Wait What!? with Aimee Mayo

DNA Surprises and Shocking Family Secrets

• Aimee Mayo • Season 1 • Episode 11

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Family secrets, DNA surprises, pet loss, shocking stories and supernatural encounters collide in one conversation. In this episode, Aimee sits down with her mom Becky and uncle Kelly Harwood — artist and owner of Gallery 202 in Franklin, Tennessee — for one of the funniest, most emotional, and wildest family conversations yet.

A DNA test blows the lid off a decades-old secret — their childhood neighbor who lived two doors down their entire lives was actually a secret half-sister. Aimee shares the terrifying night their family stumbled into pure evil in Mississippi. 


Aimee describes seeing a glowing angel as a toddler after a near-death experience. Kelly recounts the dream he had the night before his mother died — the moment she spread her wings and said goodbye. Plus embarrassing moments that will make you cry laughing, pet grief, growing up gay in a small Southern town, and why mothers always know.

This episode is funny, heartbreaking, nostalgic, shocking, and deeply human all at once. Follow the show and please leave a review if it moved you.



Cold Open One-Liners

SPEAKER_06

Stop flirting with my daddy snowman. People will steal this idea. It's so good.

SPEAKER_01

I bet you can't paint this. What if one day you end up at Goodwill and somebody finds your finds you in the painting for half off Wednesdays for $4.99? My chicken's dead. I want out of pity, I think.

SPEAKER_02

Congratulations to the flag. And as I said that, I thought it so my god! Mama, where's that woman sitting on my bed? I mean, there's not a woman sitting on your bed.

SPEAKER_00

And she puts her hand up and says, You can't go. And then she said, I'm just very tired.

SPEAKER_06

Papa Danny comes to see me when it rains.

SPEAKER_01

Mothers always know.

SPEAKER_06

That's what I think. Mothers always know.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I'm just glad it's somebody I love. I don't think the church organ is the only one your mother played. Only in Alabama.

SPEAKER_06

It felt evil. And he felt evil.

SPEAKER_01

How was the son she never had?

SPEAKER_06

Let me out of this damn box.

Meet The Family Behind The Mic

SPEAKER_06

Hey, this is Wait What with Amy Mayo. And my guests today are my Uncle Kelly Harwood, who's a famous artist. He owns a gallery, Gallery 202 in Franklin, Tennessee. And this is my beautiful mom, who like she's an amazing artist too. And she sells some of her collages at Gallery 202. Her name's Becky. But we're doing just talking about our family and growing up and crazy

Hawaii Jealousy And Kid Logic

SPEAKER_06

stories. One of my favorite stories, like with the kids, happened in Hawaii. Mom knows what it is with Oscar at that Starbucks. We went to this Starbucks, and mom and me were standing there. I had a double stroller. So anybody could see we had, you know, we had kids. And Chris was in front of me, and like this girl was just being so flirty. And so, I mean, she was just being so flirty. And I was standing there with mom, like right behind Chris, like looking at her, like, what is wrong with you? So then I told mom, I said, um, somebody needs to tell that hoe to quit flirting with my husband. So then we went back to the table and got the kids out of the stroller and everything. And I looked at Oscar and he looked at me, and then he just marched up to the counter and up to that girl that had been flirting. And he's like, Stop flirting with my daddy, snowman.

SPEAKER_05

Because of the ho ho ho. Oh, that's funny. He's he took the he heard ho and took snowman from it.

SPEAKER_06

It's so cute. Oh, it's one of my favorites. And that was in Hawaii. That was amazing. Kelly has a place in Hawaii, like, and mom and me want to go.

SPEAKER_03

Soon. I don't know if you wanted to go.

SPEAKER_06

Well, we want to go. We could all go. We gotta go. We need to go. Hawaii is like, I think if somebody like spread my ashes, I would want it to be. There's a little curve in the road, like going, you know where I mean, going up to Lanakai Beach. And like I've thought about that before, that would be if I had to pick

Turning Ashes Into A Painting

SPEAKER_06

a place. Are you gonna get cremated or buried?

SPEAKER_01

Cremated.

SPEAKER_06

Are you cremated? Yes. Me too. I used to think that I was gonna get buried, but no.

SPEAKER_01

I want to tell you what I want to have done with my ashes.

SPEAKER_06

It's the coolest idea I've ever heard because you told me tell people will steal this idea. It's so good. It's okay. I'll show you. Tell the camera because it's so good.

SPEAKER_01

This is what I want to do with my ashes. So I want to have my ashes at a party, and I'm gonna have a blank canvas and paint and brushes, and I want everyone to come up and mix with my ashes in the paint, and then paint a large abstract or a big floral or something with my ashes in it, and it'll be forever into the artwork.

SPEAKER_06

But it's a genius idea.

SPEAKER_01

But my friend Jim, who manages the gallery, he said, Yeah, but what if one day you end up at Goodwill and somebody buys your buys you in the painting for half off Wednesdays for $4.99?

SPEAKER_06

Oh, Kelly, it'd be better than not being anywhere.

Siblings Childhood And Learning To Speak

SPEAKER_06

Um, so mom, what's your first memory of Kelly?

SPEAKER_02

There's five of us children, and I think all of us are so individually different from each other.

SPEAKER_06

Isn't that crazy how siblings, what's your first memory of mom when you were growing up?

SPEAKER_01

Oh my gosh. I can remember like I remember riding on her hip. And she would take me everywhere.

SPEAKER_02

We need to say that I was 13 when you were born.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. She would just carry me around. That's crazy. And I she would, I mean, she acted like I was her son.

SPEAKER_06

I did. I just treated him like he was my little baby. Well, being 13, it's like some people have a baby. I mean, you actually could.

SPEAKER_01

And and let me let me add something. So I couldn't talk plain when I was a little boy.

SPEAKER_06

What what did you do?

SPEAKER_01

I would I couldn't say sugar, so I said tougher. And of course, our dad named every Dachshund or weenie dog we called back then Sugar. And I could say, Here Tugar, here Tuger. But I couldn't talk plain, so I called Becky Behy.

SPEAKER_06

Because Behy.

SPEAKER_01

And I actually wrote a little song about that. Remember, yeah.

SPEAKER_06

It's beautiful. I love that. Oscar couldn't say his L's and Lola and leave up so he like woa and we buy. Like he always did that. And I was so upset when he when he started talking right.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, he taught he had a real cute way to talk when he start started learning how to talk.

SPEAKER_06

He had to go to speech like at elementary school, and they made me cut his hair. I was so pissed off about the haircut.

SPEAKER_01

Beautiful blonde curls. Yes.

SPEAKER_06

But that was a good lesson for me that we might not have been in the right school because they had to wear like white tennis shoes like Forrest Gump and then cut their hair off. And then they wanted everybody to talk the same, you know, and put them. Did you just lose like that as you got older? Like how you couldn't, how you would say bet did you did you teach yourself?

SPEAKER_01

No, I was in school, elementary school, and uh like a class that would that would correct it, I guess.

SPEAKER_06

Oh so mom, what's your first memory of Kelly? Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02

Do you have one? It seems like I know one of the the first things that happened, some of our relatives came over. Uh uh, an aunt and some of our cousins. So they wanted to change his diaper. And so they started changing his diaper and they took took it off and cleaned him, and then they started to put his diaper back on. Now these are cloth diapers, you know. Oh my gosh, I'm that old. But anyway, they stuck him with the pen and he just screamed bloody murder, and I was so mad, I just pushed him all out of the way and told him to get back. I'll change his diaper.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, that's so sweet. You really were like his mom, his like second mom or whatever.

SPEAKER_02

I did.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, I love that.

How Kelly Becomes A Painter

SPEAKER_06

Kelly, I should have said this earlier. He's an artist, he's a painter.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I was always drawing and was really good at it all through elementary and high school. And so I started painting when I was about 20 years old, and I had moved out of the house and moved in with a sweet, uh, beautiful older lady named Betty Smith. She was my landlady. Was that a duplex or beautiful, beautiful, kind of a I guess, um historic home, beautiful duplex. And so my mother uh and I went to a yard sale, which she loved to go to yard sales. And so, I mean, she would jump out of the car before I could stop.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, how much would you love to take her to yard sales today?

SPEAKER_01

I would love it.

SPEAKER_06

I'd love to take her to the Paris Floyd again, you know it.

SPEAKER_01

So we went to this yard sale, and so there was art supplies and paints and brushes and easels and everything. And so I thought, well, I want to buy these. And so I bought some of them, and mother and she started talking and said, Well, we're gonna go on and uh go look for Kelly an apartment. And the that side of the duplex was empty. And so Betty said, Well, wait just a minute. I'm thinking about renting this out.

SPEAKER_06

And you were 20?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, about 20 years old. And mother gave Betty her telephone number. Well, Betty called Mother later and said, You know, I've been thinking, Kelly was a really nice young man and polite, and I think I want to rent him the place. And mother said, Okay, and how much?

SPEAKER_06

It was a nice place to be your age. It was like three bedrooms, two baths, two years, I mean, it was nobody your age lived anywhere like that, especially in Gadsley.

SPEAKER_01

And so got that place, and she charged $100 a month.

SPEAKER_06

Oh my goodness. And she probably loved having you there for save. Yeah. I remember her.

SPEAKER_01

She she was a very talented piano uh teacher, actually. She went to Juilliard and she had two big grand pianos in the back of the you remember that?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I remember it now.

SPEAKER_01

She would take a magazine article about Matisse or Degas or Picasso or anybody, Jackson Pollack, and she would tear it out and put it on my screen door and say, I bet you can't paint this.

SPEAKER_05

Oh my gosh, I didn't know that, Kelly.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and so I would try it, and then we would go out and talk about it, and I would say, Do you want a margarita? I'm gonna make some margaritas, and she'd say, Yeah, I'll have a margarita. And she didn't drink a lot, but we'd have margaritas and discuss the artwork, and she'd say, Turn it upside down. You can see what's wrong with it if you're turning.

SPEAKER_06

Oh gosh, you know one thing I've learned painting, you can also see what's wrong with it if you take pictures.

SPEAKER_01

I do, yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Like for me, I was been trying to do an abstract. I know the n I don't know. I could be doing this wrong because I start with like I start with the name. Is that weird?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, it's backwards.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, because like it seems backwards.

SPEAKER_01

Then I try to make it over overrides everything.

SPEAKER_06

I try to make it match that name.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's that's yeah.

SPEAKER_06

I think I don't need to do that.

SPEAKER_01

You need a good teacher. Do you know anybody?

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, I do, but you're too busy to teach me. We've scheduled twice, and you're too busy.

SPEAKER_01

I'll do it, I promise.

SPEAKER_06

Okay, when?

SPEAKER_01

Tomorrow.

SPEAKER_06

Like, I probably can do it tomorrow. I know we should all paint. We could do a painting all together, too. We could do our own thing and together.

Pet Ashes Grief And Replacing Flashbacks

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, because guess what? You just said that. I would love to do a painting with girlfriend's ashes. Oh, that's sweet. I haven't done anything with them yet. And I was thinking, I just loved her so much. I was thinking this morning, like I hear her voice a little bit sometimes, and I was thinking she's like, let me out of this damn box. Because she's in the box in a bag, and all she ever wanted to be was free to go pee everywhere in the world. You know, that was her biggest dream. Like she would pee 25 times on one walk.

SPEAKER_01

That's funny.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, it was really crazy.

SPEAKER_01

She sent me a video one time when she was upside down peeing on a fence.

SPEAKER_06

Yes, she would do a handstand, and I figured out why. It took a while, but I figured out why. Dogs try to do that so they seem bigger than they are.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, that's true.

SPEAKER_06

Like, and then when they when they kick their legs, they're passing so much information. They're telling their age, their sex, if their health. I want to try that. They do so. They like, they just do so much information. It's really crazy. Um, like it's like a resume. So Pee-wee, that was your dog. Yes, he was like my favorite. Like, I've had like a couple favorite dogs that weren't my dog. And Pee-wee was one of them. And Dennis and Laura's dog, Peaches. I love her too. Um, but Kelly told me one of the best things that I've ever heard about losing your dog. Kelly ran over Pee-Wee, who was, you think he might have got behind the wheel because he was so old. She's 17. Yeah, I think Tina, our dog we had a long time ago, I think she might have tried to drown herself in the creek twice. Yeah. Like because she was so old. You know what I mean? But you told me one of the best things I've ever heard about losing your dog. And um, so I found girlfriend, our dog, my favorite dog I've ever had or will ever have. Like, I found her floating in the pool. She'd drown. And it was probably, it was one of the worst moments of my life, definitely in the top two. And so, like, just the shock. And then I just couldn't quit seeing it. You know, I just couldn't quit get it out of my head. Like, I just kept seeing her in the pool because I was because when I walked over there, I I I looked and I'd been looking for her, but not for long, just for a couple minutes. And I looked in the pool and I saw something black, and I walked around a little bit, and then I was like, oh, that's dumb. That's just a trash bag. Like I thought somehow it was a try for some reason. And then I walked around a little more, and then I realized it was her. And that was one of the most shocking moments of my life. And then we tried to give her mouth to mouth for 20 minutes. She was gone when I got her out. But Kelly told me the best thing I've ever heard. Like, if you've lost an animal, and they um especially like if you feel guilty, like he ran over Pee-Wee, and and I feel like I let girlfriend drown because she had fallen in the pool one other time, like that year, but she got out. She was wet and she got out. I feel like I just let her down for not, you know, like there's guilt involved. Chris is the one that let her out. I didn't know she was out, but I'm just great, I'm grateful I didn't let her out, honestly, because I don't know if it would be better to find her or be the one that let her out. Um, because it was nighttime. And he was playing a show, and like we found out while he was playing, and I didn't call or nothing. Like, um, but we didn't show up and they didn't know why. I kept seeing that flash of seeing her in the pool, and Kelly said, You have to stop doing that. You have to make your brain think about something funny or something she did that you loved and force it out of your head. Anytime that flash comes in your head, force it out and think about, and so I did that, and I would think about her doing a handstand, or I would think about she would kick like a rocket, you know, spreading her information everywhere. She wanted everybody to know girlfriend was here. And she, you know, I was thinking, like when dogs are kicking like that, that's kind of like their Facebook and Instagram. They're sharing with everybody, and they get to smell. It is, it's like a dog social media, and they get to smell where all these other dogs, you know, went to the bathroom or whatever.

Embarrassing Moments That Still Echo

SPEAKER_06

Okay, I got another question. Kelly, what is your most embarrassing moment? Oh my God.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I have a few.

SPEAKER_06

Tell tell a couple of them because I want to know. I love this kind of stuff. I love this kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01

One of my most embarrassing moments is when I was on my way to Atlanta, Georgia, and I was driving a delivery vehicle, delivering some artwork. And so I pulled over and I I think I got a McDonald's coffee, and I drank cream and sugar in my coffee. So they didn't give it to me. So I was at McDonald's. At McDonald's. I was already on the interstate, and so I realized it and I have to have my cream and sugar in my coffee. So I pulled over the next exit and I got out and I ran in some kind of little quick mart, zippy mart type thing. And I walked in and I just went over to the coffee area and I got a pack of sugar and one of the little creamers. And I said, Hey, do you mind if I just uh take a cream and sugar for my coffee? And he said, No, no, you must buy a coffee. And I was like, Well, I already have my coffee, and let me just pay you for the coffee and take the cream and sugar. No. He just was very no. And so I'm like, Well, let me just buy this cream and sugar. And he said, No, I uh you you have to buy a coffee to get the cream and sugar. And I said, Well and it was just so complicated, it was very complicated.

SPEAKER_06

And it's it's weird.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my god. And I'm pretty patient, you know, I'm pretty easygoing. Yeah. I guess I was in a pissed-off mood. I don't know. But so I looked at him and I walk up to the counter and I put it down and I said, Let me buy the cream and sugar. And he said, No. And I'm like, fuck. You know, I was just so mad. And I said, you know what? I guess I can cuss on here, Ken.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, I cuss. Mama gets on to me, but I don't, I like cussing.

SPEAKER_01

So anyway, well, there's no other word. Yeah. So I look at him and I said, you know what? Fuck you. I got so mad, all I wanted was a cream and sugar.

SPEAKER_05

And it ain't a big deal.

