"She Keeps Singing!" Gospel Artist Sheri Easter Shares Her Story, Caregiving, and Music

Have you ever struggled to trust God when lousy things happen to you? I'm Gracie Rosenberger, and in 1983, I experienced a horrific car accident, leading to 80 surgeries and both legs amputated. I questioned why God allowed something so brutal to happen to me, but over time, my questions changed, and I discovered courage to trust God. That understanding, along with an appreciation for quality prosthetic limbs, led me to establish Standing With Hope. For more than a dozen years, we've been working with the government of Ghana and West Africa, equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people.

On a regular basis, we purchase and ship equipment and supplies, and with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison, we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up. For more information, visit standingwithhope.com.

I'm Gracie, and I am standing with hope. Roses will bloom again Just wait and see Don't mourn what might have been Only God knows how and when Roses will bloom again Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver here on Sirius XM 131, the Family Talk channel. That is Roses Will Bloom Again from the Easters, Jeff and Sherry Easter, and I have Sherry on the line with me. Sherry, I love that lyric. Thank you for taking time to just call into the show. Thank you so much, Peter. I do too.

That's one of my favorite songs. Well, tell me before we get too far, first off, how are you feeling today? I feel good. I mean, you know, I've got to be honest. We were some of the first to be affected by this coronavirus thing because we travel 150 to 200 dates a year. And I found out on Monday that I might not be going to four different places this week. And I am the kind of person who doesn't do well sitting at home. I told Jeff, I said, if you leave me here too long, I may have everything redecorated, repainted, new flooring and everything. And he's like, please, God, let this virus in so I could save money.

You can end up with four new hobbies out of this deal. I get that. And I and I think that 911 calls are going up because families are having to spend more time together.

It's starting to get rough out there. But well, listen, we're used to spending the time together. We do this 35 years now, 365 days a year.

So we're always around each other. It's just I don't usually make him put a paint roller in his hand. Well, I was painting yesterday. My wife loves to make me paint. I don't like to paint.

I'm actually pretty good at it, but I'm very slow. And, John, no, no comments, John. No, no, no, no, no comments. Well, Sherry, when you wrote that song, you and Jeff wrote that. Well, I did not.

My good friend Marsha Henry. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you guys wrote that. I did not write that one.

I write probably 60 to 80 percent of our material. But this song was written about 30 years ago and she and I talked in a church service and I told her that I love songs that compared today's life with, you know, the relationships that we have and that we know and understand to that of the father. And she came back at me with this particular song and the first time I heard it, I bit over my desk and cried. And it's been a godsend. Well, it is a beautiful song. You are no stranger to the caregiving world.

Not at all. Would you give us a little bit of background and then I want to I want to ask you a couple of questions. Just tell us a little some of your experiences in this journey. OK, well, technically, I think I was born a caregiver because I'm the first born and my picture should be by the definition in any dictionary. So I smothered my little brother because he let me.

And when I was 20 years old, my dad died unexpectedly of a heart attack. And me and my mom were very, very close. And she is more passive. I was more aggressive. And so she started depending on me to do things for her. Things that maybe a husband and wife would do. She would call me and ask if she should buy a vacuum cleaner. She would call me and ask my opinion about certain things with the house or with whatever she was doing. And so it kind of gradually started from there. And she started giving me a little more responsibility every day with taking care of her bills and her rental house. And then all of a sudden she was diagnosed with Parkinson's and Lewy body dementia. And she at that point put me in charge of everything.

Power of attorney, executor of the estate, all of the accounts. And I guess I became CEO at that time because you were still a young woman then. I was. I was 30, 38 at the time. And I had just found out about a year or two after she was diagnosed, I found out that I was pregnant with my little caboose. I had a 12 and 17 year old and found out that we were pregnant. And so I looked at God and I'm like, OK, God, you've given me my mom to take care of. Now I have a baby to take care of.

I don't know what to do. And I'll never forget the moment that God laid it on my heart to do what my mama did. And that was she traveled one hundred thousand miles a year for 58 years. And when we were little, she had the best help that she could.

And so I started by hiring help in her home. And this lady would come in and feed and tidy up a little bit because Mama couldn't do that anymore. But it gradually produced down into with her Parkinson's and Lewy body dementia, the inability to speak. She was bedridden for nine years and could not speak the last three years of her life. And this woman was sunshine. And so it's a really hard.

But it was a very long, gradual process of caregiving that started out as just helping her make a few phone calls all the way to completely taking care of her around the clock. Well, and for those of you don't know that that Sherry's family that both on the Easter side with her husband's family and then with her side of the family on the Lewis family, these were significant players in the gospel music arena. And John, you're from Arkansas, so you understand gospel music. And I was born and raised in South Carolina and lived 35 years in Tennessee before coming out here. But gospel music is knows no state boundaries, but there's a lot of concentration where we were from in the south. But your family, you know, you guys are gospel music world to you.

And you you and Jeff have garnered six, what, six dove awards. And one of the things I love about your story is that is that I tell this to my fellow caregivers. You know, if you put your life on hold, you're harming yourself.

I mean, you may not be able to do everything you want to do, but but that doesn't mean you have to put it on hold and put all your dreams and all your things. And you kept working and you kept doing because God made you a singer and you kept singing. Well, and that was the question. God, what are you doing? I'm a thing.

I'm called a thing. I know that I am. I know that this baby is a gift from God.

You know, what are you doing? And if anything, it was Mar gave me incredible joy while I was taking care of my mom. And like I said, me and my mom, we were so close that we were always talking to each other back and forth. And it was just one of those things that I counted an honor and a privilege. Most people don't get to care for their parents the way that I did my sweet mama.

And it was a gift. Well, tell me about your writing, because you write a lot of stuff of y'all stuff. And I would I would imagine you've had other people that have sung your songs as well. But tell me, how is your writing changed through a lot of that journey? Oh, I don't believe anybody can truly write things that will touch people until you've experienced things that are really tough. My writing began shortly after my daddy passed away.

I was 20 years old and life just flipped upside down. And I was I tell people all the time as a writer, we write whether or not you're going to read it. We just write, you know, and it led into writing songs. And I enjoyed it was a wonderful expression of the things I had been through. And I love songs like Roses Will Bloom Again, songs that tell people it's going to be OK.

Songs that say you are loved, songs that say hear my heart, which is probably one of the most popular songs that I wrote. I wrote it shortly after breast cancer was another thing that I had to walk through all while taking care of my mom and my baby girl. And and I was going through breast cancer 11 years ago. I am this July going to be 12 years cancer free from breast cancer and very, very grateful.

But that was probably the quietest year of my life. My husband tells me I was born to do talk radio because I never stopped talking. Your husband and I have an understanding because I understand somebody like that, too. And my wife is, you know, beyond her limitations, which are significant, but she is she I almost shudder to think what she'd be like if she didn't have some of the challenges she has because she would kill people.

She is she graces a force of nature. And I've got I got a strange question I want to ask you. And I don't know if anybody's ever asked you this before. Starting now, you know, why not share?

You know, I mean, it's just us, you being John. But but when your mother passed away, did you did you sing at her funeral? I did not sing, but I spoke and I allowed her to sing my wish. And I had 10 years to plan that funeral and I did it every day. I chose the outfit. I chose the songs that I wanted to play on video.

I chose pictures that we wanted to do a collage. My incredible husband is good with stuff like that. And he put together the sweetest in memory of for her. And we I had written a song about her called She Loved. And I had written the song years before she was diagnosed just because she was one of those forces of nature.

Just very sunshine people person. Everybody loved her. And she would walk into the room and the whole place would just light up.

So I wrote this song about her and it was so descriptive of her and her nature that I played that one video. And that was all of Jeff or Sherry that you got for her funeral. Every other song was Polly singing about heaven, about family and about loving God. And it was mostly joyful.

And that was in fact, I will will tell this. I won't tell which relative, but I had a relative, a very close relative who said, I hate to say I enjoyed a funeral, but I sure did enjoy Polly's. No, I totally get that because they I've as a pianist, I have played for I mean, I can't even count how many funerals I've played for. And there are some that stick out as such a deeply meaningful event and a celebration of people's lives. And there are some that were just agonizing. And, you know, you and I could probably compare notes and would share those same kind of things because there are some that are just that are just agonizing.

I get that. But there are others that were just so moving and special. And even and even there was laughter at some of them.

Yes. And what's funny is the grief is a funny animal and you grieve differently, loss to loss. So like when my dad died, it was tears. And in questions like you would expect, I was 20.

My brother was 16. My mama was a widow at 47. We were devastated. Fast forward to my mom's passing, took her 16 years, a gradual decline down all of these different steep hills. And by the time she passed away, there was such relief and such peace that she was no longer hurting because there were very few tears. And and Peter, I got to say that was that was a little odd for me because I'm a crier. I tell people I cry when I'm happy, I cry when I'm sad. And if you make me mad enough, I'll cry at the end, too. But I'm a crier.

That's how I get things out. And I really didn't cry a lot. You know, so it was very different. And I like that, that grief is a is a strange animal. You know, it has a lot of different faces and we get to know a lot of them, you know. And sometimes people will unfortunately tell us how we should grieve.

And I just I really struggle with that because I'm thinking, wait a minute, you know, it it's going to be what it's going to be. Well, and I really think that says something about them. It's they're trying to figure out how to grieve. And they project that onto you. And, you know, it's a little bit wonky. Did you when you were out on the road and you were juggling all these things, did you have people that came alongside and tried to tell you how to do it better? Yeah, in fact, I was listening to you all earlier and hearing some of the you know, how how could somebody say something like that?

How could somebody criticize? That was one of the things I only ran into it a couple of times because I got to be honest with you. It was just me and my little brother as the siblings. And my little brother is incredibly interesting of me around every turn. So every decision I would include him in the decision and he would always defer it back to me.

Whatever you think, that's OK. He never complained about one thing. He never criticized anything we did.

He never questioned if I should do something differently. But of course, there were other family members. And I had a wonderful nurse from one of the local schools.

Melinda Paul's a friend of mine. She said, Sherry, if people criticize you and they will, family will criticize you and not mean to. But it's because they're hurting and they love her, too. And there are a lot of opinions out there. Sometimes they criticize that they do mean to.

And I've had people try to work out their salvation on me and their doctrines and their theology and everything else. And it helps that I'm a second degree black belt now. You know, that does help.

And I always invite people to get out of the cheap seats and come on down on the field. Don't go away. We've got to take a quick break. Don't go away. We're talking with Sherry Easter. She is part of Jeff and Sherry Easter, an amazing gospel group and fellow caregiver.

Somebody who understands the journey has put her scared hand into his scarred hand. And I'm just grateful she took the time to call. Don't go away. This is Hope for the Caregiver 877-655-6755. 877-655-6755.

We'll be right back. Hi, this is Jeff Foxworthy. 65 million Americans serve as a caregiver for a sick or disabled loved one. If you're one of them, then listen to my friend Peter Rosenberger show.

He's got redneck tendencies, but he's really good at what he does. As a caregiver, think about all the legal documents you need. Power of attorney, a will, living wills and so many more. Then think about such things as disputes about medical bills. What if instead of shelling out hefty fees for a few days of legal help, you paid a monthly membership and got a law firm for life? Well, we're taking legal representation and making some revisions in the form of accessible, affordable, full service coverage.

Finally, you can live life knowing you have a lawyer in your back pocket who at the same time isn't emptying it. It's called Legal Shield, and it's practical, affordable and a must for the family caregiver. Visit caregiverlegal.com. That's caregiverlegal.com. Isn't it about time someone started advocating for you?

www.caregiverlegal.com, an independent associate. Have you ever struggled to trust God when lousy things happen to you? I'm Gracie Rosenberger, and in 1983, I experienced a horrific car accident leading to 80 surgeries and both legs amputated.

I questioned why God allowed something so brutal to happen to me, but over time, my questions changed and I discovered courage to trust God. That understanding, along with an appreciation for quality prosthetic limbs, led me to establish Standing with Hope. For more than a dozen years, we've been working with the government of Ghana and West Africa, equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people. On a regular basis, we purchase and ship equipment and supplies.

And with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison, we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up. That's standingwithhope.com. I'm Gracie, and I am standing with hope. We're joined with another gospel recording artist, Russ Taft, singing a song that I love to listen to those two sing together, and it was just a real treat to do that. And that's part of her new record.

It's called Resilient, and she is indeed resilient. If you want to see more about that, go to standingwithhope.com. Standingwithhope.com.

For anything you want to do for Standing with Hope to help putting legs on our fellow amputees, we'll send you that record. And we're glad to have you as part of this show today. We're joined with Sherry Easter. She and her husband, Jeff, have been out there singing in front of who knows how many people. I don't even think you guys could even count at this point, could you, Sherry?

I really couldn't, but I'm grateful for them. But along the way, she was thrust into the caregiving world, and she kept singing. Have you read the book?

Yes, I have. Actually, it's called Hear My Heart. I went through breast cancer in 2008, and it was a really hard time for our family. But I sat down and I was very quiet that year, put down a lot of my thoughts, and it turned into a book. I didn't want to write a book about breast cancer because I didn't want it to define me. So I basically started with picking strawberries right behind my grandfather when I was two and three years old. And it went all the way through, meeting Jeff, having children, having breast cancer, taking care of my mom when she was going through Parkinson's and Lewy Body Dementia, and a little bit of everything.

So it's called Hear My Heart, and we sell it on our website, jeffandsherryeaster.com. And it's kind of the best way to get to know Jeff and Sherry. Well, and I would recommend going out there. There's a lot of stuff out there for you to look at. It's Sherry with a one R, by the way.

