Relentlessly Resilient: How two women are helping others get through challenges

SALT LAKE CITY — Michelle Scharf used Facebook to document her husband’s struggle against terminal cancer a few years ago.

Major Brent Taylor, who was the Mayor of North Ogden, never met Michelle but decided to climb a mountain during a deployment to Afghanistan with an American flag and a picture of Michelle’s husband to honor him after he passed away. 

Three months to the day after that climb, Major Taylor was killed. 

Scharf eventually met Taylor’s widow Jennie and, during a service project for the National Guard earlier this year, came up with the idea for Relentlessly Resilient.  

Relentlessly Resilient is a new podcast from KSL where the two women help Utahns through life challenges. 

Taylor believes Utah’s culture can sometimes get in the way of healing. 

“I think Utah is a wonderful place. We are positive people. We are faithful, hopeful, family-oriented people. But I think, sometimes, we think that, ‘If I’m positive and optimistic, I can’t ever be sad or struggle. And if I’ve gone through this trial and have faith, then maybe it won’t hurt.’ I think that’s just a false dichotomy,” Taylor says. 

She has experienced that pain as a widow raising seven children. 

“I can be very faithful and optimistic and hopeful for my future, and I can tell you, man, this trial is really hard every day,” Taylor says. 

While the podcast will talk about losing a loved one, Scharf says that’s not the only challenge they’ll tackle. 

She remembers talking with one woman who broke her knee while caring for two small children on her own. 

“She had to reevaluate what was actually important and what she really needed help with, and what things could just be tabled or wait,” Scharf says. “As simple as that story is, I think that that lesson is one of the most applicable to what we’re all dealing with right now during COVID[-19].” 

Scharf also wants Relentlessly Resilient to inspire people to be kinder. 

“Maybe the guy who cut you off going down the freeway just found out their child died or they just found out their husband was diagnosed with cancer. Maybe it wasn’t intentional. Maybe it was just a momentary lapse of judgment because of the thing that they’re dealing with that is heavy on their hearts,” Scharf says. 

And Taylor says there will be plenty of practical advice on how to get through whatever challenge people face. 

“We want to kinda walk through the difficulty and focus on the tool that helps you overcome that difficulty. Now, that tool might be your faith, that tool might be a positive attitude. That tool might be a friend that you lean on or a counselor that you visited with. Or the inspiring story of someone else,” Taylor says.       

You can subscribe to Relentlessly Resilient for free wherever you find podcasts.

Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify.