Shine.FM

Keith’s life has been marked by both deep loss and incredible faith. As a teenager, he lost his sister in a tragic car accident. Years later, after a 12-year battle with breast cancer that began shortly after the birth of their triplets, he said goodbye to his wife.

In this moving episode of Shine 180, Keith shares how God carried him through grief and how Shine.FM has been a source of encouragement for him and his children for the past 28 years. Through uplifting music, hope-filled messages, and reminders of God’s faithfulness, Shine has helped his family keep their eyes on Christ through life’s hardest seasons.

Keith’s story is a powerful reminder that even in the midst of loss, God is near, hope is real, and we never walk alone.

Shine 180: Keith

Steph: Thank you for joining us on Shine 180, Stories of Lives Transformed by Jesus. Today I’m here with Keith. He is one of our Shine partners and listeners. And over the past few years, we’ve just gotten to know Keith a little bit more.  He’s visited us during fundraiser weeks and just been able to share little bits and pieces of your story on air of what God has done in your life. And we’ve just been so amazed by that. So, thank you for being with us today. 

Keith: Well, thank you, Steph. It’s truly an honor and joy to be here. And I appreciate the work of you and Shine Radio and the friends that I have established. 

Steph: So, just tell us a little bit about what it was like being a kid, as Keith. And what was it like growing up as little Keith?  

Keith: OK. So, I was born in 1963. My family at that time lived in Griffith, Indiana. Had two sisters, one older, one younger. We were all about a year and a half apart, so we were over a three-year period.  We moved to Lowell in 1969, so I was six years old. uh Went to public school, Lake Prairie Elementary School. What was lifelike?  We were a working family. We always burned with wood.  We got into hobby farming. So, I was working at a very young age.  We loved the outdoors. We lived on acreage. My dad loved to hunt and trap. And that became hobbies and passions of mine as a child that are still part of my interests to this day. 

Steph: So, it sounds like work ethic was definitely instilled. 

Keith: Oh, work ethic was instilled. My dad at that time was a state policeman, so structure, doing the right thing were core values that were instilled at a very young age. 

Steph: So, when was your faith introduced to you as a child or did you guys go to church growing up? 

Keith: Yes, mother was actually Catholic when my dad and my mother got married. created a lot of strife on my mom’s side of the family. Her parents actually did not come to their daughter’s wedding because my dad was a Christian. You know, they were Catholic and kind of tough, stubborn Polish background.  And, but that, you know, the seeds of God’s goodness, how it played out later in life, is truly a miracle. I can get into that later, but.  

Steph: Your mom, did she was raised Catholic?  

Keith: We, growing up, grew up, grew up in the church.  My dad’s mother, very, very stout believer.  I was actually shared with a friend of mine who I’m in a daily Bible exchange with. Yesterday’s verse was Proverbs 3: 5- 6.  And any card that I ever had from my grandmother, not only was the verse there, it was written out, every single card I ever received from her. Yes, we were raised uh in the church. I believe it was about third grade when I accepted Christ as my personal savior. I remember being in church and feeling very convicted. And that was back in the day where they asked you to raise your hand if you just prayed the prayer and then somebody came and sought you out. So, faith has always been a part of my story personally and the story of my family. 

Steph: So, after your school years in Lowell, Indiana, what did you do after you graduated high school? 

Keith: So, if I could back up because there was when we were all in high school together, my sisters and I, it was December 5th, 1979. I was after school, begrudgingly getting a haircut. As I’m driving and leaving, there’s police cars flying up behind me and I’m like, oh no, I just got pulled over for speeding and they flew by me. And so, I got on 41 and headed north. More emergency vehicles, I could see ambulances and I turned on to 157th, which heading towards home, I was a mile from home, and I recognized a high school classmate. Standing there and so I got out of the car and he’s like, what are you doing here? Get home. That was kind of odd. There was a state policeman there, and then I heard he should be heading that way. He’s driving a blue Ford pickup truck. Talking about me.  And the police officer walked over to me and said, are you Keith? And I’m like, yes. He said, need you to come with me. um Well, it was my sisters that were in the car and had been killed crossing 41 on their way home. Nadine was a senior.  Sure, it was a freshman. 

Steph: Yeah Wow, so at that point obviously you became an only child very quickly correct and lost both of very important relationships to you What did that do in your faith process? You question God about that?  

