Now that I'm back in the States, I think a lot about what home means. In Russia, I knew home by its absence. Isolation, fear, sadness, confinement. Home is love. Home is rest. Home is stability. Home is freedom and connection.

33-year-old Brittany Grinder has been on an unimaginable journey from imprisonment to freedom, from hell to home. It's a nightmare she calls the most frightening ordeal of her life, the details of which she is finally sharing. We're good?

This is the first time you are sitting down like this to tell your story. Brittany, are you ready?

I'm so ready.

Is there any part of you that's maybe a little fearful of sharing so much of the intimate details of your story?

A little bit. It's a lot. It's a lot. It's so intimate and personal to me.

She's opening up about her life and her heroine tale of survival in a Russian prison system in her new book called Coming Home.

So what does home mean to you?

Being at peace, being able to be who I am, knowing I can be my authentic self. Brittany Griner, he said she's the most dominant player in women's college Much of who Brittany is has been defined by basketball.

The nine-time WNBA All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist has been a human highlight reel. But many would be surprised to learn Brittany didn't play basketball until she was 15 years old.

Can I take you down memory lane? Yeah. A little video here. It was called Sports Stars of Tomorrow. Remember this? 2007, you You're a junior in high school, and this is you.

Oh, my God. Oh, the hair, the braids. It's here for me to go and get it.

What do you think about when you see a young Brittany?

Come on. I needed a sandwich. That's what I needed. Oh, my God. Yeah. I mean, those were good times where it started.

But along with the good of basketball success are the painful memories of not fitting in.

You're 6'9 now. You said even in middle school, you were towering over everybody, and that your voice started getting deeper. You weren't developing like the other girls, and that your parents took you to a doctor.

So they really wanted to make sure I didn't have a tumor on my pituitory gland. I don't know, at one point, I was like, Can we stop? Because it doesn't feel the best. And I felt like a lap rat a little bit.

From middle school to today, Brittany writes, She has been mistaken for being male, enduring endless teasing and taunts.

When you're born with a body like mine, a part of you dies every day. With every mean comment and lingering stare, you're the biggest person in a room, but you're also the loneliest. Not a lot of people understand what it is to walk in my shoes. Literally, they're big shoes to feel. But I just feel so isolated at times.

Was basketball a way that you felt seen? It was a home for you?

Yeah. No, it was definitely a home for me. I could be the way I was intended to be, and that's big and different.

Say it loud. Say it proud. Oh, yeah.

Over the years, Brittany has also become loud and proud about her sexuality.

Just recently, I came out to the public. I've been out since about the ninth grade. Came out to my mom first.

In 2013, she was the WNBA's number one draft pick.

The Phoenix Mercury, select Brittany Griner.

Brittany became the first openly gay athlete to earn a Nike endorsement. Her signature moves and signature dreads on full display. In 2019, she married fellow Baylor alum, Sheryl Watson. And by 2022, they are settled into their lives together when Brittany's terrifying ordeal begins. She's home on a one week break from playing basketball in Russia.

Here you are, one of the top players of the WNBA. And for years, you're going overseas, playing in Russia. Why did you have to go over there and play?

Pay equity is not what we want it to be.

Brittany's WNBA salary was five times less than what she made in Russia, where she made over a million dollars in 2022.

I have to make a living for my family, so I have to go overseas. And Russia was the place that gave me that financial stability.

What did you think of Russia?

I didn't really know what to expect, honestly. But when I got there, we were always flying private. We stayed in the best hotels.

You're treated as a superstar over there.

But after seven years of playing in Russia, recovering from COVID, and wishing for more time with Sheryl, Brittany says she was tired of the constant travel.

And you had decided pretty much that this was going to be it. You didn't even want to get on the plane.

I did not want to go, but I could just hear my dad and what he instilled in me. You finish what you start.

So February 15th, 2022, the day you left home, and things would never really be the same after that. You said the whole day felt strange. How?

I was late getting up. Never late getting up. Finally got up, I'm literally running around the house. I'm stressing. I go into straight panic mode.

Brittany says that Sheryl usually packed for her, but this time she did it herself.

My packing at that moment was just throwing all my stuff in there and zipping it up and saying, Okay, I'm ready.So.

You go on to Moscow. And this is a flight that you've taken countless times.

Countless times.

Upon landing in Moscow, Brittany has to go through security before boarding her connecting flight.

