September 22, 2021 • 28 mins
When the Estefans survived a horrific bus crash, doctors feared Gloria would never walk again or have more children. Gloria proved them all wrong and now, the Estefan family reveal the inspirational life lessons they learned and the stories they’ve never told about the accident that changed their lives forever.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bienvenidos and Gloria Stephen. Here you are listening to Red
Table Talk via Stephens Podcast. All your favorite episodes from
our Facebook watch show in audio on this Red Table
Talk via Stephens. This is my story of survival. We
(00:22):
were on tour, playing to sold out crowds. President Bush
had just invited us to the White House. The press
was reporting we had the world in our hands, and
boom thing are. Gloria Stephen was injured when a tractor
trailer rear ended her private bus. In a split second,
(00:44):
everything changed. There was bloody handprints all over the buzz.
My god, what the heck is going on? My mother
hadn't spoken to me in two years. She sees Gloria
Stephen dead in buss crash, and she collapsed on the
floor and our biggest dream was shattered. They told me
no more babies. What did you learn about your marriage?
(01:07):
It's our journey of hope, faith and family. Let me
focus and give energy to what I want to happen
down the fine See every day of my life, I
can feel the lesson through you guys. As a result
(01:28):
of that accident. Here we go. Yeah, this is gonna
be emotional for me. Too. Yes. It was a bitter
cold Tuesday morning in March. Or tour bus was on
(01:50):
an icy mountain highway, which hold on, I'm sorry to
interrupt you. Weren't you not supposed to be on that
road exactly? We got invited to a party in New
York for a top hancho of Sony. Emilio said to me,
you know, I really think we should go, and I
didn't want to go. He said, no, no, this is
really important. So I said okay, And he said, would
(02:10):
you rather go in a limo? And I said no,
you know what, I feel much safer on a tour bus.
Oh my god. I was taking a nap on the
couch and the tour bus. In the back was our bedroom,
where Naive was with his tutor doing his homework. Immediately
was on the phone with his brother, Jose, Lily's dad,
and Boom. There was a seven mile pile up ahead
(02:32):
of us, caused by a truck that had jack knifed
in the snow. Traffic was building up and our bus
was at a complete stop. We got rear ended by
a fully loaded eighteen wheeler and there was what felt
like an explosion. It was huge, and I opened my
(02:54):
eyes and I'm on the floor of the bus and
I am looking around and it is mayhem. Emilio is
over me, like wild eyed, screaming, are you okay? He's
covered in blood. I go, babe, I broke my back
and he goes, no, maybe it's just like something. I go,
I think I broke my back. I tried to get up.
(03:17):
I had the taste of electricity in my mouth. That's
the only way I can describe it. The pain was excruciating.
I hear him screaming naive, naive, and no answer. I
kept praying to God, Please Lord, let him be okay.
I don't care if I'm parallelous. I don't care what
happens to me. Please let him be okay. So I
(03:38):
was holding my breath until I heard your brother say daddy.
He sat him next to me and I grabbed his hand.
He's going, Mommy, please get up, and I go listen,
I can't get up right now. Just hold my hand.
And then I go, okay, how do I not lose
(04:00):
it in front of him? Because I knew he was
going into shock and if I lose control, this is
not going to be good. We were stranded. It was
literally snowing inside the wreckage of the bus. We had
no idea how many hours it would be before paramedics
could rescue us. Then all of a sudden, this angel
(04:24):
appeared in the doorway. The nurse, the nurse who was
his nurse. I don't know. I wish I would have
known her name or something. She sat on the floor
behind me. She grabbed my head and created a human
neck brace. She said, okay, listen to me. You cannot move,
(04:45):
You absolutely cannot move. It doesn't matter how much it
hurts you. You have got to stay still. My spine
was resting on a sliver of bone. When the paramedics
finally arrived, they strapped me to a board. I was
rushed to the nearest hospital, where Naive was treated for
(05:06):
a broken clavicle and Emilia was treated for injuries to
his head and hands. I don't care she's a dance
anymore or anything. I us care that she'd be alive
and she can't walk. Baby, tell us what happened. From
your perspective. It was difficult number one, because they told
me she broke her back, and then I find it.
(05:27):
I couldn't take it. I was in a room by myself,
and all of a sudden, I hear baby, baby, and
I look to my left because I'm still in the
brace and strapped to the board, and I can't see anybody.
Goes no, down here and I go what And I
looked like this and it's your father in a wheelchair.
So then I'm going like, baby, like, what happened? Where
(05:49):
are you? And new Wheelchay said no, no. I fainted
and they told told me that you were, that you
were paralyzed. And then I tried to stand up again
to come see you, and I fainted again. So I
thought maybe it's safer if I just come in the wheelchair,
because he died in a gown in the wheelchair, so
that I don't, you know, falling that moment, I thought
(06:10):
she would never walk again. The doctor you know, said
listen that she be able. That means does she never
be able to walk? And said, well, it's gonna be tough.
She would never be able to no more balance. Probably
he told me no more babies because she probably can't
carry it. I can't even imagine when you felt like.
I go inside the room, I see you for the
first time, of course, I break down, My god, what
(06:35):
the heck? Is going on, and I've been super strong
and I I'm like, I can't hug you. I can't
And she's like, don't cry. Do you remember what you
told me. I told you that I was glad that
it had happened to me, because if it happened to
your uncle, he wouldn't be able to take it. I
(06:56):
almost died, and she's there with a smile. She can't work,
she can't move her feet. She could have been a victim.
She could have victimized herself. From that moment, this woman
was like, I'm gonna do this. I would tell you guys,
I'm gonna be okay. You thought I was in denial.
(07:17):
I didn't do anything. I still had I still had
all the glass in my hair, which we decided the
next day. She was so strong and she wasn't believing,
you know. She told me, I feel the energy that
people praying. Man, I am forever humbled by the fans
from all over the world who held masses and vigils
(07:37):
to pray for my recovery. I really learned about the
power of prayer because I was raised Catholic. I went
to an all girl high school non school, and we
prayed every day. But it wasn't until I was the
recipient of everyone's collective thoughts that I clearly understood. I
would visualize the prayers entering my body and going to
(08:04):
my spine, and I would imagine nerves reconnecting and doing
all these things like I would. Literally, I was sucking
in that energy that I was feeling, and it was
keeping me buoyed and and up. My sister, Becky and
our mother had also flown to Scranton to be with us.
(08:25):
They were still recovering from the shock of initial news
reports they claimed I had been killed in the accident.
We've heard mom's perspective, Dad's perspective, less trip into yours.
First of all, how many years has it been? Thirty
thirty years? It still makes me cry as if it
were that day. And I drove with the news on
(08:48):
loop saying that my sister was dead because at that point,
everybody toes she had died, and um, my world humbold
because you know what, my sisters for me, it was
the single most terrifying ever experienced. So I turned it
(09:15):
off because I couldn't. I couldn't drive, I couldn't scream,
I couldn't cry, I could I couldn't do anything. You
can't think, You can't think. My mother was a teacher
and she was at school when she heard the news.
My mother had gone to the coffee room to get coffee,
and then she sees and then she sees glare Steff,
I'm dead in buzz crash, and she collapsed on the floor.
(09:39):
My mother and I had been estranged for two years.
She had never wanted me to pursue a career in
music and blamed Amelia for it. When we took Becky
on the road with us, that was the final straw.
When we told my mother that now her last remaining
family member is coming with me on the road. He
(10:00):
was not having She blew her top and said to me,
if you take your sister, I'm never speaking to you again.
So of course I'm thinking she's exaggerating, Like mom was
kind of serious, dramatic and over the top. Of course,
before we got to the hospital, I was charged with
the wonderful task of going to the wreckage to pick
(10:25):
up the bags. How do we never talked about how
you felt, Maybe because you didn't want to go there
to remind me, or something about your pain or your
feelings going through the wreckage. I can't even tell you
what that was like. There was bloody handprints all over
the bus. Your dad's shoes he got knocked out of
his shoes, shoes. There was seven thousand champagne bottles which
(10:50):
my lovely brother in law would collect, and they were
all shattered. I said, oh my god, I can't believe
they survived this. We got to the hospital and my
sister was this little anybody thing in a bed, terrified
because I could see it in her face. And my
(11:14):
mom went to her and grabbed her hand and she said,
to my mom, your hand is so little, and we
all lost it cry. I never expected her to apologize,
because you know Mom, she would never apologize. But I
knew her heart, and I didn't want to torture her. Further,
I knew she had to be feeling super guilty for
(11:36):
what she had put us through in those two years.
I knew that she was thinking, oh my god, I
almost didn't get this opportunity after everything we had been through.
I was so happy to see my mom. The road
ahead was rough. I was there lifted to a New
York City hospital where doctors implanted two titanium rods onto
(11:57):
my fractured vertebrate during a four hour operation. While I
was in the o R, Emilia broke down in tears
and my mother walked in on him. You locked yourself
in a closet. I wanted to be private. I got
to a room and I was laying down crying, and
she saw she was going to the bathroom and she opened.
She saw me that, and she helped me, and she
gave me a kids. You know, I have to earn
(12:18):
her respect. It only took twelve years, but I'm going
to do something. She was an amazing woman. Families get
together when they have a rough time. They buried the
hatchet and from that moment on, my mother and Emilio
were inseparable. The healing energy in that room was powerful
and it couldn't have come at a better time. My
(12:40):
surgery was a success. This has been one, if not
the most difficult thing I've had to go through in
my life, but I'm thankful for the miracles being being
alive and able to recuverate completely. That's your mom. Your
mom is what you see is what you get. And
(13:00):
I was proud. She always been person and she's the
kind of person that I always tried to say it's
gonna be okay and everything else, and they're thinking, oh
my god, Denial, does she know what's going on because
I have to tell a story that nobody knows because
it's my perspective and nobody saw it. Oh, this is
gonna be good. I think we were there a month.
