same account.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. He

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I'll use your account. Thanks. Use my account.

Melissa Shere Beek:

What are you doing?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He was the I I don't think and listen. I I adore my husband. He's an amazing father. I don't think you make men like daddy.

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. Or Poppy. But yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. But no. Daddy was the best. Was tough. He could be mean if he didn't have his drink at the end of the day.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I'm not mean. He did.

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. He was never mean to us.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He he no. He had a he could He had

Melissa Shere Beek:

a little temper, but the

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

only time I saw you

Melissa Shere Beek:

was temper that was bad.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Mom. No.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Well, yes. Because mom Were you would with me with the pasta? Wait. Mom would get mad at me, punish me, say whatever she had to say to me. Dad would come home and five minutes later, it was the same spiel that mom had given to me.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

She just told him and he she probably said, Pete, exactly what I'm saying. And he would come in

Jessica Shere Coggins:

and I

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

would just look at him and laugh and I'd be like, okay, daddy.

Melissa Shere Beek:

It was like mom's voice

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

coming I out his

Jessica Shere Coggins:

wait to get my porker until mom was smoking a cigarette because there were bees. And I would show it to I would show it to dad and he's like, don't worry, just do better next time.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. He didn't care.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Daddy was Mom

Jessica Shere Coggins:

was the one.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Mom, but anything that came out of his mouth, if he was mad, it was exactly what mom had told him to say. It's not something

Melissa Shere Beek:

he wanted No. The only time I saw him get get upset was he worked so hard, like, all day on this special pasta salad, which now I'm gonna go home and make

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

it. Andrew's house? Yeah. Oh my god.

Melissa Shere Beek:

He pulled up to the house and it was like a vat.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He was carrying a Tuckaware. Tuckaware. So proud. How? It's

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I feel like I know this.

Melissa Shere Beek:

And he just Exactly. He kept kicking

Jessica Shere Coggins:

it out of there.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. It was a it was a little hill

Melissa Shere Beek:

right in the front He right in the driveway. He kept kicking

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

it out. I

Melissa Shere Beek:

would so do that.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. There would

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

be nothing left.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. There was nothing left. I mean, it was all

Jessica Shere Coggins:

over the floor.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That was bad. But he

Jessica Shere Coggins:

had spent the whole afternoon

Melissa Shere Beek:

making this incredible. I'm going to go home and make it now.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

What about Wasn't he sitting underneath something in Aunt Susie and Uncle Steven's and it was a fragrant?

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. That was Uncle Steven's. Oh, god.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Gotten these, Mom like, light rings and she put, like, lavender in the lightning. And we're having a family dinner and And uncle Steven's like, why?

Jessica Shere Coggins:

It tastes like flowers.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. No. It was even worse than that.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Uncle Steve every daddy was like, isn't the chicken good? I barbecued it, whatever. And uncle Steven's like, it tastes like soap. Like, what the hell is he talking about? Was like and he had such a dry sense of humor, he's like, yeah.

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. I don't think I'm eating the same

Jessica Shere Coggins:

thing we

Melissa Shere Beek:

are eating. And it was like, whatever. And then and then he we're like, what does it taste like? And he's like, soap. We're like, like, no.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But like, how? And he's like, I'm eating flowers. It's like a lavender. And mom's like, it's my new lavender light bulb thing.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I was like I remember it was like It was like a metal thing. Yeah. Was a little like ceramic thing

Melissa Shere Beek:

and it was like

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I will tell you the one thing I did get from daddy.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

We have such good stories.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I know fuse boxes. I know about tools. I can fix.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. Me too.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I put

Melissa Shere Beek:

furniture I give him Everything.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Everything. That's for job.

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. I mean, like, from the house up.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. Yeah. You need me to fix? I it's it's ingrained.

Melissa Shere Beek:

The only thing I don't mess with is electricity. Yeah. Won't do that. Everything else I can do. Like, Doug's like, I'll fix it.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I'm like, don't touch anything.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Nope. Do it

Melissa Shere Beek:

all. I'll I'm yeah. It's me. Yep. Yeah.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I've got my tools. I'm ready to go. Got a toolbox. I'm very happy.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. When we got our CEO on our house, it was because of me.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

And I

Melissa Shere Beek:

was like,

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

thanks, daddy.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. I was the contractor for my house.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I knew everything. Yeah. They actually wanted me to work for them think when I they

Melissa Shere Beek:

should do it. I'm telling you what they Pinecrest, like, wanted me to the cutie.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. I know. Yes.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I'll just take the phone calls. Yeah. Will.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

She might not direct it don't pick up calls. Bye, bitch. They're not here today. Bye, bitch.

