Dylan (00:00:00) - That is not a fun process for her. And as me watching it, it was really difficult to see. And the fact that she was asleep, I was alone. You know, there were nurses, we had friends and family that came in, but it was just me.

Man (Intro) (00:00:20) - Welcome to Life’s a Beach…And Then You Die. From personal growth and self-discovery to challenges and victories, we discuss it all. Join us as we dive into the extraordinary stories of ordinary people, all the way to the end.

Julie Ellis (00:00:46) - Welcome to this episode of Life's a Beach…and Then You Die. Today we're talking to Dylan Foster. He's the general manager of A&A Produce here in Myrtle Beach. He's also a chef giving private lessons, doing parties, and he's host of On the Hook with Dylan Foster, a seafood cooking show on YouTube. His story isn't all about seafood, though. He's had some real setbacks and successes in his life and has managed to develop an outlook that helps him enjoy the ride.

Julie (00:01:20) - Dylan, let's start at the beginning. Tell me about your childhood.

Dylan Foster (00:01:23) - We lived in rural Maryland, a little small town called Thurmont, surrounded by mountains. I had 46 acres of mountains that I grew up in, you know, like 15…20 minutes away from town. Like in my own world. My grandmother started the first licensed child care center in the state of Maryland. My mom was in the child care business, so I grew up in that education field, in an entrepreneurial family. So I kind of knew that's the direction I was headed from the get-go. And I took my education dreams to the University of Maryland; studied education, thought I was gonna be a teacher. And ended up into my student teaching at Maryland. It was in a middle school in Greenbelt, which is a suburb of DC and it was in the sixth grade class for my student teaching. And I almost literally like, walked in and then turned around and walked out.

Dylan (00:02:06) - As soon as I got into that world, I knew that it wasn't for me. I had been wrong. I thought that that's where I wanted to be, what I wanted to do and what my place was gonna be — and it just wasn't. So, I pivoted. I would say that would be my first pivot. I had been cooking. My dad and I started cooking together. I always cooked breakfast. I was a breakfast cook at the house and just playing around. My dad and I used to do steak competitions and burger competitions at the house, just goofing around cooking on the grill. And at Maryland, I was in a fraternity at Maryland; we would do these tailgates, like 3-, 4-, 500 people at these tailgates. And instead of getting drunk the whole time, I was cooking, grilling. Like it started out with just frozen burgers and dogs.

Dylan (00:02:44) - And by the time I left, I was doing like, whole roasted chickens and brats and sausages and peppers and all kinds of stuff for hundreds of people in a parking lot. So then I took that kind of passion, ended up in Johnson & Wales, in Charlotte for culinary school. I learned a lot of the basics. But most of what you learn, you know, of valuable resources as far as for the industry, does not happen in school. It's a good starting point. You learn a lot of the science and the background and maybe the reasons why certain things work and certain things don't work, but to become a chef or to become successful in the food business, it's definitely not a necessity. In my opinion. Hard work and just putting yourself out there and showing up to work every day is kind of way more important, is what I've learned.

Julie (00:03:30) - But it got you to Charlotte and launched you into the restaurant business, what happened after school.

Dylan (00:03:35) - It did, it did. So from Charlotte, while I was in Johnson & Wales going to school, I joined a restaurant group that we opened, a restaurant called Enzo, which was in uptown Charlotte. It was a sushi bar/Asian bistro, really happening spot, really busy. Met a lot of really cool people, fed a lot of famous, famous big names there. And then ended up down here at the beach ‘cause that restaurant group was expanding down here.

Julie (00:03:59) - What did you think when you first arrived in Myrtle Beach? Were you excited? Were you having a good time or was it just straight to work?

Dylan (00:04:04) - You know, when I got down here, we were straight to work and there was never a lot of beach time for me. When you're working six, seven days a week, you know, 80 to 100 hours a week some weeks, there's not a lot of time to really explore.

Julie (00:04:19) - You mentioned you worked at a restaurant that had a sushi bar and things like that, but did you discover fresh seafood, for the most part, down in Myrtle Beach?

Dylan (00:04:27) - Yes, 100%. I was never a big fisherman — that people find that crazy. They think I go fishing all the time, you know, since I built my career on seafood and had the seafood company and have built my restaurant background on seafood. The show is about seafood. I found seafood here at The Beach, through the restaurant group that we came and expanded to — that is where I got involved with the local fishermen and the seafood scene and learning a lot about what it took to bring in that fresh fish. It was not something I really knew anything about.

Julie (00:04:56) - What intrigued you about that?

Dylan (00:04:58) - The culture. The lifestyle, the people. Very family oriented, you know, and just a lot of generational, you know, but extremely hardworking, extremely down to earth. The kind of people that, you know, they might not have a lot of a lot to their name, but if you need something, they're gonna do everything they can do to help you. I found that's kind of an underlying vein in Myrtle Beach. There's a lot of people like that that are here, you know? A lot of just old-school, good-hearted, generous people that are just here. Just want to live their good life, work hard, and go home at the end of the day. When you see the man or woman that went out for seven days and braved the ocean and risked — literally risked their life ––

Dylan (00:05:44) - I mean, commercial fishing is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country, if not the most. So when you are able to look in the eyes and in the faces of those guys that come back, the second that they hit the dock. And you can just see the tiredness, the exhaustion, the weather. Typically a fisherman would go out — three days would be a really short trip, kind of five or seven is kind of more average. But to be able to make the connection, see who that fish came from, and hear their stories just on the dock as they're unloading and hear about the waves and the weather, and the sunrises and the sunsets and the good times and the bad times, and, you know, the wins and then the definite losses that they experience out there —

Dylan (00:06:25) - —- to be able to hear all of that, as that fish is coming off the boat; and then turn around and maybe later that night you're cooking that same fish. And you're coming up with a special for that fish. And then you're explaining that fish special to your staff. And then maybe out at the table you're explaining, “Hey, this grouper came from Captain Marcus, who was out there fishing with his son, and they just got back and there's their boat right down there that you can see, and here's what their trip was like. This is what their week was like to bring in this grouper so that you can eat it.” I mean, when you have the ability to make that connection on so many levels, it's really unmatched. You cannot replicate that in very many places in the country. So it's really, really unique that we get that opportunity here in Myrtle Beach. It's really cool.

Julie (00:07:11) - So really, this isn't about the seafood or the food industry at all. It's a people business. You're working with so many different people throughout the process and serving people food. What's the most rewarding thing about that to you?

Dylan (00:07:24) - So, I always say one of the most rewarding parts is that you're able to bring joy and happiness and help people create memories through food. When I was in the restaurant business everyday, I used to tell my team, "Look, these people are on vacation. They have maybe saved all year round to come to dinner tonight. So let's put our best foot forward and let's help them make the best memories possible.” Holidays are all about food. Like, seems like any major event in anybody's life, there's food involved. So to be able to help make that a little better and to bring joy, bring memories, bring whatever from something that I'm passionate about, that I can put a lot of heart and soul and energy into, I think it's really rewarding. It's all about people. It's about the people you're serving. It's about the people you're working with. I mean, we would spend 10, 12-plus hours a day in a very hot, very tight environment. You became brothers and sisters.

Julie (00:08:18) - in around 2015. You were working with a girl <Dylan laughs> that you kind of liked.

Dylan (00:08:27) - Yeah. So in 2015, I was managing the restaurant group. And I met my wife, — soon to be then — then was just this beautiful little bartender that I met. And we got serious. And in 2016 we got engaged. We got pregnant, as sometimes happens throughout that time. And 2017 — January 15, 2017 — we got married. And then on the 21st of that month, six days later, we lost our baby. A little girl named Mia. So six days into our marriage, we had to deal with one of the hardest things that married people have to deal with — or people in general. It's not easy.

Julie (00:09:17) - How far along was she?

Dylan (00:09:18) - We were 32 weeks.

Julie (00:09:19) - 32.

Dylan (00:09:20) - So we were way in. And her cord wrapped around her neck. We didn't know we were having a girl. We tell that story. Wee actually called her Larry. We didn't know we were having a girl until the end. It was our first. So we wanted to have kind of like a surprise, you know? And that's what happened.

Julie (00:09:39) - Well, what happened to Angela? How was she feeling that day?

Dylan (00:09:44) - Honestly, so the entire first pregnancy, everyday Ang could not sleep. She slept terribly everyday. And that was a Saturday morning, we woke up and Ang said, “Man, I slept great last night!” I said, “Great. For the last 32 weeks, you've been waking up miserable.” So you wake up today, she felt great. She slept really well. And so we went to breakfast and she wasn't feeling any movement. So we went to the hospital and walked in and had an ultrasound. And that was when we found out. So, that's when stuff got a little bit more difficult. You think like, “All right, we just lost our baby. Let's go.” Like, we said to the doctor “All right, what's next? Like, we gonna have a c-section? Like what do we do now? Let's go home.” You're like, “We want to go.” And they said, “No, no, C-sections. C-section’s dangerous. It's only done to save the life of the baby.” That ship had sailed. They immediately put her out, like, she was gone. You know what I mean? Like, they put her under; they put her to sleep and kind of chill her out. And they basically had to start her engine. Her body was not ready to give birth. That is not a fun process for her. And as me watching it, it was really difficult to see. And the fact that she was asleep, I was alone. You know, there was nurses, we had friends and family that came in, but it was just me.

Julie (00:11:18) - I can't imagine having to go through the pain of giving birth without the happy at the ending.

Dylan (00:11:24) - But yeah, that's really something that you don't think about until you're in that situation. You know, typically that floor of the hospital is full of joy. And I know from my own experience now after having our two boys, Hudson and Lennox, that it's a happy place. But I know for a fact that one of the hardest parts for her personally was that feeling of emptiness of leaving empty handed, you know? And just feeling angry that everybody else was leaving with their baby.

Julie (00:12:06) - I think about — because I had two kids — and I know what it's like to feel pregnant. You feel the baby moving. You have baby showers, people are giving you gifts. You get a room ready and then you find yourself in a hospital. And a doctor's looking at an ultrasound and has to look at you (Yeah.) And tell you that it's not gonna happen. (Yeah.) What does that moment feel like?

Dylan (00:12:38) - <laugh> Well, honestly, it was kind of a blessing from God that way we did it; because we didn't know if we were having a boy or girl. We hadn't decided, we hadn't found out the sex. We were doing everything kind of a mystery as our first kind of adventure. And I think that was God's way of preparing us for what was gonna happen. Because we had painted the room, but we hadn't had a baby shower yet. We were waiting for all of that til after. ‘Cause we didn't know boy or girl. We had two names picked out, but it wasn't… like we were kind of, not disconnected; but a lot of those things that you just talked about — we didn't have to come home to. Some we did, but not all of it, you know? And I feel like that was part of the plan, but it was not easy. It still is not easy to talk about sometimes. And to think about. Losing a daughter six days after we were married. Statistically — we didn't find this out until a year and a half later from our family — but the doctors had a conversation with our family that we were unaware of. I mean, they were like, “Look, you guys need to know that 80 to 90% of couples that go through this don't make it.”

Julie (00:13:51) - Wow.

Dylan (00:13:51) - That's what they told 'em. And they said, “These guys have been married for less than a week, so probably not gonna last. So you guys need to know that going in ‘cause you're gonna have to support them as they now go through probably what will happen.” So we didn't know that. Our family didn't tell us that for like a year and a half after.

Julie (00:14:09) - Well, that's good.

Dylan (00:14:10) - <laugh> Yeah, they did. You know, because what it did for Ang and I, we didn't have anybody else. We just had to lean in on each other. We leaned in on each other, we leaned in on our faith and God, and we just kind of persevered. It was not easy at first. There was a definite V in the road where we were, we took a — it was a good month and a half where we didn't leave the house. We sat on our couch and kind of wallowed.

Julie (00:14:34) - You grieved.

Dylan (00:14:35) - Yeah. And we were just there, you know. We just were just existing, you know? We were sad and we were angry and we were just there. And I remember that day that we looked at each other and we were like, “We gotta pull ourselves up. We can't do this. We gotta go and get up and do something else. Just not only for ourselves, but for the memory of our daughter.” We had to, like, live in her memory and make it worth it. And so we did. So we booked a cruise. We booked our honeymoon. <laugh>

Julie (00:15:09) - Ah.

Dylan (00:15:10) - And the first people we met on that cruise was a couple that was going through almost the exact same thing.

Julie (00:15:19) - <whispers> Oh wow.

Dylan (00:15:20) - Yeah. So they were there on the cruise, kind of doing the exact same thing that Ang and I were doing. And we became great friends. We still to this day are friends.

Julie (00:15:26) - Oh, that’s great.

Dylan (00:15:26) - Yeah. We still see each other and they have two children of their own now.

Julie (00:15:30) - Oh, that's amazing. So do you believe in divine intervention as far as that goes? That those people were there and you were there for them for a reason?

