tv Americas Grandmother FOX News August 21, 2022 7:00pm-8:00pm PDT
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are speaking up is wrong or challenging the ethics of the fbi or doj makes you the extremist it does not. >> well said. what a way to end it. thank you so much. join us next sunday with "the next revolution" is televised. >> when your 80-year-old mother asks you who write the fore word for her first book, you have to wonder is it also her last book, you hold nothing back. doing your best to capture the essence of the remarkable woman who brought you "into the world." then, two years after her first book. is a bestseller, your 82 year open mother writes a second book. again, you hold nothing back. and then, two years after
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her second book. bees come another bestseller, your 84-year-old mother writes another book and asks you to write another fore word. there you sit in the middle of the night, searching for something new to say about the woman who simply can't stop writing. the woman known as. >> well, she has done it again, my 84-year-old mother, written another book. this one called, vacuuming in the nude and other ways to get attention. that is her back there right now. she put clothes on for the evening, tonight, my mom is the subject of an hour-long primetime special that will attempt to answer the question, how did a woman who wrote every day for 60 years, finally turn into a "new york times" best
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selling author? and how did my mother, a woman i have known my whole life, suddenly turn into america's grandmother? i don't know. but i am interested to find out. >> my bride of 61 years, she say very good writer, a very good tender, i love her, she is my girl. >> she was fun and creative. and this is me grandma. >> peggy rowe is america's grandmother i'm willing to share her. >> peggy rowe to me is the woman who still calls after she sees me on television, to tell me in her own words how awesome or disappointed she might be, she is sweet,
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honest and sometimes more honest than sweet. she is my mom. >> i am an 84-year-old woman, i had a passion all my adult life, that passion has been for writing. >> i grew up in an ideal home. i was a tom boy. i galloped around the yard pretending i was a horse, jumping over hedges and gutters, first thing i can remember writing other than school assignments, after i began teaching third grade, i discovered something early on that whenever i wanted to introduce a new unit or a concept or vocabulary the
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way to do it was through poetry, it was hard to find the perfect poem, i ended up writing it when i had success it was like winning the lottery, it was wonderful. i came upon a group of girls jumping rope and they recited one of my poems from memory as they jumped rome, the rhyme of turtles or pokey wherever they go, they carry their houses that's why they so slow, they loved it. i fell like a celebrity, i continued writing, after i stopped teaching to have children. i wrote all the time, i made notes all the time, i got up in the middle of the night if i got an idea and made notes. >> i think curiosity more than anything else drives my mom, my earliest memories of
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her like an armed soldier, but she was armed with a yellow legal pad and a number 210 sip. number 2 pencil. >> she always had a legal pad or something she could write on and take notes on. >> everywhere she went she wrote, and everyone she met she interviewed crossing guards, a cop on horseback, she would walk up, ask them questions and start writing it down, people were puzzled, she was interested, she would go home and take the notes and write the unauthorized biographies about the people she met, there no difference from my mother between and -- life and content. my brothers and i are no different, than strangers, she loves us but he interviews us. >> she is good at listening.
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that is why her stories are good, after she listened and processed and experienced, and not a knee-jerk reaction for other people want to hear. it is what she has learned. >> usually whatever it was. came out in her writing in a humorous way. >> my dad was her biggest fan, still. is he would take the stories she wrote. >> he would read them aloud to anyone it. if you were trapped with my dad on an elevator, 40 years ago on the way to the top of some building, you would know him, he would introduce himself you to, and pull something from his pocket and you would be like what is, that he would open it, it was one of my mom's stories, you have heard the latest from peggy rowe, he would sit down next to you
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at bob's big boy, have you heard the latest. strangers didn't know what to make of it my mom was mort fid but she was also flattered. >> when the children were off to school, i had more time. so i started writing a book and i really liked it. and i finished it and that is when i started to send queries to publishers without success then i started writing another book that took a couple years. and i tried to get that book published afterwards to no avail. publishers they would send me rejection notices that said, things like, i'm sorry butior work isn't quite right for us, you are a fine a fine writer but it doesn't fit our needs, receiving rejections year after year is
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demoralizing it gives you a file feels of worthlessness, for a couple years i write, i became a gardener and i made a couple of quilts, all the time i was writing it in mind. at the end of two year period, i got letter in the mail, that i would have rather exchange for there are rejection it was result from my yearly mammogram, a member shared with group since her last treatments, she said when i sneeze i have an orgasm. the next week was her birthday, i gave her a gift.
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>> cancer diagnosis was alarming to everyone. especially my mother who i think suddenly became a character in one of her stories. she had written about people with cancer, all of a sudden she is a person with cancer, that was the 5 stages of grief pushed close together. >> first time i saw her depressed. and angry. my mom is like mary poppins. >> i'm neff cross. never cross. >> she slides up been steres, i -- banisters, i saw heaviness, i thought, that's not my mom. >> i had a lot of radiation, i had some depression, i spoke with the surgeon and the nurse about it the nurse advised me to join a support group. i said, i don't need a
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support group, i have a wonder follow family, friends and all support i need, she said, it's different. give it a try. i put it aside. a day later we were in the kitchen, my husband made an unreasonable request. he said peggy, it's a beautiful date outside, why don't you go outside, i lost it i picked up a salt shaker and threw it at him, i never do, that i went to see the support group the next week. >> i thought, you need to lean about, that write about this and be as curious about this as you are everything else, write for your group. and she did. >> i remember clearly my
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first visit to the cancer support group. someone came in with a box of chocolate. our leader was an experienced psychotherapist, she said peggy you are new, why don't you pass the chocolates, on the couch was bill, he is a severe treatment of chemo the day before, he was very weak and met curbside with a wheelchair. they brought him in, he was lying on the couch, the rest of us have chairs, take the box of chocolate to bill first. he had taken off his shoes and left them in front of the couch, i tripped over his chew shoes, fell on to bill, chocolates rolled on his face. off his cheek and my land hand, landed in a personal place, i jumped
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back, i thought had i inflicted pain, he rolled a chocolate to his mouth and smiled. and he said, down worry about it peggy, this is the first time i've smiled in weeks, a little bit later someone came with a bowl of grapes, the girl started to pass them around, and bill said, i want peg to bring mine. >> she stayed in that group for years after she recovered. i think she did it because she knew she was offering them something they needed, humor. >> one of the memberring came in one day and shared with group since her last treatment, she said when i sneeze i have orgasm, i said oh, my god how terrible, you should go to the doctor. she said i will when i get around to it.
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the next week of the her birthday, i gave her a gift, she unwrapped cover she laughed as did everyone else. i warned her to not open it there. >> she writes a lot of funny stories about some dark times. i think that really helps people. when they read about a woman who over came cancer, and wrote really candidly about how small it made her feel and it frightened her and how she got through, that they relate, there is actual wisdom in it. people see it. >> i got an e-mail from my mother, mm-hmm. e-mail. from mom. i printed it out, i have to read it to you. it kills me, 70 million people have watched that video, that is
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carolina republican was subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury investigating effort to overturn donald trump 2020 election loss in georgia. >> doctors are in world are expressing concern about reemergences of polio, the new strain may be mutated from oral vaccine once used to vaccinate remote and poorer regions. researchers believe that current spread can be contained in time to stop further outbreaks. back to america's grandmother, for your headlines log on to foxnews.com. what grandma did is so amazing, she doesn't come into a room as you would assume a writer would tell stories and talk, she comes in a room and listens and asks you questions.
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i think through the years of rejection that she received from publishers, she was listening and done change yore goal -- didn't change her goal, i said one day, the good parts are closer together, that is just the 7-year-old perspective. >> i thought, i search-year-old, has given my the best advice ever. >> she wanted to be published, she tried for a long time, strange, like standing in a slot machine it pace off now and then. >> -- it pays off now and then. >> everyone remembers that first publication, i went to my computer first thing in the morning, there is the inbox was a letter from a horse magazine. they liked my story. and they were going to print it. and i was thrilled.
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you know, thrill z as i was, it didn't seem real. until the day i went to the mailbox and there was the magazine with my story in it. what a thrill. when my husband came home, i shared it with him, he said, oh, we're going to celebrate. we did. we went to the golden coral, that is our idea of celebrating then. >> she began to have some success in seeing her work in print. no publisher gave her the time of day. and as i got a little notoriety, i took her work. and presented it to publishers they just really were not interested. she was writing short stories. and she was writing to amuse herself, that didn't amuse the publishers, so. it wasn't much that i could do. ic ep except continu
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encourage her as best i could, one day. she wrote me a letter how she lost her big blue purse at local walmart and my dad did dumpster diving to find it. it was funny, i read the letter and recorded myself reading it, it cracked me up, i posted that on facebook,. >> america, hi, happy monday, i got an e-mail from my mother, mm-hmm. an e-mail. from mom. i printed it out, i have to read it to you. it kills me. >> i have never in my life lost my purse. until that day at walmart. i got home, i reached over for my purse it wasn't
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there. i ran into the house, i was so upset, my husband was there, i hugged him, i said, john, i have done something terrible i lost my purse, it has my life in it john said, let's be calm. be calm. >> dear mike, you know that i'm a responsible person, right, not once did i forget to pick you up or your brothers after practice or boy scouts did i ever leave your elderly grand parents stranded at the mall, not once have i left the stove on or locked my keys in the car, yet somehow i managed to leave my big blue purse dangling from handle of a shopping cart in the walmart parking lot on sat day. frankly, i not sure i'll ever be the same. >> john said, this is silly, we're getting in the car we'll drive back to walmart, maybe someone just took the
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money and threw the rest in to the trash. >> dad jumped from the car and ran to the core where he did a quick but fruitless inspection of every cart and proceeded to a nearby trash, can removed the lid and peered inside, dressed in his dirty jobs t-shirt, he appeared to scrounge for his next meal, food was last thing, he cranked his hearing egg scope setting, pulled out his -- >> call me snooty, hard to stand by while your husband dumpster diving at the local walmart. >> i went inside, and before i could say anything, to the manager, i heard my cell phone, i followed the sound over to a shelf near the
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register, there was my purse, this time i started thinking of it as old blue. >> the lady found your purse took it to security, her name was beverly, she was intrigued by site of an elderly man in parking lot. running from trash can it trash can. >> by time i got home, scott listened he was sympathetic, and bill was sympathetic, i called mike, mike said, mom, i have to -- to go out of town tomorrow, write it to me. >> in the meantime if you share the story with your friends on facebook don't mention beverly's last name, don't mention mine either or our phone number, which i have attached for your
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convenience. >> that story went viral. and it went all over the country. maybe it went international as well. the great story. >> 70 million people have watched that video. and that is when it changed. it was that story and that video on my facebook page and publisher came, said, look if you mom can write a couple dozen stories like that, with you in them, so we have a hook. we would publish that book. >> my mom a first bestseller book series of true stories about a woman no one heard of, then we created a monster. lifestyle. and innovative ways to make your e-tron your own. through elegant design and progressive technology.
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could write a book. they said if i could write a lot of stories about mike that were humorous they would publish it in a heart beat. >> she said, you know, mike, i have two other sons, mom writing a couple dozen great stories, i'm not in any of them, maybe one or two, she shows them to me, what do you think, the book called about my mother it was about her mother. not my mom, not about me, i said mom, this is not what the publisher is asking. she said i don't know i think your grand mother was an interesting woman, they can't public a book about someone who has been dead for 10 years. >> mike sat down and read it. cover to cover. he got back to me, and he said to me, mom this book is terrific it has to be out
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there. i never done it before, i'm thinking about self publishing it. >> my business partner and i printed 10,000 copies. we sold them on facebook in a week and a half. >> he called me, he said, mom. are you sitting down, all of your books have sold. then there were phone calls from publishers and publishing houses, the housing that rejected you. >> they called and said, you you didn't tell us she could actually write, i showed it to you, the publishers came back, he made a deal, it got to the shelf.
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>> they say you never forget those big moments of your life. i will never forget the moment i learned that i was a "new york times" bestseller. john and i were having breakfast, the phonerage, he discussed whether or not to dan answer it, i heard him say, hey, mike, he said, dad where is mom, john said she is sitting next to me, he said, dad, you are looking at a "new york times" best seller. >> she came down from the ceiling, landing on two feet, i would say yes, i remember that moment, she was certainly exhilarated. >> my mom's first best selling book was series of true stories about a woman no body heard of. my grand mother. and that did it they connected people to their
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own grandparents. their own family. in ways that i don't think that anyone real anticipated. i can't prove it but i'm pretty sure my mother is the oldest first time "new york times" best selling author. she was 80 when about my mother hit the charts, she had written of day for 60 years, and reporters want to know do secret to her overnight success. >> once she got her foot in the door it was no problem for her to continue to open the door wider and wider until she was completely through. she did that with her second book, i think it was called about your father. scary book. >> she went from this writer, only audience was her husband and whoever he
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would read the stories, to to a best selling author who now has a couple hundred thousand people on her facebook page, that is an engaged interactive group. >> everyone else seems to put up with the trolls on internet, but she has great wholesome contend, everyone can's re late to and see. it is like a nice white light on the nieto, it is fun, i'll be scrolling, it will be peggy rowe, check it out. >> she is a best selling author, she can write anything he -- she does. >> i called mike, we can't use that picture those legs are lovely, he said mom at an illustration, i said, you can keep it.
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every step you take, i'll be watching you. the internet doesn't have to be duckduckgo is a free all in one privacy app with a built in search engine, web browser, one click data clearing and more stop companies like google from watching you, by downloading the app today. duckduckgo: privacy, simplified. my mom is aggressively, political. relentlessly nonpartisan. she is curious and informed but just more interested in the big themes in people's lives, that comes on out had
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her writing, people today are looking for a respite, that is what you find in my mom's works, she writes about a simpler time. easier time in some ways but also challenging times. but it's always with warmth and always relatable. >> a pianist and a performer did a benefit show. it was a full house it was fun. but my reservation was i said to keith, but it is such a serious subject. people are there for a serious reason, he said, no, i am you to be up lifting, be humorous if you can, tell a fun story, make them laugh.
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i said, i think i can do that. >> she walked out of the shower, she had a towel covering her front. and as she walked past me, i noticed a fading, somewhat sagging, red, white and blue tattoo on her post -- posterior, she might be here today, i don't know, i am not sure i would recognize her face. >> they want to read peggy's stories it gets them away from the gloom and doom that exists in the world today. people are looking for some way they can shut that dismal part of life out. and they can find it in the humor in peggy's books. >> title of my third book,
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vacuuming in the nude. and other ways to get attention. interestingly enough, there is a picture of me on the front, ion have shoes on and i have a barrel, it is an illustration, that is why i look not bad, my legs look really good, i complained about, that i said mike, those legs are lovely, he said mom, it's an illustration, i said, okay you can keep it. >> i think it is important to understand that her first book of the not what the publishers wanted it is what she wanted to write, and second book was about my dad this book is about one writer's journey. actually's very clef every memoir, as i read it it is like a box of chocolate. you are not sure when you will get in each chapter, as you go, you learn a little bit more about the tenacity
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of this woman. and her fears and her hopes, it is surprisingly personal in places, she goes to places i didn't know she would go. it is laugh out loud funny throughout. she is nakedded on cover. >> i have a friend that i was having lunch with one day there were a group of us college friends, she came late. she said i'm so sorry, i was vacuuming i looked at clock and i realized how late i was, she said i jumped in the shower, she said fortunately i vacuum in the nude, i said, what? you have some clothes on, she said no, no, i always take a shower right after because i get so hot, i said you were home alonger she said no don was in the next room. i never forgot; that i thought, wow, putting
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herself out there, then she said, and sometimes he joins me in the shower, i always in my mine admired here in how brave she was. >> vacuuming in the nude and other ways to get attention in my mind is one of the best titles there she is on the cover, i think about all things she did over the course of pier career to try to get attention. it sort of the perfect metaphor. >> this is my first time at a bar. >> cheers. >> first time sitting in a bar. >> i'm a bar virgin. >> not any more.
