Well, hey there everybody and welcome back another great podcast today.
My name is Scott Durfey joined as always by Dave.
Hey, hi everybody.
Hope you're doing well.
Listen, gang, we have just an amazing experience in store for us again today.
We've had a couple of great interviews over the last little while.
This one is sure to be right in line with those as well.
We have Doug and Emily Page with us today, great friends of Dave's for a very long time.
Yeah, neighbors.
I got to know these two on a church history trip that was led by David Durfee as well.
That was fun.
That was an amazing trip just a couple of summers ago.
Deb and I were there and got to meet Doug and Emily among others that have become lifelong,
eternal hopefully friends with us as well.
Doug and Emily have quite the story that I think that can be relatable to maybe everybody
on some level at least and to many, many others on a very, very deep level.
With that, I think it's probably best if we just dive right into it.
To do that today though, we're going to have Dave facilitate a lot of the questioning and
conversations.
Questioning is probably not the right word.
That sounds quite legal, doesn't it?
But we're going to have Dave take us through the conversation where we get to at least
have the spirit bear witness to us, the power that can be had through the atonement of Jesus
Christ and sometimes some of our darkest tragedies.
So with that, Dave, I'm going to let you go ahead and take it.
Let's get Emily and Doug introduced a little bit and then we'll go from there.
Scott, we've been talking the last few weeks about the effects of the fall and I think
we tried to make the point that there are two major negatives of the fall, physical
death and spiritual death.
Spiritual death, of course, is the separation of the body from the spirit and spiritual
death is a separation from righteousness or separation from God and the result of sinning.
Well today, we have an opportunity to have two really dear, close friends who I really
love and cherish and they are here to share their story with us about the effects of the
fall and the blessings of the atonement of Jesus Christ, which they have experienced
in the loss of their son.
And I'm really thankful that Doug and Emily could be with us and hope that our listeners
will be able to feel the spirit.
I know they will as they listen to this couple share not only the sicknesses and the sufferings
that they've been through, but how they know that Christ has covered them in their pains,
in their sicknesses and sorrows.
So grateful that they're with us today.
Okay, say hi, Doug.
Hi, Doug.
And Emily?
Hi, thank you for having me.
Thank you for having us.
We're grateful to be here.
Oh, sweet to have you.
Yes, we are.
It's going to be a sweet experience, I think.
Yeah, thank you so much for being here.
So I've loved Doug and Emily for almost as long as I moved back here from Minnesota and
knew them shortly after we moved and watched them have their first child.
I mean, he was born where you live right now, right?
Yeah, true.
And from a baby and watched him grow and develop and sweet, cutest personality and was loved
by everybody so much in the ward.
And let's see, you first found out that Wyatt had cancer when he was how old?
He was 10.
10 years old.
And so let's just jump into this, Doug and Emily and talk about how it all started and
how you found out and then just kind of take us through that.
Okay, Emily?
Perfect.
Well, I think we'd kind of start by just talking about Wyatt in general.
So he was a typical just kid loved growing up.
He was very easy to raise.
He was a pretty easy kid in general and just loved spending time outside, loved the water.
Growing up when he was young, we used to get a group of friends that would go and we'd
walk in the morning in the neighborhood and we'd invite friends over and do like slip
and slides and like a pool party in our backyard.
And we'd take the kids to the park or go up to the splash pad in Highland and get some
lunch after and just have like picnics and everything.
And our most recent memories are the ones that we hold dear.
But he just he grew into he loved the Utah Jazz and knew all the players and would love
to go to the games and he loved BYU with the football team.
And he loved anything Star Wars.
He loved the Star Wars movies.
We got him hooked and spending time outside.
He loved to ride his bikes, hang out with friends.
He would ride the bus to school.
His favorite subjects in school were math and science and art.
Did he have brothers and sisters?
He was actually our only child.
Yeah.
Well, I remember him in sacrament meeting.
You know, I have this picture galvanized in my mind of him in sacrament meeting, sitting
between two of you, his head on one of your shoulders.
This I mean, he was you could just tell that this loving this loving child who was so loved
and endeared by his parents.
And I just, you know, I'll never forget that picture of seeing the three of you together
in kind of three peas in a pod.
And that's a sweet picture that I'll always cherish.
Well, and just to maybe add a little perspective to work.
So we're here in our opulent studio in the basement of my home.
And you know, Doug is wearing a BYU shirt that says we love Wyatt, we're the why for BYU
in Wyatt is a big and Emily's wearing a BYU shirt.
That's pretty at any time that I have had the opportunity to be around these two, it
seems like there's always something and I love this.
There's always something.
There's a constant 24 hour a day honoring of this young man.
Right.
Which we try to fit in all the time, but but yeah, no, he's so why it is the Wyatt.
He was just a happy go lucky kid and just he would light up a room whenever he was there.
And he was a fun loving kid.
I mean, he just he loved to be outside and he loved swimming.
He loved he loved playing sports, any sport, golfing, mini golfing, bowling, watching swing
golf club.
The swing that he had golfing was just amazing as a kid of his age.
He took his deacon responsibilities very seriously.
Yes, he want he didn't want to miss church.
He wanted to.
He was there every Sunday and timing wise, he was one of the first wave of 11 year olds.
Right.
To receive the priesthood when that when that blessing that was.
Right.
Yeah.
As it turned out.
Yep.
And and and he was born that way.
Right.
You guys.
I mean, I mean, really, he was just always born that way.
He was a good kid from the get go.
And and just.
Powerful, powerful spirit.
Yeah.
Just happy.
Happy.
Not much light.
Yeah.
Not much would get him down at all.
Yeah.
Always always seemed to be full of joy and fun loving.
Yeah.
After he was diagnosed.
Right.
And you tell us about that.
But this seems to be a place to interject this is that when he lost all of his hair,
it was an amazing tribute that all of the deacons shaved their heads.
Yeah.
One of the right.
Yeah.
It was well, and including some of us older folks.
Yeah.
He went through several surgeries where they would just shave where they were going to
do the incision.
And one of his last surgeries where they had to undergo some major, major work on a scalp.
They had to shave his head.
And that was the first time that they had had to have done that.
He had lost hair through radiation and things like that.
But this is the first time he had to completely have a bald head.
And we just put it out there, you know, jokingly saying, hey, if anybody wants to join in,
and giving Wyatt a little support, we're going to have a, we're going to shave our heads.
And so he cut my hair.
We started with the grandpa cut.
So we went right here just above the ears all the way around.
And we got some good pictures there.
So I know what I look like in another 20 years.
And then shaved the rest of my head he did.
And deacons, teachers, priests.
Yeah, members.
Leaders.
Remember that Sunday everybody was bald.
And with the youth activity that night.
And so some of the young women were shaving the heads of the young men.
So it was quite the experience.
He was really loved.
We were all cold for quite a few weeks until started stuff growing back.
Well, this would probably be a good time to then start talking about what happened.
Yeah.
When did he start getting sick?
So he was in the school play at the time.
And so they were practicing getting ready for the play.
Well, actually, so he had, he had auditions and found out in December that he made the
school play in fifth grade.
So he was 10 at the time.
10.
Okay.
He was, he was 10.
So this was, they, they were going to start having practices at the beginning of the
year after the school break and everything.
And so starting in January, February ish and everything.
They were going to start doing practices and everything.
And he started getting headaches and we're like, oh, well, maybe, maybe this is in March.
So this had been, you know, first, first week or so of March started getting headaches without,
well, maybe it's allergies.
Things had popped a little early that spring.
And maybe, you know, we thought didn't think a whole lot of it, but those had been going
on for about six weeks.
And then I think we also found out he was having a hard time seeing the board at school
and went and had his eyes checked.
We had checked him fourth grade.
He had vision was great.
And then when fifth grade came around and he was having, once he mentioned he was having
a hard time seeing the board, we're like, okay, let's go check your eyes.
And it turns out he needed glasses and got his glasses.
He had them on for about two days and he's like...
And then he came to us.
Yeah.
The headaches had gone away and then he came to us.
So I think that was on a Monday.
On a Wednesday, he'd come to us and says, I'm seeing things double.
I'm like, what do you mean double?
And he says, you know, side to side, up and down.
And he says, well, I just see things double.
And so we made an appointment with our family physician, which would have been Friday.
So Wednesday we had a couple of days to wait, went in and we started blood work, you know,
doing some tests, see what's going on.
And then the doctor says, well, we'll schedule next week to do a CT scan just to see what's
going on.
And we're like, okay.
So we did that on Friday.
And he wasn't acting himself that week.
He's usually up and going and bounding around and his energy was gone.
And so that was Friday.
Saturday he came to us and said, mid-afternoon.
He says, things are getting worse as far as the vision.
Things are getting worse.
And so we texted our doctor, which is a family friend, and said, this is what's going on.
He says, you need to get him up to primary.
Take him up.
They'll have answers for us in a couple hours of what's going on instead of waiting clear
into next week.
That'd be primary children's hospital in Salt Lake City.
And so we said, okay.
So we started the drive.
Emily's mom and dad were flying back at that particular time from a family trip with Emily's
sister and her family in Palm Springs.
So they were on their way back.
And we texted them and just told them what was going on.
I said, we're taking Wyatt to the ER.
We're not sure what's going on.
If you want to come and meet us, you're happy to come and meet us.
So we got there.
And with the symptoms he was having, this is where dad steps in and you start Google
searching symptoms and you freak yourself out.
But I kind of had an inkling.
I knew what was going on when we got to the hospital and got him checked in and Emily's
mom and dad met us.
And they'd gone back and done a CT scan, quick two minute CT scan on him.
It was about 10 o'clock and we're like, oh, well, we'll be back in 20 minutes or whatever
I'm talking to you about.
And two hours go by and they still haven't come back in the room.
And so Emily stepped out in the hall and just say, hey, what's kind of going on?
And ran into the attending ER physician and he says, well, we're going to be right in.
And at this point, Wyatt's asleep on the gurney in the small little emergency room.
And the physician comes in and pulls up the CT scan.
It's very grainy, but it clearly shows that there's a mass in Wyatt's head.
In that two hours that we were sitting there waiting, they had already contacted neuro
trauma and set up a neuro team for surgery the next day.
They had set up a two hour MRI of his full head and spine to see what we were facing.
At that point when Wyatt was sent back, Emily, we had reached out to our families and let
him know, hey, look, something's happening.
We're not quite sure what, but it's the size of a tennis ball and a 10 year old's head.
And Emily had gotten the car to go home and grab some stuff that we would need that next
day.
So this was, we were now into the early morning hours of Sunday.
And I think with part of that is like once we found out there was a mass in Wyatt was
asleep, that was the hardest thing is we had to wake him up.
Because he was like, he was ready to go home and we're like, sorry, you have to stay.
And of course he broke down because he didn't want to stay in the hospital.
We then had, we had all of two minutes once the doctor came in and told us he had a mass
of what was going on.
