A video interview featuring Julie Wilson (Hal Elrod’s mother) describing a lifetime of volunteering—blood donation, hospice work, long-term membership and service with the Elks—and environmentally conscious habits. The transcript centers on the birth, disabilities, and death of her daughter Amory, how Julie turned grief into organized community support (a bereaved parents group, large fundraisers like Kids Day), and how that family philanthropy later enabled Hal to receive critical care at Valley Children’s Hospital. Other speakers offer testimonials about Julie’s energy, humor, and the consoling role she played for grieving parents.
Chapters
I've been volunteering since I was about 12. I've done a lot more volunteering over.
The years for different organizations.
I've been donating blood since I was 17 years old.
The pint of blood I gave the other day would save three lives.
And it took me five minutes to fill a bag.
I volunteer for hospice. I'm making hospice bags so they can put things in them while they're with their walkers or their wheelchairs.
And we did that. We did regular shows. Oh, I met that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I volunteer at the Elks.
I've been a member of the Elks for 25 years. And in that time I've volunteered all different ways.
I think you owe me, honey.
She makes everybody laugh and she's just so full of energy. She keeps things hopping.
She likes everybody. She treats everybody like part of her family.
She's an absolutely wonderful woman. I'm very proud to know her.
The magic for me is just that I've done something good for somebody else. Just that feeling, knowing that little bit I did made their day a little bit better.
One person can make a difference.
Well, I try to conserve as much as I can.
I think about things maybe more seriously than some people do about what the impact will be if I purchase this product. I try to create little to no trash.
I conserve water by taping my bath water and using it to flush, toilet, wash my car, mop my floors.
I always wanted the kids to participate in the volunteer work that their dad and I did.
I thought it was really important to teach them to give back. And I think the best way to do that is by setting an example.
Emory was my third child.
We didn't know she was going to.
Be born with disabilities.
We had no idea. When I had her, it was quite a surprise.
She was born a dwarf. She had kyphosis, scoliosis.
Amory means heaven sent. And it was just a perfect name for her.
I woke up. Mark had already left for work.
Nursed Amory, and I sang her a lullaby.
Just noticed that her eyes, they went blank.
I told her dad, I said, we have to go outside, we have to take her outside. We have to take our time. And we did.
So I didn't realize what she was going through at all. And it was, you know, it was hard, hard to imagine until it happened to me. My son just died like six months ago. So I have.
A hard time talking about this still.
We all grieve differently on the outside, but there's still that ache and that cool and can't fill it with anything, but it does help to have friends that have been through that and that can sympathize.
Talking with Julie about my son's passing gave me a connection to a lot of my feelings. And we was able to get past that sadness and find the joy in what we had.
When the new building was built, we were asked if we wanted to do a memorial tile. I did one in memory of my.
Precious daughter, Amory Christine.
So my mom has volunteered for most of her life, but after Amory passed away, it went from being kind of.
A thing she did on the side occasionally to a focal point of her life.
My mom's life revolves around volunteering. There is not a week that goes by that she's not doing something.
After Amory's death, it changed the direction of my volunteering, definitely.
We lived up in the mountains, 45.
Minutes to an hour from the city, and there was nothing available in our small community for bereaved parents. So I started a bereaved parent support group.
We started raising money for Valley Children's Hospital.
We started a fundraiser called Kids Day. Once a year, we would sell Kids Day newspapers.
Both kids, super active in Kids Day.
We'd post up around town. We'd stand on the street corner at stoplights, wave cars down.
We raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.
For the Valley Children's Hospital.
And that was in memory of Amory, her daughter.
Not only we saw my mom volunteering, but she got us involved.
One of the best things to come out of this was when Hal had to go to a rehab hospital.
When I came out of the coma.
One of the first questions I asked.
Is, how can I use this experience.
To help other people?
And I might not even realize at the time, but that's because that was the way my mom lived her life. It was the example that she set from an early age. I'm a big believer in karma. Giving to others ends up coming back in some way. The best care in the Central Valley of California where we lived was Valley Children's Hospital.
However, I was two years too old to qualify.
So we called the hospital. We said our 20 year old son was in an accident. We would love for him to come there. But when they heard our name, they said, oh, yes, your son Elrod for sure can come. And they made an exception because because of all the money we had donated. And remember our daughter.
If it wasn't for Amory, her life and death, Hal would not have been allowed to go to that hospital and get the best care possible.
Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
I will say that I know that lots of people would argue they have the best mom ever, but I'll go to bat with anybody that I've got the best mom out there. And I'll tell you, my mom is such an inspiration, and she inspires me by the way she lives her life. She's so intentional. She's so in alignment with her values.
I do things that I can do as a one person that can make a difference, and I like to tell people, one person can make a difference. If you do something, throw one less plastic container away or take the bus once a month, it doesn't take a.