Melissa Shere Beek:

We're close. What?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. Wrong number.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. You don't have the right number. There's no one like

Melissa Shere Beek:

don't that

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

like that here.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

It would lose business. I'm sorry.

Melissa Shere Beek:

We'll find something else for you to

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

do. Okay. He was one of a kind.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I just wish, like, I want would love to know, like, how he is now.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I do feel he's present right here.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. I do.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I don't feel any of that.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I do. I just feel like he would wanna be. I don't know.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I talk to him sometimes, like, the car. I'm like, hey, daddy. You know, whatever. Do

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

you I do see a butterfly flying by.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I told you the one time I never have gotten anything. But I told you this one time, I was driving on a hundred and twelfth

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I have so

Jessica Shere Coggins:

right past 93rd Avenue. And I had said something, like, if if you're out there, show me a sign or whatever. I shit you not. A fucking red cardinal went into my wheelchair of my car and bounced off. Have no idea Wait a the bird was dead.

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. The bird is is alive and doing well.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

No. I'm not so sure. Because I look back and I didn't see the bird.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

But you thought it there to bird.

Melissa Shere Beek:

It flew away.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Okay. I'm just saying that was my moment. And what's

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

your moment? That was the sign.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I asked the January And ninety third. It was, like, right there. There you

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I have two really big signs. Okay. One was, Mason and I were in Canada. But I did get a somewhat of a You gotta say that's I don't know why. We were outside a bagel place, and there was this man sitting on us, like, the the steps.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And Mason doesn't believe in it. But he looked at this man and I have a picture and I'm like saw it.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

know. The other one, were you with us

Melissa Shere Beek:

in Rome?

Jessica Shere Coggins:

No. That you were, like, that

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

was weird. She was Ralphing in Rome? No. No. No.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

This was no. This was Father's Day. Who was I walking with? Was I walking with Stella? We were walking into a restaurant in the Jewish quarters in Rome.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And it was Father's Day. And there was this man sitting at a table by himself. And I remember it it was like you walk into the restaurant. It was one room. Then there was another room.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And then there was a back room where we had a big table. And I made eye contact with this man. And he was sitting by himself. And I felt it. I just knew it was him.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I went back. I sat down on the table and I'm like, there there's a man there that is daddy.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I think it was mom came Let with me see.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Let me He was gone.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Of course.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

She went right back to the table.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I I have a vision of

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

daddy and dad dad. Laughing their ass about it. But it was Father's Day.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Now. Yeah. Every day is a birthday day.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

She couldn't understand why he wasn't there for And I'm like, well, it's not about you. But yeah. Yeah. Don't get any That was the most the bagel place, but this was. And my I really believe it was Stella.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Stella can verify that it was such a it was him.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Have a funny story going back because I was just thinking you said Rome and it reminded me of of Doug and daddy in Rome in Venice when they were just laughing at some Italian places hysterical. And then afterwards, I was thinking about I think Mason was with Doug and Danny. We were all at the movies together. We had gone out for something. And we decided the girls first decided that they wanted to go to the bathroom.

Melissa Shere Beek:

So we gave all of our handbags to the guys. Mhmm. Right? So I I don't think Mason was there for this one. Think it was just daddy daddy and Doug.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I think it was another time that the boys were in the bathroom. We got a picture of them all up against the

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Oh, I saw that one.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But so it was daddy and Doug at this time. We're at the movie theater and we get the girls gave them their handbags and mom and I or whatever. And we go in and we come out of the bathroom and then we wait for the guys because we didn't realize they went to the bathroom after we went bathroom. And they came out hysterical laughing from the bathroom. And we're like, what's up?

Melissa Shere Beek:

They were having a conversation with each other at the urinals and they're like, where do you wanna go to dinner? What do you wanna do next? But they didn't realize they had the hand they were carrying ladies handbags on their shoulders.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

So they're like the wrong bathroom. No. And people were commenting in the bathroom, like, they either love each other and they're a

Melissa Shere Beek:

great couple together or you're definitely not in the right place. It was so funny.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Doug had a great relationship with dad.

Melissa Shere Beek:

They were best friends. They were best friends. Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I just wish he could, you know, be around to see Yeah.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I I have to I believe that he have to believe that he sees all of our kids and watches them. I still have his phone number in my phone. I'm tempted. I used to be tempted. I thought about it now, but I've always tempted to call and see who picks up, who got daddy's number.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Well, know a 30342 froze. Yeah. Yeah. I won't finish it.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Don't finish it.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

That's it. I I have it. Yeah. I couldn't do it. I'd be hysterical.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I don't know. Would you, Sam?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I'm sorry. I was

Melissa Shere Beek:

reading something. She's in

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I'm another sorry. I I was saying parent teacher conference that I Oh. Was getting the notes on.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Okay.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I said I still have

Melissa Shere Beek:

daddy phone number in my phone. Oh.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

305342 No.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Was say we don't wanna say the whole thing. Started say saying

Jessica Shere Coggins:

anything. The whole

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I'm was to lunch.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Were really out to lunch. So blondie. But no. I was saying,

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

have you

Melissa Shere Beek:

ever thought about calling it? Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

But I won't. Actually, one day, somehow it came up. And I'm like, oh, this was weird. But I think it was like, because I had Siri and I might have said it Oh, you mouthed by it. Accident.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I wasn't it wasn't like

Jessica Shere Coggins:

When mom calls, it's always still mom or dad. Really? Uh-huh. Because I have nanny and puppies in my body.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I do. I still have nanny and puppies

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

in I think it's his nana love Shirley poppy too. Yeah.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

If I heard his voice, I would lose it.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Who? Daddy's? Yeah. Do you

Melissa Shere Beek:

have any regrets?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, more time. More time with him.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Alright. He was in a bad spot. So for me, I wish he could and no comment after. I wish he could see how I turned out. Or how I I am

Melissa Shere Beek:

think he knows you're triumphant. Yeah. You're the best you've ever been.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Mhmm. Agreed. A 100% agreed. I can't answer the question.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I just let you can answer the question.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I have to use the ladies room really badly.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Well, the the three drinks you brought weren't Why is it always you in the middle of the episode? I daddy.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Wait. Yeah. Going to the bathroom at inappropriate times. So we were saying about regrets.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Sam. I regret not going into business with Daddy. Taking or doing anything that that had to

Melissa Shere Beek:

do with

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

building and

Jessica Shere Coggins:

because we could all have fulfilled different completely different roles Yeah. And been great.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I really wish that we had Yeah. Taken that on.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I mean Still in our future to do it if you want to, girls.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I was gonna say.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Can't find land anywhere right now.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Well, we could renovate people's Yeah. Or flip. Yeah. We could totally renovate people's homes.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Okay.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Let me know when you're ready. I'm ready.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I'm in. You know I'm always in.

Melissa Shere Beek:

What is the quality of daddy that you miss?

Jessica Shere Coggins:

His presence. Yeah. I don't know if that's the quality, but It's not

Melissa Shere Beek:

quality, but yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I just he just went with the flow. Like, would always be like, daddy in La La Land. We and it's choking like daddy was in La La Land. But he just went with the flow. He just was like, one of us.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

It's like, okay, girls. He was one of the girls.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

He just loved girls. He loved his girls.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I definitely felt unconditional love from daddy.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He loved his nails. I he would have let me paint his nails. If I wanted to put eye Yeah. Mascara, he would have let he he would braid my hair. It was He used to wash my hair

Jessica Shere Coggins:

in the sand.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. In the in the kitchen, he laid me out. She'd lay out

Melissa Shere Beek:

on the countertop and put her

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

in There was nothing we couldn't do that he would say no to. Scratch my back?

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, yeah. He was in for everything.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He ugh. Was the best.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Now you're gonna make me cry. No. Don't cry. He was generous, but not not just paying people's rent or cancer treatments. But he would hire people that were without a home, he would give them work and wages, and he'd even bring them home for dinner.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

What about

Melissa Shere Beek:

field when nobody was doing that in the seventies. He I mean, most of all, he he had this easiness of loving people

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yes.