(13:21):
One of the big things was we needed to see
if she could walk. She gets up in a van
and she starts to walk down the hall and I'm
watching him, and that man has turned around and went
into the room by himself and started bawling like we're
(13:42):
yeah yeah. And it made me realize just how much
he loved her and how much he must have been
destroyed inside because on the outside he was just getting
everything done. You became my hero, luncky, And I think, mom, yeah,
(14:06):
sometimes I mean, he gets to a point that you
cannot take it anymore, even you want to be a
strong It was hard because I wanted to be a
strong for her and she was to be strong for me.
In the long run, people at two difficult times, and
I feel people need to learn to enjoy the moments.
And you know, whatever you have something to say to somebody,
you must say it. I'll never go to sleep without
the other person, because I think it's important that you
(14:28):
live in peace. We have to be fair and say. Naive,
who is a huge part of the story, is not here,
but I recall because he talks about this often. Wasn't
there a situation where he was playing step on a
crack right before the accident? For a year, my son
was dying inside and only fearfully told his tutor, And
(14:52):
then she came to tell me that, coincidentally, the day
before my accident, they were out on a sidewalk and
they were playing step on a crag, Break your Mother's back,
and he was stomping on the cracks, and he was
so afraid that it had been his fault. I went
to him and I said, this is not your fault, baby,
(15:14):
this is a coincidence. This was going to happen. I'll
never forget the day Naive, Emilia and I finally got
to go home. When we touched down in Miami, I
felt the love as soon as we stepped off the plane,
but nothing compared to the love Emilia would show me
in the months ahead. When we came back to Miami
(15:37):
ten or fifteen days later, I really realized I can't
sit up, I can't lay down. I have to be
bathed for three months. You did everything for me everything.
What did that feel like? What was it like for you?
It was a blessings. It's a beautiful love story with
the accident. To you, what did you learn about your marriage?
(16:00):
That we always love each other and when you go
to tough times, when the proof that you have to
love even more Because she needed me, I felt guilty
because the only way that I could alleviate my pain
in any way was every forty five minutes at night.
That's how long my body would let me sleep before
the pain woke me up. And then the only thing
(16:20):
that would help the pain was to get up and move.
So he was up every forty five minutes, holding on
to me because I couldn't walk by myself. He'd walked
me around the room, walked me into the hallway. She
never complained, She never she cries anyway, She never complained.
He said, you know something, I'm gonna pull this. I
don't worry about it, baby, don't worry about it. I
(16:40):
think when you go to soucial rough time, it's so
important to be focused and to be positive in life,
because you know, everybody goes to rough time, and I
think that's what they helped her allow the will to
come back. I didn't want to take pain killers, first
of all because it made me feel really bad, but
secondly because I wanted to know how far to push
my body. How far she couldn't and change your underwear?
(17:01):
I couldn't. How long did it take for you to
finally put your underwear on the first four months? I remember,
remember what I remember because I wanted to throw a party.
I wanted to throw a party. I was sitting in
my bathroom and I was able to lift my foot
high enough and fling my arms low enough to put
the underwear on. How was sex after the accident? Not
(17:29):
because your body felt different, you felt like it was like,
get back on the table. I'm not going to go
into specific like this, he's gonna answer. So I'm talking
about what I felt physically, and I'd scared the hell
out of me my parents. Okay, this isn't going to
be about that, but I can tell you this that
(17:49):
you know I felt bad for him too, because I mean,
we were young, super young, and I'm thinking to myself,
oh my god, So I rallied for him too. It
was months though, and then the first time that that happened,
what I felt was like, oh, no, is this going
to be like this, because you remember, I had nerves
that got disconnected, you know, for weeks, like my my
(18:13):
organs didn't work. So thank god that the second time okay,
it was fine, but the first time really scared me.
But has changed the subject. Four years after the accident,
despite the fact that we were told I may never
be able to carry any more children, Emily, our miracle
baby was born. I know that I wasn't there for
(18:35):
the accident, but I think that every day of my
life I can feel a repercussion turned into a lesson
through you guys as a result of that accident. I'm
always going to remember enjoy every moment. You don't know
what you have tomorrow. It's not worth being stressed. It
doesn't matter if you're a millionaire. It doesn't matter if
(18:55):
you have one dollar. From one second to the next,
your life can change. See Miami Herald, you know they
cover the front page March twenty was them with the
President to immigrants who are really on top of the world.