SPEAKER_01

And so, and I was willing to pay for it. Yeah. So anyway, I said, fuck you. And I start storming out the door. Well, the left door is unlocked, the right door was locked, and I ran right into that door. And pushed it. Pushed it hard, ran into it, it was locked. Fell back on my ass. I fell back on my ass, and he's looking at me as close as we are, and he starts laughing and laughing. And I got up and I was mad. And I just looked at him and I started laughing. And he got the cream and sugar and said, That was fucking hilarious. And gives it to me.

SPEAKER_06

He gave it to you. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01

That was just kind of embarrassing. Yeah, but I love it. Especially when there's a camera above.

SPEAKER_06

I love how it turned out, though. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

Do you want to hear the other one?

SPEAKER_06

100%.

SPEAKER_01

This is really crazy. I don't know if you know this story. So I was probably, remember when I said I moved to Union City?

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. When you worked at Goodyear.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So I moved up there. And I thought, you know, I'm out in the country. There's nothing to do. So I went to Memphis and I was like, I'm gonna find a gay bar and I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna have fun. So it was like a Sunday evening or something, Saturday evening. And I was there at like three or four in the evening. And so I found this bar and I go in and it was like happy hour, and it was just it was packed. And so they had a sign up that said amateur strip contest.

SPEAKER_05

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_01

I was a lot smaller than I am now. I was fit and muscled up. I said, I can do this.

SPEAKER_06

And I don't know anybody here.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know anybody. Free drinks. And so, yeah, if you won, you got free drinks and like a hundred bucks or something. And so they started playing something like Macho Man or something stupid. I don't remember the song.

SPEAKER_05

And so And were you dancing too?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, and so I jump up, I climb up on the bar, and I'm dancing on the bar, walking down the bar. Guys are at the bar with their beers, stepping over their beers, and I'm dancing. I took my shirt off, took my pants off, down to my underwear, and and I'm standing there dancing. And I thought, well, I'm gonna walk the rest of the way down the bar. And I start going that way, and I walked into the ceiling fan.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, it hit me right into the forehead.

SPEAKER_01

Knocked me into the floor. Because you were looking at them.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I was working at them. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01

Hits me right on the forehead. I had a huge whelp on the forehead, knocks me off the bar, and I landed on the floor. And everybody was like, and of course, I went out of pity, I think.

SPEAKER_05

Did you go home with somebody that night?

SPEAKER_01

I don't remember, but I didn't know. I bet you did.

SPEAKER_06

Because those insane nights have good endings, usually.

SPEAKER_03

Maybe.

SPEAKER_06

Like because somebody was probably like, Are you okay? You know what I mean? Like those kind of nights usually do a turnaround. I I have to tell, this is probably the only I've got a few, but this I want to know yours. That well, this ain't the most, but this is bad. Because I was in mom knows this one. I wanted to be in a beauty pageant because Tanya Watts was in beauty pageants. She always won her whole bedroom was full of trophies. And so I wanted a trophy, you know, like I wanted to be in a beauty pageant because everybody in little towns back then was in beauty pageants. And so we entered me in a beauty pageant. I was in sixth grade, and I was trying to get tips. And somebody's like, when you go on stage, just look at the judges, don't take your eyes off the judges and smile and look at the Judges. You didn't. I was in the audience. Oh. So I walk across the stage smiling at those judges and walk straight into the wall. We had to leave. We left.

SPEAKER_01

What were you wearing?

SPEAKER_06

I was wearing an ugly dress. It was like burgundy. I was in two beauty pageants. That one, and then I was in another beauty pageant. Little Miss Valentine and mom made that dress because you've always been able to make anything. It doesn't matter what it is. And you made that dress and it had all these ruffles. I don't know what kind of fabric that was, but it was red with white dots. Dotted Swiss.

SPEAKER_05

Dotted Swiss.

SPEAKER_01

Your gay uncle knew the answer.

SPEAKER_05

Dotted Swiss. That's insane.

SPEAKER_06

I would have never known that fabric. But I think I won because of the dress. Like I won first place. I even beat that girl that had all the trophies. But like I swear I think I won because that dress was so beautiful. I mean, that dress was so beautiful. It really was.

SPEAKER_01

You were beautiful too.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you were beautiful too.

SPEAKER_06

Kinda. I was you all Chris said everyone young is beautiful. Isn't that a great quote? Yeah. And like, so you think about it back then, it's like you see old pictures of yourself and you're like, man, I wish I had known. You know, I was so hard on myself. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

I look back and said, damn, I didn't know I was that hot.

SPEAKER_06

I know. I thought the same thing about myself, but mostly you. Like when you're tan and all muscled up from working out. I mean, it was crazy. You could have been in magazines back then, those pictures. But you probably didn't have any idea then.

unknown

No, I didn't.

SPEAKER_06

That's how it goes. Like, I see pictures when I was like maybe 23 or 4 or 5. Like, and it's like, and and at the time you remember, like you're getting your heart broken left and right. And and I wish I could tell that girl that's like keeps getting just screwed over, like, like a guy'll be dating you and another girl the whole time. You know what I mean? I wish I could have told that girl, like, just go have fun. This don't even matter. Right. You know, like, but but when you're young, you don't know.

SPEAKER_02

Just every year.

SPEAKER_06

It was like a most popular kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02

And I think that's because when people are voting on something.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, because they would vote. Each grade would vote. And I think that maybe I was talking to my daughter about it because she got voted kindest in her class, like over and over. And it's like I told her nothing could make me more proud than that. And she doesn't and she's beautiful. And she's beautiful. Like her teachers told me stuff like she doesn't get involved in the drama. She just doesn't, you know, and I loved that. Yeah. I think that I got voted every year because I really and truly liked everybody. Yeah. And I knew everybody. And everybody. Everybody.

SPEAKER_02

Everybody. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Everybody. I mean, like, even especially if it was the people that nobody talked to. That like, and I don't know where that came from, but I always really was very aware of how other people would feel. Somebody.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I think I taught you that.

SPEAKER_06

Maybe you did. Maybe you did. Because like, maybe I was copying you because Kelly and me, how many years are between us?

SPEAKER_01

I'm 62.

SPEAKER_06

I'm 54. Eight. Is that eight? I can still do math. Like our daughters, like, you're not going to know how to do anything because of Chat GPT. Yeah. And I need to do a video about all the stuff Chat GPT can do because I don't feel like most people know, especially most people that are like over probably 40. But it does so much. So I just ask it everything. But she was like, you're going to lose, you know, you're not going to know how to do math or anything.

SPEAKER_04

We don't have to now.

SPEAKER_06

No. You can ask, like, hey, Siri, what's two times 791 or whatever? It's nuts. Okay, what's your most embarrassing moment? Uh-oh. I don't think I have one. Oh, mom, you know you have one. I'm trying to think if I know any of your. Tell me.

SPEAKER_03

No, please don't tell.

SPEAKER_05

I'm telling you. Oh, it's the best. This is the best story.

SPEAKER_01

So Becky Lord. Back in the day, and I lived in Gadston, Alabama. So Becky uh calls me on the phone and she said, Kelly, get over here now. Hurry. You're real dramatic. And I'm like, oh my God. And I hung up the phone and I drove 20 minutes as fast as I could in my 300 ZX. And so I show up and I ran in, and Becky has how many birds did Becky have?

SPEAKER_06

Like eight or twelve or a bunch. Where did you even get those birds?

SPEAKER_01

She had a lot of birds.

SPEAKER_06

Where'd you get them? I just bought them from the bird store. A bird store? Like a pet store? On Rainbow Drive. Some of them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So Becky calls me and I show up and she's got this little parakeet in her hand. And she's like, my parakeet's sick and blah, blah, blah. No, she said, my bird's sick, and I need to take it to the vet. Well, I knew a vet that I took my dogs to. And so I'm like, oh my God, Becky. She said, No, now. And I'm like, okay. I said, well, change clothes. She said, no. She had on like pink fuzzy house shoes and flannel pajamas and just whatever. House coat. Yeah. Exactly. She gets in the car and we go over to the vet and we walk in. And I actually knew everybody there practically. Some of my friends were even there. So we walk in, the lobby's kind of full, and Becky was shuffling her feet and walking in in those um house. Yes. And she's holding the little bird out front, and she's just looking and she's whimpering and crying and she's going and her lips quivering.