Melissa Shere Beek:

And and just laughed laughed unedited, and and that kind of laughter was, like, so healing from him. He was real. Said, he was real, but he loved unconditionally, and he lived life fully, like full tilt. He didn't wanna miss a moment. He didn't wanna miss an opportunity.

Melissa Shere Beek:

He didn't wanna miss anything. And he went with his heart open into everything. Like, I think that's the greatest lesson

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

don't I've think ever anybody has ever said a bad but I don't think anybody has ever said a bad word about him.

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. There was nothing bad to say. He was really And

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I know I know from Mason

Jessica Shere Coggins:

And he was kind.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Adored him. Oh, yes. Adored him.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

It was nothing not to adore. Yeah. You

Melissa Shere Beek:

know? Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He would give the shirt off his back to anyone.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I just remember you calling.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Who? Her?

Jessica Shere Coggins:

To get on a plane? Yeah. It was the day before my twentieth birthday. And I said, I am not going anywhere. Yeah.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Was Mason

Melissa Shere Beek:

Well, and I with called you.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

With Joanne and Jerry going to the part of our apartment. The only thing from We had to smart.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Right. You kept him alive.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Me. Me. Said, Jess, you gotta come home.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Daddy's not doing well. You're like

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

It's my 20

Melissa Shere Beek:

birthday I tomorrow. I'm having a big party. And I'm like, you know, you you gotta get on a plane.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

And I was like, I'm not. Yeah. You're

Melissa Shere Beek:

like, I'm not coming home. I have a big party tomorrow.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I said, picked you up in

Jessica Shere Coggins:

the I said, he'll be fine.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. That's what you Exactly what you Fine.

Melissa Shere Beek:

He's fine.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I remember you sat in the back seat with me and Mason. Joanne and Jerry were driving.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I remember. And it's No one would tell me anything.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Don't think either. Well, we didn't like just

Jessica Shere Coggins:

start in the car.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Alone on a plane.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Right. No. Thank you.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I appreciate had to tell you. And I think I had Jerry there so that he could tell you medically. But also it was Jerry and Joanne who you trusted. And I

Jessica Shere Coggins:

was gonna go abroad. I remember. I was gonna go to London with Tammy.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But I do remember in so he was in the critical care unit at doctors. And they had this tiny tiny little wait well, it it was like tiny little waiting room for people because usually only like one person would be there. Flooded twenty four seven. Hundreds and hundreds of people would sit with us on a daily basis.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. Mom I went up on the couch.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Because Samantha had gotten engaged like two weeks before. Samantha would bring her bridal book. And she had this three ring binder.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I she was know. Taking opinions and then giving manicures to people.

Melissa Shere Beek:

There's one there's one person. Hundreds of people would sit with us. There's one person. Outpouring. Oh, for the outpouring of love.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Because we never let daddy be alone. So we were round

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

There's the

Melissa Shere Beek:

Round the clock there. And people actually came and sat with us.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

There's one person

Melissa Shere Beek:

Round the clock.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That I need to credit besides mom who saved his life. Yeah. There's one man.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Who?

Melissa Shere Beek:

Rabbi Becker. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

There's not another man who loved daddy.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Where there's life, there is hope. And daddy was still functioning with a heart. And so he

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

said He showed

Jessica Shere Coggins:

up Well, mom said, please just wait to Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur. Well, all

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

the dark. So Rabbi Beekka was there every single day. And I truly believe that Prayer and mom because everything daddy did for that shul he built for Rabbi Becker and and Sima, that that is why he was alive.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I well, I I still see Rabbi Becker

Melissa Shere Beek:

all

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

the time

Melissa Shere Beek:

on the street.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I went on my way to Mel. Even the last hour, the last day of daddy's life Mhmm. And Rabbi came. And he's such a man of comfort. And he made us and he gave us these papers and he said, just say these prayers.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

It'll be okay. Yeah. I remember He was such a comfort. Seventeen

Melissa Shere Beek:

years later, when you and I were taking care of daddy and we knew something was He was gonna die. We no. We were downstairs in the in the room Yeah. The fitted room with it. And and we called mom back.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

She was

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

at the hair salon.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Called you because she's getting her first pass.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

And you're like, it's time.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I said Samantha and I looked at each other and said, oh, no. No. No. And we still had the prayers, all the prayers that Rabbi Becker had given us. Oh, the papers.

