replace the diseased thigh bone, bruce suffered through rounds of chemo to shrink the tumor. pneumonia, ear infections,pneumr infection, dozens of pounds lost, three hospitalizations. i. could just feel my body sort of slipping away. reporter: even as bruce was fighting for his life, the council of dads rallied around the family. some, daily phone calls. others, weekly visits. jeff had a different tactic. one postcard a day, every single day, for a year. i sent him postcards. to see them all like this, what s that like. i have to say, it s impressive to walk in here and see these postcards on the desk. i wanted bruce to know that i was with him. reporter: bruce needed those postcards. the hardest part was about to come. there are few days in your life you can work on tomorrow is one of them for me.
diving truly into the culture that you re visiting. it means interacting with a country s people. it means trying its foods. it means listening to its music. and that s the spirit bruce wanted jeff to teach eden and tibi. i will get them out of their comfort zone and help them to see the world. okay. ready? here we go. it would take five more men to complete the council. childhood friend ben edwards to show the girls where their dad came. college roommate max thigher to help them live life with passion. poet, josh ramo to make them take time to reflect on life. business partner david black to teach them to never give up. and close confidant ben sherwood to challenge them to always ask questions and then linda who would be in charge of them all.
and at the same time feeling a bit of a burden for where this might go. this turned out to be, sanjay, a key to the idea of the council which is to burden. he s a dad. all except for one of the men is a dad. they have busy lives. they ve got their hone families, their own kids so i wasn t in effect giving them my kids. i was saying, will you just be there and will you take this one side of me and will you convey them that idea? jeff would capture bruce s adventurous side. part vermont farmer, part world traveler. jeff s as comfortable driving a tractor and sheering sheep as he is exploring the catacombs of paris. his philosophy get off the beaten track. and that s a style that immediately connected for a 18-year-old bruce. i can remember us hiking through the swiss alps singing gospel songs at the top of our lungs. being a traveler involves
sick, scared and worried, bruce wrote that letter to six lifelong friends. men who knew his voice. who could be fathers for his daughters. he decided to call them the council of dads. by late july, weeks after his cancer diagnosis, bruce took the letter 200 miles to putny, vermont. the home of childhood friend jeff shumley. he said before coming up i want to find sometime to spend alone with you. nothing could have prepared him for what bruce was about to ask. of course, without skipping a heart beat, i said, bruce, absolutely, yes. you can count on me for anything. but it really was an overwhelming moment emotionally because i was connecting with all that bruce was going through