Stories Across the Table

In this episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Ramona welcome Wendy Hooton, author, advocate, and mom to a young man she describes as the greatest teacher of her life. Her son Matt was born with Down syndrome in 1990, at a time when very little was known or celebrated about what people with Down syndrome could become, and Wendy has spent the thirty-five years since proving the world wrong about him.

When Matt was born, a hospital visitor suggested she consider giving him up for adoption. Her doctor responded by naming the baby Matthew, which means “gift of God”, and telling Wendy she would find her child to be a gift every single day. Those two reactions lit a fire in her that has never gone out. She left that hospital determined to give her son the fullest life possible, and she has done exactly that.

Today Matt is known as Super Matt in the communities that have followed his story. He loves to dance, he is married to Katy Perry (in his own very certain mind), and he has quietly changed the way thousands of people think about Down syndrome simply by being himself! Wendy shares the humor, the hard days, the book signings, the Vegas coming-of-age birthday trip, and the tears she still cries in the laundry room, because she has never pretended the journey is easy. She just keeps showing up for it.

Her book, Big People Don't Pee in the Park, is as honest and joyful as she is, and Bridget Cook-Burch says she was honored to walk with her along the writing process, watching Wendy blossom.

Pull up a chair for a story about choosing to celebrate instead of compare, and learning to live with as much love and as little filter as Super Matt himself.

BIO:
Wendy is an author, mentor, speaker, and Down syndrome advocate, basically multitasking life like it’s an extreme sport. She is on a mission to help others find strength and purpose in their own journey.

In addition to her memoir, she contributed chapters on confidence, resilience, and grief in Share Your Brilliance and Threads of Gold. When she’s not writing or connecting with others, you’ll find her walking in nature enjoying the beautiful world around us, listening to music, and traveling to new destinations. But most of all she enjoys soaking up life’s joyful moments… especially those that include her husband and son.

LINKS:
Website: wendylhooton.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555146315134
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-hooton-1bb072148/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peaceowendy/?hl=en
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DownRightFun
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WendyHooton

• YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRA
• Bridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.com
• Bridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter
• Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836
• Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramona
• Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’
• Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/
• Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbroker
• Bridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter
• Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/
• Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/
• Substack: https://p...

In this Good Friday episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Romano welcome Paula Eve Davis, breast cancer survivor, bodybuilding champion, and founder of the Good Samaritan Project, a national organization inspired by the parable that has shaped her life since childhood.

Paula was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer twenty years ago, just as she’d begun training to become a bodybuilder. Rather than abandoning that dream, she let it carry her through a mastectomy, chemotherapy, and a survival rate she was told hovered around eleven percent. She competed anyway, the med port still visible beneath her skin, as she used sign language in her routines to remind audiences, without needing a microphone, that they are loved and valued exactly as they are.

What emerges is a story about surrender rather than control, about trusting that Grace is sufficient even when healing doesn’t look the way we expect. Paula speaks candidly about the husband who refused to let her quit, the church community who filled hospital waiting rooms like a family picnic, and the athletes and doctors whose lives shifted simply by watching Paula as she kept showing up.

Now author of Grace and Grit, plus a fierce advocate for others, Paula channels that same fierce hope into the Good Samaritan Project, helping others who feel stranded find someone willing to stop.

Pull up a chair for a story of breaking, becoming, and the kind of grit that only grace can produce.

Bio:
Paula Eve Davis is a cancer survivor, 10-year bodybuilding competitor, and 3-time Ms. Indiana Women’s Bodybuilding Champion who transformed personal adversity into a life of purpose. After being diagnosed with breast cancer that spread to 21 lymph nodes, she made a decision to rebuild her life through faith, discipline, and service. She is the founder of the Good Samaritan Project, a nonprofit serving families, youth, and seniors, and owner of Fit 4 Ever Health & Wellness. Through her message of Grace & Grit, she now helps others turn what tried
to break them into a life of purpose.

Links:
● Learn more about her community work: https://www.goodsamaritanproject.net
● Train with Paula: https://www.fit4everhealthandwellness.com
● Facebook (Paula Eve Davis):
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063859038309
● Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fit4everhealth

• YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRA
• Bridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.com
• Bridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter
• Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836
• Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramona
• Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’
• Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/
• Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbroker
• Bridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter
• Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/
• Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/
• Substack: https://p...

LINKS: https://www.elainedamschen.com
Facebook: Elaine Damschen - Author
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elaine.damschenauthor/
LinkedIn: Elaine Damschen

In this episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Romano welcome Elaine Damschen, author of Made in Vietnam: My Epic American Journey, a businesswoman, speaker, and daughter of a story she didn’t fully understand until adulthood.

Elaine was conceived in Vietnam during the War, born in the United States, and raised in the mountains of North Idaho by a mother whose pain she couldn’t yet name. It wasn’t until a trip back to Vietnam at thirty-six that her parents finally shared the truth: her mother had survived being trafficked as a teenager, and the journey that brought Elaine to America as a citizen was nothing short of a miracle.

That revelation cracked Elaine’s heart wide open. Instead of resentment, she found compassion, and instead of distance, she found a deeper love for the mother she’d misunderstood for so long. That same resilience carried into her marriage, where she and her husband built a small electrical apprenticeship into Mainstream Electric Heating, Cooling and Plumbing, a company they grew for over twenty years and eventually sold.

Now retired, Elaine is far from finished. Between speaking engagements, a children’s book in progress, and a new swimwear line, she continues to live in the gratitude she discovered standing outside a hotel in Vietnam decades ago.

Pull up a chair for a story of inherited pain transformed into understanding, and proof that the most unexpected beginnings can still lead to a beautiful, vibrant and abundant life.


Bio:
Elaine Damschen is a #1 international best selling author, speaker, and mastermind host who believes in "Love in Action." She is a passionate advocate for women entrepreneurs and leaders, as well as the skilled trades.

Elaine was named "Woman of the Year" and "Top Entrepreneur of the Year" for co-founding Mainstream Home Services in 2000, a company named in the Inc 5000 list three times. Elaine has since sold her company. She has been married for over thirty years to her husband Todd and enjoys spending time with her children, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren.

• YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRA
• Bridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.com
• Bridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter
• Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836
• Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramona
• Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’
• Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/
• Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbroker
• Bridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter
• Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/
• Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/
• Substack: https://p...