Melissa Shere Beek:

And the last breath that daddy took, because I had my hand on his heartbeat.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Know we were sitting on the bed. We were

Melissa Shere Beek:

all gathered around him, and the last thing that crossed his lips was the Shema from the prayers that Rabbi Becker had given us. And then I felt his heart stop in my hand, but it was a beautiful moment.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

It was the most beautiful death. And I know that's such

Melissa Shere Beek:

a whole No.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I had that thing

Melissa Shere Beek:

set. Too. Like, it was a transition from Oh, god. To another world. And the people that we were all surrounding him as he passed, and he was going

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He waited for everybody.

Melissa Shere Beek:

He waited for everybody to

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

be there. He waited. Even I even called my kids at school. I had my my in laws go to the school.

Melissa Shere Beek:

In New York.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

They went to the school with the phone. Yeah. The kids got on the phone. Yeah. Put it to dad's ear.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He heard it. He waited for Sunday. Mhmm. He waited for Angel.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Mhmm. Sunday was last last Sunday people. Angel.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

The second they walked Angel. In the

Melissa Shere Beek:

Because they helped us take

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

care The second they walked in, everybody else that was important was there. Yeah. Was circle And Sue, Uncle Steven, you, me, he had talked to all the kids that he could talk to.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Talked to all the kids, our spouses.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Sunday We're

Melissa Shere Beek:

there too.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I think it was Angel was the last And

Melissa Shere Beek:

the hospice nurse. But she stepped out for a minute.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I think she did our No.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And that was it. Yeah. That was it. It was a beautiful passing. Was the most beautiful passing.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Mhmm. Mhmm. I I've I could've ever experienced.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I just thought of a regret. This is fucking hilarious.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Oh my god.

Melissa Shere Beek:

So so in talking with Rabbi Becker, and Rabbi Becker always said, where there's life, there's hope. And I'm a big person of prayer, and I believe everybody praying, whatever your religion was, God answered our prayers. And God listens to everything. Rabbi Becker said, God hears every word that you say. So every day and every night, I would go home and I would pray to God.

Melissa Shere Beek:

And I would say, Please restore my father mentally and physically and emotionally and spiritually. And then I would go through the shunt in his head and

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

the da da da da da

Melissa Shere Beek:

da da And I was so long in this prayer asking so much from God that at the end of the prayer, I'd say, but I'll take him with a limp. Because I wanted to, like, make a little joke and lighten it up.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

And you gave him a limp?

Melissa Shere Beek:

I gave him a fucking limp, because for seven for ten well, before he became

Jessica Shere Coggins:

an invalid for the

Melissa Shere Beek:

last six years, for eleven years, he was totally fine and functioning. He had this limp, and everybody's like, and finally, like, the tenth doctor that mom took him to, she's like, we don't understand this fucking limp. And the doctor's like, we can't explain the limp. He's like, I'm

Jessica Shere Coggins:

like, me.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I gave him the limp.

Melissa Shere Beek:

So, yeah. Be very careful when you pray, people. Like, be very specific.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I think about this now.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

It's almost It's a regret I have.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

It's almost ten years later. Yeah. And we still talk about him.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Like, it's at the very first days

Melissa Shere Beek:

in our children's

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

But when I picture him, I picture him the ten years before. But I will say one thing. And it goes back to the story of how he ended up with the bleed to the brain. And I'm very, you know, being in the right place at the right time, I feel like I was there for a reason. And and I'll just give a quick story.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

They were in the middle of daddy and mommy were in the middle of building their house. And I showed up to the job site because I love to build. I wanted to build with daddy. I wanted to build. And daddy had like a little scrape on his knee.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And I was like, daddy, what happened? He's like, oh, the moron threw a four by four off the roof and tried to get it into the trash and it hit me on the side of the neck.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Hit him in the back of the head, basically.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

And But also because of what you did with both of them saved his life.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

But but he fell. He fell. And then two days later is when he had the bleed to the brain. It was kind of what Yeah. What John Ritter passed from.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. And I think if I hadn't been there, we wouldn't have known what

Jessica Shere Coggins:

was Right. Wrong. Because Well, what happened is when he went downstairs to vomit Yeah. She had made mom and dad take infant CPR because she had little kids at that time. Forgot.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

So mom gave him CPR until they got there. But it's funny thing. She didn't know CPR. Sorry. That's like the fifth time.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

But we also

Jessica Shere Coggins:

If she didn't know CPR

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

She would have been gone.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And we had just had my engagement party the night before. Yeah. And I was blaming my in laws for bad food because I thought daddy had food poisoning. And that's why he was talking. My god.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Really? Oh, yeah.