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>> do i have to drink. >> i open my eyes during the lord's prayer in church so sunday, and you are writing bulletin. >> i start reading your book and i can't put it down, it is midnight, i say one more page. >> it is hard to stop, you don't want to stop laughing and feeling good, that is what her books make you feel good. >> a woman stop made one day, she said, peggy, i have to tell you, you are my dead grandmother all over again. i thought, is this a compliment? she said, i loved my grandmother, she was my favorite person in the work world and i miss her so much then i knew. you are doing pretty good. >> i'm not having a problem. >> i'm going all right. >> i'm talking about right.
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that's the one. at university of phoenix, you could earn your master's degree in less than a year for under $11k. learn more at phoenix.edu >> it's tempting, my mom and i talked about it, she is stingy with advice, when you consider her story, the story of an 84-year-old woman who has written of day for decades, it is really tempting to conclude that staying the course is always wise advice, never giving up, but staying the course makes sense if you are going in the right direction, my mom has no idea of what direction we're headed. she knows that, she writes in a way that is more
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more encouraging, her story and her books are about whether your dreams come true or not, you can find great purpose and great satisfaction in trying to amuse yourself in doing things love, because you love doing the thing, maybe it will work out, maybe it won't, she said, i want people to see me as a cheer leader, people to see me as one of those people in the crowd during a marathon, as the runners go by, exhausted and wondering if they can make it i want them to see me -- as a nice little old lady offering a nice cold cup of water. >> i think i want older women to realize they're not finished, i see it when i
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speak to groups, i do the a lot of book evens people say afterwards to have a book signed or talk, they relate stories. about how you know maybe they are 80, and they didn't realize they are not just grandma or a baby sitter, they are not just a domestic worker in their apartment or their home, maybe they can achieve something that brings them satisfaction. >> i think she really proved that there is no timeline, no deadline, she stuck to her guns, stuck with her dreams, and shown you can be successful and no matter what age you are. >> we tend to get more and more comfortable as we age, find our routines, where we feel the most successful or valued, we need to continue out of your comfort zone. >> travel, talk to strangers, go places you have not been before. ask questions that make
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people unconcomfortable, she shows that well. >> if she can hit the ceiling or breakthrough the ceiling, at age 80, there is still room for her to wide than hole in the zealing. ceiling. >> she kept on writing, that was almost the title of her latest book, write on, that is what we thought it would be, but in the end, vacuuming in the nude, come on, i in-- try it some time it's freeing. >> i tell you i funny story,
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years ago, i was home for a visit we were watching something on tv. i went to the fridge and i got a contain of of frozen yogurt, she shade that looks good can you get me one, i said it's the last one, you take it, she said no, i don't want it, i said let's split it we sit there for 15 minutes, i am eating the frozen yogurt is it good, every couple minutes i'm look mom are you sure, no, stop it. to the last spoon full, she said no. i put it in my mouth, she said, i will just lick the lid. i'll just lick the lid. now that i think about it i'll just lick the lid. by peggy rowe, 245 that is
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