The next day it's the same newspaper from page again
(19:18):
the picture of the wreckage, So you realize everything life
changes during this COVID pandemic. How many people have lost
their jobs, have lost their loved ones and couldn't be
with them, have lost so many things, and we have
to stay positive. People should not ever wait to such
(19:39):
a bad moment to show the person how much you
love the person. Absolutely, that happens to so many people.
It's a proven fact that we come and living this
world for souci a short time. That we can make
a beautiful life or you can make a horrible life.
We got a beautiful life. That's one thing, your mom
and me. It's not the fame, it's not the money.
We are really blessed for many reasons in the world,
(20:01):
not only the accident. We've been blessed that we came
to a beautiful country. We have blessed that we have
a beautiful career. We blessed we have a fear of
beautiful family. What's the biggest difference, Gloria before the accident
and after the accident? All Right, I'm the same person,
because it's not like I changed intrinsically who I was.
When stuff happens. The outcome that you're going to have
depends on how you deal with the situation. It gave
(20:23):
meaning to my fame. I learned that thoughts create reality.
All of us collectively are creating the reality that we're
experiencing in the world right now. And if we let
fear rule us, if we let people control us or
lead us down a path into fear, collectively, we're putting
(20:46):
ourselves through something almost approve to each other the power
that we have. So after that accident, what I do.
Fear starts creeping in and I go hold on, let
me focus and give energy to what I want to happen.
It's like every day getting up out of bed. I
had to talk myself into doing it. Okay, there's one
(21:08):
thing that we need to talk about. Did they You
went back on stage and it was less than a
year that the accident had happened. The last thing that
I was thinking about was getting back on stage. When
Dick Clark decides to call to invite me to perform
on the Ames in January, so of course I said
(21:28):
to him, you're crazy. I'm not gonna do this. This
is too much pressure. My body was starting to come back.
I'm free, but you must come to Miami talk to her.
I don't want to pretend that to her. And he
flew to Miami to talk to Yeah, And you can
feel the energy in the video. I panicked because your
(21:49):
mom has a very signature move. You're not sure if
it's anger sad. Yes, when she goes like this, yep,
you know that she is about to lose it or
kick ass. Right. I thought she was gonna lose it.
And of course that's only something we know, right, And
(22:11):
that entire place to oh my god, and did not
sit down for oh, I tell you the story now
when they get chills, when everybody stood up and they're
all crying, and I see Emilio and naive. When I
saw that, I felt like I had climbed Mount Everest said.
(22:38):
When we wrote this song, your dad, and I want
to show you. I wrote this down the day of
your accident, when I was going in the helicopter and
that moment I saw a lettle like coming into my
eye and I wrote it a piece of paper coming
out of it, there will be okay. And to me,
looking at a piece of paper, it was like that
(22:58):
song came through me, not from me, because what it
was was a big thank you to all the fans
that sent me so much love and prayers and support
since the day that I'm born. I know fans of
yours that are almost like family who got to every show. Yes,
you know, I would love for you to join me
(23:20):
for a very intimate performance of that song. I would
be honored, and I think there's no better way to
celebrate the fact that you are here alive, that we're
all together, and it would be my honor to accompany you.
But first of all, to you, guys, my sister, little babe.
I mean, I can't thank you enough for the support
(23:41):
you gave me, and to those fans out there. The
love that you gave me got me through those moments
and has continued to affect my work, my life, and
I thank you so much. Oh Idea. When I look
(24:02):
back at the accident now thirty years later, I am
filled with gratitude. I am grateful for my life, my family,
my friends, and for my fans. I kept every single
one of the thousands of letters you sent me during
my recovery. This is incredible and they continue to lift
me up to this day. While to be afraid if
(24:45):
I'm not alone, life is never easy. The rest he's
unknown up to now. For me, it's been hands against stop.
It's been teaching every moment, search and for what to believe.
(25:13):
Coming out of the door, finely see the line now
and it shineing on me. Coming out of the dock,
I know the love that save me. You're sharing with me. Yes,
(25:43):
you're sharing it for me. Yes to sharing with me,
sharing it with me, with me starting again. It's part
of the plan. And I'll be so much stronger holding
(26:08):
you will step I stip on, make it through. Yeah,
and may now make it easier. But I have felt
you near all the way. Coming out of the g
(26:30):
I finally seen a lie and now shining on me.
I see the lad in the las of the lights.
Coming out of the town. I know the love that
saved me. You're sharing with me ever ever, ever, all
(26:55):
the cat nobody stop me, watch river and all the rock.
Your love is all the time, No, no, no where.
(27:17):
We're back coming out of the look. Thanks for listening.