Keith: Yeah, you know, you know that became a real season of challenge in my life in the respect that my mom and dad had, you know, you know, looking back, you know, when tragedies hit, it’s so different how it’s handled today than it was then. You know, there were no school counselors, were no closing school for the day. And so you just kind of pull up your bootstraps and go on. But you know, I was probably very hollow inside. m I did not walk away from faith. I was very blessed and thankful to be part of a small church at that time that had a really good group of young men and a pastor that was passionate about young men and sports and developed a church softball team. And we’d play basketball in the church gym in the evenings and. But I wouldn’t say that it was a time of real growth in my personal journey of faith. I think it was a lot of just going through the motions. There was some seasons of rebellion in there. 

Steph: So then, recovering from that and probably helping your parents even get through that, or how did they grieve and how did they get through that?   

Keith: Well, only by the grace of God, and again, a circle of believing believers in their lives as well. You know, they really have always had an amazing marriage to this day, still do best friends. They were high school sweethearts. So, they really just, I think, poured into each other and focused on their relationship. And I don’t want to say I was lost in the shuffle a little bit, but there was a little bit of that. After I graduated high school, clearly, I was on a searching and wandering path. I was attending Valparaiso University, my good friend from church back home in Cedar Lake. Was going to Grace College at that time. So, he would stop by on like Sundays when he was heading back to Grace.  I was not real happy at Valpo. There was a lot of loneliness.  So, I transferred to Grace and uh enjoyed that immensely. Met a gal from Colorado who was attending Grace. We started dating. She was really homesick, so moved back to Colorado.  My father had a friend that owned a business in Colorado doing construction.  They were building condominiums in the ski resort towns, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, and Keystone. Anyway, so I followed her out there, ended up staying for more than just the summer, enrolled at the University of Colorado where she was attending, to University of Colorado.  After about a year of a relationship, it’s going in different directions. She was committed to just being a doctor and. It was funny, if I could back up, when I first met her, the upperclassmen guys would go to the freshman orientation, you know, kind of see them. them out. See the two girls. And here was this girl who stood up very confident and gave her name. She was 17 years old, graduated high school year early, and I’m going to be a doctor. You know, everybody’s kind of snickering as we’re looking around as sophomores and juniors. And a lot of us don’t even know what. We’re gonna do yet. She ended up being an amazing person in the story that we’ll get to later with my wife, Cindy.  But anyway, we broke up. I moved back to Indiana, finished my degree at IU Northwest. Four years, four different colleges. But God was great in that season. That’s where I met Cindy.  It’s also where I started working at the job that I’m currently still at to this day, 37 years with the company. 

Steph: So, you met Cindy.  So, is that your senior year of college?  

Keith: Oh, it would have been. I think I had just actually finished at IU Northwest. Think I was much older than the average college graduate with four different colleges and lost credits. And when I was working, because I always worked at least part time, a minimum 30 hours a week all through my college. So, I wasn’t always taking 15 or 18 hours; it might be 12 hours and working 40 hours.   

Steph: Wow, that work ethic.   

Keith: Well, there were no free handouts at our home. So then, once you met Cindy, did you know like you wanted a future with her?  Yeah, so was kind of a cool story. My friend John, the guy that I followed out to Grace, his dad was good friends with the young adults at Suburban Bible Church in Highland. We did not go to Suburban.  John and I were at Community Bible Church in Cedar Lake. But anyway, so John says to me, hey, they’re having this gym night at Omni, why don’t we go? And I’m like, when is it? And he said, well, it’s Saturday night. And I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s what I want to do on a Saturday night. So anyway, we ended up going. And John and I were just, we didn’t know anybody that was there, other than John knew the youth leader or the young adult leader. And so they’re all kind of volleyballs, and John and I were shooting baskets, and then they were like, okay, let’s get the volleyball game going. And we walked over and kind of got on sides and the gym doors open and this young gal comes walking in to the room. I’m like, wow, that just got my attention. So anyway, fast-forward, she was on the opposite team, and there was a little bit of, like, hitting that, you know, towards each other, and a little bit of smiling going on. And after the volleyball, they had a kind of a dessert deal and kind of get to know and meet and greet. Cindy and John and I started talking and I had just gotten back from a wild boar hunt and had some boar meat made. And Cindy was like, what do with that? And I’m like, oh, boar meat. There’s nothing better than boar meat. I’m bring me chocolates or whatever. Well, I knew she was a teacher at Kalar Middle School. So that Monday, I dropped a thing of chocolates off with a little note.  No, this isn’t as good as bare meat or boar meat. Hope you enjoy. And she called me at the job where I was working at the time up. I had the courage to ask her out. Months later, we were engaged.  

Steph: Nine months later. So, then you get married and then how long did it was it’s till you started a family?  

Keith: So, we got married in 1990. She was teaching. I had my job, and it’s like, okay, let’s, you know, we think we make plans, and God laughs, right? Hey, let’s work five years and then we’re gonna then we’ll start a family, you know. You know, we’ll start that family and nine months later we’re gonna have a child.  Well, that didn’t quite work out that way. So we went through several fertility challenges over several years. Even started the adoption process, thinking that that wasn’t God’s plan for us to have children.  And decided that we would take one shot at in vitro. In 1997, we went through in vitro fertilization and implanted five embryos. And our doctor was telling us, you have less than 10 % chance of twins and less than 1 % chance of anything beyond that. I’m like, why, man, I wouldn’t mind twins at this point, you know? Well, God chose to bless us with three. triplets.  

Steph: With triplets, 

Keith:  Yeah. So, two boys and a girl. 

Steph: Two boys and a girl. So, life, as you know, it changed in nine months. Or did she go the full term, nine months?   

Keith: Oh, yeah, that’s another amazing story. So, she actually carried 37 weeks.  Five, four, and five, six.  And not one of them spent one minute in neonatal care. 

Steph: Wow, so you bring three babies’ home, newborns.   

Keith: Right.  Talk about two people who didn’t know what they were doing.  Yeah.  

Steph: Do you remember a lot from that year, first year?  

Keith: I do. I do remember a lot from that first year. And it was all hands on deck. It was a lot of sleepless nights. Six weeks in, maybe about four to six weeks in. To it, Cindy and I looked at each other and said, man, something’s gotta change, we need help. So, we posted in church billboards and bullet heads, bulletins, when churches had bulletins back in the day, m looking for a gal to work nights, 11 to 7, to help with the night feedings. because we had them on strict three-hour feeding schedules.  Even if they’re sleeping, you wake them up and feed them.  And that was the recommendation from our doctors at that time.  And we got one person that showed any interest.  And it was great. She ended up being a true godsend, Baptist girl that was working on her college degree. Was having to pay her own education and she had like afternoon classes, so it worked out to do the night feedings.  I think she worked with us for about three months, but you know, just really got us through that.   

Steph: That first phase. So, then life with them started you know the older they got then the more active they are and baby-safing all the things. So how did life look like when they became toddlers? 

Keith: Well, there was, there, we hit another shift in the road, turn in the road. They remember celebrating their one-year-old birthday, had them all lined up in their highchairs, and their cakes. I can’t even tell you right now who was walking, who was crawling, if any.  I’m sure they were. The following month, was March of 99, um Cindy was diagnosed with breast cancer. 

Steph: Your wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. So, you start a whole new battle with three one-year-olds. So, did your church community help and surround you?   

Keith: Ya know, Steph, we were talking a little bit before this podcast, just catching up on the storm and what took place around here. I don’t know how any community or any family or any individual. can walk through serious tragedies or losses without the body of Christ.  Amen.  I really don’t. You know, when I look back and people say, wow, how’d you do it? know, because at that time, early on with Cindy and the kids at school, I was on the school board at Crown Point Christian. When I look, I don’t know how I did it. And then I have to say, well, I didn’t do it.  It was God.  And it’s God through his people. You know, the amount of support through Crown Point Christian School, Community Bible Church, the outpouring of love and support. I could spend four hours just telling stories of that situation. 

Steph: So then doctor visits, treatments all began with her, and that journey lasted years?  

Keith: Yeah, so the first one, they hit her really hard.  She had a mastectomy and a really powerful dose of chemo that lost her hair. um She was an amazing woman of faith, an incredible fighter. The battle was 11 years. And in that 11-year period, the longest she was ever off chemo was seven months. 

Steph: Wow. So, the first 11 years of your kid’s life, they watched their mom fight, but also they watched their, amazing faith and yours as well.  That to me, cause I do know a few of your kids, just knowing that they’re grounded in what you’ve shared and their faith. I’m sure that was a huge part of it. Watching you guys go through so much and keep grounded in your faith.  So that’s beautiful. So, 11 years, and then I know this is probably difficult, but then she lost her battle.  