There's a lady with With a dog. They have people in camo. Dog steps up to the person in front, sniffs, makes no sign, sniffs me, sniffs my stuff, goes to the next person. No problem. Goes through the scanner. They ask me to come to the side and then to open up my bags, and with me helping, which was already weird because TSA in the States, you don't touch anything. We started going through my bags.

Up next, the discovery in Brittany's bags.

I need help. I was like, Babe, I need help right now. It's like I'm in trouble.

Her struggle to survive life in a Russian prison.

The mattress had a huge blood state on it.

And danger hits a new level.

It was a huge knife sitting on the table.

We've got the exclusive view, Behind the Table. Every day, right after the show, while the topics are still hot, the ladies go deeper into the moments that make The View, The View. The Views, Behind the Table podcast. Listen wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Andy Mitchell, a New York Times best-selling author. And I'm Sabrina Kohlberg, a morning television producer. We're moms of toddlers and best friends of 20 years. And we both love to talk about being parents, yes, but also pop culture. So we're combining our two interests by talking to celebrities, writers, and fellow scholars of TV and movies. Cinema, really. About what we all can learn from the fictional moms we love to watch. From ABC Audio and Good Morning, America, Pop Culture Moms is out now wherever you listen to podcasts.

At the Moscow airport, this is Russian Custom Service footage of Brittany Griner putting her carry-on bags through the scanner, unaware that life as she knows it is about to end. As the agent tells her to search her backpack.

So you reached down because you've been told to go through your bag, and you felt...

Felt the cartridge.

Cartridge.

The agent staring as I slowly lifted out a cartridge with cannabis oil. In Arizona, cannabis is legal. In Russia, it's forbidden. I knew that. Honest to God, I just totally forgot the pen was in my bag.

What were you thinking at that moment when you felt that and had to bring it out?

My whole heart just fell out of my body. Just this overpowering feeling of like, whoa. Like elevator dropped from underneath my feet. And I'm just like, man, my life is over right here.

And what happened next?

In the midst of them going through my bags, there's two cartridges. And I'm just like, oh, my God, how did I make this mistake? How was This absent-minded and made this huge mistake. I could just visualize everything I worked so hard for, just crumbling and going away.

Did they ask you what was in it?

They asked. I looked at them. I was just like, I don't know. I was just like CPD.

But it wasn't CPD. Russian authorities determined that between the two cartridges is actually 0.7 grams of cannabis oil containing THC, the psychoactive an ingredient in marijuana.

Had you ever brought cannabis before into Russia? No. And why did you need it?

My pain is unmatched, honestly. I went to a doctor here in Phoenix, and they prescribed me a medical card after going through a history of my injuries, from cracked ankle to hip impingement, no cartilage in the knees, the constant years of playing basketball nonstop.

How were you able, while you were in Russia, to get through that without the cannabis when you were playing?

There was a lot of icing, wrapping, and taking of medication.

You say it's an accident, but you know there are those who say, Come on. How did you not know that you had cartridges in your luggage? What do you say to the skeptics?

I would say, Have you ever forgot your keys in your car, left your car running? Have you ever Where's my glasses? They're on top of your head. Where's my phone? Oh, it's in my pocket. It's just so easy to have a mental lapse. Granted, my mental lapse was on a more grand scale, but it doesn't take away from how that can happen.

The agent takes the cartridges away for testing. Brittany is told to sign a form written in Russian that she says she can't read, and she is left to wait.

This is what, 2:00 AM back in Phoenix?

2:00 AM, 2:00, 3:00.

Yeah, so you're reaching out.

Reaching out, sending text to my wife, sending text to my agent, texting them both, trying to get my wife to wake up.

And what were you saying?

I need help. I was like, Babe, I need help right now. It's like I'm in trouble.

You wake up to a barrage of text messages. One of them said, This is it for me. That had to be so alarming.

It was It was... Honestly, it was probably the most alarming thing I've ever experienced in my life. It was panic in the messages, and it was so many of them. I was like, I got to get Lindsay on the phone.

Her agent? Yeah.

I remember distinctly the phone ringing. I was asleep, and I immediately then text BG, who still had her phone at that point. He asked her, Where are you? Drop a pin so that we can find you. We're going to send an attorney to you. Hang tight.

When did you realize I'm being detained?

The moment they took my passport and they took my boarding pass.

Thirteen hours after landing in Moscow, Brittany meets her new lawyer, Alex Bikov.