We had to wake him up and had two minutes to explain to him what was going on.
And he broke down, of course.
And then somebody was right there to start an IV and take them off to the MRI.
And you know, we didn't have all that time.
I have a lot of time.
And of course the doctor at the time was like, well, you guys are handling this well.
I'm like, we don't have time to sit here and like, you know, do anything else.
But yeah, so we, why put on a brave face.
And once we told him that he had his moment of breaking down for a little bit, then he's
like, okay, you know, and that was it.
So you, you go home, Emily, and when she goes home, what do you do?
Doug?
So I'm exhausted.
And I ask one of the nurses if there's a spot I can go to go try and get a little bit of
sleep.
Cause I know it's going to be about two hours.
This is one or two in the morning.
It's going to be three or four before Wyatt's back.
If I could just get an hour, hour and a half sleep, it'd be great.
She takes me back to a pod there in primary children's that's not being used.
So it's dark and there's no one around.
And I go into this little room and begin to plead with our father in heaven for Wyatt's
life, for Wyatt's life.
At that moment when you're in such a dark place, you have a choice to either get completely
uncontrollably mad at the world, at God, at everything, or you have a choice to try and
let it go.
And I knew I couldn't get mad because it would just be a never ending pit of misery for me.
And I said, you know, I need to, I need to let, I need to let the Bishop know.
I need to let my priesthood leader know what's going on.
And I texted our Bishop at the time and let him know what we were facing and that we didn't
really have a lot of information, but we did know something was amiss and that we would
let him know when we knew more information.
And at that very moment I felt peace.
I says, I've got, I've done what I can do.
I need help for my priesthood leaders.
I need help for my father in heaven.
I need help and starting that process with our Bishop was the beginning of that.
And our Bishop was kind enough once he found out, because it was early in the morning,
that Sunday I think he actually made an announcement over the pulpit and just said, Hey, one of
our youth, you know, was in the hospital and made an announcement over the pulpit and just
said if you could faster pray for him because he'll be going in for surgery.
And he was kind enough to let people know.
Luckily with our journey, we decided to share it publicly, you know, because it was easier
than trying to text or text every single person.
So we did do ours publicly.
But with mine, as I was driving home though, I just, you know, of course, once it sinks
in, you know, I had a good cry on the way home, you know, because you're like, Oh great,
this is my son.
How could this be happening?
You know, you have questions, but then, you know, you have your good meltdown.
And then after that, you're just like, okay, we got this.
And we, then you go from there and just hope, hope, hope and pray for the best.
And well, I think this is a, this is so interesting.
And our little talk before we started Doug, this, this point, you come to this point in
your, in your experience where you have to make a choice.
And you knew that you, you were thinking this consciously.
I met a crossroads and I have to make a choice and I can either go this way and be angry
and mad, which will take me in a, in a, in a fast lane to wherever, or I have to go this
way and I want to involve the priesthood and the church in this process.
Yep.
And that made all the difference.
It made all the difference.
I needed comfort and the, the only way to get comfort was not getting angry.
That's not how we get comfort in our lives.
How we get comfort is to, to ask for our heavenly father's help.
And then after that, what happened?
So Wyatt had undergone his, to our MRI and had come back to, to the ER and they took
us up to a neurotrauma, which is its own little wing on second, third floor.
And started him on a steroid to help with inflammation.
Cause his, his tumor at that point was pushing on his optic nerve.
It's kind of, you figure it's in the back upper left part of your head and it was right
below the scalp, the skull, and it was growing towards the middle of his brain.
And so we were, we were up there and started him on, on medications to try and help.
And, and then we went to sleep and early that next morning, the neurosurgeon came in and
he, he pulled up the high resolution MRI at that point and we showed Wyatt and you know,
they had scheduled surgery for that, that next day, which would now be Monday, you know,
nine, 10 in the morning for, for them to go in and remove this tennis ball sized tumor
that that's now and why it's yet.
That was an interesting experience as well, waiting down in the ER waiting room or the
operating waiting room, you know, for him to come back.
But in the interim between, you know, early Sunday morning, dozens and dozens of people
text and offer support from the ward and family and, and people wanting to come visit.
And, you know, offer their condolences, their help, their, you know, you get in that moment
and you just don't know what to do.
Right.
Other than just offer your help, friendship, support.
And luckily our, our Bishop and his wife actually came to visit and actually check in on Wyatt
and everything in the primary, it made notes and stuff.
But what was nice is that they came and they offered to give both of us the, he offered
to give us both a priesthood blessing, which I think that helped bring a lot of peace and
comfort as well while we're, while we're waiting.
So I think that's that helped from the get go was just him coming and offering.
Yeah.
Cause at that point, even though you feel a little bit of peace, you don't feel as anxious
about the situation, there's still fear.
There's still unknowns of what's going to take place.
And they thought the surgery was successful to whatever degree they could think that.
Yes.
They thought they got it all.
It went well.
You were optimistic.
Yep.
We, we continued to hold on to hope at that point, you know, the location of his tumor,
they didn't feel would be detrimental to, to him, to his physical abilities, to his
faculties.
And that's what it turned out to be.
To look at him after that surgery, after removing that large of a tumor to look at him, you
wouldn't know anything had even happened.
So, so we, we went through that and we said, well, we had meetings set with Huntsman cancer
to start a treatment plan, which for his type of cancer, which at the end of the day was
called supratentorial anaplastic appendomoma was mostly, really only treatments were radiation,
surgery and radiation.
Chemo at that time was not proven effective for his type of cancer.
And we did a follow-up MRI.
Yeah.
