(upbeat music) - [Voiceover] Coming up, we have survivors with stories of hope.

- I hope I inspire all survivors to see that they tried to end our story.

But guess what?

We're writing it.

- [Voiceover] "The Whitney Reynolds Show" was made possible by O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Sciton, because results matter.

Theraderm Clinical Skincare, committed to developing skincare products, designed to restore skin health and promote natural beauty.

Happy to Meat You, prime, fresh, fast.

Leigh Marcus, stop looking, start finding.

Children's Learning Place.

Ballroom Baths and Home Design.

Pedalheads, UFC Gym Wrigleyville, My Buddy's Chicago, Brendon Studzinski with State Farm, Goldfish Swim School, Ella's Bubbles, The Kids' Table, Hi-Five Sports Chicago, The Metropolitan Chicago, Fresh Dental, Kevin Kelly with Jameson Sotheby's International Realty, Mitchell Black, Jewelry and Coin Mart of Schaumburg, CI Med Spa, Love Your Melon, Deluxe Cleaning Services, STI Moving and Storage, Tutu School Chicago, and by other sponsors.

- Today's show, we are going to meet survivors whose journeys were extremely tough.

The road before them was challenging, but because of the way they handled it, they now cleared a path for people to follow.

(audience cheering) (upbeat music) (somber music) Our first guest survived the Holocaust.

Let's take a look.

Welcome to the show.

- Thank you, it's good to be here.

- Well, I am honored to have you here because we were talking before we started rolling and I want to bring our viewers into the candid conversation we were having prior to rolling cameras, because that is who you are.

And that is why I know that your story will really resonate with people because you are a real person that went through some tough stuff, but you're here today to tell us that not only did you make it through, but we must remember these stories.

- I agree.

- So tell us, walk us back into the young boy that went through a very, very tough time.

- Wow.

I'd rather be playing golf.

(both laughing) But I think you're right, it has to be shared.

I was born in Poland, 1935.

In September '39, Hitler came to my town.

You know, soldiers were going through town, tanks were coming, German soldiers were coming.

The first thing that the Nazis did is they would come with a lot of trucks and they were in the trucks and they came running out the back of the trucks with guns, bayonnetted And they would run all over the neighborhood and they yelled (speaking in German) Jews come out.

And they would go in the house, drag the Jews out, beat him.

If they didn't go fast enough, they'd shoot him.

It was like a real production.

And the Jews were lined up in the marketplace.

First time there were 800 dead.

What they would do is they would take the Jews in the marketplace, line them up and yell and shoot and scream.

And I was in that line.

I was very close to my father, he held my hand.

He did something that I didn't realize what it took to do.

He pushed me out of the line and told me to run, to a place where there were stones and to hide there.

Then the lines got shorter and shorter and they got into the cattle cars.

- When your dad told you to go hide behind the rocks, did you know that was going to be the last time you were going to see your dad?

- I had absolutely nothing.

I just listened.

- Left behind with no other choice for survival.

Sam was smuggled into a concentration camp where his 14 year old sister was imprisoned.

He lived there in secret, surviving off spare food from other inmates.

Having grown up in the United States and having grown up with what you could consider your own set of difficulties for kids around the United States.

But I personally have never, ever walked in shoes like yours and for our viewers to understand these are not stories that are made up or just in movies.

This is a real life.

You did this, you went through this.

What would you want our viewers to know was one of the most difficult moments throughout your childhood?

- I think a lot about the moment they put us into a cattle car, three nights, three days, no food, no washrooms no nothing.

I felt like I was in the belly of a monster.

When I got off that train, they saw me with five other children.

They pulled me aside to be shot.

- [Whitney] One small matter of chance saved Sam's life.

A daughter of a respected Jewish man was in the train car with them.

A German soldier wrote a letter asking for his daughter not to be killed and gave it to the commanding officer.

- The four of us to be shot.

He says, your's stay's.

The main guard says, (speaking in German) which means save all five or none.

- Wow.

- Can you imagine that?

Here's five little kids walking toward the gates of the concentration camp, about 200 or more Jews leaning against the barbed wire crying.

They hadn't seen a Jewish child all this time.

The gates open.

They took us, they loved us.

They kissed us, passed us from one to the other, like to do a Torah.

- Yes.

- And one of the Jewish holidays.

I'll never forget this, as long as I live.

- What is it that has kept you in a positive mindset?

Because you've said, I'm a positive person.

There are people that go through traumatic situations and cannot see positivity.

How are you able to have gone through what you went through and be on this side and still be positive?

- I've come to the conclusion, Whitney.

although it can't work for everybody, that the human being is probably stronger than we realize.

I recognize that not everybody can do what I did.

A lot of people probably tried, I know that to be true.

But what I can do as a human being is let go and move on with life, which is what I recommend for everyone.

I'm not gonna be here forever, I'm 86.

Victory is partially my enjoying life.

If Hitler were around and he saw how happy I am, that would be victory, and that's what I like.

- Up next, we have a returning guest.

Her story, however, is still making history.

- I was laying down in bed, upstairs in the master bedroom.

I had just nursed Colton to sleep and I kissed him on his head, and I said I'll be right back up bubba.

But I never made it back up.

I turned around to put the groceries away and I saw him standing in my sliding glass door.

I immediately looked at Camryn and I said, run, go get your brother.

And as I said that, the back sliding door ripped open and he stepped in and I pushed Cam back again, 'cause she didn't move.

And I said, run, go get your brother, get out of here.

And he said, are you all ready to die?

And he ran towards me and started punching me in my face, kicking me, punching me, hitting me, through my hallway in front of the door and the stairs, so they couldn't get out.

And he turned into the bedroom where Colton was sleeping and he shot him, the coroner said at a minimum of 10 times.

Unfortunately, everyone has a story.

And this one is just written forever in permanent marker.

As it seeps through the pages of every other page, that's attached to it.

But this is just my story.

And I don't want it to be anyone else's story.

- That is so much to take in and rewatch.

I'm so thankful, you're back with us today to fill us in.

What's been going on between now and then?

- You know, it's this part of this life of having to create a new normal, it's trying to find a way to manage my daughter, who's living.

It's been an experience to try to see her grieve and navigate it and my grief and how to correlate them together.

So then that way she can expand and she can grow in life and thrive and teaching her survivability.

But also coming back to this as like, I don't want my daughter to grow up in a home that seems like we're walking through a cemetery.

I want her to know that life is still beautiful.

And there's still so much out there for her.

- How did you get to this point?

Because going through the trauma that you did, it's not that you're a different person, but it's like you've learned how to memorialize him in a really amazing way.

How did you get there?

- You know what, you have to find what brings you to take your feet, put them at the edge of your bed, step forward, and say, today might not be the best day.

Today actually might be a great day, depending on what way that I'm going to look forward to it.

A new way for them to just grab life and realize that this might've been part of their story, but it isn't going to be written for the rest of their life in their biography of who they are.

It's going to make them what they become.

- What you've done with your vulnerability- - Mm hm, yup.

- Your honesty, and your story is truly amazing, but you didn't stop there.

You've also changed laws.

- Mm hm.

- [Whitney] Let's take a look at that.

- About two, two and a half weeks after his life was taken from him, Cassandra came to my office to meet with me about her concerns, how she pled for help before this tragedy took place.

And she set Colton on my desk in his urn.

And it's a day I'll never forget.

That was the first time I met Colton.

- [Whitney] It was Cassandra and her mom on a mission mentality that helped the Illinois House of Representatives file for domestic violence task force.

On May 30th of 2021 Colton's Task Force was approved.

- If you look at the bill, when it was originally filed under the previous general assembly, it had more Democrat and Republican sponsors, than I think any other piece of legislation that session.

So the fact that it has such broad bipartisan support shows the amount of work that's gone on.

And that's really why we're at where we are today.

Cassandra's advocacy for this bill and she was not gonna stop until we passed the task force.

I think it's differences in the past.

There's been some really great intended legislation that has addressed different areas of domestic violence.

And it's kind of been a more of a piecemeal approach.

You know, somebody sees an issue, they introduce a bill, we pass it and it goes with the rest of the statutes.

What Colton's Law is going to do is it's not going to be that piecemeal approach.

There's not one bill or one law that is going to end domestic violence or fix the situation that we have in Illinois today.

So Colton's Task Force is going to get all of those people at the table to discuss laws that we currently have on the books, laws that other states have passed, best practices, and really looking at a holistic approach of how do we move forward with dealing with domestic violence, wraparound services, treatment services, how the judiciary reacts and responds to domestic violence cases, local law enforcement, local government.

So these are all things that are gonna happen in this task force.

If we can pass this taskforce and save one life, it will be worth it.

But I know we're gonna save many, many lives.

- And there you have it.

Changing laws, all in the name of Colton.

Tell us about this taskforce.

- We didn't want to just create one piece of legislation that could have just easily passed.

And it would've just been, we did it.

Colton's name was on it, and now it's done.

It's an umbrella to all domestic violence within the state.

It's bringing every single district, county, coming together to see why this is happening.

Why does this continue?

What are we doing to prevent it?

If I could save one family's life in honor of Colton, then the memory and the pain and everything I live with every single day, it doesn't make it better, it doesn't make it easier, but it gives me hope.

- Colton's story is one that brought so many viewers just to the edge of their seats, where people want to know where are you now?

And can you love again after going through this type of pain?

And I have to say, I'm so glad to have you back on because you have some exciting news.

- I do.

So I got married.

Had you asked me the last time I was on your show, Cassandra, were you ever gonna get married again?

I didn't know what God had in my cards because I was just handled the worst deck possible, right?

But I knew that I could love again because I never stopped loving during any of this.

And I sat back and there's so many times where I thought, what if I find another Chris Miller again?

What if I find somebody that's gonna shatter my world?

Then I also thought, what if I find somebody that's gonna take my world and we're gonna flourish together?

And in that time I did.

We were both able to experience healthy love together.

And Camryn gets to see healthy love.

I hope I just inspired her.

I hope I inspire all survivors to see that they tried to end our story.

But guess what?

We're writing it.

(upbeat music) - On today's program, we've been meeting survivors, who've been fighting for their lives.

Next up, however, we have two guests that are actually creating life and helping families survive.

Nazca Fontes created the surrogacy and egg donation company, ConceiveAbilities.

Those who are unable to carry a pregnancy safely, struggle with infertility, or are unable to have a child themselves, can start their own families.

Nazca has helped numerous families make the impossible, completely possible.

Planning for the segment, it took me back to when I was pregnant with the twins.

And I was thinking about, you know, kind of all the things that went into trying to get pregnant and you know, family planning.

And when I'm thinking about this, I'm seeing some of my friends' faces that were not able to get pregnant, they had problems.

And this is like a very common story we're seeing in the world today.

And to know that you have identified this gap and you say we can actually find some solutions.

What are some of the happy stories that you've seen come to fruition through ConceiveAbilities?

- Oh gosh, you know, since 1996, we've helped literally thousands of families.

And I'd be hard pressed to find really a lot of the gems in there, because they're all gems.

But I have to tell you, some of them that come to mind right away are those who are the cancer survivors.

You know, those who from a very early age knew that they had either a chromosomal or some type of medical or genetic condition that would prevent them from carrying their own children.

They come to ConceiveAbilities full of hope, wonder, when they find that carrier, that's the perfect match for them.

It's amazing.

- It's almost like a miracle is being made whenever people find out, oh, we can actually have a family.

We can do this.

And you know, you've connected the dots for so many families.

And, you know, it's interesting because being the founder of ConceiveAbilities, you're no stranger to donating eggs.

You've actually done that yourself.

- I did, I did that many, many, many years ago.

I was probably one of the first out in the world you know, engaging that commitment for an intended parent.

I felt that I could make a difference.

And it was through that experience that actually was the impetus for creating ConceiveAbilities, just knowing that there was an opportunity to help more families.

- ConceiveAbilities has allowed Princess Michelle High, her own opportunity to directly impact families in need through surrogacy, and help their dream for a growing family survive challenging obstacles.

Welcome to the show.

- Thank you, hi.

Nice to meet you.

- Okay, so tell us about how you got involved with ConceiveAbilities.

- Sure, so it's kind of funny.

I actually just was interested in surrogacy and I Googled it.

I Googled it and ConceiveAbilities popped up in the top search probably three times.

I did it once, twice, three times it was still there.

So I went ahead and applied and they called me.

- What got you interested originally in surrogacy?

- Sure, so originally it's kind of a long story.

So as a child, my sister used to joke that she would carry for a friend of ours who had a back problem and thought she wouldn't be able to carry.

So it was just kind of in my subconscious at that point.

And then fast forward, I kind of started seeing it in the media and I was like, hmm.

I wonder if that would be something I could do.

And I just was like, I think I could.

And I Googled it, like I said before, and I was like, yeah, I really could do this.

And I also used to want a lot of kids and I thought it would be kind of cool to kind of mesh the two, the idea of having a lot of children and also the idea of surrogacy.

And so the two worlds collided and I decided to go for it.

- You've done two pregnancies for other people.

What is it like knowing that you're helping a family make a family?

- It's awesome, like, it just feels like, you know, a sense of my contribution.

It's like my contribution to this world.

Like I always think to myself, like, I don't want to leave here without leaving my mark.

Like, I'm not gonna be famous.

You know, I'm not going to be, you know, concert maestro ever again.

But if I can do something, like this is it, and it feels great.

If you're there at delivery, like when the parents received their baby, it's like, wow.

Like I did that for someone.

And it's the best feeling in the world.

- The families that you've helped out, were they just not able to carry their babies?

- Yes, so the first family wasn't able to carry to full term.

And then the second couple was a same sex couple.

So they couldn't carry for themselves either.

- So with that, you actually are like the missing piece they needed.

- Yes.

- What is it like when you actually connect those dots with the family of like, we can do this together.

- It's very beautiful.

It's kind of like an unraveling because these are people that I didn't know previously.

So I'm connected with them through the agency and slowly the relationship comes about, and it's almost like dating.

It's like you meet someone a little bit, you get to know them a little bit and then you get more comfortable and then you talk more and more, and then you text more and more and you're on the phone and the next thing, you know, you're 40 weeks and they're checking on you.

They're like, how are you doing?

Like, how are you feeling like, you know, let us know, keep us abreast of what's going on.

And then next thing you know, we're all in a room, sharing the emotion of bringing a baby into the world.

- And being a single mom and having your own daughter and doing this and, you know, giving babies to families.

Has it made you a stronger mother?

- You know, I would say, I think so, especially I noticed it during the pandemic, most recently.

I was actually carrying during the pandemic and I felt like we definitely bonded through this.

- The show today is on survivors and you're actually helping families survive and thrive with new family members.

What advice would you have for our viewers that want to step in to helping others?

And how did you identify what your gift was?

- Yes, I would just say, you know, find what works for you.

Surrogacy works for me.

It's something that I feel open and compelled to do.

So, you know, maybe not everyone's going to do surrogacy, but you know, help your neighbor, you know, do something kind for someone, you never know what small or large thing you can do for someone that can, you know, make their day.

- Awesome, well, thank you so much for coming on - Yes, thank you for having me.

Nice to meet you.

(car revving) (upbeat music) - [Whitney] Now for the reminder that each survival journey goes at its own pace.

However, we wanted to end with an extremely exciting finish line story, Adam Olalde founded Xtreme Xperience, a company that takes everyday people into the driver's seat of luxury sports cars.

- I was a startup, first employee ever was me, and that was it for a while.

And then employee two and employee three, and finally it continued to grow.

So I've cleaned my fair share of toilets as well.

I was raised by a corporate America dad and mom.

And so that's the only vision that I knew.

So this, when I finally got out of school and saw the opportunity to work for yourself and impact people personally, that blew my mind.

- [Whitney] Adam's leadership skills were put to the test in 2020 when his company faced his biggest obstacle yet, the Coronavirus pandemic.

- Like some of the restaurant and hospitality industries, we're an event based company.

We take these cars to tracks around the country and host race weekends.

So we were shut down hard and fast, just like everybody else was.

I'll never forget mid living room working conditions.

And I said, team, we need to embrace the strengths that we bring to this organization.

Not just now, but since the beginning.

Embrace our flexibility as a core value and embrace not having normal.

You work for me, a startup entrepreneur.

There's never been normal.

And so I encouraged our team to start playing offense.

And that's exactly what we did.

- [Whitney] With the world coming to a screeching halt, some people would have stopped in their tracks.

However, Adam's company was able to not only survive a nationwide lockdown, but actually add some extra stuff.

- When we were able to go back outside again in June, July of last year, we said, let's do two things.

The first thing is let's be the outlet for people that wanna get back together.

So we found a way to operate again while simultaneously developing new programs.

Last year alone, we probably tripled the value of our organization by being able to be there for our customers.

Our ability to not only embrace the no normal that we've never known and that the world is suddenly thrust into, but also pivoting into other programs and having the opportunity to think on a broader scale has really given us the bandwidth to grow our organization, take advantage of that and really be successful.

- Life is precious, and today's survivors remind us to cherish it.

Remember that your story matters.

- [Voiceover] "The Whitney Reynolds Show" was made possible by O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Sciton, because results matter.

Theraderm Clinical Skincare, committed to developing skincare products designed to restore skin health and promote natural beauty.

Happy to Meat You, prime, fresh, fast.

Leigh Marcus, stop looking, start finding.

Children's Learning Place.

Ballroom Baths and Home Design.

Pedalheads, UFC Gym Wrigleyville, My Buddy's Chicago, Brendon Studzinski with State Farm, Goldfish Swim School, Ella's Bubbles, The Kids' Table, Hi-Five Sports Chicago, The Metropolitan Chicago, Fresh Dental, Kevin Kelly with Jameson Sotheby's International Realty, Mitchell Black, Jewelry and Coin Mart of Schaumburg, CI Med Spa, Love Your Melon, Deluxe Cleaning Services, STI Moving and Storage, Tutu School Chicago, and by other sponsors.

Go beyond the interview with Whitney Reynolds and her "52 Week Guide of Inspiration".

The book goes deeper into the topics you see on "The Whitney Reynolds Show".

To get your copy for $12.95 plus shipping and handling, go to WhitneyReynolds.com/store and use code PBS.

For more information on today's program, visit WhitneyReynolds.com or follow us on social media on Twitter at Whitney Reynolds and on Instagram at Whitney-_Reynolds.

- [Children] Our mommy!