Never Give Up

Family is the ultimate strength that allows you to overcome anything in the world!

I have never given up or given into ANYTHING that life has thrown at me!
This is my story.

My wife and I have been married for 43 years and have raised 3 wonderful sons. At the time we were married I was 21 and at that time and was a budding C&W singer songwriter. I had been entertaining in one way or another since I was a child. My Grandfather was a piano teacher, and entertainer and taught me how to play the piano. He always told my mom that I had what he called, dreamers eyes.
In high school all that really mattered to me was when I formed my first band and found myself in drama class, which besides science, were really all I cared about.
At 21 my wife and I were married. Just after we were married, I received a call from a producer at Country Star Records saying that they wanted to record one of my singles I had written. I recorded the single, the local Attleboro Sun Chronicle newspaper did a feature article on me, and I was indeed on the way to realize my dreams.

Life however, and its challenges would hit me with a pretty heavy hand. Our first child was born, and I needed to do what I was supposed to do and buckle down, face reality and go to work to support my new young family. I still played local clubs to earn some extra money, and because it was my dream still to entertain and create. I sang, did comedy, Improv, local plays and everything that made me and my audience smile, laugh, and sometimes cry but in a good way.
Our second and then our third sons came into the world and my dreams were now just that… dreams that were now very far away. I worked hard every day of my life, went to school nights to learn how to be talent on Radio and Television and then later became certified to work on Computers and Computer networks. I climbed and clawed my way through Corporate America, learning and striving and proving myself every day to become the best at my career as I possibly could. Yes, to earn more money to give my family what it needed and more so, to prove to myself that I could do anything I put my mind to. I eventually became an IT manager and then an IT director for a television broadcasting company. I was finally able to afford to buy my family its first home.

Two years into owning our first home, we lost everything we owned including our pets and every picture, document, and possession we ever had when an electrical short burned our home to ashes. I did not let that beat me. We, with the help of so many wonderful people, rebuilt our home on the same spot. My wife and I were out in the cold January days, coating the new foundation with tar and working at whatever we had to do to rebuild. People told me Ed just cut your losses and move on, but I made a promise to my kids and my wife that they would have a safe and loving home no matter what I had to do to give it back to them.

Just a little after a year of rebuilding, my wife had an allergic reaction to a combination of prescribed medicines, and she was rushed to the hospital with T.E.N.S. (Toxic Epidermal Narcosis Syndrome) Basically, her skin and body tissues were being burnt away from the inside out as though with acid. The lining of her lungs burned away. Her skin in places all over her body were burned away. With 3 small children in the waiting room, I was told by the doctor that they did not expect my wife to live through the night. They put her into an induced coma which is where she stayed for over two weeks. Knowing that it looked as though my boys would only have me to depend on, I now pushed away any silly thoughts of ever chasing those dreams again. I was not bitter at all about it, hey, this was life, and nobody ever promised it would go the way you hoped. I learned and accepted that fact that you have to dig your heals in and do what you need to do to survive. With a miracle from God, my wife woke from her coma and after a long rehabilitation time she came back to us. She too had every right to be bitter at life and just sit back and just take it easy for the rest of her life, but she went right back to work and has worked every day since.

I don’t ever take the attitude that life owes me anything. We make our future happen by what we do each day. Always have and always will. I worked hard to be better at everything I have ever done and to be the best possible version of me that I could be.

Life went on and my sons went to college and started their own lives. In 2016, I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease that had gone undiagnosed for 6 years. As I got worse and worse physically, I kept fighting. I kept working. As painful and exhausting both physically and mentally as it was, I used every last bit of who and what I was to keep going. I had a wife and three sons to care for and that mattered way more than how I was feeling. Finally, after being diagnosed, I was getting treatment and slowly getting better. But Life would hit me in the guts one more time….

After working for the same company for years, I was called into the front office one Friday in June in 2018 and was told I was no longer needed. With not much in our savings, we did what we could but would ultimately have to sell our home and exhaust our savings. We decided to move to Florida from Rhode Island where we thought we could at least escape the oil bills and taxes. After moving to Florida, I could not find a job. Overqualified, too much experience, and in one interview the hiring manager was honest enough to say… you’re too old, you know the routine. The money ran out. I worked as an uber driver, food delivery driver and whatever else I had to do to keep a roof over our heads. I still had to provide. I was still a husband that had to take care of my wife and now my elderly mother that we moved in with us to care for. Finally in the nick of time I received a call for a job interview doing what I had done for years. I was hired and we started climbing back slowly and surely but life has indeed tired me out, well, as far as working for others who will dump you in a second when you don’t benefit them any longer.

We all get to that point in our lives where for some reason or another we have to stop and make a decision. Many just give up and accept being beaten by life and just exist from that point on. Others, like me, stop and examine who we really are and get mad enough to look at life and say you know what? With all the crap you have thrown at me and I still came out on top, there is no way you are going to beat me now. It’s time I take control! I guess life heard me loud and clear and knew it was time that this man was going to treasure every day, every opportunity and it began to send me hints.

Hint Number 1: Driving to Florida, with everything we owned in a rental truck, we pulled off the road to stop for a bathroom break in Valdosta, GA. We had seen a sign for a Cracker Barrel and decided to stop there. We left the highway and looked for the Cracker Barrel. Up and down the road we went trying to find it. We could have stopped at any gas station or fast-food place but for some reason, I HAD to find this Cracker Barrel. Ready to say the hell with it, we saw a tiny sign that pointed to the store, and finally we found it. While my wife was in the restroom, a lady that worked there came up to me and out of the clear blue sky she said to me, while holding a book in her hands, “I think you would really be interested in this book”. She had never met me before, nor I her, so how would she even think that she would know what I would find interesting? While I was being polite taking it from her and thumbed through the pages, she said “This would be a great idea for you to do stories like these on TV.” I really had to hold back a look of… lady you’re crazy, and said yeah it would be cool for someone to do something like that and went to hand it back to her. She stepped back and said, ”No… I think YOU should do it. You would be great at it.” Weird right? Now I was a little freaked out. To end the conversation and the uncomfortable feeling I said, “You know what? I’ll buy the book.” We left and I threw it in the back of the truck.

Hint Number 2: Back on the highway a little further down the road my wife saw a sign to take a tour of a little microbrewery. What the hell we had no timetable. We were in no time crunch, so we decided to pull off and find it. Again, we looked for it and kept driving and just as we were about to give up, we saw another little sign that pointed to a different one. Sugar Tit Moonshine with an arrow. We stopped at this tiny building and went inside. As I was looking around my wife saw a glass wall where in the back they were brewing and bottling by hand, and just opened the door and walked in. She was stopped by the gentleman that owned the place and said sorry, but nobody is allowed back here. I called to her, and the man apparently recognized my Rhode Island Accent. He asked if I was from Rhode Island, and I replied yes. He said, “oh where in Rhode Island?” and I thought to myself there is no way he is going t know the name North Scituate but I told him anyway. After a short conversation he turned out to originally live one town away from me in Rhode Island. He told me of his life’s story and how he finally decided he was fed up with how Corporate America had treated him and decided he was going to follow his dreams to move south and make moonshine. The rest became history, and he was doing exactly what he had always wanted to do in life. We talk a little while longer and I thanked him for his time, wished him the best, and walking out… and I still get goosebumps when I tell this story… he said “Ed… its time you catch YOUR dreams”. Yeah I know I have the goose bumps right now too.

Now to make a very long story short…. After moving to Florida while looking for work my wife said to me, “Remember that book that lady sold to you… You always like doing funny you tube stuff why don’t you try doing something like that lady said?” What the hell, I hadn’t found a job yet and had a ton of time on my hands so I did. My first video was a life’s documentary on Allen Collins from Lynrd Skynrd. That first video got over a quarter million views. I named my You Tube channel Tales of Fame and Fate. The more I did the more subscribers I got and now I am close to 10,000 subscribers and have over a million views in total. One day I received a phone call from Actor Christopher Ewing from Hang on To the Dream Foundation. He had seen one of my episodes of Tales of Fame and Fate on my You Tube Channel and was very impressed with it. He gave me some pointers and encouragement and told me “Ed, I just have this feeling that you have it. You have what it takes in this business”. With his encouragement I decided to talk to my wife and sons together and asked if they would think I was being selfish or just plain crazy for one last time in my life to go after my dreams. With a resounding yes dad go get it, I began to reach out and I found Actress Lana Young who became my tutor, my coach my friend and I think an angel form above. She took time out of her own private life and busy schedule to also encourage me, hone my skills and push me because she kept saying “Ed, I can feel it for you. Catch those dreams don’t doubt yourself!” I don’t think she would do that if she did not believe in me.

So here I am at the latter side of life. I have worked hard every single day of my life for my family which, I would do all over again in a heartbeat as they are my world. I have beaten every challenge life has thrown at me and have never become bitter from any of it but rather have used everything as a learning experience and grown stronger from it all. But you know what? IT IS MY TIME TO GO AFTER MY DREAMS! I am doing everything it takes every minute of the day to audition, learn, watch, perform to make my dream come true.

Watch out world, I am going to live my dreams and do what I have always been destined to do. To care about everyone, to make them smile, to lend a hand when they need one to create from my inner being. I have spent over 40 years of working for corporate America just to survive and now I am jumping in full force and being who I was meant to be. I will catch that dream; I will never give up and I will never give in to the naysayers or whatever life throws at me. Even if this story is not what you are looking for… keep an eye out because you will soon see the name Edward A Doyle in a credit somewhere and say hey… He wasn’t kidding… he did it!

In closing, I want to say this… Everyone can catch their dreams and succeed. No it’s not always easy and it can really make you examine who you really are, but that is a good thing. If anyone in life ever needs a cheerleader to help them realize their dreams, well, you can always reach out to me and I will be there for you.