On Sunday night, the people at the Marriott St. Louis Grand Hotel learned the past can be a present.
The keynote speaker at a Big Brothers-Big Sisters event was John O'Leary.
"When I think about John, I think about two words-- courage and perseverance," said Becky James Hatter, the CEO of Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri.
O' Leary has traveled all over the world to tell his story, but the journey actually began in a St. Louis garage.
At age 9, O'Leary was literally playing with fire.
"Before the liquid comes out of the container, the fumes come out creating this massive explosion. Splits the can in two, picks me up and launches me 20 feet against the far side of the garage," he recalled.
He had burns on 100 percent of his body. Eighty-seven percent were third-degree, meaning the skin would never grow back. Doctors told his parents that he had just a one percent chance to survive the first night.
But that first night, lying in his hospital bed with his eyes swollen shut, someone brought light into his darkness.
"I hear that voice that if you grew up in St. Louis in the mid '80s would wake you up from a coma," said O'Leary.
Hearing about the accident, Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Buck showed up and breathed life into John O'Leary's lungs.
"He says to me 'kid, wake up. You are going to live, you are going to survive, keep fighting,'" remembers O'Leary.
Nearly 30 surgeries and 30 years later, O'Leary is back in the rebuilt garage where it all began.
His path to healing included being a part of the Big Brother-Big Sisters program, being a chaplain with Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center and now as the author of a new best-selling book called "On Fire. The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life."
"This book will inspire you to wake up, to sit up, to wake up to everything in front of you every day of your life," he told us.
Sometimes, things we can't change end up changing us. The message in the book and when he speaks is to embrace life and the people in it.
"We have today, we have this very moment and it's time to embrace the gift of it, be grateful for it and do more through it," he said.