Dylan (00:15:43) - 100%. You know, I think God put us through that to get me ready for life. You know? (Really?) Yeah. I tell people all the time, this — they tell me I'm nuts, but going through what we went through, not even just Angela, what I went through personally in my own grieving process and my own mental stuff. If I had to do it again, knowing who I am today, knowing my faith today, knowing how I look at the world today, knowing the kind of man I am, the husband, the father I've turned out to be — knowing all of that, if I had to go through it all again, I would do it again. Obviously I don't want to lose any more children. (Right.) But if I had to go through it all again to continue being the person I am today, or go backwards to who I was, I would do it all again. Because it changed me that profoundly.

Dylan (00:16:35) -I live every day like, you know, today's the day. When you're a chef and you're running restaurant groups and you're in kind of a power position like that, you tend to grip the wheel. You try to control everything. And that's what I was doing. And at that moment, you're out of control. There's nothing you can do. Right? There's nothing anybody can do. So I was forced to let go of that wheel and I just never grabbed it again. Now I just take every day with my hands up, try to see the path that I'm supposed to take and just kind of live every day like, what's the path gonna bring me today? And it has been extremely freeing.

Julie (00:17:25) - There's a school of thought that people who come to this earth, people who are born, are for a reason. (Yeah.) That, Mia was born for one reason and she fulfilled her promise (Yeah.) to God to do what she did for your growth and for Angela's growth. And it was fulfilled, so she went home.

Dylan (00:17:53) - So her family, Angela's family, her parents went through divorce 25, 30 years ago. Her parents hadn't been to the same room since divorce. Angela's sister couldn’t remember eating at the same table with mom and dad since she was five. You know? Our kids would've grown up without having grandma and grandpa being able to be together for holidays or whatever. Her mother and her father came down and stayed with us — together — in our house once we came home from the hospital. And now we go and visit them and everybody's together.

Julie (00:18:29) - So the way I see it, and the term I would use, is that Mia had a huge contract (Huge.) to fulfill on this planet. And she did it.

Dylan (00:18:39) - She did it.

Julie (00:18:41) - And not everyone has the emotional maturity or resiliency to look at it the way you did. A lot of people take grief and they smash it into a tight little ball and they hang onto that so tight for the rest of their life and can never see past it. (Yeah.) And I think, personally, we go through things to evolve and to change and to grow and be inspirational. (Yeah.) And I look at you and I hear your story that really affects me in such a positive way to see that you were able to take something so painful and look back and say, “Yeah, I'd go through that again.” (Yeah.) That tragedy was important in my life. Did you have a funeral for Mia?

Dylan (00:19:30) - <gentle laugh> No. We didn't have a funeral. We still have her ashes in a couple different places. We celebrate her birthday with my kids. (Aw.) They know her name. They talk about their big sister in heaven. She is still a big part of our life to this day. Just the other day I saw my son Lennox, my three-year-old, carrying her. We have a little urn — it's a rose. Her name was Mia Rose. My rose. Some of her ashes are there in the top of the urn. And he was carrying it around just, just carrying it, you know? When they were babies, when my boys were babies, I used to watch them with the camera system looking up at the ceiling, like laughing, you know, like playing around. And I know that she was there, you know, with…. So, yeah. We didn't have a funeral. She's still part of us, she's still a big part of our family. We talk about her all the time. And my boys know her in a lot of ways.

Julie (00:20:43) - Now, I was gonna ask you if you or your kids had seen or felt her. And when you told that story, the chills that I felt throughout my body were intense. <Dylan laughs> ‘Cause I gotta tell you, I had a sister born when I was two. She was four days old and was two pounds. And this was in the seventies. So she lived for four days, but then she died. Her name was Jennifer. And I remember when I was little, the profound feeling of loss. And I was — I didn't know anything about it, right? I was two. But for years of my childhood, I spent feeling her and wondering about her and thinking about her like she was there. So…

Dylan (00:21:31) - Did your parents talk about her? I mean, was that a…

Julie (00:21:33) - Not really.

Dylan (00:21:35) - So that was just…

Julie (00:21:35) - It was kind of like my secret. (Yeah.) Yeah. Because then I thought, I remember at some points thinking, you know, “Am I crazy? Am I this and that?” But I'll tell you, you know, my parents didn't make it. I have a friend who had to give birth to a stillborn. She didn't make it in her marriage. (Yeah.) So I'm happy, I'm so happy for you two, that you are able to grieve together and heal together and be on the same wavelength. ‘Cause I think that's what happens to people. One grieves one way, one grieves another way. One just wants to be in pain, one wants to live. And I think that's where the division comes. But the fact that you could stay on the same page in love and go forward together — that's amazing.