We did six weeks.
We requested a follow-up MRI just to make sure.
I think we just, for peace of mind, we just requested a follow-up MRI and it turns out
he had a new spot and part of the old tumor area had also started to grow.
So we underwent that second surgery and Wyatt was able to finish the play.
And the very next morning we were on a plane to Seattle.
This was in May.
May of 2018.
2018.
We were on our way to Seattle for 33 rounds of radiation and we ended up spending 55, 56
days in Seattle for how many 33 rounds of radiation, 33 rounds.
And after that you felt optimistic.
We were very optimistic and, and everything looked good.
We got back home, scans were clear until March of 2019.
And now he's 11?
And now he is 11.
And he's a deacon and?
Yep.
Just got the priesthood.
So he got the priesthood in January.
And we were able to go to the temple with him for the first time and do baptisms.
And then he wasn't feeling good in March.
It was almost exactly one year to the day.
He ended up having like the flu.
He had a fever, chills and everything.
We took him to our family doctor and while he was at the doctor's office, he ended up
having a seizure and it was weird.
I mean, he was just laying on the table, staring off, just pointing at things.
I'm like, what is going on?
Drooling.
It was, it was just weird.
And so I got him, sat up, stood up, sat him on a chair, grabbed a nurse and said, Hey,
can I get your help?
And she kind of looked at him and immediately called the doctor.
And he'd been on the phone waiting for somebody and immediately came in.
And so his hands shook a little bit, but it wasn't your typical seizure.
So he had a seizure.
They took off his sweatshirt, got him cooled off, got him some Tylenol.
And so he started asking questions of like, you know, do you know where you're at?
Do you know who the president was?
And of course it was Trump at the time and white knew that knew that.
And then the doctor asked, he then pointed to me, he's like, do you know who this is?
He's like, my wife, you know, he, he didn't know who I was.
He knew I was somehow, somehow related to him, but yeah, he, he wasn't sure who I was.
Well, but that, that, that, uh, that absence seizure as we come to find out what it was,
that sent us over to the hospital again for another CT scan.
And that ultimately the following week led us to find out that he had reoccurred.
So this time it was about the size of a quarter, kind of all in the same area.
And this was just before spring break.
And we had already scheduled a family trip to Seattle, back to Seattle.
We asked Wyatt where he wants to go.
And he wanted to go back to visit his friends in Seattle that we had made toward members
up there.
So we underwent a third five hour surgery just after spring break with that reoccurrence.
His prognosis, um, you know, was a 50, 50 shot at that point that he would be with us
in five years.
And with that trip, he, we had come back early because my uncle had passed away and you know,
with an, with an 11 year old, he's, you know, he would ask questions.
Like I think once he reoccurred in another surgery, he, he got concerned and was like,
well, am I going to die from this?
And like the possibly that's there, but we're going to do everything we can.
So you don't, you know, you don't at this point.
But when we came back for my uncle's funeral and everything, he started asking questions
of like, well, you know, once you die, do you think we can come back?
The person, you know, he's like, he's like, do you think you can see your funeral?
And I'm like, well, are you thinking of uncle Scott?
I said, I'm sure you could see what's going on and see who's there and everything.
And I said, are you thinking of uncle Scott?
He's like, no, I'm thinking of my own.
So he was already thinking of his funeral at this point and which, which we weren't
trying to think that, but I think he had already had inklings.
I think he'd already probably had visits, maybe spirit preparing and preparing him.
And this, this was April of 2019, everything.
We still were hopeful.
I mean, even 50 50 is still, you know, it's still a possibility that he could beat the
odds.
Yeah.
And then you end up at St. Jude's.
So we were able to be accepted into a trial program there where they re-irradiated using
the same type of radiation.
And they had one of those proton machines there.
So why in Memphis, in Memphis, Tennessee.
So Wyatt and Emily traveled out there for six weeks.
I was able to join them for the last week.
We got home from, from that in third of July of 2019.
And he, he really struggled with being at St. Jude's.
He kept on telling me he, he didn't want to be there, you know, and I would tell him,
well, we don't have to be here.
We could leave any time, but, and he would have some pretty good meltdowns and stuff
just because he kept on saying, I don't want to be here and come to find out later.
It was just, he didn't want to be in the cancer brought again.
You know, he, once we figured out what was going on or what he meant, we're like, yeah,
we get that.
And he, he was struggling really hard.
The once we went to St. Jude's because I would call him the dog a few times and just be like,
look, I need you to talk to him because he, he was having a hard time and I couldn't get
him to calm down sometimes.
So,
so we got home and six weeks after we got home, long story short, we found out that
it had reoccurred again.
And this time it had metastasized, it had moved.
And in normal situations with his type cancer, it doesn't move.
It stays in the same spot, but come to find out it had the, the cancer had followed one
of the drains that he had during surgery.
And when we pulled the drain, it followed the drain out and was now outside of his skull
and, and caused, you know, tumors on the outside now.
And we're like, okay, we can take care of that.
He did another surgery to remove a spot that was outside at that point that had gone from
the size of a pea to the size of a golf ball in a matter of a couple of weeks.
Why it's going through some really tough stuff for a, for a young kid.
I mean, I can't even imagine the feelings he must be having.
I can't imagine what he would think about at night as he tried to go to sleep.
I can't imagine what he would think about when he consider his friends or his future
or any of those things.
But what about mom and dad?
We're dying inside.
Yeah.
I think with that, the hardest part is, you know, because we are his parents, we're supposed
to be able to fix anything.
Right.