(27:41):
To join the red table Talk family and become a
part of the conversation, follow us at Facebook dot com,
forward slash, red table Talk, Stefens red table Talk via
stefans is a production of Westbrook Studios in partnership with
I heart Radio's Michael da podcast network. For more podcasts
from Heart, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
(28:03):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Bienvenidos and Gloria Stephen. Here you are listening to Red
Table Talk via Stephens Podcast. All your favorite episodes from
our Facebook watch show in audio on this Red Table
Talk via Stephens. This is my story of survival. We
(00:22):
were on tour, playing to sold out crowds. President Bush
had just invited us to the White House. The press
was reporting we had the world in our hands, and
boom thing are. Gloria Stephen was injured when a tractor
trailer rear ended her private bus. In a split second,
(00:44):
everything changed. There was bloody handprints all over the buzz.
My god, what the heck is going on? My mother
hadn't spoken to me in two years. She sees Gloria
Stephen dead in buss crash, and she collapsed on the
floor and our biggest dream was shattered. They told me
no more babies. What did you learn about your marriage?
(01:07):
It's our journey of hope, faith and family. Let me
focus and give energy to what I want to happen
down the fine See every day of my life, I
can feel the lesson through you guys. As a result
(01:28):
of that accident. Here we go. Yeah, this is gonna
be emotional for me. Too. Yes. It was a bitter
cold Tuesday morning in March. Or tour bus was on
(01:50):
an icy mountain highway, which hold on, I'm sorry to
interrupt you. Weren't you not supposed to be on that
road exactly? We got invited to a party in New
York for a top hancho of Sony. Emilio said to me,
you know, I really think we should go, and I
didn't want to go. He said, no, no, this is
really important. So I said okay, And he said, would
(02:10):
you rather go in a limo? And I said no,
you know what, I feel much safer on a tour bus.
Oh my god. I was taking a nap on the
couch and the tour bus. In the back was our bedroom,
where Naive was with his tutor doing his homework. Immediately
was on the phone with his brother, Jose, Lily's dad,
and Boom. There was a seven mile pile up ahead
(02:32):
of us, caused by a truck that had jack knifed
in the snow. Traffic was building up and our bus
was at a complete stop. We got rear ended by
a fully loaded eighteen wheeler and there was what felt
like an explosion. It was huge, and I opened my
(02:54):
eyes and I'm on the floor of the bus and
I am looking around and it is mayhem. Emilio is
over me, like wild eyed, screaming, are you okay? He's
covered in blood. I go, babe, I broke my back
and he goes, no, maybe it's just like something. I go,
I think I broke my back. I tried to get up.
(03:17):
I had the taste of electricity in my mouth. That's
the only way I can describe it. The pain was excruciating.
I hear him screaming naive, naive, and no answer. I
kept praying to God, Please Lord, let him be okay.
I don't care if I'm parallelous. I don't care what
happens to me. Please let him be okay. So I
(03:38):
was holding my breath until I heard your brother say daddy.
He sat him next to me and I grabbed his hand.
He's going, Mommy, please get up, and I go listen,
I can't get up right now. Just hold my hand.
And then I go, okay, how do I not lose
(04:00):
it in front of him? Because I knew he was
going into shock and if I lose control, this is
not going to be good. We were stranded. It was
literally snowing inside the wreckage of the bus. We had
no idea how many hours it would be before paramedics
could rescue us. Then all of a sudden, this angel
(04:24):
appeared in the doorway. The nurse, the nurse who was
his nurse. I don't know. I wish I would have
known her name or something. She sat on the floor
behind me. She grabbed my head and created a human
neck brace. She said, okay, listen to me. You cannot move,
(04:45):
You absolutely cannot move. It doesn't matter how much it
hurts you. You have got to stay still. My spine
was resting on a sliver of bone. When the paramedics
finally arrived, they strapped me to a board. I was
rushed to the nearest hospital, where Naive was treated for
(05:06):
a broken clavicle and Emilia was treated for injuries to
his head and hands. I don't care she's a dance
anymore or anything. I us care that she'd be alive
and she can't walk. Baby, tell us what happened. From
your perspective. It was difficult number one, because they told
me she broke her back, and then I find it.
(05:27):
I couldn't take it. I was in a room by myself,
and all of a sudden, I hear baby, baby, and
I look to my left because I'm still in the
brace and strapped to the board, and I can't see anybody.
Goes no, down here and I go what And I
looked like this and it's your father in a wheelchair.
So then I'm going like, baby, like, what happened? Where
(05:49):
are you? And new Wheelchay said no, no. I fainted
and they told told me that you were, that you
were paralyzed. And then I tried to stand up again
to come see you, and I fainted again. So I
thought maybe it's safer if I just come in the wheelchair,
because he died in a gown in the wheelchair, so
that I don't, you know, falling that moment, I thought
(06:10):
she would never walk again. The doctor you know, said
listen that she be able. That means does she never
be able to walk? And said, well, it's gonna be tough.