SPEAKER_06

Is everybody watching?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, everybody in the lobby is just looking at her. And I was a little embarrassed. And so she walks up and the lady comes from around the counter and says, What's what's going on? And she's looking, she goes, and she keeps whimpering and she goes, My chicken's dead. She called it a fucking chicken. And everybody in there starts laughing. But it gets better. She takes it and she opens its little mouth and goes, lays it down and starts pushing on its chest, which is sweet.

SPEAKER_05

Oh my gosh. That's very sweet. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01

But it was also funny.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, it's so funny. She's pressing on this little finger. So funny.

SPEAKER_01

Blowing in its little mouth. And I'm just rolling my eyes, going, Oh my God. And everybody's looking, and I'm like, Oh no.

SPEAKER_02

My but my birds, I was close to my bro.

SPEAKER_04

And your chicken.

SPEAKER_02

What how how were you close to those birds? Well, I had to feed them every day and clean their um cages out and everything.

SPEAKER_06

Did they did they act like they knew you and stuff?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_06

Like, I don't really know. We hadn't had, oh my gosh, we have had birds once.

SPEAKER_01

I've had birds.

SPEAKER_06

It was like every week, like another pet, is what it felt. It just was so many pets. And so we had hamsters. We had that guinea pig Pokey Brown, and then we had Pokey Brown and Pokey Black. And we and um we had so many animals. Like I'll never forget. There was a hamster that got loose. That hamster was loose probably maybe two weeks. We've been looking for that hamster. I saw it in my closet, run across the floor, but I couldn't catch it. And we thought that the dog Harriet ate it. And so then on Thanksgiving, Chris's brother Robin shoved his hand in an oven mitt to get the dressing out and screamed and threw that oven mitt, that hamster was in the end of it. Like I feel like we're gonna sound like mass murders. What, Mom, what's your most embarrassing moment?

SPEAKER_02

Well, the one that I always think about is when I was in high school, we had like an something in the auditorium on every Friday. Some kind of show.

SPEAKER_06

Was it a pep rally or like a pep rally?

SPEAKER_02

But this time they weren't playing boss, so we I can't remember what we had, but I was in charge of leading the pledge to the flag. You go down front and you put your hand over your heart and you say, Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

SPEAKER_06

And then everybody follows along with me.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And so I started it, and I I said, I pledge allegiance to the flag. And after I'd said that, I farted so loud. Oh my gosh! And y'all, I don't fart out loud. I can hold my phone.

SPEAKER_00

That's hilarious. How old?

SPEAKER_02

How old were you? Everybody in that auditorium was laughing so loud because it sort of uh echoed in there, you know. Oh gosh. And it was so loud when I farted.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, I love that. When that makes me think, like when I I don't know, I'm sure you remember this, but probably nothing like I do because it was I don't get embarrassed. I I hardly ever get embarrassed. I mean, I can do just I could come out of the bathroom with toilet paper dragon in my pants. I don't even care. Like yeah, a million times. I don't get embarrassed much. Like, but I think it's because the age I was. Like I was in probably seventh grade and playing softball for Hair Affair. Isn't that a crazy name? Hair Affair, I remember that. So I was like play, I never hardly got to play. I was right field because nobody could hit it that far. I wasn't good at all. But so it was my turn to bat, and I was so wait, before the game started, there was um, I started my period. And and like you would wear little shorts and that little hairfare shirt. And um I started my period and I was in the parking lot and like I was asking around on our team, like, does anybody have any pads? You know, and this one girl's like, I do. My mom does in the car. So I went and she's like, just get them out. So I got one out and slapped it on really quick because I was about to bat. And so I go back in the dugout, and it was my turn and everything, and I go out there, and then like I hit the ball and I really hit it further than usual. Like I'm not, I mean, hit it in outfield. And so I took off running, and when I got to second base, I was looking to see like if he may have the ball, but everybody was like just bent over laughing. And I was like, what? I was trying to figure out nobody's even going after the ball. I was trying to figure out why. And I kept running, and then I looked down, and the pad is just laying on the field. I mean, just laying there in front of everybody, in front of everybody in the stands, everybody on the team, everybody.

SPEAKER_05

And what'd you do?

SPEAKER_06

I just went back and got that pad and scored. I scored with it in my hand. I still went around and I scored. You can't believe that.

SPEAKER_01

Did we slide over home base?

SPEAKER_06

I don't remember that. No, I went straight to the trash and sliding in the trash. Like, yeah, it was like that, but that was embarrassing, and everybody called me Maxie like pooter. They called me Maxie for like six months, like, and then I finally got over that. But that's the only real embarrassing. I had one other one just with this lady who was like doing my hair. I was getting a permanent, and um, I was saying something about I just want to make sure it ain't fried. This girl at my school, like so-and-so, her hair is fried off. And I was talking about it, and that lady's like, Well, what school? And I told her, she's like, What's your name? It was her daughter. Oh, and I thought she's gonna run my hair. Like I had that, I had the rollers in. I was like, She's gonna run my hair. Oh, I mean, it was bad.

SPEAKER_01

But back then it was fried, dyed, and laid to the side.

SPEAKER_06

I love there's another saying about the smaller the town, the bigger the hair. Oh, yeah. And this lady in Vegas that was doing my hair, I went in there with extensions and she's like, Yeah, southern girls just bring their hair with them. And I'm I had mine.

The Scariest Moments We Remember

SPEAKER_06

I need to know about your scariest moment. Like you were saying, and I don't know what mine is. That's hard.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I do know what mine is. And um, I was probably 11 or 12 years old. Remember when we had a trailer in Leesburg on the lake?

SPEAKER_06

Oh, yeah. When when the door opened and that rock hit Sandy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, hit Sandy in the eye. So, anyway, we had a a trailer at the lake and we would get in the pickup truck and and go get minnows, is what I called them, minors. And so we'd go there and we'd get, you know, dad would get his beer and cigarettes, and we'd go to the bait shop. And it was at that remember the uh Yellow Creek.

SPEAKER_06

I remember and you'd dip them out. You'd dip them.

SPEAKER_01

Yellow Creek Falls, and we would go hike around the falls up there, and there was a bait shop.

SPEAKER_06

I never knew where we were because I was young. Like, you know how you don't know where you are, but you remember the place. Yes. I remember the place.

SPEAKER_01

We went there and it had rained for days and days and days. And so we go, and Craig Osborne, a friend of mine that I grew up with, my best friend growing up, he and I was gonna just take off and run behind the bait shop and run up the hill. It was two big hills. And we're gonna run up there and race. And so we were gonna see who can get to the top first. So we took off running, and dad was getting his beer and talking to Pearl or whatever his name was, and I was winning, and I ran off and and it was dried, crusty mud that had washed down from the hills, and it was just caked dried and crusty. It broke through, and it was like a pond of quicksand mud. Oh my gosh, you fell through it?

SPEAKER_06

How how far down did you go? Kelly, like quicksand?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it was mud. And it was watery mud underneath it. What was everybody doing? Well, nobody was in the back of the channel. Just you and Craig. It was just me and Craig. So I fell through, and Craig fell kind of on the edge of it, and I went all the way up to my chin. And I literally put my hands like this and tried to stay afloat, and I was going down, and I couldn't, you couldn't get out. The more you moved, the further you'd go down.

SPEAKER_06

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01

And it was terrifying.

SPEAKER_06

And so that's like quicksand, exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I still have this little nightmares about it. Yeah, I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_06

What are they?

SPEAKER_01

I don't know.

SPEAKER_06

I just feel like you know, you just like you're going down and can't get up.

SPEAKER_01

And that was traumatic. But I remember Craig getting out the edge, running all the way back up to the bait shop.

SPEAKER_06

And you're just holding on.

SPEAKER_01

And I was just holding on. I felt like the wider I could put my fingers and hands and my keep myself up above, it wouldn't I wouldn't go down as fast. I was going all the way on the street. So scary, Kelly. Craig runs back screaming, and my dad and the owner of the shop he told my dad what happened, and and the owner grabbed that long stick that you stick down to measure the gas in the ground in the tank. They would put it down into the ground.

SPEAKER_06

It was like a brain handle or something.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but it was long. It was like twelve to fifteen feet long. And you would go down in the ground and to measure the gas tanks underground. So he grabbed it and ran with it, and my dad had already jumped into it to get me out, and so he was going down with me. And so he put that long stick out, and my dad grabbed it and he pulled us both out. But it was terrifying.

SPEAKER_06

Was Craig in it too?

