Tammy Peterson: The power of the Rosary and why she is becoming Catholic

[Music] his hands were shaking and I thought this isn't good news Tammy Peterson was told in 2019 that she had terminal cancer and less than a year to live what stops them from being able to share Tammy is a podcaster and public speaker and is married to the world-renowned psychologist Dr Jordan Peterson and after getting the devastating news they went to some of the best hospitals in North America but were told the same thing the survival rate of this rare kidney cancer was 0% what you've got is going to kill you and you're going to

die in about 10 months wow a friend of hers named Queenie visited her in hospital gave her a pair of rosary beads and offered to pray with her and she said you know the rosary and I said well I do but I don't know how to pray the rosaries they prayed Tammy underwent surgery for the cancer and they removed it then there were complications which made her situation even worse but she kept on praying and then something remarkable happened and their eyes got big and they said you're [Music] better I'm colum Flynn and in this

interview with Tammy Peterson We explore this incredible story and talk about why Tammy is now converting to the Catholic [Music] faith this is Tammy Peterson oneon-one Tammy Peterson it is great to meet you thank you for having us here in your home ah my pleasure nice to meet you how are you feeling today awesome you're feeling awesome yeah and you're smiling a lot yeah how is your health today as we sit here it's good uh you know I have a couple of things that I deal with that are not that much trouble that's how my

health is isn't that incredible yeah it is it's incredible bring us back to 2019 was it yeah when you got that diagnosis yeah you were sitting in your doctor's office and what did he tell you his hands were shaking I came in they said he said you know you we came in for the six week checkup that you do after you have surgery of any kind and they tell you oh everything's good and you know good work but we went into his office and he started handing me papers to sign and his hands were shaking

and I noticed his hands were shaking and I thought this isn't this isn't good news so he started out and he said actually we biopsied the half a kidney that we took out and in fact it's not renal cell carcinoma as we suspected it's something called a bini tumor he said a bini tumor they are very rare and they grow so fast that the only way they're diagnosed is after someone's passed away and so what you've got is going to kill you and you're going [Music] to die in about 10 months wow and I thought

H well you know all my my mother and all her family are dead and they died in their 60s and 70s you know and I thought huh maybe I'm one of maybe I've just inherited whatever is going on in my family and oh well that's kind of how I thought and then we were in shock though you know we're in shock Jordan was in shock he was with me and we came home to our street and my son used to live in a house at the end of the street with his wife and uh so

I told him I'm I'm going to looks like looks like I'm not going to get better looks like I'm have something that's going to kill me in 10 months and I saw the grief in his eyes which was way more grief than I had for myself it there was no comparison and it reflected back on me and when I saw it I realized that I was worthy I was worthy of staying alive or fighting for my life life anyway when I was selfish you know I was in the doctor's office and I was just thinking

oh I'll die it's but maybe it was too overwhelming because it was definitely too overwhelming less than a year 10 months left on this planet right I mean you your mind do you think why me no I didn't think why me I thought oh yeah me that's what I thought I I wasn't I I really didn't put up any um defense or question questioning at all until I saw my son and then I felt this extreme peace just fill me and and a knowledge that I didn't have before and I said to my son you

know him that doctor he's a he's a man he has an opinion maybe he's right but maybe he's not right the only way we'll know is God CU God will decide when I'm going to die that statement only God will know God knows when we're going to die did that come from your back ground a religious background or spirituality well so when I when I was a kid I was when I was a baby I was baptized um I prayed before I went to sleep when I was a little kid I went to Sunday school

I love to go to Sunday school I love to color the pictures sing the songs learn the stories you know I like like any children because you have to come to God as a child they're very receptive you know and I was very receptive but I was the youngest of four and by the time time I was 12 All My Siblings had left home and I quit going to church I was turning into a teenager who wanted to experiment and go do things and find out what life was about so you have the diagnosis you're

in hospital you believe you only have months to live and no one survives this cancer but you start to pray particularly the rosary well I started to pray right away after that day but it wasn't very long that they put me back in the hospital because they needed to get me back there quick to do the surgery because there wasn't any radiation or chemo or anything because they don't treat this cancer there was no treatment for it so just surgery so they got me back in very quickly to do surgery I think within a couple

of weeks I was I was back in the hospital and I had and I had the surgery the night before the surgery we did a very deep prayer they did the surgery it went very well and then I started convalescing and uh I went home and within a week my legs started to fill up with fluid and they had got the cancer but it turns out that they had um missed some of the lymph and so it was draining and so my life forces were draining into my into the lower parts of my body first

but I was slowly filling up because it was my feet my lower legs and then my thighs I went to see the doctor he saw me and he said go to emergency right now and they siphoned off 9 lers of fluid wow n lit they' never they'd never siphoned off that much fluid but I wasn't getting any better I was wasting I was wasting away so they put me in the hospital again and that's when that's when Queenie emailed me I guess I don't remember but she mailed and asked if she could come she showed

up and she had two rosaries uh that were blessed by the pope and she said would you like to pray the rosary and I was yeah I would and she said you know the rosary and I said well I do but I don't know how to pray the rosary so there's a very beautiful Atrium in the hospital from the fourth floor and then it goes up many floors so there trees in there and so so people who are very sick when they can't get outside they can be wheeled in there and they can have some

what seems like fresh air and and nature and quiet and so we would go there every day at 10: in the morning and pray for 2 hours she came every day for five weeks that is incredible and she would pray the rosary decade by decade with you and explain the Glorious Mysteries and absolutely what what did you think when you held the rosary beads when you were praying the Hail Marys when you were going through the rhythm of the Rosary well the Rhythm the Rhythm I think was uh it was calming for me because you

know I was when I was talking to her I was talking about my mother was already passed away but I I would have been leaving my father who's like who was like 90 at the time my sisters my brothers my husband my children my friends I was leaving everybody and so I was talking about those kind of things but also she would say who do you want to who do you want to pray for at the at the beginning of of each Mystery what's your intention and I would say my intention and then but it

would take me I don't know I can remember talking a lot probably took me 20 minutes to say my intention before then we would pray but you know the prayer was enough to take me from this long drawn out meditation into these people that I loved and were was going to miss to bringing it back to a place where I was paying attention but in a very rhythmical methodical way so I think that in that way it was good because without the the rhythm of the Hail Marys and also you're touching beads too so that

keeps you present when you were praying the rosary I know you've said before that it helped you deal with for example the pain you were going through at points you were in a men's pain mhm but did you feel that pain kind of subside because of prayer well prayer I would usually I would usually pray the Lord's Prayer when I would say I had to go down for a scan or something and they would hook hook me up some way or another to these big machines and because I didn't weigh anything anymore I froze to

death and so that was part of the pain that I was in was I was very uncomfortable cuz I was wasting away and also the procedures were invas Ive and and painful but if I prayed The Lord's Prayer just constantly over and over I could just get through the procedure and I could deny somehow the pain it would help me deny the pain or or transcend the pain I guess you could say was it making you more comfortable with the reality you were facing of of death of the afterlife um oh yeah for sure I

didn't have any I didn't I didn't have any fear I wouldn't let the fears of the next day or whatever was coming bother me I would just pray and I continue to do that now I don't let myself worry people often think about death or what may be next but you know it's an uncomfortable thought it's a scary thought so we just push it to the back of our minds but when you were confronted with it so headon did you think about it in a different way and what did you imagine was ahead of you

hm I know I stayed in the present I stayed in the present I stayed I just stayed with God in the present I didn't go anywhere I didn't go anywhere you know uh lots of people sent me prayers and uh my brother or my husband's sister she came she's a nurse and she came to stay with me and she took colored markers and wrote the prayers on pieces of paper and put them all over my Hospital wall so I could see the prayers and you pray the noven for the sick as well believe I did

that was very at the end when uh they finally found out there was a doctor in Pennsylvania that might have been able to help me um before I left Queenie asked if I wanted to be blessed and uh father Eric Nikolai he came to bless me and uh he told me to pray on gratitude and he gave me the opai Novena for the sick and it was on the fifth day of praying those prayers that the leak in my uh lymph system closed up when the leak closed up Tammy what did the doctor say to

you what was the reaction from the medical professionals so I was sitting out having breakfast I had eaten some fat the night before it was called a fat challenge if if there was still a leak then the bag that was a clear fluid would be become milky because that would mean that the fat was still coming out of the lymph so the before I'd had an egg or something I can't I think I had eggs and uh I looked at the B and I didn't see any milkiness but I didn't know how long it would

take so the next morning I was having breakfast and uh an intern and the head nurse came outside and they sat down with me and they said so we're going to tomorrow we're going to cut you open and look for this which was looking for a needle in a haystack and uh we need you to do a fat Challenge and I said said well I did a fat challenge last night oh they said well let's see the bag so I lifted up the bag and it was clear and their eyes got big and they said

you're better and I went into the hospital and they pulled out all and with in half an hour I was out of the hospital and then they phoned me every week for a month and at the end of the month they said you're better goodbye good luck isn't it incredible from being told originally in the office with the doctor's hand shaking that you had a terminal cancer 10 months to live and the operations and the complications and the leak to be told okay you're better yeah right what do you put it down to well you

know earlier in June when I was when I was back in the hospital again with this more serious problem my husband hband was just beside himself and uh I felt I felt sorry for him and I wanted to save him some of the pain that he was feeling and so I you know I I thought I thought I didn't even think I just what can I say and the idea the thought I guess would maybe it was a prayer right may maybe it was a prayer that I prayed cuz I wanted to help my husband

I said you know I'll be I'll be back at it by August 19th it's our anniversary and that day that my uh that I stopped the leak was our anniversary and so even though people can say oh yeah know you know maybe maybe the die irritated the lymph and maybe that closed it up and and maybe it did why did it why did it do that that on that day why was it that day because that was the day that was our anniversary our 32nd anniversary and uh everyone my husband my my son was there

with his wife my my uh sister-in-law and her kids were there and everybody was just blown away that that is what happened that day I was blown away that that's what happened that day you have decided to convert to Catholicism yeah join the Catholic Church yeah why why well you know I don't know you know when I was a little kid I used to miss in the Protestant church I used to miss mother Mary any any anything about her and maybe it was a feminist thought I don't know why there was some feminism in my

family maybe that's what that was but but I something about it it was you know they had a portrait of Jesus Christ up there that was good uh we had prayers and everything but there was just I don't know something I felt like there was something missing and then later I found out that my great-grandmother was Catholic and that my grandmother changed our religion to United and so when I was better one of my cousins phoned me and said oh she didn't know I was sick she was sorry to hear I was sick and she

said I'm going to send you something and so uh we went on tour and when we came back we had a lot of mail and I went through the mail and I found her letter and in her letter I found this rosary and this was my great-grandmother's rosary uh she carried it with her always and so now it would be like 150 years old I suppose and then she gave it to my grandmother when she died and my grandmother gave it to my aunt and my aunt died and gave it to my cousin and now

my cousin's giving it to me and uh I thought yeah see I knew I knew that there was something when you hold those rosary beads and as you prayed the rosary throughout your time in hospital the question that everyone looks at is there is a psychological thing something for you to focus on something to help you be determined just something to hold on to when you are desperate and looking for Hope anywhere or is there something more Divine here well I think you know once I once I was better and continued to pray the rosary

I um I I looked up the scriptures that are associated with these each Myster to see exactly I said oh you know this is this is the Bible this is the Bible in this short like here it is and so it's a complete story you know it's a story of suffering and Redemption and that's what life is about it's about suffering and Redemption so I mean every day is that you wake up and there's a trial today okay well I have there's a challenge today I call that God's challenges I have to meet that Irish

reporter today right that's was trial for today that's right and then you'd give the interview and everyone's happy and then there's Redemption after that and it's good how do you how are you a different person since you started praying since you my husband said I'm more like we met when I was eight he was seven he said I'm more like I was when I was a child you will be entering the Catholic Church Easter is it Easter yeah how are you feeling about that good I'm good who knows what'll happen to me then you're looking

forward to it yes and Tommy as we look at you today you look great you sound great since we came in here you've been smiling we've been joking you've been laughing how is life how are you feeling how is your health my health is good um I've had scans regularly there's nothing there um so I'm good I'm good people watching this they may not be in the same situation you were in with that type of cancer right but another illness another trial another trouble heartache in their life MH um they think of praying that's not

for me that's what other people do I don't even know what the rosary is what would you say to them well everybody has their own Journey that's for sure and they have to get to it their own way and got to it my own way and it took me a long time but it's I don't know it's something it's something to focus on when chaos is all around you know and when you're ill like that there's so much chaos and you don't know you feel you know unbounded and you feel like you're you're not grounded

anymore and When you pray the rosary that can bring you to a place that it it can Center you it can Center you for the day or even for the hour right or even for the minute so it can Center you for a moment in a profound way that you wouldn't have been able to attain and make it a habit you know that's the thing about the rosary it's a practice right so it's not always every day it's not always going to be this Monumental thing that happens every day but every day you're going to

take it out and you're going to pray it but one day you're going to need it and because you've been practicing there it'll be life is suffering and you're going to need to have something to hold on to when the world opens up and there is nothing beneath you and when that happens well God can bring you back up again do you pray the Rosary every day yes I do out there on the porch yeah finally Tammy when you look to the future I know you have two children four beautiful grandchildren what are your dreams

and hopes for the future well really um I hope for well I you know my kids I I believe that they have um Good Intentions and that their hearts are in the right place and so you know I hope all the best for them and their children you know I and and that they and that they find the courage and strength they need for life's trials because there will be trials and uh I hope that Jordan and I can continue to uh speak the truth to try to tell the stories that are we're inspired to

tell and hope that that can be of some help to people who are listening that's really what it's all about Tommy it's an incredible story it's an inspirational one and thank you so much for sharing it with me my pleasure thanks for your invitation that was a good rehearsal Tammy we'll record that now okay yeah