Dylan (00:22:19) - Yeah. Yeah, everything kind of fell into place. I had stepped out of the restaurant and I was selling insurance. So I was kind of like a subcontractor. I could come and go as I please. So I did not have to get right back to work. It wasn't like all right, you know, the company was gonna gimme a week or two weeks and then I have to be back. And I feel like if we were in that position, that's what would've happened is I would've went back to work — 60, 70, 80, 90 hours a week and thrown myself into my job. And then we probably would've split, you know, just ‘cause I know how that typically works. We would've grown apart. But because I was able to kind of do my own thing, it gave us that time to spend together.

Dylan (00:22:59) - And I wasn't planning on doing, being in that position. I left my very secure, well paid, very comfortable restaurant job and went out to do something I had never done before. I just was kind of fed up with the restaurant business and needed a change. If I had known that two weeks later I would've found out we were pregnant? No way I would've left and gone off and do something else. I feel like there was a plan built from the get-go. That was all part of that path. And I'm saying that, that's why now I step back and I just kind of let God's plan happen. And I don't try to ask what the reason is because now I'm able to look back on and see the turn of events on how it all transpired. And really appreciate it. Julie (00:23:48) - Once the dust had settled in Dylan and Angela's lives, Dylan quit his job selling insurance and went back into the restaurant industry. Two weeks after that shift in his career, Dylan and Angela found out they were once again expecting. How long after you lost Mia did it take to get pregnant again?

Dylan (00:24:11) - Six months.

Julie (00:24:12) - Six months.

Dylan (00:24:12) - We were blessed that it wasn't like an ongoing thing. A lot of people — it doesn't happen that quick. It happened very quick, which was a blessing. And then <laugh> Hudson was, uh, three months old when we found out we were pregnant with Lennox. So we had them (Oh, wow!) back to back.

Julie (00:24:33) - Irish twins? Is that what they're called?

Dylan (00:24:35) - Three weeks away from being Irish twins, yeah. (Oh, that's funny.) Three weeks, so…

Julie (00:24:39) - Well how did you feel for her second pregnancy? Were you scared or were you feeling optimistic? What was the feeling around that?

Dylan (00:24:45) - Terrified. Every single day is a terrifying thing. And you know, there's that thought process of, you know, we don't tell anybody we're pregnant until after the first trimester, ‘cause that's when things could typically go wrong, like a higher percentage. But for us, I lived it and I spoke it and I shouted it from the mountaintops of, “Look, we're pregnant. We need your prayers. Today's a really good day. Tomorrow could be the darkest days of my life, again. But today — today's a good day. So let's live today.”

Julie (00:25:16) - Well, now you have two beautiful boys. How old are they now?

Dylan (00:25:19) - Two beautiful little boys. They're three and four. And boy, do they run us ragged.

Julie (00:25:24) - I bet they do, I bet they do.

Dylan (00:25:25) - <laugh> They are a handful. But I love every minute of it. I love it. All of the headaches and all of the dirt and all of the messes. And yes, two days ago they drew treasure maps on my walls. (Oh!) <Julie laughs> I have to repaint my entire downstairs because they found a Sharpie marker and drew treasure maps on half the walls of my downstairs.

Julie (00:25:47) - That is funny.

Dylan (00:25:48) - It's hilarious. <laugh> — For those of you not painting it! But I know that those days will come and go, you know?

Julie (00:26:00) - Dylan is absolutely right. Those days do come and go, so fast. Just like everything in life, it all ebbs and flows. Life is constantly changing. And Dylan had a noteworthy experience with this when the pandemic hit the beginning of 2020.

Dylan (00:26:18) - We didn't want to raise our family in the restaurant business.

Julie (00:26:23) - It’s a tough business.

Dylan (00:26:24) - It's a tough gig.

Julie (00:26:24) - Well, ‘cause your nights and your weekends and your holidays are all at work.

Dylan (00:26:28) - Yeah. It's just a tough gig to raise a family in. So we wanted to get out of that. So that's when we bought the seafood company and we started delivering to restaurants. We were delivering to about 40 of the best restaurants from Charleston to Wilmington, six days a week, fresh, straight off the boat fish. Really connecting those dots that I was speaking of and letting the fishermen — telling the fishermen stories to these chefs and giving those chefs the connection that I was blessed to feel. I was trying to share that experience with other chefs up and down the Grand Strand. And so that was going really well. Well that was 2018 through ‘19, and then into the beginning of ‘20 (Uh-oh.) all the way up until March 18th at noon. (Oh my.) And so then once again, we were faced with an extreme turn in the path.