He finally gets to me. I meet him for the first time. I'm like, Okay, all right. That's what a lawyer looks like in Russia. A bit of a hippie. My first question is, How bad is this? How long? What's the worst case scenario? Tell me right now. Alex told me anywhere between 10 and 20 years, and I was just like, What? And he was like, It's okay. We're going to figure this out.

Brittany is handcuffed, then brought to a police station where she says she is locked in a seven by seven cell with a metal bed and a hole on the ground for the toilet.

You had very few possessions that you were able to take into the cell with you.

I had a couple of shirts, a couple of pair of sweats, the shoes on my feet. One of my shirts, I ripped it up, and I used to clean myself. I used one as my toilet paper with my dirty, dirty hole in the ground with feces all over it. That was the moment where I just felt the dirtiest and less than a human.

You said that you felt that you let down yourself, your family, your teams. Yeah. So how did you work through that, what you called this guilt that you were feeling?

I don't think I really gotten through all the way that I didn't let down. I know everybody and my family. It was just... I think I'm still trying to get through that part.

Still to this day?

I try to give myself grace. Everybody says, give yourself grace. It's so hard for me to do that. At the end of the day, it's my fault, and I let everybody down.

In those early days, only Brittany's inner circle knows where she is and what has happened.

We were advised to stay quiet. Our hope was that Brittany playing for almost a decade in Russia was going to play out in her favor. We really thought that she would have a chance of getting this resolved. The invasion complicated that.

Tonight, breaking news as we come on the air, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

A week into Brittany's detainment, Russia invades Ukraine, and the global crisis raises the stakes.

How did that change things for you?

When I found out that the invasion had happened, I literally thought I was never coming Relations already tense, and then you add this, the war.

You said that there were times that you felt like, Let me just end it.

Brittany on the brink. Next. Brittany Griner is now a prisoner, and she finds herself being transferred to Correctional Colony Number One, or IK1, as it's known. Where she enters a group cell, it's a new level of fear.

I don't know when I got moved to detention. By my count, it was a few days after war broke out. By Alex's count, it was earlier. What matters is what I saw when I got there, a big-ass knife. I was just like, No. I know there shouldn't be a knife in here. I saw it and I just smiled like, This is going to be a ride. Night.

The knife, Brittany discovers, was left behind by guards in the group's cell after lunch. A dangerous mistake and a sign of the chaos to come.

What were the other conditions like in that particular jail?

When we walk into the cell, there's a bathroom, and there's metal bunk beds. There's a little rinkety sink that links, and then just add a layer of dust, dirt, grind, blood stains, just filth.

And the food?

Mornings, you're going to have really thick porridge. It's not really porridge. It's more like cement because it's really thick and hard. Dinner, you get a little piece of fish with nothing but bones in it.

And at 6 feet, 9 inches, you're not going to fit in the bunk.

The beds didn't fit. I didn't fit anything in there. And then the mattress had a huge blood stain on it, and they give you these thin two sheets. So you're basically laying on bars.

I mean, just the way you describe it in such great detail. You were only allowed one roll of toilet paper that had to last you a month.

There was like two, three months where we didn't get anything.

And the toothpaste had expired what?15.

Years?it was like 15 years ago. That toothpaste was expired. We used to put it on the black mold to kill the mold on the walls.

The conditions outside were hardly an improvement.

You're supposed to have 15 minutes outside. 15 minutes, sometimes it's 2 hours. It's a blizzard. It's cold. We're in winter, so you're literally just getting snowed on. Those days were the toughest because it's like, Yo, come get us. We're yelling, we're screaming, we're rattling the bars. Get us in.

That physical and emotional strain taking its toll.

I wanted to take my life more than once in those first weeks. Felt like leaving here so badly.

You said that there were times that you felt like, Let me just end it.

Yeah, I did. Just didn't think I could get through what I needed to get through. I definitely thought about it. But then I was just like, What if they didn't release my body to my family? I was like, I can't put them through that. I have to endure this. News tonight about a WNBA star detained in Russia. Brittany Griner under arrest in Russia.

On March fifth, 16 days after she'd been detained, her arrest is made public by Russian officials.

One morning, you're watching the Russian television, and you see a familiar face.

It hit. What did you think when you saw your face and knew the people around the world were now going to know your story? Like anybody else, I immediately patted my leg, ironically, looking for my phone because I wanted to see what people were saying.

She's especially worried what her father, a former police officer, will think.

I cry because I let down my father. The Griner name was stained around the globe. Dopehead, drug dealer, dumb.

It was vital to understand that Russia broke this, not us. This was them playing, looking for the reaction, and it then started accelerating from there.

In prison, Brittany's Russian attorney, Alex, brings her photos, letters, and updates from home, including news in early May of a major shift in her case.

Tonight, the US State Department now saying WNBA star Brittany Griner is being wrongfully detained by Russia.

The criteria is, is she being used as a bargaining chip against the United States? In this case, it was pretty clear that the Russians were going to use her as leverage. Where do we work?

Where do we work?

With Brittany's fate in Russia locked in limbo, Sheryl and Brittany's agent launched the WeRBG campaign.

What was the overall game plan to bring Brittany home?

It definitely was a team effort. As long as you have the same end goal, we were like, Please come join We are BG. Please use your voice, because the more voices that are whispering, the louder it sounds.

We are BG. Many using the hashtag to show their support the WNBA honoring player number 42.

We invite all of you here tonight to stand and link arms in solidarity with us. Bringing Brittany and all other detainees home is the sole objective.

Were you aware of the support that you were receiving?

It was overwhelming. There was moments where I was like, This feels weird, too, at the same time. It feels like I'm at my funeral a little bit. It's like what you don't get to see people talk about you, but definitely feel loved. Definitely feel like I got a village.

Next, Brittany details the drastic measure she takes in a Russian labor camp.

You got to do what you got to do to survive.

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The first ever criminal trial of a former President is underway in Manhattan. It's one of potentially four trials facing former President Trump as he makes his third bid for the White House. What do voters think about his culpability? And would a guilty verdict make a difference in the election? I'm Gaelen Druk, and every Monday and Thursday on the 538 Politics podcast, we break down the latest news from the campaign trail. We sort through the noise and zoom in on what really matters using data and research as we go. That's 538 Politics every Monday and Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts.

134 days into her detainment, Brittany Griner goes on trial in Hymki, Russia.

Wmba star Brittany Griner appearing in court in Russia this morning. She faces 10 years in prison if convicted.

And now the outside world finally gets a glimpse of not Brittany the athlete, but Brittany, the inmate.

What was the feeling like being handcuffed like that, brought to the courthouse?

It was tough. I mean, it was to be bound like that and restrained so much. And to have such excessive force shown for me, I was like, It's just me. This is not a killer. This is not Pablo Escobar.

This expression in your wife's eyes, what did you feel when you saw her like this?

I cried a lot. It hurt me to see her like that. I'm like, Why are your eyes like that? Are you going crazy?

How does she feel? She's sorry. She's sorry. Does she? As she could be.

You enter a plea, and you plea guilty. Yes. What was the thought process with that?

I understand what I did was a mistake, and it was an accident, but at the same time, it happened. The guilty plea was honestly to take ownership of what had happened.

At the sentencing, as Brittany anxiously awaits her fate, she addresses the court.

I had no intent to break any Russian laws. I want to apologize to my teammates, my club, Gimna, the fans in the city of ECAT. My mistake that I made and the embarrassment that I brought on to them. I made an honest mistake, and I hope that in your ruling, that it doesn't end my life here. You will be able to take the position.

She says she even learned the numbers in Russian to understand how many years she would spend behind bars.

As soon as she said it, as soon as she said, David, I was like, Okay, nine years. Nine years.

You've just been told you're going to be nine years in a penal colony. You'd FaceTime with Sheryl. What was that FaceTime like?

I was holding it together until I saw her face. And when I saw her face, I just broke. I broke. And that moment, I could tell she was trying to hold it together.

I thought I was going to cry, but BG, B to it. So then I was like, Okay, you can't cry. But then I still ended up crying. So we both were just a mess on the call.

As Brittany journeys to a notoriously harsh penal colony, the weight and fear start to set in.

I was just so scared for everything because there's just so much I know. So much I know.

And they put you on a train for 6-8 days. Where are you heading to, it's called IK2.

Ik2.

Known as one of the worst prisons in Russia. Yeah. What were the conditions like there?

Really cold. It's a work camp. You go there to work. There's no rest.

Here is video released by Russian authorities of Brittany at her prison job cutting fabric for military uniforms.

Conditions were rough in the buildings. There was about 50, 60 women in my room. One bathroom, three toilets, no hot water, and a long farm storm-style sink where everybody is washing all types of body parts while I'm brushing my teeth. I got a foot right here.

In prison, Brittany was suffering. The frigid temperatures affecting her health and also her hair.

People knew you for so long with the dreadlocks. You decided to cut them. What was that like, losing that part of you, too?

Honestly, it just had to happen. We had spiders above my bed making nest. My dreads started to freeze. They would just stay wet and cold, and I was getting sick. You got to do what you got to do to survive.

You would think about all that you were going to miss.

Yeah. My dad's up there. Mom's up there. I was like, They're not going to be here. My career over. So what am I going to do?

And there was her fear about losing Sheryl, and if they're married, marriage could survive this separation.

That's a long time. I couldn't ask her to wait. I even wrote it to her. I get it. If it is too much, just still be my friend and write me.

She was saying to you, It's okay if you don't want to wait. It's okay if you want to step away. I understand. Did that ever, ever cross your mind to do that?

No. When you choose your person, that's your person. This is not an option.

Behind the scenes, the US government is actively negotiating a prisoner trade with Russia to bring home Brittany as well as Paul Whelen, a former Marine wrongfully detained since 2018.

We spent a lot of time trying to work on different scenarios where we could bring both Brittany and Paul home.

Next, Brittany has slipped a note in her cell.

It said, be ready to leave.

And she wrote a note of her own.

You wrote a letter to Putin. What did you say to him?

By December 2022, Brittany Griner had been detained in Russia for 287 days when she finally got the news that seemed almost too good it to be true.

You are told you're heading home, that it's happening.

I was thrilled.

A week earlier, she learned a prisoner exchange was in the works and was told she must write a letter begging the Kremlin for leniency.

Some people may be surprised to learn that you wrote a letter to Putin.

So they made me write this letter. It was in Russian. I had to basically ask for forgiveness and thanks from their so-called great leader. I didn't want to do it, but at the same time, I want to come home.

And then there's one final task before she can be released.

But before you left, they wanted you to take pictures. Yes. What are these propaganda photos?

These are so propaganda because we staged all this. They wanted to look like I was doing what I needed to do, that their system worked. I was reformed.

Brittany thinks she's finally headed home. She's ushered into a van, but her nightmare continues when there's an unexpected stop at a men's prison.

What was racing through your mind at that point?

I thought the deal fell through, honestly, because when I get to this prison, I'm getting processed back in. They're taking all my stuff. I have to get completely naked in front of a room full of men. No females anywhere. I'm standing there. It's freezing cold. Arms out. They're all just looking at me. And then here comes the camera. And now they're taking photos of me and having me spin around. One last little hurrah of humiliating me. So I get checked into my cell, and I'm there for a couple of days.

They send a note to you.

It said, be ready to leave. And I saw that paper, and I was so thrilled. I was like, I'm ready. I never unpacked anyway. So I was ready to go. Come get me.

After nearly 10 months as a prisoner in Russia, Brittany is led onto a plane.

Do you know where to head into? No. No? No. You'll fly back home to the US.

You were hoping to see someone else on that plane. You were hoping to see Paul Wheatland.

When I walked on and I When I see him, I was like, Okay, maybe I'm early. Maybe he's next. Maybe they're going to bring him next. And when they closed the door, I was like, Are you serious? He's not going to let this man come home right now.

The only option that was on the table was an offer that would see Brittany Griner being traded for Victor Boot. And try as we might, and we tried mightily, there was no way to include Paul Whalen on that release.

Russian arms dealer, Victor Boot, also known as the Merchant of Death, had been serving a 25-year sentence in an American prison.

The exchange right here. The Merchant of death.

It's crazy seeing this video right now.

In video released by Russian authorities, a key moment of the exchange is missing.

They're missing the handshake in between me and the merchant of death.

What was that handshake like?

I felt like I was touching death a little bit there. I was like, I need to wash this hand. But he actually spoke to me first. He said, Congrats on going home. And he wished me well. I said the same to him, too. It was like a mutual theme. We shook, and then we left.

And then you get on the American plane heading to San Antonio.

She is headed to a military hospital in Texas to get a full medical assessment.

Good morning. We have breaking news.

Abc News has learned that Brittany Griner, the WMBA star, has been released from a Russian prison.

I spoke with Brittany Griner. She's safe. She's on a plane. She's on her way home.

Griner's plane touching down in San Antonio, Texas, the moment she stepped off that plane and back on US soil.

Get to San Antonio. Can't get off that plane fast enough.