And I think, you know, me naturally, I tried to stay on the positive side of things, but
at the same time, it rips your heart apart because you're like, I should be able to fix
this, you know, or you want a certain outcome of like, oh yeah, you could beat the odds
of this.
And you know, we're there to love and support him.
And of course he'd have questions and concerns and he didn't want to be known for his cancer
and he didn't want to talk about it.
Yeah.
Well, and he's our only child.
Yeah.
What were some of your fears?
He's the last of the page name.
Yeah.
And as a dad, you know, you, as parents, we want the next generation to have a little
better than we did.
And so that was our life.
That was what we were focused on.
Getting him a good education, getting things set up where he could serve a mission financially,
you know, all that kind of stuff.
College, whatever, trying to help the next generation have it a little bit better than
us.
You were planning a life.
We were planning a life.
And, and that was all kind of put on hold.
As parents, it's that, that was the hardest part is just not being able to fix it.
And, and, and the unknown and, you know, preparing for the what ifs.
That's the hard part.
Yeah.
So, um, it was about, well, he, he passed away on January 14th, uh, 2020 and, um, that
last holiday you had with him, uh, about those unknowns and what ifs and the, it was inevitable.
Right?
I mean, it was, we found out in October that it was terminal.
Yeah.
Um, when we were trying to do a, another biopsy to see exactly what was going on inside and,
and it came back that it was terminal.
And that was, that was very difficult telling him, look, we're here to fight with you until
we can't fight anymore.
And right now the fight's over for that, but the fight is now on.
We need to change the focus of the fight and the focus now needs to be memories and time
together.
And um, once we, once we did that, I mean, he would, he would take long, long hot showers
and he would sit and think.
And one time I remember, um, I think he came to Emily and he asked, how do I get the Melchizedek
priesthood when I, when I pass on?
And just Florida's, right?
There isn't a single Sunday school or priesthood lesson out there that talks about that age
group getting Melchizedek priesthood in this particular situation.
So he's, he's obviously thinking way older than what he is.
And he's being prepared for what's about to happen to him.
And so we had those discussions.
We started to have those, um, you know, when he passes a year later, we'd be able to do
his temple work and I'd be able to go through the temple and, and do his ordinances that
he needs on the other side.
And as that turned out, we were able to, to do those a month later after he passed.
And, and invited many, many of the ward members to come and, and be part of that.
And other questions that he had, um, like how old am I going to be on the other side?
What am I going to be doing?
How long before you and mom are there?
You know?
And so we got out the topical guide and we went through what, um, you know, what, what
the spirit world's like, what goes on there, what he will probably be doing there.
Um, those types of conversations that we as adults don't even like having together, let
alone discussing it with your 12 year old son.
Um, so way, way advanced for his, his age.
Life changing, right?
Life changing.
And it was interesting because it was October that we found out was terminal and he had
a huge, we found out he had a huge tumor at the base of his brain.
And they're like, that's when, when we found out in October, they gave us one month.
And they're like, if you do nothing, you have one month with them.
And of course, why it's big is concern at the time was seeing the last Star Wars movie,
which came out in December.
And he's like, but what about the Star Wars movie?
I'm like, and we ahead of time over the summer had, had already booked a theater for 95 people
to come watch that with us, like December 23rd, something like that.
So that was his big, that was his biggest concern.
So we did go back to Huntsman.
They gave us a couple options, do nothing and you'll have about a month.
You could do a condensed version to get two or three, two, two to four months, or you
could do another full six weeks.
And of course, why it chose the condensed, which would buy two to four months.
But I think in his mind, he was getting four to six months.
But and throughout this journey, we found because of the kindness and generosity of
others, we were able to do have opportunities to do things that we wouldn't have otherwise.
We've met people we wouldn't have met otherwise.
And the crazy thing we say, this is like, we wouldn't trade it again for anything.
If we had to do it again, we would do it again in the heartbeat.
He got to do stuff with BYU.
They did a deep blue hero segment on him and got a Donovan Mitchell shoe autographed and
got involved with the BYU football team and all of that, which is all, which is all.
I don't know how you would describe that.
I guess kind of a sweet thing for him and to get his mind off of things and for us,
it built memories and for you, it built memories.
Yeah.
And he passed away on January 14th, two years ago.
Yeah, it'll be coming up this Saturday, three years ago.
Three years ago this Saturday.
So ultimately through Wyatt's experience, he underwent five surgeries, 96 rounds of
radiation, which from a perspective of background radiation, if me and you go get x-rays on
our teeth every six months or whatever and just live life, the amount of radiation that
he was exposed to was about 73,000 years worth, but never wanted to be defined by it.
He wouldn't talk a lot about it.
We only know of two times that he broke down in English over the situation and we were
not present for one of them.
It happened at school.
The other one was during the filming of the Deep Blue segment for BYUtv.
But just even up until the last day, he was thinking of others.
He was thinking of things that would bring him comfort and things to bring other kids
going through the same thing, comfort.
Emily and Wyatt, Wyatt decided we wanted to give back to other kids and so it started
out doing five bundles for boys and five bundles for girls.
And then these bundles was a blanket pillowcase, comfy socks, fuzzy socks or a beanie.
Later on he added toys to that same bundle so the kids would be comfortable and have
something to do.
His big push was the beanie.
He would tie blankets and actually sew the pillowcases and we had a friend of ours that
actually wanted to put these bundles together for the amount of radiation treatments he
had done.
At the time it was 73.
So she collected the supplies and money and donations and was going to give that to me
to have something to do once he passed away.