She would never be able to no more balance. Probably
he told me no more babies because she probably can't
carry it. I can't even imagine when you felt like.
I go inside the room, I see you for the
first time, of course, I break down, My god, what
(06:35):
the heck? Is going on, and I've been super strong
and I I'm like, I can't hug you. I can't
And she's like, don't cry. Do you remember what you
told me. I told you that I was glad that
it had happened to me, because if it happened to
your uncle, he wouldn't be able to take it. I
(06:56):
almost died, and she's there with a smile. She can't work,
she can't move her feet. She could have been a victim.
She could have victimized herself. From that moment, this woman
was like, I'm gonna do this. I would tell you guys,
I'm gonna be okay. You thought I was in denial.
(07:17):
I didn't do anything. I still had I still had
all the glass in my hair, which we decided the
next day. She was so strong and she wasn't believing,
you know. She told me, I feel the energy that
people praying. Man, I am forever humbled by the fans
from all over the world who held masses and vigils
(07:37):
to pray for my recovery. I really learned about the
power of prayer because I was raised Catholic. I went
to an all girl high school non school, and we
prayed every day. But it wasn't until I was the
recipient of everyone's collective thoughts that I clearly understood. I
would visualize the prayers entering my body and going to
(08:04):
my spine, and I would imagine nerves reconnecting and doing
all these things like I would. Literally, I was sucking
in that energy that I was feeling, and it was
keeping me buoyed and and up. My sister, Becky and
our mother had also flown to Scranton to be with us.
(08:25):
They were still recovering from the shock of initial news
reports they claimed I had been killed in the accident.
We've heard mom's perspective, Dad's perspective, less trip into yours.
First of all, how many years has it been? Thirty
thirty years? It still makes me cry as if it
were that day. And I drove with the news on
(08:48):
loop saying that my sister was dead because at that point,
everybody toes she had died, and um, my world humbold
because you know what, my sisters for me, it was
the single most terrifying ever experienced. So I turned it
(09:15):
off because I couldn't. I couldn't drive, I couldn't scream,
I couldn't cry, I could I couldn't do anything. You
can't think, You can't think. My mother was a teacher
and she was at school when she heard the news.
My mother had gone to the coffee room to get coffee,
and then she sees and then she sees glare Steff,
I'm dead in buzz crash, and she collapsed on the floor.
(09:39):
My mother and I had been estranged for two years.
She had never wanted me to pursue a career in
music and blamed Amelia for it. When we took Becky
on the road with us, that was the final straw.
When we told my mother that now her last remaining
family member is coming with me on the road. He
(10:00):
was not having She blew her top and said to me,
if you take your sister, I'm never speaking to you again.
So of course I'm thinking she's exaggerating, Like mom was
kind of serious, dramatic and over the top. Of course,
before we got to the hospital, I was charged with
the wonderful task of going to the wreckage to pick
(10:25):
up the bags. How do we never talked about how
you felt, Maybe because you didn't want to go there
to remind me, or something about your pain or your
feelings going through the wreckage. I can't even tell you
what that was like. There was bloody handprints all over
the bus. Your dad's shoes he got knocked out of
his shoes, shoes. There was seven thousand champagne bottles which
(10:50):
my lovely brother in law would collect, and they were
all shattered. I said, oh my god, I can't believe
they survived this. We got to the hospital and my
sister was this little anybody thing in a bed, terrified
because I could see it in her face. And my
(11:14):
mom went to her and grabbed her hand and she said,
to my mom, your hand is so little, and we
all lost it cry. I never expected her to apologize,
because you know Mom, she would never apologize. But I
knew her heart, and I didn't want to torture her. Further,
I knew she had to be feeling super guilty for
(11:36):
what she had put us through in those two years.
I knew that she was thinking, oh my god, I
almost didn't get this opportunity after everything we had been through.
I was so happy to see my mom. The road
ahead was rough. I was there lifted to a New
York City hospital where doctors implanted two titanium rods onto
(11:57):
my fractured vertebrate during a four hour operation. While I
was in the o R, Emilia broke down in tears
and my mother walked in on him. You locked yourself
in a closet. I wanted to be private. I got
to a room and I was laying down crying, and
she saw she was going to the bathroom and she opened.
She saw me that, and she helped me, and she
gave me a kids. You know, I have to earn
(12:18):
her respect. It only took twelve years, but I'm going
to do something. She was an amazing woman. Families get
together when they have a rough time. They buried the
hatchet and from that moment on, my mother and Emilio
were inseparable. The healing energy in that room was powerful
and it couldn't have come at a better time. My
(12:40):
surgery was a success. This has been one, if not
the most difficult thing I've had to go through in
my life, but I'm thankful for the miracles being being
alive and able to recuverate completely. That's your mom. Your
mom is what you see is what you get. And
(13:00):
I was proud. She always been person and she's the
kind of person that I always tried to say it's
gonna be okay and everything else, and they're thinking, oh
my god, Denial, does she know what's going on because
I have to tell a story that nobody knows because
it's my perspective and nobody saw it. Oh, this is
gonna be good. I think we were there a month.
