Send us a text

For Brian Franklin, loss came in waves — the suicide of a childhood friend, a colon cancer scare, the discovery of a benign brain tumor, his wife’s breast cancer diagnosis, and the sudden heart attack of his closest confidant. At times, the weight of it all was nearly unbearable.

Yet Brian’s story isn’t defined by tragedy. It’s defined by his remarkable capacity to reinvent. Music became his therapy, his guitar a lifeline when words failed. A bowling league offered unexpected silliness and community. And eventually, he and his wife Nicole launched Vows & Speeches, a business built on love, connection, and storytelling — a radical departure from his career in political consulting.

Brian shares candidly about grief, acknowledging: “I’m not as happy as I used to be…that happiness was living in a fantasy world where nothing bad had happened.” But he’s also discovered a different kind of contentment — one that honors fragility, embraces joy, and redefines hope itself. “Hope is a statement of intent,” he says.

This episode is a reminder that while we can’t control outcomes, we can choose how to show up — for ourselves, for others, and for the life still unfolding in front of us.

Connect with Brian on Vows & Speeches.

And on Instagram: @vowsandspeeches

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this episode resonated with you, please follow, rate, and share the show — it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday and Friday, so you can begin and end your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

Send us a text

The road through addiction and recovery is rarely straight — and for Jamie Felton, it’s been marked by both unimaginable loss and profound resilience.

By age 24, Jamie had accumulated three DUIs and found herself walking home from a blackout at 3:30 AM. That was the breaking point that led her to seek help — and on November 7, 2006, she began a journey that has kept her sober for nearly 19 years.

But sobriety didn’t shield her from heartbreak. Jamie’s sons, Jack and Sam, both struggled with substance use. She poured everything she had into helping Jack — financially, emotionally, spiritually — but in May 2019, at just 20 years old, he died of a heroin overdose. Today, her younger son Sam is in recovery, a gift she holds close.

Out of her own lived experience, Jamie has dedicated her life to guiding others. Through Fresh Start Recovery Consultants, she provides the kind of support and professional navigation she once desperately needed — helping families find hope in the chaos of addiction.

In this episode of Hope Comes to Visit, Jamie shares her story with honesty and courage: the dark valleys of addiction, the grief of losing a child, and the determination to transform her pain into purpose. Her story is a reminder that even in the hardest places, hope can still take root.

Learn more about Jamie's work and how she helps people find hope and recovery here - Fresh Start Addiction and Recovery Consultants.

You can also connect with her on Social:

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this episode resonated with you, please follow, rate, and share the show — it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday and Friday, so you can begin and end your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit

Send us a text

What if the most difficult chapters of your life were actually preparing you for unexpected gifts?

In this moving episode of Hope Comes to Visit, award-winning writer Maria de los Angeles shares how caring for her parents with Alzheimer’s taught her the very resilience, humility, and compassion she would later need to face her own esophageal cancer diagnosis.

Maria speaks candidly about the sacred and heartbreaking realities of caregiving — from changing her parents’ diapers to sitting with the grief of loss. “It was the most beautiful and hardest thing I would ever do,” she reflects, opening a window of wisdom for anyone navigating elder care.

Her journey also weaves through sobriety, relapse, and return to recovery — revealing how healing is rarely linear, but always worth it. And even in the midst of cancer treatment, Maria carries astonishing perspective: “I am not the symptom,” she says, describing how she talks to her tumor and continues to find moments of joy.

Perhaps most inspiring is Maria’s embrace of midlife transformation. “Menopause was the best thing that ever happened to me,” she declares. For her, the fifties have become a season of unapologetic honesty and fierce clarity about what matters most.

This conversation culminates with Maria reading her breathtaking poem “Spoonfuls,” a tender reflection on feeding her mother during her final days — a moment that crystallizes the circular nature of care and the hidden gifts within life’s hardest seasons.

Connect with Maria on her newsletter - https://www.heartcenteredliving.news/newsletter

And everywhere else you can find her.

You can also support Maria in her cancer journey here.

Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this episode resonated with you, please follow, rate, and share the show — it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday and Friday, so you can begin and end your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit