- Taylor Odlozil and his wife Haley documented the last months of her life on TikTok
- Haley died in July 2023 at the age of 30, 8 years after being diagnosed with stage IIIC ovarian cancer
- In his first ever podcast appearance, Taylor opened up about preparing their 4-year-old son, Weston, for Haley’s death and their last moment together
Taylor Odlozil shares more about the last days of his late wife Haley’s life.
Taylor appeared on The Get Back podcast, his first podcast appearance, reflecting on his journey as Haley’s caregiver during her eight years of living with stage IIIC ovarian cancer.
Taylor and Weston (left), Haley and Weston last Mother’s Day.
Taylor Postponed/Instagram
While discussing what Haley’s quality of life was like in her final days, Taylor recalled the last real bonding moment between Haley and their four-year-old son, Weston.
One of Haley’s final days included family and friends gathering to spend time with her. Haley, who was on and off at the time, realized that this was the end of her life.
“We gathered around Haley and prayed for her peace and that she would be accepted into the kingdom and that everything would be okay – that I would make it and that Weston would be okay. We also prayed that Marcy, the hospice nurse, was is there,” he recalls.
“Haley comes to for a split second and sees everyone she loves around her and looks around and says, ‘This is it, isn’t it? This is the end. This is exactly how I thought it was going to be.’ ”
Taylor continues, “We said, ‘It’s OK.’ She was getting really scared, wasn’t she? I said, ‘It’s okay, we just wanted to be with you.’ And that’s when I knew I had to go get Weston right away.”
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A family friend then drove Taylor to pick up Weston from day camp at their church and bring him home.
“I brought it to Weston and I said, ‘That’s it, my friend. Do you understand what’s going on?’ ” he says. “And he looked at me like he knew what was going on, but he didn’t want to say it. I just said, ‘You know I told you mom was going to be with Jesus? Well he’s coming and he may not be now, but he’s within… very, very, very soon.’ ”
Taylor recalls comforting his little boy at the time. “I told him, ‘It’s nothing you did. You didn’t do anything wrong. You were an amazing son. Your mother is very proud of you. I’m proud of you. You’re an amazing child and there’s nothing you’ve done wrong to cause all of this. . I just want you to know that I will always be the best father.'”
“And he started holding her hand and he was – you know, he was scared and he finally realized that this is the time I’ve been talking about for a long time, that eventually Jesus will come and take his mom And she finally came to, looked and she said, ‘I love you, son,’ and that was the last thing she ever said, and she never spoke to anyone again.”
Earlier in the podcast, Taylor reflected on their journey to welcoming Weston, which involved a surrogate, and how much motherhood meant to Haley.
“If you know Haley, her dream was to be a mom. Growing up, she played with baby dolls, not Barbie dolls. She wanted to be a mom. She just had—her heart and her spirit was made to be a mom,” he shares.
Learning the extent of her illness, Haley’s focus was always on her future family.
“Her fear that she might be in danger was out of control,” Taylor says, recalling when Haley learned she had ovarian cancer.
“Haley said, ‘Please tell me I can have kids,’ and [the doctor] said: ‘You’ll have to worry about that later, you’re fighting for your life.’ ”
The single father shared his gratitude to a family friend who made that dream possible by acting as a surrogate. Weston was conceived with a donor egg, which the friend then carried.
“On our wedding night, one of our family friends—who named her child after Haley and became very close to that child over the years—her mother came up to us at our wedding and said, ‘You guys deserve to be parents and if you’re ever in the position if you will, I will be your surrogate.’ ”
It opened up a world of possibilities after Taylor thought that dream was over.
“It’s an amazing gesture. [At the time,] I had the impression that we would not have children, because they do not allow you to adopt children if you are in the terminal phase. They don’t want a child to go into the household with [that]. So I also faced, ‘I’m going to be a dad, I’m going to be a single dad because I know she’s not going to make it forever.’ ”
The couple thought a lot about how to move forward during a period of good health for Haley. Unfortunately, as the surrogate’s pregnancy progressed, Haley’s cancer reappeared and began to spread.
“Weston was born in 2019. … There’s a video of Haley’s reaction to his birth and it’s the most touching because it’s exactly what she’s always dreamed of,” Taylor says.
He later talked about how important it was to him to achieve everything Haley wanted for him and Weston.
“Our mission from the day he was born was to smother that boy with love. It’s going to be too much love, and I never miss an opportunity to tell him that I’m proud of him and that he’s awesome and I’m blessed to be his dad,” he says. Taylor.
“I don’t think there are enough godly, manly men telling their sons I love you and I’m proud of you right now. Bring life into that boy, he’s going to be a man one day. Bring life into him and be a role model.”
Taylor and Haley spoke to PEOPLE in June 2023. At the time, the mom hoped the family’s social media videos would raise awareness about ovarian cancer in young women and one day serve Weston as a time capsule of their time together.
“The biggest thing I’ve always wanted from the beginning is for him to never think I left of my own free will,” Haley told PEOPLE. “I want him to know how hard I tried to stay here to be with them. I want him to know how much and how much I love him and his dad, and that I tried to do everything I could with the time I had to make sure we create memories.”
If there’s one takeaway from her videos and her story that Haley hoped her followers would walk away with, it’s this: “Don’t take your life for granted.”
“Always have a perspective. Everything in life is about perspective. Whether you’re sitting in traffic, whether it’s raining, there is something good in every day,” she pointed out. “Instead of being angry that it’s raining, roll down the windows, smell the freshly wet grass. There’s something good in every day.”
“Always be grateful where there are good things. Don’t focus on the bad things.”
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Source: HIS Education