(13:21):
One of the big things was we needed to see
if she could walk. She gets up in a van
and she starts to walk down the hall and I'm
watching him, and that man has turned around and went
into the room by himself and started bawling like we're
(13:42):
yeah yeah. And it made me realize just how much
he loved her and how much he must have been
destroyed inside because on the outside he was just getting
everything done. You became my hero, luncky, And I think, mom, yeah,
(14:06):
sometimes I mean, he gets to a point that you
cannot take it anymore, even you want to be a
strong It was hard because I wanted to be a
strong for her and she was to be strong for me.
In the long run, people at two difficult times, and
I feel people need to learn to enjoy the moments.
And you know, whatever you have something to say to somebody,
you must say it. I'll never go to sleep without
the other person, because I think it's important that you
(14:28):
live in peace. We have to be fair and say. Naive,
who is a huge part of the story, is not here,
but I recall because he talks about this often. Wasn't
there a situation where he was playing step on a
crack right before the accident? For a year, my son
was dying inside and only fearfully told his tutor, And
(14:52):
then she came to tell me that, coincidentally, the day
before my accident, they were out on a sidewalk and
they were playing step on a crag, Break your Mother's back,
and he was stomping on the cracks, and he was
so afraid that it had been his fault. I went
to him and I said, this is not your fault, baby,
(15:14):
this is a coincidence. This was going to happen. I'll
never forget the day Naive, Emilia and I finally got
to go home. When we touched down in Miami, I
felt the love as soon as we stepped off the plane,
but nothing compared to the love Emilia would show me
in the months ahead. When we came back to Miami
(15:37):
ten or fifteen days later, I really realized I can't
sit up, I can't lay down. I have to be
bathed for three months. You did everything for me everything.
What did that feel like? What was it like for you?
It was a blessings. It's a beautiful love story with
the accident. To you, what did you learn about your marriage?
(16:00):
That we always love each other and when you go
to tough times, when the proof that you have to
love even more Because she needed me, I felt guilty
because the only way that I could alleviate my pain
in any way was every forty five minutes at night.
That's how long my body would let me sleep before
the pain woke me up. And then the only thing
(16:20):
that would help the pain was to get up and move.
So he was up every forty five minutes, holding on
to me because I couldn't walk by myself. He'd walked
me around the room, walked me into the hallway. She
never complained, She never she cries anyway, She never complained.
He said, you know something, I'm gonna pull this. I
don't worry about it, baby, don't worry about it. I
(16:40):
think when you go to soucial rough time, it's so
important to be focused and to be positive in life,
because you know, everybody goes to rough time, and I
think that's what they helped her allow the will to
come back. I didn't want to take pain killers, first
of all because it made me feel really bad, but
secondly because I wanted to know how far to push
my body. How far she couldn't and change your underwear?
(17:01):
I couldn't. How long did it take for you to
finally put your underwear on the first four months? I remember,
remember what I remember because I wanted to throw a party.
I wanted to throw a party. I was sitting in
my bathroom and I was able to lift my foot
high enough and fling my arms low enough to put
the underwear on. How was sex after the accident? Not
(17:29):
because your body felt different, you felt like it was like,
get back on the table. I'm not going to go
into specific like this, he's gonna answer. So I'm talking
about what I felt physically, and I'd scared the hell
out of me my parents. Okay, this isn't going to
be about that, but I can tell you this that
(17:49):
you know I felt bad for him too, because I mean,
we were young, super young, and I'm thinking to myself,
oh my god, So I rallied for him too. It
was months though, and then the first time that that happened,
what I felt was like, oh, no, is this going
to be like this, because you remember, I had nerves
that got disconnected, you know, for weeks, like my my
(18:13):
organs didn't work. So thank god that the second time okay,
it was fine, but the first time really scared me.
But has changed the subject. Four years after the accident,
despite the fact that we were told I may never
be able to carry any more children, Emily, our miracle
baby was born. I know that I wasn't there for
(18:35):
the accident, but I think that every day of my
life I can feel a repercussion turned into a lesson
through you guys as a result of that accident. I'm
always going to remember enjoy every moment. You don't know
what you have tomorrow. It's not worth being stressed. It
doesn't matter if you're a millionaire. It doesn't matter if
(18:55):
you have one dollar. From one second to the next,
your life can change. See Miami Herald, you know they
cover the front page March twenty was them with the
President to immigrants who are really on top of the world.