I'm like, Don't fall getting off this plane. I was able to see my I was able to see a US flag hanging behind her in that hangar. And I see her and we embrace. And it was the best feeling I had in a very long time.

She comes over, and it was just the best feeling in the world to actually be able to touch the person that means the world to you.

What were some of the first things you did when you were back?

I had me some Water burger and some barbecue. I had Dr. Pepper, some Hot Cheetos, small Trivia things that don't matter, but meant so much to me.

There were so many people that were cheering and were happy about your release. But you also know that there were some people, others, who were very critical and felt it should have been someone like Paul Wieland who had been there for a longer amount of time. How do you reconcile this?

I think the biggest thing, honestly, for me is being called unpatriotic.

Brittany had boycott at the National Anthem in 2020, she says, as a social justice protest.

It hurt me the most because I love this country and I value this country.

In being traded for the person known as the merchant of death, there were some Americans who thought that this was a heinous criminal, and to be traded when it should have been perhaps somebody else. What do you say to those who felt it wasn't a a balanced trade.

If it was left up to me in that trade, I would have went and got Paul and brought him home in that trade. But any time that we can bring home an American, that is a win for Americans. No one should be left behind.

But along with criticisms about the trade, Brittany has faced insulting personal attacks that include racist and homophobic comments.

To The vitriol is... I can't even put into words. How do you cope with that? How do you handle that?

It's been going on for a while. I've been told that I should have been strangled, my mom should have strangled me at birth. I put it to the back of my mind. I try to forget. That used to work until I realized just suppressing things is not the way to go about it. I know who I am. And the village around me, the people around me, they know who I am, and that's what matters to me.

Next, for the first time since coming home, Brittany unpacks memories from her time in Russia.

All of these items were things that you had with you. All of it.

And I have a surprise message for her.

Have a special message, and I think you're really going to like it. Let's do this, BG. Walking through the tunnel. The crowd is going wild. And you're back.

Oh, yeah.

It doesn't get old being on the court.

Never. Coming through the tunnels, it's always the first time.

What was it like the first time you walked through that tunnel after being released?

Emotional. Super emotional. Basketball is home. Let's show some love and join us in welcoming D. G.

Six months after her release from a Russian prison, Brittany made her triumphant return to the basketball court. Brittany says she won't play overseas anymore, with one exception, representing the USA in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Just being back playing for my country, it just means everything. I mean, the country that literally came and saved me and gave me back my life to be able to go and then represent for that same country and bring home gold, that would be the icing on the case.

Brittany's possessions from her time behind bars in Russia have remained in her bags. She opened them for the first time since her return.

All of these items were things that you had with you? All of it.

A pair of extra long pajama pants her cellmate custom made for her.

These aren't standard issues. She actually helped me out because it was cold at night.

And her Bible.

In the midst of the turmoil and trials and tribulations, it actually resonated for me.

I have a message from someone that I think you're going to want to hear. Okay.

Hey, Brittany. It was really an honor and a privilege to work on your case. That's Alex. That's my lawyer right there. You're a beautiful person, a beautiful woman, and I'm a great basketball player. See you on the basketball court someday.

Alex is the best. What does that mean to you?

That means a lot. Alex, we became friends. He was my lawyer, but also he kept me sane.

Even though she is safely home, Brittany remains steadfast to spotlight those Americans who are still wrongfully detained.

I'm really fortunate to have this platform that I have, and every chance to that I get, if it's wearing a shirt, saying their names, that's just bringing awareness.

And that will continue to be part of your mission?

Definitely a part of my mission. This year, in each one of these games, we're going to try to do something where we're bringing awareness.

Make sure their names are not forgotten.

Never.

Brittany and Sheryl say they have new purpose in their own lives. They're expecting their first child together this summer.

Grander party at three, please. Yeah.

What is the message from your story that you would want your child to know?

Just perseverance. Life happens, and you're throwing a curveball. Sometimes it's a big curveball. And what you do in those moments defy who you are, and it shows your character. I just want them to know to always hold their heads high and walk with grace.

Brittany says she is grateful for her new lease on life, a life without limits.

Nature has always been my home. No walls or ceilings, just boundless and renewing sky. I feel most liberated when I'm off roading in Bulldog Canyon. Other times I reflect in silence. Thank God for bringing me back to Rael.

Coming home. What does Coming Home mean to you now?

Coming home to me now is just being at peace, being happy, enjoying life. That's what Coming Home to me is.