Keith: Correct.  

Steph: And you had 11-year-old triplets as a single dad.  

Keith: Yeah. They had just turned 12 in February of 2010, and it was March 5th of 10 that she passed, or God called her home. 

Steph: So sorry.  You had shared with us before how I think on the way from her um wake to the grave site, you were listening to Shine and a song came on.  

Keith: Yeah. So, we had had a. After the funeral, we had a luncheon at…take that back.  After the funeral, which was actually hosted at Bethel and Crown Point, Cindy had 2,000 people come to her funeral. We were driving to the gravesite, which was in Lowell, passing the church that I attended at that time, Community Bible Church in Cedar Lake.  And literally right as we’re passing our home church, the song, Praise You When the Storm Came. I just remember just weeping. Weeping, yes, from loss, but being reminded in a very powerful way by our very powerful God at that moment that I’ve got you. I’ve got your family.  

Steph: And he has. Because now your triplets are young adults.  

Keith: They are 28, yes. And the two boys are both married. blessed with my first grandchild a couple months ago for my eldest son Austin and his wife Carly.  

Steph: And your daughter is a nurse which I think I’m sure and maybe you can tell us did that have her career choice have anything to do with like what she saw her mom go through in those first 11 years of her life?  

Keith: Yeah, that’s a that’s a great question so Olivia initially thought she was gonna go into education, which would have been following in her mom’s footsteps. But yeah, somewhere in this whole process, there was clearly a transition towards healthcare.  And she’s doing orthopedics at Munster Community, although, as I’ve shared with you this last year and a half, she’s been doing travel nursing. In one of her assignments, she called me with some concerns and alarms. She says the only thing that they have ah is on the oncology floor.  Okay, this is gonna be good.  And it actually was a huge blessing, and I think even a season of healing, even for Olivia, on anything.  The emotions that we bury. I heard a uh pastor from our church made the comment when you bury you, your emotions, you bury them alive, and they will sprout.  And it might be a week, might be a year, it might be 10 years, but whatever it is you’re suppressing and burying somewhere, it’s gonna sprout. 

Steph: So in the midst of like their journey of healing and now as young adults their faith is strong which I think is so encouraging to anyone that’s listening that might have be going through hard times that have young kids that knows that stay strong in their faith because your example and obviously your wife’s example and our great God and His grace covers all of those things to help them in their journey and their faith. But I think that’s so encouraging to know that their faith stuck and that they’re all on the right path now, later on in life. Somebody is listening right now and going through a difficult journey, a difficult time right now. What is one thing you would encourage them in on staying on course?  Like what kept you on the right path in the midst of all of these trials for so many years? 

Keith: Well, if I would have tried to do it alone, this train would have been off the rails. To listeners who are walking through hardship or crisis: number one, stay strong in your own faith and pray. Just went through a uh little study with a group of guys on the book of James, chapter five, or there’s five or six verses just on pray when you are in need, know, rejoice when God has been good, you know.  For getting the profit, somebody prayed for the rain to stop and the rain stopped. But more importantly, surround yourself with godly men and women. Surround, encourage your kids, help foster that, whatever that looks like, whether that’s you hosting, you know. I hosted a lot of kids at my house and God carried my kids, the children, through this process, not just through Cindy and I, but through a lot of surrogate mothers and fathers that they had.  And there are a host of families that without them pouring into the kids and having that support around them, I think it would look very different. But God is good, God is faithful, that God does not want to see anyone hurt in going through that alone. That’s right.  

Steph: It’s beautiful to be a part of the family of God. Yeah. Whether we’re walking through good times and praising and worshiping together, or going through hard times and being able to carry each other’s burdens. So, thank you so much. Thank you for being with us today. We appreciate your sharing. I know it’s vulnerable to share the hard parts of your story and open up those. Memories all over again, but I know your story is going to help someone else um run to their Savior.  

Keith: Well, and Steph, thank you and bless you and bless God for that because this isn’t my story. Know, God says in His Word, in this world, you are going to have troubles. Cling to the Lord and again, surround yourself with Godly men and women that are there to support you and help carry you. We all need stretcher bearers in our life.  Be a stretcher bearer for those that are in need.