SPEAKER_01

No, he had gotten out. Because I was in front of it.

SPEAKER_06

So he's he stabbed that stick in the ground. No, he pulled it out. How did it happen?

SPEAKER_01

Put the stick out straight, and we and Dad grabbed a hold of it and he pulls it back and pulls us out.

SPEAKER_06

Did it take a while or did it?

SPEAKER_01

Um no, not really. That's that's the scariest life. Yeah. That's awful.

SPEAKER_06

Because you thought you were dying.

SPEAKER_01

In mud.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Yeah. And drowning in mud. Yes.

SPEAKER_01

That was my scariest moment.

SPEAKER_06

You don't know. That's terrifying. And how old high school?

SPEAKER_01

Probably 12.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, 12.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I was young.

SPEAKER_06

By looking at it, you don't know it's gonna be like No, because it don't look deep.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it was dry ground and I broke through the dry, crusty mud, and it just I didn't even know that could happen.

SPEAKER_06

That's awful, Kelly. That's awful.

SPEAKER_01

You're aware of that.

SPEAKER_06

There's one more story about a movie, and then mom's gotta be thinking about your scariest moment. I got one more movie story with Kelly. I don't know if you know this story. We went to see The Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis. It's like a scary movie. And so when we got there, like we had our tickets, but there wasn't any seats. People had already filled up all the seats. So we had to leave and come back at nine o'clock. And during the meantime, we ate a whole dozen donuts, like between Kelly, me, Chris, and whoever was with us. Like, we ate like a dozen donuts. And so we're all jacked up on sugar and everything, but we get back to the movie, and like so we're watching the movie, it's so scary and intense. And this guy comes in after it's been playing about 20 minutes, and that guy's like coming up the stairs, and he's got popcorn and stuff, and he's like, it took me 15 minutes to get this popcorn. And right, all of a sudden, the guy sitting in the seat right next to me, he's like, he just screamed as loud as he could, almost peed in my pants. Nobody said a word. Nobody in that theater said another word. It was sitting right next to me. It just shot my nerves off out of the building. It was awful. Did you shut up? I wasn't even making no noise. It was that other guy. It was that guy saying there's no, like I had to wait 15 minutes for popcorn. It that guy, he screamed it so loud. I mean, you screamed it. Chris still laughs about that movie. Like, cause it it scared everybody in there, but he was right next to me. Like it was bad. Okay, let's mom, let's hear your scariest moment.

SPEAKER_02

The only one that I can just think of real quick is um when Levi was real young, he hadn't started walking anymore. How old was he? He was crawling, so I guess he was probably about 11 months, maybe 12 months old. And I was over at your house, and me and Levi was in the den and you were in the kitchen. It was before it got remodeled. That's what it was.

SPEAKER_06

I know exactly what the story is. I hate this story.

SPEAKER_02

So anyway, when I but it that scared me bad. That was awful. When um you were in there just messing around fixing supper or something, and so I believe I was crawling and I was making sure I was watching him and checking on him, but he was his back was to me. Yeah, you know, so I couldn't see his face or anything. But I noticed he wasn't crawling any morning, he was just going like that. So I thought something's wrong. You know, and I ran in there and I looked and he had gotten into you know how the styrofoam pieces they put in boxes for padding. Yeah, the peanuts. I hate that styrofoam pants. He had put one in his mouth and it had gotten down in his throat. And the first thing they teach you in CPR is not to stick your hand or finger in somebody's mouth if they're choking on something. Yeah. Because it pushes it on down further. So anyway, I pulled his head back and I reached, and I could just barely feel it with my fingers. And I tried two or three times to get it, but I couldn't. It kept sliding back out of my fingers. And so he was choking, he was already turning blue. And I reached down there and I just stick the ends of my fingernails just into it as much as I could before I started trying to pull it out. And then uh they stayed in and I finally got it out of it. Oh my goodness. But if I hadn't been watching it, that's terrifying.

SPEAKER_06

I I just can't even deal with that story.

SPEAKER_02

That I have ever been with any of the kids.

SPEAKER_06

I'm glad I didn't know about that till after.

SPEAKER_01

When you were little Amy at Mama and Papa's eating rat poison?

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I remember we had it was Fruit Loops.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And and it had rat poison.

SPEAKER_06

Sandy coyed.

SPEAKER_01

Well, yeah, back in the day, you know, I think you had spelt Fruit Loops.

SPEAKER_06

No, no, I remember Sandy put rat poison in a bowl of Fruit Loops and put it under the kitchen counter because she thought that would be a good way to like kill a rat if she if there was a bowl of Fruit Loops, like that they might come eat, you know, some of it. And I found that bowl of Fruit Loops before the mice did. I found it.

SPEAKER_01

I remember that. You didn't. Freaking awful.

SPEAKER_06

You were little. I was like under three. You know, it's weird you said that because my next question was gonna be if anything supernatural had ever happened

Angels Signs And A Goodbye Dream

SPEAKER_06

to you. And that is the only two things actually, but that well, actually three things. But one of them happened recently, but that was the strongest, biggest, most real thing. So I ate that rat poison. I had my stomach pumped, or whatever they did to it. And they told mom that do not let her go to sleep. Like she can't go to sleep. Kind of like if you have a concussion, you can't go to sleep. Do not let her go to sleep. Keep her awake. And so some of that part I remember from mom telling that part. Parts of the story I remember because I've heard mom tell about the don't let her go to sleep and her putting like a cold rag on me and trying to wake me up. But the part I actually remember is mom said that I asked, Who's that pretty woman with wings on her back? And she was like shaking me, wake up, wake up, you know, like flipping out. But I still remember like the feeling of the bliss and joy and beauty and light coming off of this being in front of the window, but up above. And like I wasn't scared at all. It was like an awesome feeling, but mom flipped out because she could tell I was looking at something and talking, like, who's that pretty woman with wings on her back? Like that would flip anybody out.

SPEAKER_02

She said, Mama, who's that woman sitting on my bed? Yeah, yeah. And I thought, well, Amy, there's not a woman sitting on your bed. And she said, Yeah, that woman with wings on her back.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Wow.

SPEAKER_06

Well, I think what started it is I was giggling because I saw her in the in the window before that ever even happened. Because I can still remember it was really almost like it was like say an angel, if there was only an outline. Yeah. Like like glowing, an outline glowing around an angel. Like there wasn't a face. There wasn't, it was just an outline, and they made me happy. Yeah. Like it made me really happy. That's that's the biggest thing I remember is the glowing outline. But there were wings in the outline, and just being really happy, you know, like just they made me, I wasn't scared at all. Yeah, it was all good, like all of it. But it really scared me because I thought maybe he was like, I would have a nervous breakdown. Yeah, I would, I can't even imagine if it was one of the kids doing that. Like Oscar used to have a lot of moments like where he had a dream, like he was dreaming, and in his dream, he was like, How'd you do that? Like, I mean, he would always have he always would see things. And then Levi saw when he was young, he said, Papa Danny comes to see me when it rains.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_06

Is that not amazing?

SPEAKER_00

Wow.

SPEAKER_06

I just was so flipped out by it.

SPEAKER_02

I think that was true. Oh, I believe that's true. Well, I kept Levi when he was little. We were living in those apartments over um across from where in Nipper's Corner. Yeah, I know where you mean. And uh I was keeping him one day and had just started walking. He was walking around and uh we had those doors that had the glass in them, you know, we could see outside, and he was standing at the door and he was just babbling, you know, like he was talking to somebody and looking at him and smiling and laughing. And so anyway, I said, Who are you talking to? He said, That man.

SPEAKER_00

He saw somebody.

SPEAKER_02

Wow. And I thought it might have been Danny.

SPEAKER_06

Well, okay, so we brought Levi, my son, home from the hospital nine months to the day my dad died. Nine months to the day. And I remember too when Chris and me got married, there was that little bird sat in the window the whole ceremony and then it flew off right when it was over. But it stayed and watched. And I always thought about that.

SPEAKER_01

I had a red bird visit me this morning when I was shaving. I have a window outside the sink, out um at the sink. And I told Ira, I said, Look, look. I said, There is a red bird exactly in the middle of the window looking right at me. And I always say that's my mother.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, I love that dream.

SPEAKER_01

Do you remember uh what the story about when my when mother died?

SPEAKER_06

The dream?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Tell that dream. This dream, I'm begging you to paint it. And if you do paint it, I'll show it like on another episode because you have to paint this. The wild thing to me about this dream you had is I've wanted you to paint it. I've asked you to paint it for 25 years. But the wild thing to me about this, this is like when Kelly tells this story, imagine how you see this painting in your head. Because that's what's fascinating. Like, because I think I see this painting completely different than you do, and I'm sure you'll see it different. So I want to know like about the dream. Everybody's gonna want to know about the dream, and then how you see it, like what it would look like as a painting.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. That's have you got it in your head? Oh, yeah, I've had it in my head forever. So mother was sick with cancer, and she was in Birmingham Hospital at UAB. And so, of course, I would go see her all the time. I think I was 26 years old. And um so the night before she passed away where they had her on life support and she wasn't supposed to be. And then they put her on there, and so they told us she was they were gonna take her off of life support the next day.

SPEAKER_06

Did she go on life support early? Like earlier.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, well, she they said she was cancer free. Do you remember that? Which were never really cancer free, but they she was doing really good, and then she got like pneumonia or sick.

SPEAKER_05

Like said, Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And so then they put her on um life support. So anyway, they did that, and so I was staying at a hotel nearby, and so I went and went home to sleep to go back the next day, and that night I had this dream. And I dreamed that I showed up at the hospital and I walk into her room, and she said, I don't want this room anymore. You're gonna have to move me up to the top floor like that. And I said, What do you mean? This is great. Your nurses are wonderful. She said, No, no, no. Give me the robe that's hanging on the the hook there. And I'm like, That robe wasn't there. And so I look, and there's this beautiful white, almost feathery, soft robe. And so I reached for it and I put it on mother, and and we ended up um, she stood up and we walked, and she said, I want to go to the top floor. I don't want to be on this floor anymore. And I'm like, Okay, whatever you want. And so we go and get on the elevator, and the door opens, we get on the elevator, and we're talking, and I'm looking at her. Then the bell dings and the el the elevator bell bell dings and the doors open. And I remember looking down, and there was like clouds and fog coming in the around my ankles. And I look up, and she had taken a couple of steps out of the elevator, and then she turned around and I started to go with her, and she puts her hand up and says, You can't go. And then she said, I'm just very tired. And she stretches and yawns and stretches like in a yawn, and wings came out, and it was just all these beautiful clouds. Yeah. So my my painting of that is from my perspective.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, what what do you see in the paint? Like, how would you imagine this painting?

SPEAKER_01

I have actually tried to paint it.

SPEAKER_06

You're gonna paint it this year, I think.

SPEAKER_01

So it's gonna be life size, uh, probably like 48, 72 at 50.

SPEAKER_06

Like the size of a door but wider?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, four feet wide.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

72 tall. And I see her my view is looking at her actually saying goodbye, which is sad. But she was very happy and content.

SPEAKER_06

But you only see her back. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01

Or before. No, I see. Where are you in the room? I'm looking right back.

SPEAKER_06

Where are you in this, like where are you seeing the painting happening?

SPEAKER_01

And then she's on the outside of the elevator. Yes. Because she turned to tell me sh that I couldn't go. And then uh the wings pop out as she yawns and stretches. So that's my view, would be her about to turn around and walk away to heaven with a cloud. But I would like to add, and this is what I wanted to do in the painting, I tried several times, but I just couldn't get it right, is wildflowers around at the bottom.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't see that, but I just well maybe stick to what you saw. True.

SPEAKER_06

Maybe that's what's supposed to happen.

SPEAKER_01

Maybe so.

SPEAKER_06

Like that one story really showed me about as good as anything ever has, like, perspective, like, because and and then it made me think, even if you're reading a book, everybody's gonna read a book the diff a different way. And thing different things are gonna stick with them, you know, like everybody's gonna have different things stick with them. And like that dream, be thinking, mom, of how you visualize that dream if you were gonna paint it. Because that's what I think is fascinating. Yeah, because like my vision of this dream has always been the same. It's like from the elevator perspective, you can see the buttons on both sides, and it's the moment right after she flocked these mighty, glorious, feathery wings, and the sky's out there, and you see these wings like somebody's about to take off. That's how I've always seen that. Wow, that's beautiful. Isn't that great? And what's great about that too is so many people would relate to that, you know. Like I've always seen her from the back with the and the wings have always been very strong, not like flowery or sweet. They've been like mighty's the best word. Like, like just strong, like kind of like almost like who she always was and never got to be, just strong, like like an eagle, you know, just strong.

SPEAKER_01

Remember? Dolly Parton's song. Oh shit, I forgot. I forgot. She played that. Bette Midler. No, uh Dolly Parton sang the song.

SPEAKER_06

Uh Wait, which song?

SPEAKER_01

She's an eagle when she flies.

SPEAKER_06

Oh yes, yes. Was that a side? Oh, yeah, that is her. Yeah, that's right. I had that mixed up with a different Bette Midler song about like something about flying. But it yeah, she's an eagle when she flies. I remember that song. It it's like that. Exactly. It's exactly like that, but with white wings.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_06

That's the only difference. I just remember always in my head that the wings weren't sweet or small or like they were big and strong. Yeah, that's what I really always imagined from when you told that dream.

SPEAKER_01

It was a beautiful dream. I know the the preacher that uh after she passed in the funeral, uh, I told him that dream, and he said that was a gift from God. Yeah, that it it was beautiful, and that she kind of considered me as her escort to heaven.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, exactly. I believe that. Because y'all had like a very special relationship. Yeah, he was like an only child. Mama's morning. Yeah, exactly. I mean, just a special, special bond and like just rela I knew that even as a kid, you know, and I felt like we had a great relationship. Yeah, I mean, like we always were way closer because what's crazy is we're closer in age than you and mom are. Did you ever think about it? No, I didn't. I haven't because we're eight years apart and y'all are 13 years apart. So, so that's why I feel like we always had a closer relationship because we're like brother and sister age-wise, and we grew up together and we have so many memories. Like, okay, are you gonna tell your vision of this dream?

Mothers Always Know And The Baton

SPEAKER_06

Did you have one? Well, I I did. It was almost just like your Really? It was that angle and everything. Yeah, this just popped in my head. But do you feel like that, Mama, my grandmother, do you feel like that she had an understanding about you different than anybody else? Do you feel like that sh just being a mom? This is a good question. Like, do you feel like that she knew you were gay like when you were little? Like when however old you were. Do you think she knew?

SPEAKER_01

Are you talking to me or Becky? You that was funny.

SPEAKER_06

It took me amazing.

SPEAKER_01

Surprise.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, it took me a minute.

SPEAKER_05

By the way, yeah, I'm like, This is Becky's coming out episode.

SPEAKER_06

I'm doned in. I'm toned in on this. Like, because y'all really did seem to have a special relationship.

SPEAKER_01

Mothers always know.

SPEAKER_06

That's what I think. Mothers know mothers always know. Always.

SPEAKER_01

And if they don't, they're in denial.

SPEAKER_06

Well, if they don't, they're delusional. They're they're just like they're loved.

SPEAKER_01

They're in denial. That's right. Mother loved me so much, and I dated girls through school. She did, kid. She did, she knew.

SPEAKER_06

She really you were special to her. Like you had a different relationship with her than any of her other kids did.

SPEAKER_01

Ira calls me pick of the litter.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01

That's sweet.

SPEAKER_06

That's so good.

SPEAKER_01

I need to put that on a t-shirt.

SPEAKER_06

I love what you said. I think everybody needs to know that mothers always know. I think that's a true thing because moms are paying attention to things that nobody else notices.

SPEAKER_01

So I got a hilarious story. I would love to tell it. So back when I was a little boy, and this girl came to see me, what, just a few weeks ago, Craig Osborne's older sister, Rhonda. Oh, yeah. Who do you remember Rhonda? She's a beautiful girl. I remember Rhonda. Beautiful girl, major rat. She twirled the baton in school. And they lived about three or four houses down. And so I'm on my bicycle. I'm riding by their house, and she's twirling her baton. And I see her mother, Jean, open the door and say, Rhonda, come in for lunch. And so you can I can see and hear it because houses were close to the roadload. Yeah. And so she drops her baton and she runs in the door. Well, I'm looking at that baton going, I want that baton.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, you wanted that baton. Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Because I remember as a little boy, you know, I can see myself holding onto that chain link fence at the football games.