Dylan (00:27:20) - On the day that he closed restaurants,I didn't have that high of an inventory, but we had a lot of boats that were still out fishing. And that actually was the hardest part because if I had that inventory on that day, I probably could have unloaded it pretty quickly and pretty easily. But because my fishermen were out at sea, it was two to three days before all of them came back. And it was in the beginning of March. (Wow.) And January and February, typically the worst fishing months here on the East Coast. And they had just had their best trip, the trip that they were coming back from. (Oh, wow.) So I had the joy — I guess you could call it a joy — of listening to these guys on the sat-phone as they were coming back in telling me about, “Hey, we had this and we caught this and we caught our limit of this.”

Dylan (00:28:01) - And “it was a great trip. Finally, we were catching some fish and making some money!” And I had to say, “Guess what? We don't have anywhere to sell it and I can't buy it.” (Wow.) So I said, “Come on back, we'll figure it out.” And we had all of these fishermen come back. We had like 6,000 pounds of fish that had come back. (Oh, wow.) Which is a lot. (Yeah.) <Julie laughs>. And I just put an ad out, you know, on social media and said, “Hey, come support your local fisherman. Let's keep them fed.” And our goal was just to get the fisherman a paycheck. I didn't collect a profit that day. I didn't make us a penny. I just wanted to sell the fish to the community at the same price that I would've bought it so that the fishermen left that day with a full paycheck.

Dylan (00:28:44) - I remember we had hundreds of people in line that brought their own coolers just to buy whole fish. We weren't set up even to cut the fish for everybody. We were a wholesaler. So we were just selling whole fish out of the cooler. And then what really was really cool about that was the how the community and how the seafood community came together. Like, people brought boom boxes and there were coolers of beer and it was a sunny day, it was a Friday afternoon. We had fishermen and their families and anybody that knew how to cut fish came and just lined up on the docks. I didn't call 'em, they just did it. (Wow.) And they lined up on the docks. Every station had somebody that was cutting fish for people. And people waited 45 minutes to an hour and a half, sometimes more, to get their fish cut up. And these guys were just working for tips. So the fishermen were able to get paid. The community came down and came together and supported the industry. And I'm happy to say we sold every ounce of fish that day. Every fisherman went, walked home with their full paycheck. And it was just a start of the next chapter. And I, again, thank God I was not holding onto the wheel, and I just kind of let the path take me where the path was gonna go.

Julie (00:29:56) - The next chapter involved Dylan starting an online seafood company, which led him to many professional opportunities.

Dylan (00:30:04) - I thought that it was gonna be the next best thing. I said, “Look, these people can — you don't even have to leave your house. Nobody was leaving their house. You don't have to go to the grocery store. You go to their website, you can order seafood online. We'll cut it to order, vacuum seal it, deliver it to your door.” We started shipping nationwide. I thought we were gonna be the next biggest, best thing. And I was wrong. <Both laugh> I was wrong. You know, it is what it is. I just don't think this area is necessarily ready for that kind of experience. I think they like to go into the markets physically with that retail experience. But it brought about a lot of really cool things, again. I started doing my cooking classes because we're selling all of this fish, but nobody's going to restaurants.

Dylan (00:30:46) - They don't know how to cook seafood like chicken, beef, steak, those kinds of things. So I had a woman named Holly Petite come up to me and I call her my guardian angel because she saw the vision. (Mm-hmm. <affirmative>) She saw the vision. She came up to me and she said, “Dylan, you have to be teaching cooking classes.” She said, “All of these people are getting this seafood, but they don't know how to cook it. So you've gotta be the guy to teach everybody how to cook it.” And I said, “No, <Julie laughs>, no I'm not.” She ignored me, thank God. And went home and put together on her own accord, on her own dime — everything, put together everything that I needed to do these cooking classes. And she showed up about a week later in my office on the docks with this giant tote.