Melissa Shere Beek:

But mom was a hero that night too because Many times. She's like five two. He was two hundred some odd

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

pounds. Didn't stop. She didn't stop and She didn't stop

Melissa Shere Beek:

and she flipped him over. She her body I don't know if you remember this, but when you came in town

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

when he was in,

Melissa Shere Beek:

she was bruised. Her whole chest, her arms, because she had to flip him Flip

Jessica Shere Coggins:

him over. Really?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

The other thing mom did that shaved his life is that she had two choices because of where they were living. Yes. She could either go to Coral Gables Hospital No. She should doctor's hospital.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

She wants Because could go to Baptist, but they're like, lady, we're not

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

gonna make doctors because it was the closest

Jessica Shere Coggins:

They had

Melissa Shere Beek:

a Baptist closest. She was seeing two brain doctors there for aneurysms, and so she knew that

Jessica Shere Coggins:

No. I think they put her in and she's like, take me to Baptist's. I know people there. They were like, later. We can't go there.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

So then she said doctors was a doctor.

Melissa Shere Beek:

She said the closest.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

She used to be new patient there. His life. Like, as much as

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Many times over.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And people are like As mad shit as I talk mom, I am so thankful because we got more time with dad.

Melissa Shere Beek:

And people are like, why did you keep going? Why did you keep going?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Business.

Melissa Shere Beek:

It was daddy.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Mom never took for answer.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Well, mom never took no for an answer, but she said if I ever am like this, put a pillow over my head. Don't wanna live like this. Jesus. Yeah. But daddy, even when I was talking to him privately and mom was out of the room, was like, daddy, it's okay.

Melissa Shere Beek:

You can tell me. What do you want? Are you okay like this? Because I don't want you to suffer from anything. And he's like, no, I'm great.

Melissa Shere Beek:

He never once said, why me? Right. Never ever once said, why me? He just and and in physical therapy and all the things he was doing, I've never seen anybody

Jessica Shere Coggins:

push harder at the end.

Melissa Shere Beek:

We would hide. When there was a hurricane coming, we would hide behind things. We were like out in a hurricane because we wanna make sure he was okay and he was at the facility staying there. And we would hide behind there was lockers and we would hide behind the lockers and watch him. But he he pushed harder on Yeah.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I need go with him

Melissa Shere Beek:

as opposed to just the first rep.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

There's another story that I I wanna say about daddy.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Okay.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And I I kind of like, we're we're sorry. I've got my No. No. No. This is a really good story.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Mean, it really talks about who he was. And I brought up how Aiden is the, you know, five minutes before you go to pain, he pees just like daddy. But there was Aiden was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child. And daddy had dyslexia. And I'll never forget when we were looking at McLennan School, which is a school for for kids with with dyslexia.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And it was very hard for me as a parent to like know that your kid had a problem. And he came and he looked at the school and I remember him crying. And he said, this is the perfect school for Aiden. I wish there was a school like this for me.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. And

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I see a lot of daddy and Aiden. The way that they never Aiden has all these things, but he never he never falters on them. He he never complains about them. He never makes it an issue. He just keeps on going.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And that's kind of daddy's resilience of like Yeah. Never never the poor me and like Yeah. There was never an obstacle that he couldn't get over.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Right. They figured it out.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

They figured it out. Yeah. And daddy wasn't daddy, you know, his he had dyslexia, but nobody he just got pushed aside. He got sent to boarding school. He just his parents didn't His really help

Melissa Shere Beek:

parents were of the ilk of But you know, children should

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

be I seen and not just never will forget that moment

Melissa Shere Beek:

of grateful walking. It's

Jessica Shere Coggins:

he came out so amazing.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Walking in this but Aiden's kind of like that too where it's like, you can give me something, but I'm gonna be something and I'm gonna make something of myself. There's obstacle. There's no hurdle that I can't