SPEAKER_05

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

During uh the halftime with the band and the majorettes, and I watched every move they made.

SPEAKER_03

Did you know the memes? Did you know that?

SPEAKER_01

I do know a few of them, yes. And so they always started out like this with their arms crossed with a baton. I can say that. I know every move.

unknown

Anyway.

SPEAKER_01

So How old? How old were you? Oh, probably 12 or probably 12 years old. Yeah. And so I get that baton, and I I remember trying to hide it and ride on my bike all the way back home. And mother and dad was gone somewhere, probably at the lake or something. And I remember going into the backyard, slinging my bicycle down, jumped off, and I'm in the backyard, and I remember I could just hear the band playing. And I started marching with that baton. I can I could twirl that baton and I could flip it and I could. And you could twirl it before you ever even tried to twirl it. Well, I was twirling sticks and everything else. So a little piece of bar, but it wasn't the baton.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

So I ended up twirling that baton, and I'm out in the backyard marching and doing every perfect, perfect, perfect moves for every step. I knew it. And so all of a sudden I hear a noise, and it's the next door neighbor, Annie Ruth. She walks outside, her screen door slams because she was going out to hang her laundry up. Remember that? I remember in the backyard. Oh yeah, right next to us. And so Annie was.

SPEAKER_06

And she was so nosy.

SPEAKER_01

She was a nosy person. She had to know everything.

SPEAKER_02

She was really a good sweet neighbor. But she was no she was nosy.

SPEAKER_01

She would hang her clothes out two or three times to see what was happening. Just to see what was happening.

SPEAKER_02

But did you know she came to see me when I was in the hospital when mother and daddy didn't even come up there when I had my I'd hurt my knee in high school and had to have a surgery, and she'd come up there every drive either. She'd have to get somebody to bring it up. She was always drive to the body. That's very sweet.

SPEAKER_01

So I ended up jerking my head over and looking at Andy Ruth with her little hair pinned. Pin curled to her head. Yep. Her apron.

SPEAKER_05

And those little clip things.

SPEAKER_01

And she had her basket of clothes going to the laundry line. And she's she screams, Gelly, what are you doing like that? And I look over there and I get the baton and I start sword fighting with it and said, It's a sword. It's a sword. She knew too, by the way.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That but I told Rhonda that story.

SPEAKER_05

You did?

SPEAKER_01

I told her recently that I stole her baton, and she was like, I wondered what happened to that baton.

SPEAKER_06

Ellie, I love that.

SPEAKER_01

And then a friend of mine, Chandra, that's an artist in the gallery. I told her that story. We were, I don't know how that came out, but I told her and she starts laughing and laughing. That's funny. And then a week later, I get an Amazon package and I open it's a Barbie baton.

SPEAKER_05

No. Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Her Chandra, a friend of mine in the gallery, an artist. She sent it to me.

SPEAKER_05

Is that not nuts?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, she's still I still send her in uh all kinds of Instagrams with guys twirling batons.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, Kelly, that's insane. You said that about your best friend and living in Rhonda, and Rhonda reminded

DNA Surprise And A New Sister

SPEAKER_06

me. Okay, I need to know. First of all, I don't know exactly how it happened, but what did you think when you found out that Laura Lankford was your half-sister? Because it was my DNA test that showed up. She had done one, and we came in as matches, like really close.

SPEAKER_01

Closer than our cousin.

SPEAKER_06

Like six. Closer than a cousin.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And so I got a phone call.

SPEAKER_06

So I need to know. I've never even asked you. I don't even know.

SPEAKER_01

So I got a I get a phone call. First of all, Laura is what two doors down.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, she grew up two doors down from where y'all grew up. Yeah, my grandparents. No. We didn't know that. No, she wasn't. No. She was just a neighbor.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And so her older brother, Craig, I mean, Shane, was um my friend too. Yeah. So he was a friend. And so anyway, I get a message from our cousin Jill, and Jill said, Are you setting down? And I said, Why? She said, I have news for you.

SPEAKER_06

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_01

She said, I just got on was it ancestry.com. Yes. And I said, I'm on there. And she said, I know. And so is Amy. And I said, Okay. She said, Well, I just found out that there's somebody that shows up that's the closer to you than closer to Amy. And I said, Well, what do you mean? And she said, It's Laura Lankford. And I said, Oh my God. And so I end up thinking about it. And I went in and told Ira, and he just laughs. He said, Only in Alabama. And so shit happens in New York. You know it does.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So anyway, the next day I got on Facebook and I messaged Laura. We're friends on Facebook because I've known her my whole life.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

She's like, Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Well, she lived down two doors down.

SPEAKER_01

And she's anyway, long story short, so uh I messaged her and I said, So, do you know the news? And she said, Yes. And she said, So she knew before you, or Jill Toter. She found out the like the day before, too. I think that's what she said, or a couple of days. So anyway, and she said, Well, question mark, what do you think?

SPEAKER_03

Oh God.

SPEAKER_01

And I said, Well, I'm just glad it's somebody I love.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01

Also because Laura's mother, our family went to church all the time, Emmanuel Baptist Church.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, I remember hearing that name.

SPEAKER_01

And so dad sang in the choir and was a solo singer. And anyway, and um, so Laura's mother, Mary Lou Langford, was a wonderful sweet lady. She played the organ in the church and the piano in the church. And so I told Laura, I said, Well, Laura, here's what I've got to say. I don't think the church organ is the only one your mother played.

SPEAKER_06

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_01

Because you're my half-sister.

SPEAKER_06

Who was more shocked, you guys or her?

SPEAKER_01

She always said she just didn't think she fit. She was more like a Harwood.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, yeah. But did she associate you guys or just think she didn't fit in her family? What did she have any feelings? Yeah, we would have to ask her.

SPEAKER_01

Because I don't want to say that.

SPEAKER_06

I will ask her. I'll try to ask her.

SPEAKER_01

And I'll reach out to her soon.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. So she came to the Christmas party. Yeah. And it was so great to see her and pick right back up. I know. The crazy thing is that, like, I played with her growing up. I don't know how much younger than you she is. Like, she's younger than you, right?

SPEAKER_01

She's like four years younger.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. She I thought so because I thought she was in between us because she was older than me and younger than you.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Remember when Corey went to her house?

SPEAKER_06

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

So Corey, Amy's brother, goes to Laura's house. Who this is weird. She moved back to town to Hoax Bluff.

SPEAKER_05

Did she go in the same house?

SPEAKER_01

No, she's two doors the other side.

SPEAKER_05

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_01

She rented the house on the corner there, on the other side of Annie Ruth. So now she's two doors to the left. That way.

unknown

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01

Kind of like that Dolly Pardon song, Two Doors thinking and having a party. So she's having a party. And Corey goes over there, and Corey walks up and says, Laura, what are you doing with a picture of my mother on your wall? And it was her graduation picture, but it looked just like Becky. It looks just like me. And I've I mean I can show two or three people and they'd think it was the same person. So yeah, she definitely looks looks like a hard one.

SPEAKER_06

Did you ever pick up on this before she said? Never.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, I didn't either. Did you, Mom? No.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

I never did.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Well, I remember you telling some kind of story about that things, but I thought it happened earlier, but I do remember you saying some kind of story about things changed and y'all quit going to church.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Like, but I remember you saying something about the organ player, and I never did know why mother and daddy just up and quit going to church.

SPEAKER_02

Out of nowhere. Out of nowhere.

SPEAKER_01

That's a pretty good reason.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's a big reason. It's a big reason. But they were big in church. And Dad sang in the choir and they he had a real pretty voice and he sang solos a good bit. He had a baritone voice, I remember. And so I wasn't just greatly surprised about it.

SPEAKER_01

But what?

SPEAKER_02

I don't know. I just I don't want to talk about her. Who? Mary Lou.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, the mom? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I don't want to talk about her, but yeah. I wasn't real surprised when it happened.

SPEAKER_06

Shit, that says enough.

SPEAKER_02

That does.

SPEAKER_06

She's a beautiful lady. But it's true. She's homecoming clean. Was she?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, Mary Lou was.

SPEAKER_06

Um, I can't remember her as much.