Dylan (00:31:25) - And she says, “Whenever you're ready, <Julie laughs> we're ready.” (I love it.) Yeah. So I said, “Alright, let's do one. We'll do it in your house with your friends. We'll see how it goes,” — just to shut her up, frankly. You know, ‘cause she had done this for me. I couldn't just say no again. So, the rest is kind of history, Julie. We went from there and that has blossomed into a great thing where we sold out. Now we're still doing it. We do a couple of 'em a week. I do private classes, I do public classes. I can come to your house and teach a class. I can come to your house and do private catering. We're sold out a month in advance.

Julie (00:31:59) - That's amazing.

Dylan (00:32:00) - It's so much fun. Really truly, it's like one of the best times of my week.

Julie (00:32:05) - And you were doing so many, you set up a commercial kitchen in Garden City (I did.) So people would come to you ‘cause you were out traveling to their houses. And that was a genius move. People coming and enjoying that. Then, Hurricane Ian struck.

Dylan (00:32:21) - Hurricane Ian dropped 10-foot of storm surge on our location. And the business wasn't doing that great. Already I said the online retail just wasn't going as well as I thought it should. And so once we got flooded out and I went through that heartache of my sanctuary, the place that I was able to create so many happy memories and joyous times —to be covered in that filth. It was hard for me.

Julie (00:32:49) - Oh gosh. Well, they say when one door closes, another door opens and that's off you go. Right?

Dylan (00:32:54) - They are right, they are right.

Julie (00:32:55) - No point in dwelling. (No.) Just gotta keep on moving. (That's it!) Well, you're also doing a show called On the Hook with Dylan Foster. We mentioned it earlier, but you're fitting that into your schedule, too.

Dylan (00:33:08) - Yeah. We're doing all kinds of demos with different types of seafood. We're meeting some of the fishermen, we're going into some of the restaurants here locally. And we're just now gonna start doing some other things. It's not just gonna be recipe based. We're gonna go into how to buy the right type of seafood and what to look for and equipment to use and different gadgets in your kitchen that will make it helpful. And all kinds of things seafood related, because I realize that the struggles that people here locally had and the fears, really, of cooking and dealing with seafood in their own kitchen — that's exponentially larger outside of the coast. We're trying to kind of break down some of those barriers and teach people and just, you know, see where that road leads us next.

Julie (00:33:52) - Seeing where the road takes him, I've learned, is characteristic of Dylan and so far everything has worked out. Even the difficulties have propelled him forward and made him into the person he is today. And that attitude of letting life take him where it may carries into his view on the future. And so as you look at your own life in the next half or two thirds or whatever, you've got… <laugh>

Dylan (00:34:18) - God willing, yeah.

Julie (00:34:20) - How do you view that? What kind of legacy do you wanna leave behind? What's next for Dylan?

Dylan (00:34:27) - Who knows what's next? Who knows? Really, my legacy, what I strive to leave behind, whether tomorrow or in 50 years, is just my kids. You know?

Julie (00:34:41) - How do you intend to do that?

Dylan (00:34:42) - I have no idea. <laugh>. No idea. Just keep doing what I'm doing and living every day to the best I can. Honestly.

Julie (00:34:51) - Living with love.

Dylan (00:34:52) - “Living with love.” I like that.

Julie (00:34:55) - And what do you think happens when we or our loved ones cross over to that next plane or that next phase in their journey after death?

Dylan (00:35:03) - I guess that depends on who you were. I know where I'm headed. I know what's happening to me. So, I feel like those loved ones in heaven have the opportunity…

Dylan (00:35:16) - They can watch out and kind of touch in, you know? I do believe that, call it guardian angels, call it whatever you like. But I believe, you know, that that exists. I truly believe that my daughter has visited my baby boys in their crib. I think I saw it. Watched it on camera. Who else were they giggling with? You know, when you’re talking to them about their sister, they understand that they have a sister in heaven. They're three or four. (Yeah.) But they get it. They know that there's something else. So that's what I believe and I pray that I will find out one day.

Julie (00:36:08) - Between losing his daughter Mia, changes in career, a pandemic, and even a hurricane, Dylan has remained optimistic and positive. If you could meet him, you would see that his smile and laughter are contagious. He is an amazing example of enjoying this journey that is life.

Julie (00:36:30) - For more inspiring stories from Myrtle Beach, keep listening to episodes of Life's a Beach… and Then You Die. I'm Julie Ellis. Thanks for listening. Woman (Myrtle Beach) (00:36:43) - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is The Beach here. You're free to be your best self because Myrtle Beach is 60 miles made for you. You belong at The Beach.

Woman (Beach Easy) (00:36:58) - Beach. Easy.