Melissa Shere Beek:

Nothing hell is about

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

can't take no for an answer. Yeah. That's not only daddy with dyslexia, but that's daddy with his brain and that's daddy with the lung cancer. And he never took no for an answer. No.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And he never

Melissa Shere Beek:

He had blood cancer. Right. Never said why me.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He never

Melissa Shere Beek:

After all those assaults, like the fourth or fifth one, he never said why

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

me. Never not that he just never said no. Yeah. It's just that he never let obstacles get in his way. Right.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That's the bottom line. And I'm I'm I see that in Aiden and I just I know daddy and I guess this is a a regret that he'll never see Aiden how successful he may

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, he does see Aiden's success.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Graduating from college, like who would've thought?

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. No. I do believe daddy sees that. I absolutely Daddy is present and sees all their successes. And he's cheering them on when they stumble too.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

The daddy's like he's the first boy. Like he was

Jessica Shere Coggins:

so Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Was the first He would take dad he would be so happy every Sunday.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I go to

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Home Depot. Home Depot and they would do the kid project to the point that I did a birthday party with the kid project at Home Depot.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I know

Melissa Shere Beek:

it was tough on Aiden or daddy. Because daddy was like in

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

there with

Jessica Shere Coggins:

the kids

Melissa Shere Beek:

doing it.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Daddy the vet. Talk about daddy and the whole shebang. I mean, the whole dress up of being at Home Depot and they sit outside and

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, they loved

Jessica Shere Coggins:

it.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That was his favorite thing to do with Aidan. Going to Home Depot, I think it was on Sundays. Once a

Melissa Shere Beek:

month maybe. And going to the kids. The new project.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. New project.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I remember the birdhouses they built. The birdhouses.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. I remember that too.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He was an incredible Well,

Melissa Shere Beek:

I have to say, I think we were the most blessed. Really, the most blessed.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Wish we had more time to be blessed.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Yeah. It would have never been enough time.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That's true.

Melissa Shere Beek:

It would have never because we're just so blessed.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I yeah.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Would have never been enough time.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And again, it was a beautiful goodbye. Yeah. It was a beautiful death. It really like I'm so grateful that it it was too soon, but

Melissa Shere Beek:

I God. Okay. Now we gotta go put on one of the silly movies. Oh shit. And laugh.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. The Cheech and Chong, he would all belly laugh. Would pee

Melissa Shere Beek:

in hysterical.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He would pee. Remember I bought him the Cheech and Chong shirt too? Oh yeah. And he peed I guess maybe that goes

Melissa Shere Beek:

back to

Jessica Shere Coggins:

the beginning.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I guess that goes back to the beginning of this conversation. What? Of the weed. Like, now I know why he loved that movie so much.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Oh,

Melissa Shere Beek:

yeah. But also, it just silly humor.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

It was just silly humor. Was a stupid humor.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Silly, silly guy. He was a silly guy. It was very he loved to have fun in life.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Daddy. Yeah. Daddy.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Okay, daddy. We love you.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Love you, daddy. Love you.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Do you wanna do quickie questions or it's enough?

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Not about that.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Okay. So I guess we're not talking.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. If daddy got dressed up, what would he be? I mean, I don't

Melissa Shere Beek:

know what the quickie questions are. No. The quickie questions are qualities you see in your children that remind you of daddy.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, I said it for Aidan already. Yeah. You said it

Melissa Shere Beek:

for Aidan. A lot. Okay. I'm gonna say love and humor. Okay.

Melissa Shere Beek:

A keepsake of daddies that you still have.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Oh, I save everything of it.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yes, you do. I wanna come to your house.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Need to see what you

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

got. Got, like, one thing. I just feel

Jessica Shere Coggins:

like all the Post it notes. Like, I got some

Melissa Shere Beek:

of the videos and books. But what do you have?

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Oh, I have, like, a whole

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Well, we had the same initials.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. I have

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I realized that.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I have, like, a pin of his. It's s s. Oh, that's really cool. I don't you know, I have a lot of his his construction stuff.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Have a tiny postcard sized painting that he did.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, I have

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

his paintings on the wall.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. I have the

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

painting on his wall. Mom took all my other ones back.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. I still she took the ones back for me too. So we're we're waiting.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I wanted that one. I didn't tell you you can

Melissa Shere Beek:

have that one. Found one since she's Something like she would say.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Anyways I thought I thought I like

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

that one.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. So it sits on my inspiration board. So I see it every day when I'm working.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. A painting when I come out of my bed.

Melissa Shere Beek:

What do you think daddy would be doing today if he was still alive?

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh god.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

God. A lot. I think he would kinda still be doing things he

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

did.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. I think he'd be painting. I think he would be trying to figure out tech stuff. Yeah. For sure.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Trying to figure it out.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. That's right.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Trying to figure it out.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He'd see

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I think he would still be playing his music. I have his old

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

CDs? No. The sets? The what's that Apple

Jessica Shere Coggins:

made that little thing for music a long time The Nano iPod? IPod.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. I

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

have an iPod. I Definitely still be painting. Yeah. Building things. Building things.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Building and painting. Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. Keeping keeping Rex not Rex Art, but what's the one in the used

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, Ace to Hardware, Pearls, Arts and Crafts.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. But there's the one that's right where the old Party City is across from South Miami Hospital. What's that?

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, BLIC. That's one

Jessica Shere Coggins:

that's here every day.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He would keep them in business. Daddy

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I just miss talking to

Melissa Shere Beek:

him. Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. Anytime. Yeah. Come pick up the kids.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

And then everyone's like, oh, you look so much like your dad. Oh, you're a clone of your dad. Oh, it's this. Yeah. You are.

Melissa Shere Beek:

It's You're a

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

daddy. I think also Myers. Myers is very much like daddy.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

One right in a row.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yeah. Much like daddy.

Melissa Shere Beek:

I was thinking that he was gonna be doing whatever the kids were up to. Like what they were into, if it was like your kids both play lacrosse, he'd like have the whole outfit. He'd be like practicing lacrosse with them in the field somewhere when they're not playing. Or if it was Myers basketball, he'd be like basketball. He'd be traveling to see them where they're living in different cities or what they're doing.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Yeah. He'd be like all over everything with the kids. Whatever. And he'd have every accessory for everything that they ever even had, like, a spark of an interest in.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Yeah. They're gonna die also.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

I also would also make different like, remember he used to buy those those frames and then he would collage them with pictures of Yeah. Your Yeah. Yeah. Making his own. It's like, for Bria and Balin, he'd probably do a whole lacrosse.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Like, he'd take the photos. Yeah. He'd print the photos. He'd cut the photos. But he cut them so bizarre.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

And then he would collage them. And he would give them to us. And he'd make sure we hung them in our With

Jessica Shere Coggins:

the with that with the glue. With the rubber cement.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Yes.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Oh, he loved rubber cement. Yeah. You know, the other thing I was thinking is he'd still be getting stoned outside in

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

the back.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Avoiding them But he'd

Melissa Shere Beek:

be doing it legally this time.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Oh, without a doubt. Yes.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Leo would've

Jessica Shere Coggins:

never he wanted to when he

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

sick but couldn't. He would yeah. He would have the chocolate. He would have them all.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

I think

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

That's it for the questions.

Melissa Shere Beek:

That's it, girls.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

No. There's gotta be another one.

Melissa Shere Beek:

That's it. You want another one? She always does this. She's just getting started. I Now we're good.

Jessica Shere Coggins:

Thank you No. You want.

Melissa Shere Beek:

No. I didn't have anything else. Just think it was I think we needed a daddy episode, and I I think this was good. This was really good. Yeah.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

He's yeah. He's missed her.

Melissa Shere Beek:

We were blessed. To our listeners, thank you so much. So grateful you're here. Keep listening. Keep learning.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Keep laughing. Keep up with Beek on being. Follow Beek on being on Instagram for the latest. To share thoughts, ideas, suggestions, or nominate a guest, DM us. Want exclusive content, behind the scenes stories, and listener links?

Melissa Shere Beek:

Subscribe. Listen to Beek on being wherever you get your podcast. All episodes are automatically transcribed. Big shout out and a huge thank you to Steven Chen. Yes.

Melissa Shere Beek:

Whoo. At Penthouse Studios. Beek on being was recorded at Penthouse Studios and is a proud member of the Penthouse Podcast Network.

Samantha Shere Sharpe:

Woo hoo. Thank you.