SPEAKER_01

I'm gonna interrupt you. I think it's this is something that's weird. I don't know, I don't know if you even thought about this. What? And I know we're talking a lot about Laura. Hey, Laura, because you're probably gonna be like, Hey Laura, we love you. So Laura's middle name is Lee.

SPEAKER_06

Oh God, I didn't know that. And you're Kelly Lee.

SPEAKER_01

Sandra Lee.

SPEAKER_06

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01

Dad was Clemule Lee. My grandfather was Carter Lee. So Laura's middle name was. Laura took dad's name.

SPEAKER_06

Laura Lee Langford, I remember that.

SPEAKER_01

So put dad's name after.

SPEAKER_06

So Mary Lee gave her the middle name.

SPEAKER_01

Isn't that wild?

SPEAKER_06

It is wild, but I bet Mary Lou didn't give her. Well, no, you're right. Mary Lou did give it, but she had to know somehow that that was, yeah. And one of my favorite things, and Kelly, you might

Fear And Aftermath

SPEAKER_06

have told me this. I'm not really sure if Laura told me or if you told me that, okay, first of all, I grew up playing with her my whole life. Like, because she lived two doors down. I would have never dreamed she was my aunt. I mean, she was like ever, ever, she was four years younger than you, four years older than me, but we played together because there was nobody else on the street, even close to my age. Right. And so we always played together. And I remember we danced to that funky town in her living room. Like, and we would listen to music on records. She had a bunch of records. And I mean, I grew up with her. I wasn't surprised either, though, when I found found out.

SPEAKER_01

Do you remember dancing at our house?

SPEAKER_06

100%. That's one of my favorite childhood memories. I would wait in the living room, like my grandmother always slept on the couch, and I slept on the love seat right next to her, like our heads would meet at the ends. And she was the best. I loved her so much. And so at night on the weekends, I would just wait to see the headlights reflect, you know, on the wall. And that meant you were there. So, like when I would see those headlights reflect, I would jump up so excited because I would wait the whole time. And um, then you would come in, and even though it'd be like 11, 12, 1 in the morning, I was so excited. You were probably 16.

SPEAKER_00

Probably 16.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, and 17, and maybe even 18. Like, but I would wait on you, and when you came in, like we would turn up whatever was on night tracks and dance because you were such a great dancer. I still and like you danced at that strip though. Oh no, not like that. And you danced, I will never forget you danced at Walmart. Oh my god. And you you danced in that Michael Jackson dance contest. That should be my most embarrassing moment. And I didn't say it. Yeah, Coi won the little kid version. Did you win it? Well, you I remember you had on the jacket, like you were dancing. I don't think people of this generation could ever understand how famous Michael Jackson was.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, like that was fun day.

SPEAKER_06

Did I say that about Elvis Presley?

SPEAKER_01

Of course.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. And the Beatles too, probably.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but Elvis was even further back, you know. Uh God, he was just famous all over the world.

SPEAKER_06

Well, and he was so good looking, such sex appeal, and that like that leather suit and the way he talked. I it almost felt like everybody southern, first of all, thought they were related to him.

SPEAKER_01

We're supposed to be. I think we are.

SPEAKER_06

I think we are, but everybody acted like him, talked like him.

SPEAKER_01

You remember your dad bought Elvis' cars and we toured with him.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

TCB did.

SPEAKER_06

I will never ever forget the times we had. Like we, you know what? It's weird, but the memory that pops out the most in my head, it's messed up. It's not a good one.

SPEAKER_03

I know the one you're gonna say.

SPEAKER_06

Like, we were lost, Mississippi. I think so. So we were, I don't even know if you know this. We were lost in Mississippi. Yeah, but you weren't with us this night. Like, I don't know how much you know about this night. Like, we were lost. We had been touring with the Elvis cars, like we had there were two Elvis cars, and Kelly drove, you were driving right behind us, and dad was lost, and um, we were in the Cadillac Station Wagon, and you were in that Silverado like camper thing. It was a truck, and it had TCB. Yeah, both of them were Elvis' cars. It had TCB with a lightning bolt on the side, and that um Cadillac Station Wagon, it was the only one in the world.

SPEAKER_01

No, there were two. There was one more.

SPEAKER_06

Who was the other one?

SPEAKER_01

Uh Elvis had uh somebody else had a custom Cadillac station wagon.

SPEAKER_06

Maybe he saw it or they saw his. Okay, there were two. They didn't make this, it wasn't a car. I don't think they ever made it. Oh, yeah, you're a car guy. I don't think they ever made any more like, but so we're in we're lost somewhere in Mississippi, and like the roads kept getting smaller and smaller, and then thinner pavement, and then we're on like a dirt road, but there were lights and we're on the dirt road, and I remember like we pull over, and there's men out there, and they had these like the KKK things, the sheets on. And so I as a kid, as an eight-year-old, I see them, and for some reason they it was cones on their heads, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

They had they're pointed.

SPEAKER_06

That's the way their hats were. So as a kid, I thought they were cone heads like Saturday Night Women. And but they were covered up, but but I thought that's what they were, and then I could tell dad was nervous, and I had never ever seen him nervous ever. And he's standing there outside the car talking to somebody who pulled that thing off their head, and so dad is talking to him, and he's putting his hands in his pockets and shuffling around, and I could tell he was nervous, and I had like a major like fear shooting through my body, but I didn't understand, I didn't know what was happening, but it was dark, it was a dark feeling, and there was a fire that's what I was about to say, fire burning, huge bonfire. You could kind of see it, it was a little bit through the woods, and that fire was you could see it, you could see the smoke, and you could see the top of the flames. And dad, I remember like he was nervous. I'd never seen him nervous, and he was shuffling around and he was talking to this guy, and there were like maybe two or three of them, but one of them had this thing pulled off their head, and it was so intense, like I just had a terrible, scary feeling, and then on top of the scary feeling, I saw dad acting weird. Yeah, and um he came over there, and then this guy gives me this necklace that I did I had no clue what it was. It was like their little symbol.

SPEAKER_01

I saw I remember that the KKK.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, the KKK, yeah. And it was on that little thing and it was red and black.

SPEAKER_01

Red, black, and white. I remember.

SPEAKER_06

I remember he gave me that necklace and I just dropped it. It felt evil. Yeah, and he felt evil, and I felt like even as a kid, you might not know. I had no clue what the KKK was, and I had no clue of anything happening except for the feelings I felt. Remember, their faces were covered too, and it's like they were scary. They were scary, yeah. They scared us all. And I remember like dropping that necklace, and then somehow there was a picture of me with the KKK person.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I don't remember that.

SPEAKER_06

And I think I don't know who took it, but somebody took it like outside the Elvis car. Oh my gosh. And I almost feel like dad took it. I feel like dad was kind of trying to let them because he wasn't racist ever.

SPEAKER_01

Never ever.

SPEAKER_06

He's trying to act cool, like he was trying to be like, we're cool with this, this ain't no problem. You know, we're from Alabama, you ain't got no issues with us. Yeah, he was scared too. That's why he was shuffling around. He was scared of them, and I could tell he was scared of them. Maybe that's what made me have that fear. But there was a Polaroid of me standing there with like a KKK guy.

SPEAKER_01

Isn't that crazy?

SPEAKER_06

And and I had my hands in front of me, and you can tell, you could tell in that picture I was scared. Well, okay, so I was probably eight when that happened. And then when I was around 10 or 11, I found that picture in a drawer at my grandparents' Oakland Harrow, my dad's parents. I found that picture, it was a Polaroid, and I just cut it into a million pieces because I knew what it was then. Oh, yeah, and I just can't even believe that ever happened, honestly. Yeah, I just can't wrap my head around it. I mean, like, and we're from Alabama, and I know it's so sad and terrible when like I meet somebody, especially like New York or somewhere like another place that like they have a viewpoint of Southerners, and I always am scared they think I'm racist because I'm from the South. I know when I'm exactly the opposite of the stuff. And you know how they say, like, if you grow up with somebody beating somebody, you're either gonna beat your kids or be the opposite of that.

SPEAKER_04

You want to be the opposite, yeah.

SPEAKER_06

And that I've always felt the opposite of that because I I don't understand that. I don't understand people are people, and you can tell when somebody's hurting or scared or crying. I mean, I I'll never understand it honestly. Like, and I think being from Alabama makes it more intense. Like, just seeing people suffer, it's a nightmare. I don't know how that ever happened.