But she had so much help and donations that she was able to collect supplies for everything
beforehand.
That's kind of where the idea came from.
In true Wyatt fashion, he was concerned because he knew he was our only child and he would
ask those questions like, do you feel bad not having other kids?
What are you going to do with your time?
He was worried about what I was going to do because to me, I'm mom and that was my job
was to take care of him.
So he was worried about what I was going to do.
So I said, I'm going to be making bundles.
And so we had told that we were going to start a foundation to get back.
But I mean, for him to be concerned about me and what I was going to do because he knew
that that was my job was to take care of him.
So that's why it makes it heartbreaking is because we want to fix everything and just
take it away.
So before he passed, you gave away how many bundles?
We were able to deliver a hundred and six to primary children.
And since he passed, we just passed five thousand.
You've now given over five thousand Wyatt comfort bundles.
So we started a foundation called Wysk comfort bundles.
So it is as an actual as a nonprofit.
So we put these comfort bundles together.
And yeah, so he was able to help put together and deliver a hundred and six of these to
primary children's enhancement before he passed away.
But yeah, we just passed five thousand bundles this weekend.
But yeah, the first year we handed out between eight and nine hundred.
The second year we handed out one thousand seven hundred and seventy six and in twenty
twenty two we handed out one thousand nine hundred nine hundred and fifty.
So but that means that there's that many other many other kids going through similar similar
things.
You know, how can listeners get involved in that, Emily?
So if they if they're interested, we were on Facebook, they could follow us on Facebook.
We have a feed that's strictly for the for the comfort for the comfort bundles.
We have a Venmo account.
If people are interested in donating people, if they can reach out to me, call me, text
me, email me.
We're always looking for people to sell pillowcases or tie blankets or it's it definitely takes
an army.
We can't we definitely can't do it ourselves, but they can reach out to me any any time
to help with that.
But yeah, we we it's overtaken our basement, which is fantastic.
I mean, that was our goal was just to try to help out.
We have a lot of his friends coming to help us this week because they've reached out and
asked if they could put stuff together.
So well, it's it's his legacy.
Yeah.
So you have one child, no matter how many you wanted or didn't want.
You had one child.
Think how many children have been blessed because of that one child.
And parents and parents think of how many parents have also been blessed because when
you comfort when you comfort my child, you comfort me.
Right.
Yeah.
And that was his goal was to bring comfort and a distraction to kids going through similar
things as him.
And it so that's that's been our goal is just to somehow it's just a little a little something
we can do just to give back to others going through a similar thing as we did.
And it's it's it's a full time job for Emily.
Yeah.
And we're tracking all the volunteers and and but a labor of love, a labor of love.
It keeps.
It keeps his memory alive.
Absolutely.
And as old as I am and how fast those memories have faded, this this helps.
How sweet.
Well, let's talk about kind of the sacred in all of this.
What's some of the more sacred experiences you've had as a result of this trial in your
life?
You know, it it it makes you question everything.
I'm going through something like that.
I'm still still going through.
Sure.
It makes you question your faith.
It makes you question your relationship with your spouse.
It makes you question life in general.
But for for us, for me, you know, tragedy is nothing new to the Page family.
I lost a six year old sister in a tragic rock slide accident up American Fort Canyon when
I was young.
I would have been eight.
So early on, I guess my.
My faith, my belief in the next life and that families can be together forever started at
a young age for me.
Here at the last bit of December, we were still trying to formulate the foundation and
what we wanted to do.
And I in a moment of stupidity got upset.
And as it turns out, that was one of Wyatt's last mobile days, you know, for him to be
able to get around.
And the guilt of that was just overpowering.
And I wanted to redo.
Right.
And and and then his health turned and I really didn't get a chance to to to try and fix that
as his dad.
But as time went on, after he passed, you know, that guilt was just eating at me.
And again, I needed I needed some help there.
And through an experience with Wyatt in a dream.
Things are OK.
And I know things are going to be OK in the long run.
There's still days that are hard.
There's days that you just.
You don't.
I guess I guess it's weird to say we don't miss him missing out on the craziness of the
world right now.
We miss out or feel the, you know, we're missing experiences that we get to have with him right
now, today.
And that's and that's what's hard.
That's what I struggle with every day.
Yes, we're to think that we'd have a 15 year old and learning to drive and, you know, looking
for, you know, being a sophomore, you would be right.
You know that there's.
Yeah, mission marriage, all those experiences you hoped for him.
Right.
I mean, you have that goal as parents is watching them grow up and get married and grandkids.
And, you know, I mean, the potential.
It will be there later, but it's just.
It's the brutal heart remind reminders that we get every day of, oh, well, the kids are
starting school.
I'm like, oh, he'd be a sophomore.
Oh, they just advanced all the kids up in priesthood and like it's a little jab at the
heart almost every single time.
He's like, oh, dang, you know.
And you know, like I said, we were glad he's not dealing with the crazy, crazy wickedness
of the world right now.
But, you know, it's just that longing to be with him because, you know, they're in a sense,
you know, I guess I have the foundation, but there's still the sense of filling hollow,
empty and alone.
You know, there there's still days where it's like.
It's just because we miss him.
You know what I mean?
Just the presence of him not being here is I think that's the most brutal part is I'm
like, OK, I don't know if I necessarily want to make it to 90, you know.
And because it's just that the absence of him is what makes things definitely difficult,
you know.
But the hope because of the resurrection and the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Right.
What does that mean to you?
Well, I mean, we like we look forward to the day of being with him to get together again
as an eternal family.
And I'm like, and I'm grateful that we do have that knowledge that we'll be together
forever.