The next day it's the same newspaper from page again
(19:18):
the picture of the wreckage, So you realize everything life
changes during this COVID pandemic. How many people have lost
their jobs, have lost their loved ones and couldn't be
with them, have lost so many things, and we have
to stay positive. People should not ever wait to such
(19:39):
a bad moment to show the person how much you
love the person. Absolutely, that happens to so many people.
It's a proven fact that we come and living this
world for souci a short time. That we can make
a beautiful life or you can make a horrible life.
We got a beautiful life. That's one thing, your mom
and me. It's not the fame, it's not the money.
We are really blessed for many reasons in the world,
(20:01):
not only the accident. We've been blessed that we came
to a beautiful country. We have blessed that we have
a beautiful career. We blessed we have a fear of
beautiful family. What's the biggest difference, Gloria before the accident
and after the accident? All Right, I'm the same person,
because it's not like I changed intrinsically who I was.
When stuff happens. The outcome that you're going to have
depends on how you deal with the situation. It gave
(20:23):
meaning to my fame. I learned that thoughts create reality.
All of us collectively are creating the reality that we're
experiencing in the world right now. And if we let
fear rule us, if we let people control us or
lead us down a path into fear, collectively, we're putting
(20:46):
ourselves through something almost approve to each other the power
that we have. So after that accident, what I do.
Fear starts creeping in and I go hold on, let
me focus and give energy to what I want to happen.
It's like every day getting up out of bed. I
had to talk myself into doing it. Okay, there's one
(21:08):
thing that we need to talk about. Did they You
went back on stage and it was less than a
year that the accident had happened. The last thing that
I was thinking about was getting back on stage. When
Dick Clark decides to call to invite me to perform
on the Ames in January, so of course I said
(21:28):
to him, you're crazy. I'm not gonna do this. This
is too much pressure. My body was starting to come back.
I'm free, but you must come to Miami talk to her.
I don't want to pretend that to her. And he
flew to Miami to talk to Yeah, And you can
feel the energy in the video. I panicked because your
(21:49):
mom has a very signature move. You're not sure if
it's anger sad. Yes, when she goes like this, yep,
you know that she is about to lose it or
kick ass. Right. I thought she was gonna lose it.
And of course that's only something we know, right, And
(22:11):
that entire place to oh my god, and did not
sit down for oh, I tell you the story now
when they get chills, when everybody stood up and they're
all crying, and I see Emilio and naive. When I
saw that, I felt like I had climbed Mount Everest said.
(22:38):
When we wrote this song, your dad, and I want
to show you. I wrote this down the day of
your accident, when I was going in the helicopter and
that moment I saw a lettle like coming into my
eye and I wrote it a piece of paper coming
out of it, there will be okay. And to me,
looking at a piece of paper, it was like that
(22:58):
song came through me, not from me, because what it
was was a big thank you to all the fans
that sent me so much love and prayers and support
since the day that I'm born. I know fans of
yours that are almost like family who got to every show. Yes,
you know, I would love for you to join me
(23:20):
for a very intimate performance of that song. I would
be honored, and I think there's no better way to
celebrate the fact that you are here alive, that we're
all together, and it would be my honor to accompany you.
But first of all, to you, guys, my sister, little babe.
I mean, I can't thank you enough for the support
(23:41):
you gave me, and to those fans out there. The
love that you gave me got me through those moments
and has continued to affect my work, my life, and
I thank you so much. Oh Idea. When I look
(24:02):
back at the accident now thirty years later, I am
filled with gratitude. I am grateful for my life, my family,
my friends, and for my fans. I kept every single
one of the thousands of letters you sent me during
my recovery. This is incredible and they continue to lift
me up to this day. While to be afraid if
(24:45):
I'm not alone, life is never easy. The rest he's
unknown up to now. For me, it's been hands against stop.
It's been teaching every moment, search and for what to believe.
(25:13):
Coming out of the door, finely see the line now
and it shineing on me. Coming out of the dock,
I know the love that save me. You're sharing with me. Yes,
(25:43):
you're sharing it for me. Yes to sharing with me,
sharing it with me, with me starting again. It's part
of the plan. And I'll be so much stronger holding
(26:08):
you will step I stip on, make it through. Yeah,
and may now make it easier. But I have felt
you near all the way. Coming out of the g
(26:30):
I finally seen a lie and now shining on me.
I see the lad in the las of the lights.
Coming out of the town. I know the love that
saved me. You're sharing with me ever ever, ever, all
(26:55):
the cat nobody stop me, watch river and all the rock.
Your love is all the time, No, no, no where.
(27:17):
We're back coming out of the look. Thanks for listening.
(27:41):
To join the red table Talk family and become a
part of the conversation, follow us at Facebook dot com,
forward slash, red table Talk, Stefens red table Talk via
stefans is a production of Westbrook Studios in partnership with
I heart Radio's Michael da podcast network. For more podcasts
from Heart, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
(28:03):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.