S-H-E-R-I. And so take a look at that, jeffandsherryeaster.com. Sherry, as you look forward, I mean, you guys are going to have to take a little bit of time off, evidently, because at least for the short term, for this coronavirus, I think it's going to probably play out pretty well. And the nation will stop having a spastic attack here, and everybody's going to settle down. But right now it's gotten a little bit... By the way, John, you know, they closed a ski resort out here. They closed a Waffle House, dude. That's like... Well, it is the apocalypse. When Waffle House closes, it's all over, y'all. Go ahead, pack up. Jesus, take us now. I can hear the trumpet sounding. It's all over.

I didn't know that was in the Book of Revelation. I think it's somewhere in there somewhere at the sign of the Waffle House closing. It's all over. But, you know, but you guys are going to be, I guess, will be sidelined for just a little bit. What do you plan on doing? We are literally taking One Day at a Time.

It was one of my mama's favorite songs, and I never really got it, you know, when I was a teenager. And now that I do have to walk One Day at a Time, and I've learned these experiences that she's walked through some of the same kind of roads that she had to take, I've just learned, I guess probably especially over the last 10 to 12 years, that I'm not in control of anything, even though I'm a control freak. I'm not in control of anything. And so I'm trying to remember, and my studies have really been on lately, getting that manna for every day and not being able to store it up, because if we do, it's going to mold and have maggots. And so we just have to trust God for enough manna every day, just like He did the Israelites. And that's kind of been my go-to thought process.

It's always been in Matthew, you know, to where we have enough to worry about today. Let's not think about tomorrow. But, you know, it's even gone stronger and further for me, because, you know, I'm a planner. You know, I like things organized and detailed, and I cannot tell you the joy that it brought me yesterday. I found out that all four of my dates were canceled for this weekend.

I found out that two of my dates next weekend were canceled. And then I found out that I had to go and get product from a warehouse in Wilmington, North Carolina. So I thought, yay, I can put something on my schedule that's concrete for this moment, you know?

So I'm so happy about this road trip to pick up product, you know? Well, I want to throw out a phrase that a friend of mine told me one time when I was going through. I was really struggling with this, because I like to think, you know, 12 steps down the road. And as a caregiver, you just can't do that. You can. You can plan, but, you know, and he said, learn to be comfortable with ambiguity.

That is exactly the truth. My husband is completely comfortable with ambiguity. He's one of those fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants types. And he will, I mean, he could likely walk into the house and look at me and say, hey, let's go to the beach. You just, you never know.

Okay, give me 15 minutes. I've had to learn to go with his flow, and he's had to learn to kind of stand still a little bit. So we're really good for each other in that way. Well, these are things that are important for us as caregivers. You know, look, you guys have cried plenty of tears. You have.

I mean, I know the journey. My dad has Parkinson's. I've got another family member with Parkinson's. And then, of course, all this challenge I did with Gracie. My brother and his wife have a daughter that's 31 with cerebral palsy.

You know, we had Joan on earlier in the show, and her husband has cerebral palsy. And it's just, there are plenty of tears. But there is extreme beauty even in the midst of these things that you can see, that you can uncover if you're willing to go there. And I think so many of us are so horrified and terrified of the pain. And if you notice in our society that we have this aversion, we must not feel bad at all cost. And that is just a fool's errand. I mean, that's not possible to maintain. And I have said that it is okay for us to laugh even while tears are coming down our cheeks, you know.

And I point to an example. Gracie had her 80th surgery a while back over at Vanderbilt in Nashville. And I wheeled her into the elevator. And she had her arm in a sling because they'd worked on her elbow.

She had two prosthetic legs sticking below her hemline of her skirt. And everybody's just staring at her in this elevator. And they weren't even being nice about it. They were just staring and finally had had enough.

And I said, you know, worst hysterectomy ever. And they all just kind of freaked out. And they didn't know what to do.

And they looked down at their shoes. And then as I wheeled her out, I said, she put up a fight, God love her. And, you know, it's okay to laugh. And you coming on today has shown it's okay to laugh. But what did she do to you when you got home, though? Oh, she laughed all the way to the car.

She's used to it. But I listen to your voice, Sherry, and you just bubble with joy. You are so excited about life. And I know there are tears in your journey. And so I'm very grateful that you came along just to let us know that it's okay to laugh and to sing and to keep singing even in the midst of this. Will you come back? I would love to, anytime. Well, that is very gracious of you. Jeff and SherryEaster.com, please go visit their website. Thank you for taking the time, Sherry. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. Today's a great day to start being healthy. This is Peter Rosenberg and we'll see you next week.