And we have the opportunities to still continue.
Family together.
It's that very principle of the gospel that gives us the hope that gives us the long look
to keep going.
That faith that we have in what we're taught and what we believe and have faith in lifts
the burden a little bit.
It gives us that long perspective.
We've talked a lot on our podcast about how the Holy Ghost administers the atonement of
Jesus Christ in our lives and the role of the Comforter in all of this and the power
and gift of the Holy Ghost.
Do you feel the spirit and Comforter in your life and administering the blessings of the
atonement of Jesus Christ in your life?
We definitely were booed up.
We there's I don't think there's any other way we could have made it through that without
having the love and support and prayers of others.
And like I said, getting priesthood blessings definitely helped helped.
And throughout most of the journey, we felt peace and comfort, peace and comfort throughout
the whole journey.
And I'm like, even the last couple of weeks of wise life, we would have friends come and
say their goodbyes and everything.
And people would tell us that our home felt like a temple, you know, or oddly enough,
we felt peace and comfort throughout the entire process.
And it's still there.
But there are still moments that, you know, it eats at you.
It's still painful.
Yeah.
And it probably always will be.
It's not as painful because of the gifts of the of the Holy Ghost through through the
atonement that that pain is eased.
But we have to ask.
Well, I as your neighbor, as your friend, as your Doug and I now minister together and
Doug has ministered to me and my family and and Emily's always bringing over her baking
goods and and we just we love the Page family so much.
And and you've always been wonderful.
But as an outsider, as an observer from the outside, you know, the scripture that talks
about this because of the Savior's atonement, because of his suffering, that all of our
afflictions shall be consecrated for our gain and all of our trials will be as doctrine
and covenants section 90.
I think about you guys.
I thought about the scripture this morning.
A doctor comes section 98 with all the trials and the suffering of saints went through at
Jackson County and the Lord in this revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith says, Therefore
he the Lord giveth this promise unto you with an immutable covenant.
This is 98 verse three.
With it with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled and all things wherewith
you have been afflicted shall work together for your good and to my name's glory, saith
the Lord.
OK, just think about this for a minute.
How has this affliction worked together for your good and to his glory?
Just as an outsider, Doug and Emily, you know, as much as hard as it is and the pain and
sorrow that you feel and will continue to feel, your lives have become more holy, more
consecrated, more focused in the purpose and work of the Lord in his redemption.
And because of Wyatt and his affliction and his suffering, his death, think about the
good that has like a wave washed over so many more people, fulfilling the glory of the Lord.
Really, that's that's what this means that and to my name's glory.
That's what your comfort bundles are doing.
Are blessing other people because of the suffering of this one child.
How many more children are being comforted and blessed how it has blessed your lives
and thousands and thousands more now.
Do you see that?
It's hard to see that perspective.
Is that easier for me to see from outside than it is for you to see that?
It is because we were in the middle of the weeds and we can't see through it.
Right.
And for someone to look from the outside in, it helps us kind of get out of the weeds a
little bit and have a slightly different perspective.
It's hard for us to imagine the number of bundles put together or the number of children
and parents that those have touched.
I can't grasp that.
No, none of us can.
And I just think with it with his life in general, I'm like just him being him and right.
People people it was an hour and a half waited as viewing and people would come that we have
never met and they just had heard a story and thought that they needed to come.
You know, it's just his life affected thousands.
And I think that's the hard thing to fathom.
It's just he touched thousands of people just by being himself.
And with the fact that we shared his story and his journey along the way.
But thank heavens for the atonement and the Savior and having the Holy Ghost and faith
in Christ and the Holy Ghost and ordinances that seal you together forever.
All of that.
Right.
And I don't think I could only imagine how much more difficult it will be without that.
Yeah.
And you and you know why it was prepared for this.
You said that today and that that preparation probably goes all the way back to his pre
mortal existence.
And I'm sorry that I wasn't the patriarch when he got his patriarchal blessing.
But I talked to the patriarch of our stake when I was in the stake presidency about that
experience and what an unbelievable experience that was for him to pronounce a patriarchal
blessing upon Wyatt.
So you know that the hand of the Lord, as awful as it is, has been involved in this
whole process.
And that was a very special experience.
Yeah, I know it was.
Well thank God for Wyatt and thank God for the Page family, Doug and Emily and thank
Heavenly Father for the plan of redemption and Jesus Christ that makes it all possible
and the Holy Ghost that administers the blessings of mercy and grace and comfort and the atonement
in our life and and thankful last of all for the restoration of the fullness of the gospel
of Jesus Christ that answers so many difficult questions and gives us peace and hope in our
in our faith that we know that families can be together forever, that life is eternal,
that it didn't start when we were born and it certainly doesn't end when we die.
And it goes on and on and on.
And I'm grateful for all of that.
And thank you Doug and Emily so much for being with us today.
I'm just going to ask you one more question.
You know in this podcast and through the atonement of Jesus Christ we're really afforded three
grand wondrous blessings.
We're afforded the redemptive blessings that come through the atonement of Jesus Christ.
We're afforded the enabling blessings that come through the power or through the atonement
of Jesus Christ, his power, you know which has given you power to get through.
And then he gives us compensatory blessings through the atonement of Jesus Christ where
he makes up for or he closes the gap or he heals us in ways that maybe we have never
felt before that we could have been healed.
And I just want to reference one scripture.
This is in Alma chapter 7 verse 11.
