Guy Fieri: Sister's memorial forever changed how I view death

I want to ask you about your sister Morgan um you have said you credit a lot of your success to the education that she gave you how so my sister had a different you know when you battle cancer at four years old she had cancer at four survived it you guys spent time living at the Ronald McDonald House so and the great thing was is that was in Ronald McDonald's house was first starting in San Francisco my parents went down a lot of times brought a lot of furniture down did a lot of things to help but we lived in our car a lot my sister got cancer again when she was 38 vegan vegetarian massage therapist single mom couldn't live a healthier life African dance gorgeous gets melanoma a derivative of what's called wilm's tumor this tumor that she had as a child and here we go on this battle oh my God that was the worst thing to ever be around and to think her you know leaving Jewels my nephew was just was horrific but my sister would say I'm coming over for dinner and she wasn't a bossy redhead she wasn't mean but she just had her thing like I'm you know I'm coming over for dinner could we just have something other than grilled vegetables with baset glaze and basmati rice because that's what I'd make her every time you know I'm making everything else for everybody else and then she's like I just don't want that because it's what you make every time like wow so I had to like okay well I guess a cauliflower steak but make it like picata okay so that really just taught me a lot and then she had to work within a real serious pH diet because of the cancer and no sugar because cancer loves sugar and all these different things and so I just really spent a lot of time trying to cook the right way for her but her strength knowing that she was dying and knowing that she was leaving her kid and knowing that it was happening I just watched I mean I don't know what you look like when you're a general in the face of battle and you're you know they're attacking and there's no you know positive win I mean this woman was just steadfast stuck to it and held on and it was just uh it was pretty amazing and and the thing was is it taught me a lot about like I never I thought you died and creepy I don't she was she laid in morning we laid in morning for two days shrouded in flowers in the living room we had a luncheon kids played people took pictures with her that was the oddest creepiest thing in the world I thought would ever happen it was the most beautiful amazing most dignified thing I could ever imagine happening to somebody it it's it changed my whole way of looking at death how so it wasn't I don't know I just thought the body I don't know I don't know what happened maybe it's because of movies or something you just thought it was a not a beautiful thing and it wasn't like I wasn't letting her go I know that her energy had like her soul had you know the the spirit had left but it was this thing of celebrating it was like total respect of the person how did your parents get through that oh Jesus I don't think they ever got through I don't think they ever got a through I don't I don't I don't know I don't think of anything that there is worse to do to somebody than for them to survive their child passing I mean I just I I I can't fathom it I i' completely I'd completely lose my um they we spent a lot of time talking about it a lot of time honoring her that was one of the things I tried to do the most is make sure that I kept her top of Mind always you know like always and that's the reason I went and got the tattoo of her and why that tattoo so we love Mexico we have a great house down of Mexico that we built and that's one of the reasons we built it is because we spend a lot of time as a family down there so it's a candle that reminds me of Mexico okay okay so my sister's a redhead the Shroud around her is dragonflies something we always Associated my sister with and behind her are all the chakras so all the chakras are lined up behind her so my sister was very spiritual very grounded and these were just all things and Namaste which is one of my favorite words now and if you celebrate the word and understand it but it's the power in me celebrates the power and you the god in me sees the god in you and that was her word it was her word end of every end of every message voicemail letter it was Namaste well I didn't know what it meant Namaste hippie hey you know I'd always have something to say about it and when she was passing that like that last week when she was when you know and all of her friends are coming over African dance friends and we're there in Fairfax we're just sitting there talking about stuff and you know you're so vulnerable P happily vulnerable you know you're willing to listen and learn and get I'm trying to get in touch with like what am I getting ready to experience and all these amazing women and friends of hers were so in touch you know it's like I was coming from a different perspective in life you know I hadn't been as you know just you have different awareness like I could sit there and tell them a million things about other aspects of life and business but they were really into their spirituality and so they were telling me about Namaste and I'm like of course so I went to my tattoo artist a guy who's done all these tattoos and a great friend of mine guy named Joe Leonard and I said this is what I want to achieve and so he drew it up and so my mom has never been a fan of my tattoos not negative not like oh you did that to your body just like you know why and every tattoo has so this was the day the the lasas de morte that after she died that that day I went and had this done in honor of her um to recognize her you know to celebrate my sister so any yes so I came to my sister's burial and we did a Green burial which was amazing another epiphany unique situation because shrouded in cloth and buried in the ground no casket no cremation none of that stuff inconsistent with what she would have wanted well and the crazy thing was is nobody had asked her well she was in that point wasn't communicating and I we were going to cremate her and I'm like there's no cremating or she fossil to burn up fuel you know and she wasn't that kind of like she wasn't marching and throwing paint on stuff you know she wasn't flipping out about it but she was really and I'm like no no no no we got to do green barrial like where we going to do it like well Nado and I'm like no cuz I want to be able to go visit her I don't try to Nado so we found out sebastio has one beautiful Cemetery really old Cemetery in in sebastio and as I said my dad's there now and we had the most incredible ceremony I mean just and the these two Hawks came and it just it was just the greatest greatest time the the greatest emotional family the whole thing but I showed up with this tattoo and my mom says and I said you goes what is that and I said and best tattoo you ever got you know she loses her mind yeah sure enough I have to drag her my aunt and a couple of my cousins they want tattoos so they go down to Joe Leonard and they get butterflies right here Namaste so there's my mom at 65 getting Namaste with the butterfly on her wrist I said you're so gangster how did you go about figuring out the process for how to parent Jules oh that was a tough one that was a tough one Jules and I weren't as close I mean Jules now in my opinion is my son I mean that's as close as I can say it he what about that touches you well so his dad really wasn't in his life or was not in his life and my sister and I got a dollar from this guy and he just was really absentee and I can't ever say negative things about it cuz Jules is Dad so in some little small way I got to be okay with the guy cuz we wouldn't have jwes but Jules would come to our house we'd watch them for the weekend and Jules would eat every bit of junk food or candy or whatever he could get in his face because there was none of that at his house um Jules is incredibly intelligent smarter than his own good especially when he was a little kid because he was conniving I always had to watch Jules with you know side of my eye what was going on so when my sister dies my parents we all decide it's bestie lives over my parents house my parent we live right next to each other so it's like he lives with us but he lives there and there he's under more of their control their Direction than they is mine because he's coming out of monu running around the streets of Fairfax coming to a little bit more of a regimented environment with with us and we go through some tough times in high school because he's just smart enough to pull the over my my parents he's smart enough to you know talk them in circles and I'm catching this stuff and I have to deal with it when problems happen now I'm involved so we go through a few of those we're going to butt some heads and which way are we going to go and eventually it Smooths itself out and off he goes to college he is he is so intelligent and so hardworking he is working as a full-time agent in EDM and traveling and doing that and he goes to school he goes to law school four nights a week four hours a night and has been doing that for the last two years and he's a 4.0 student and he's not going to be an attorney he's going to practice business law or entertainment law so he can be the best of the best in his industry and that's one of my that was only one of my that was little bit of my mandate you guys all want to be in the will you all want to get what we built you're all going to have two two degrees like check he I think he didn't mean it exactly in the way I meant it but that's fine I actually did he he was one of my Inspirations I thought wow that's a really great way to look at it and not but all the kids want to do it but the reality of it is Hunter's doing it now Hunter I think juul's starting it off Hunter's in at Miami in business poor Ryder looked at me and said I don't I don't really know about this you know like they're they're I'm not even in high school so on the m front because you know we've been fortunate to profile a lot of folks through the show and there always seems to be the struggle with somebody who's Uber successful of what you pass down how you allow your success to create opportunities but what the balance is between that and dampening motivation you've said before uh you're going to die broke give a little context to like what the reality of that means no my dad's the one that said he would die broke and told he would leave me nothing which was awesome cuz he really did I mean they left me nothing I don't need any I mean I I need I everything I needed I got from him so my thing is philanthropy is super key to my life boys are of course Super Key I want them to all find their goals of what they want to be Hunter works for knuckle sandwich and he does a fantastic job he's on the road a lot selling the wine we have little wine company called hunt ride Hunter and Rider jwes wants to eventually have his own agency and represent artists which I told him he has to give 10 years of doing it for somebody else but he has to diversify can't do it for the same company has to have his degree so we're setting up like same hurdles same benchmarks the same achievement strategy that my dad set up for me when I was a kid so I went and did the corporate world for a long time he said you have to do that you have to understand pnls you have to understand you know how the corporate world how to do the structure how to keep from getting sued how to do all the stuff you go do it for somebody else you learn on their dime then when you got it I'll help you and they mortgaged their house I needed $50,000 and they were close to retirement they were reti yeah and they mortgaged their house so I could do it I paid them back in six months I paid him back the 50 Grand in six months but um so no the thing is I want the kids to have you know we have the big Ranch we have the small ranch we have the Florida house we have the we have the Mexico we've got a lot of stuff you know what my dad said to me when he was like the last week he was alive I said Dad I just want you to know got all taken care of I got everything handled got the house the my childhood home how that's being handled they owned a small restaurant how that's being handled mom taking over all the bills I'm paying all the bills got all that handled I got all the handled and he looks at me and he goes I worried about my you're the one with a ton of who's going to handle all your when you die don't leave those kids with a bunch of headaches I'm like really that's and it was very Godfather you know he's laying in the hospital he died at home but he's laying in one of those hospital beds he's like you're you got more anybody it's pretty funny