And then after I read this if I could have you both each, if I could have you each just
respond to this in closing about your feelings and your thoughts from your heart around you
know what this, what I'm about to read to you, what does that mean to you today and
how have you seen that alive in your life in the past as you've gone through this and
still maybe even today.
So this is in Alma chapter 7 verse 11 and it's describing what Jesus would go through,
would go through.
This was prior to him going through it, right?
And so this was looking forward with an eye of faith.
We look back with an eye of faith.
But here we read, and he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every
kind.
And this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains
and the sickness of his people.
And he will take upon him death that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people
and he will take upon him their infirmities that his bowels may be filled with mercy according
to the flesh that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according
to their infirmities.
Have you had those blessings in part?
Where have you seen that Christ has suckered for you, blessed you, comforted you, run to
your aid, taken you in his arms as he has given you comfort through your infirmities,
through Wyatt's infirmities and through, you know, this just hasn't affected you.
These things don't happen just in a bubble and I know because I know you two, you know,
also we can read in this same book, the book of Alma where it talks about have you received
his image in your countenance.
I see you two and I see Christ's image in your countenance.
Because of I think in part some of the experiences that you have been blessed to go through as
a part of this.
So talk to us for just a second, maybe by way of testimony, maybe by way of experience,
whatever comes to your heart and mind.
How would you describe how Christ has suckered you in your infirmities through the enabling
and through the compensatory powers of the atonement of Jesus Christ?
You know, even three years later I still have moments of being upset and the world as loud
as it is crowds out that calm, peaceful feeling that we know it's all going to be okay in
the end.
We just can't see through the weeds to see the open field.
And I wouldn't change the journey for anything.
Because it did bring us together closer as a family and I think it helped us draw together
to rely on each other, to rely on the Lord, to help increase our faith and to put our
faith in the Lord.
I mean, it is hard to be like, okay, if it's his time to go, it is his time to go.
It's hard.
It's hard because you don't want to be selfish in a way and say, well, no, he has to stay
here.
But there's another side of things where you could go in another direction and people have
gotten divorced and gotten bitter and angry and that doesn't do you any good.
So you're saying the atonement of Jesus Christ has held you together as individuals and has
held you together as a couple and has held you together as a family.
Absolutely.
And that's your hope.
Yeah.
And we fight for that every day.
Every day.
And it is a daily effort, isn't it?
Yeah.
We have seen the other side of things, but I think that's what helps keep us together
because we have seen how destructive it could be or lead you down a different path that
doesn't do you any good.
We've seen the bitterness and angry and angry.
And we totally get it because it's right there.
All the time.
Yeah.
Just on the surface, just below the surface.
Just below the surface.
Just ready to be.
So in a way you have to fight for it every day.
You do.
Every day.
I mean.
Right.
We've had witnesses enough.
And the experiences and the witnesses that you've had, you know, didn't come from yourself.
You didn't generate those.
Those came from an outside source through the Holy Ghost, from a loving Heavenly Father,
bearing witness that these things are true.
That it becomes not a wish.
It becomes an assurance.
I mean hope, the word hope in the Scriptures means not I wish.
Hope means I know.
I have an assurance.
It's true, Dave.
It's all true.
And it will all be okay in the end.
Right.
It's just keeping that long perspective.
Right.
Yeah.
And the Spirit with us.
And using our brother's sacrifice to help us get there.
When you talked about a daily, that's what it is.
That's the daily.
That's the constant effort that's required on our part to maintain that conscious contact
that we talk about, you know, that I have an affinity to because of my background in
recovery.
But that's, you know, one of the steps is to maintain that conscious contact.
As you have done that, and as you have just described what you do, you know, Doug or Emily,
you say I rely on prayer.
I rely on service.
I rely on...
Priesthood blessings.
I rely on the things that have been given to me.
And then Doug, you say I go to the temple.
Well the temple is the crowning symbol of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ here on the
earth.
So Doug, what you're really saying is I go to Jesus.
I go to Jesus Christ while I'm there and partake of the Spirit that's given to me so freely
because of my alignment, because I have turned my will to Him rather than take it and be
angry and pound the table and everything else.
I go there, I feel His love.
Because of His love, I know that families can be together forever.
That's the message.
And if any of us can get that from any experience in our life, then that experience, would you
agree, is worth having?
Full heartedly.
Yeah.
Well Dave, I think that...
Thank you.
That concludes us for today.
Welcome.
Doug and Emily, you know of our love for you, but you are about to be loved by people in
over 40 countries after this is released.
The effect of Wyatt's life has just now gone global.
And I want you to know that.
You know, Heavenly Father, when we allow Him to, will take our infirmities as it's promised
to us in Ether 1227.
And He will let those things become strong.
He'll let them become our strengths if we turn to Him as you are doing now.
I love you.
I hope you know that.
And all to my names or Jesus Christ's name's glory.
All to the glory of...
All to the glory of Jesus Christ.
Of God and Jesus Christ.
Thank you so much for being witnesses of that.
Thank you for letting us be here and share of our journey, our ongoing journey.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And our son.
Yes, thank you.
We've been blessed to have you here with us today.
Thanks for being with us.
And to our listeners, thanks to you all for being here with us as well.
Again, don't hesitate to reach out to assist in any way that you may feel inclined to do
so.
If you're unable or forget how to reach out to Doug and Emily, just hit us up here at
he redeems us at gmail.com.
I will forward that on to our good friends here, Doug and Emily, to forward the cause
and to help Wyatt.
And this blessing that used to be known as a tragedy blessed the lives of others throughout
the world.
We love you.
Thanks for being with us.
And we'll see you all next week.
resurrection.