Hey, humans. How's it going? Susan Ruth here. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hey, Human podcast. This is episode 436, and my guest is doctor Cheryl Rich. Cheryl Rich is the worlds of entertainment, community service, and spiritual leadership. She's a clinical psychologist, author, and producer. She's been active for 2 decades in street ministry and as a certified victims mediator and intervention specialist, focusing on helping those affected by trauma and adversity.
Her personal journey includes addiction, incarceration, and an unbearable loss. She's a woman of resilience and deep beliefs who mentors and lifts up those around her. We met by happenstance, and her energy and light radiated and really connected to her right away. And she was so kind to say yes to this interview, and I'm excited for you to hear it. Check out heyhumanpodcast.com for links and to learn more about my guests in the show. Hey Human Podcast is
on YouTube under official Susan Ruth. I'm on patreon at susanruthism, and I appreciate your help there because it helps keep the show going, keeps it ad free. My TikToks and Instagram is under susanruthism. Check out susanruth.com to learn more about me and my other artistic endeavors, and find my music on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon
Music, wherever you get your music. Rate, review, and subscribe to Hey Human Podcast on Apple, Iheart, and Spotify podcast places or wherever you get and listen to podcasts. Thank you for listening, and be well, be kind, be love. Here we go. Doctor Sholrich, welcome to Hey Human. Honored. How's it going? Wow. Everything is wonderful. We as long as we wake up. Oh, amen to that. By the way, your, Zoom picture is so cool. I love the white hair.
Yeah. That I mean, purple is awesome too, but the that white is so cool. Yeah. You know, auntie Cheryl. Duh. That's what I always want you youngsters to to know that I will I'm the auntie around here. Somebody's gotta be willing to grow old. I tell everyone you either get to grow old or you make a beautiful young corpse. Wow. I got a lot of young people get mad at me when I say that, but we've got to respect this thing called age.
It's so important because, this society has been set up not to respect the gift of growing old. And that takes me back to growing gold, g o l d. One day, you're gonna need that youngster and all of you youngsters to see this wonderful podcast that she was guided to start way before podcasts got popular. You know, you've been doing this a while. So run gold, not old,
makes me have fun. So that's why the white wig, the purple wig, the glasses, and mama didn't give me enough attention when I was little. No mamas can. Do you have kids? No. Uh-uh. I like kids. I think kids are magical as I but I feel the same about people who are considered the elderly. That's why I love that in a lot of cultures, the the ref the reference of auntie or uncle or grandfather. I'm reading a book right now and it's, about an indigenous family, Ojibwe.
And, you know, all the elders are called uncle, aunt, or grandfather, and I freaking love or grandmother. And I love that so much that honor bestowed upon people who know some things. My response to you is that all life is a journey. So I re you know, you embracing that the creator made you the mother of the earth. So you can mother many instead of having to focus on 1.
Having a child is a challenge, and, I when you talk about wisdom, I was talking to someone the other day, and I said, you really don't get that unless you get the gift of age. So I said, wait a minute. I was a 12 year old mother. I didn't have any wisdom. 12 years old. So young. Yes. Very young. But I didn't have any wisdom, you know, be to to do something so, I think it's the most imp you know, one of the most important things we're chosen to do.
And, yet didn't get the wisdom till I got a older golder. We don't give ourselves lessons in parenting because we're, many of us were ill parented by people who also had no parents, and that generational trauma that goes down through the ages. And it go it can go one of 2 ways. Right? You can either love someone with such veracity because of what you were lacking, or you can hold them responsible in a way for whatever happened to you. Right? Those are the two ways it goes.
There's not usually a lot of middle ground there. There aren't any rules to being a parent. I often say when I when I come up out of my body, you know, get my wings, I said we all get our wings. I'm gonna, like I said I was gonna get guidance. Wait a minute. I snatched guard into just like, how could you give instructions to put a bike together, how to work on a car? I I would not become a parent. So, you know, it,
there's no rules. And that's why we can say, I'm so happy you said the trauma that we've somehow, most of us and I don't think anyone gets out without experiencing some trauma, no matter if you come from poverty or privilege. And the trauma that our parents endured and the and the trickle down, I'm so glad you said that because it's so easy to say blame, blame, blame. And Yeah. That doesn't heal. I remember when I was around 18, I
had a, you know, a complicated childhood. I remember around 18, I started seeing my parents as human beings separate than mom and dad. And that's such a weird shift to realize that they have their own story and that I think everybody has a choice with how you treat others. And I think sometimes we can fall back on an excuse of like, oh, well, I was treated this way, and that's why I do that. But I still think you have dominion over your own self.
Mhmm. But I think it does get exponentially more complicated depending on the trauma you carry Mhmm. On how you treat others. It's boy, humaning is not for the weak of heart. That's for sure. That's why I love the title of your podcast, Hey Human. Hey. Hey. You know? I love it. I'm your the generation that raised you, and I apologize to all of you because because I'm 65. I don't know. How old is your They're they're much older. I was the accidental
baby. I came along. Yeah. They didn't know they could still have children and surprise. So you were the gifted child? I I suppose. Let's get these virus right back because they I'm telling you, we get told stuff when we're little when we're little, and it just follows us and be like, I'm the accident. Like, I was my mother, actually paid for an abortion. Like, left one town, went back home to her mother and paid money, and went and got up on a makeshift abortion table, and it took place.
So you understand when, 2 weeks later, she's gushing blood, rushed to the hospital in the ghetto streets of Cleveland, Ohio, and told, you're pregnant. And she's like, no. I took care of that. That's how the story goes. That's how I've heard it. And she says that, they no. You may the doctor said you may have thought you took care of it, but she said, well, get rid of it. You know? And she said the doctor said, no, if we don't pack you right now, you're gonna bleed to death.
So I had to come into this world. And I always say I hid behind the left portion of the liver. Oh, you know, like so that being said is, you were the gifted child by, let's see, 71, 72. We're hearing songs, like, in music is medicine. Music can literally control the world if you ask me. And we're hearing songs like, runaway child, running wild. Better go back home where you belong. And that's the temptations. Anybody wanna look up those lyrics? And then we got into the disco.
And that was after Woodstock, and it was just like, you know, free yourself. Yeah. And nobody talked about the past. So your parents' parents and my mother, who's 89, that was the past. Leave it back there. And so we were the generation that came and hit, like, 77, 78, early eighties, and we was loose. It was sex, drugs, and rock and roll, baby. And did nobody talk about the past, and no healing, was done. It was all medication, you know, drugs. The era era of the Quaalude. Right? Yeah.
Exactly. And many other things, and I've done it all. I I was one of those ones in a lot of pain. And if it was a drug to try, I did it. So with all that saying, is when say it, when you understand that it's not like I loved it when you said the trauma. We're talking about centuries ago. Yeah. House passed down. Then no excuses, but we sure can make a choice. You and I and everyone who's chosen and highly favored to find you, and, hey, human, we can make a choice
to heal into this thing called life. To live. I also believe that when we do our own healing, it goes backward. It goes back through the generations, and that I'd like to think that when I work on me and that the trauma that I have, that it starts to repair and heal the trauma of my mother and my grandmother and my great grandmother, that it goes back through the line. Wow. And that makes sense because I get a chance to see an example.
You decided, I'm not gonna keep hurting. I'm not gonna be addicted to chaos and confusion. You know, when we think that, you know, this thing called color is real, you know, skin color, You know, that nobody really understands that we all suffered from the greed that created, the energy and specifically in this land. Could you imagine little Timmy, who's in the big house, and little black Sambo, who's enslaved?
I always like to say that no you can't choose the best of the best of the best and turn it to a slave. We were enslaved. And little Timmy and and little black Sambo are just friends, and they play together. And Little Timmy says, Little Black Sambo, Little Black Sambo, I'm gonna go in the house, and I'm gonna go get some lemonade. I'll be back. And we'll start playing hide and seek when I come back, because they were playing hide and seek.
And Little White Timmy comes back out and says, 'Little Black Sambo, Little Black Sambo, where are you? Little Black Sambo, come out. We're not playing Little Black Sambo!' And he starts to walk around, and then suddenly hears something in the bar. And Little White Timmy looks in and looks in his eyes the eyes of his little black Sambo friend while Timmy's daddy is sodomizing. Little Black Sambal.
Now that evening at dinner, Little White Timmy got to look at his white father, and the eyes lock while the family's sitting at the table. And now there's a secret, a secret that rottens the soul. So the enslavement trade affected all of us in such a profound way. So when you say, maybe my ancestors weren't all good, they were, a child is born with a heart of gold. Way of the world makes his heart so cold. That's the earth, wind, and fire.
So we are all born good, and every one of us experiences the trauma that was there before us. By talking about it and becoming aware of it, your healing is for your ancestors. You better believe it. For your family to look at you and say, wow. She's making choices to not hurt anymore. That's wonderful. Yeah. And that's why I think it's so important to speak the words of history. You know? People like to say, oh, we
don't need to talk about that anymore. We don't need to talk about that anymore or whitewash it or rewrite or whatever the heck. And we need to talk about the pain of the past because it's a deep freaking hole. It's a deep, deep hole. And how do holes heal? You don't just put a band aid on it and walk away because it leaves all that festering that no one can see under the surface. Right? You have to start healing a wound from the bottom of it, and it comes
up. Anyone who's ever cut themselves knows that. The it's it heals from the bottom up. I the last person I shared that with was a white male named Michael. And once I shared that with him, he just burst out crying. Mhmm. He started crying. He was like, my father my father molested me. Everybody wants to heal. That moment, he just and I just grabbed and hugged him. It's so easy to bury the past. Like you said, the sword doesn't
heal. Secrets are not secrets are pain. Secrets are pain and secrets are shame. There is no there is no light in that. Mm-mm. Yeah. Now that we've got that out of Yeah. So just a little backstory, you and I met at a a movie. Listen, I guess it was a premiere at the premiere for no address. And I walked by and you said hello, and I said hello, and we just started chatting. And to me, you just radiated, And I thought, this is a person I wanna talk to you on the show. So
Wow. It yeah. No address. It's a a whole full movie about our houseless brothers and sisters. Mhmm. Because earth is our home. None of us are homeless. But, everyone that gets a chance to hear this moment that we're talking about, and, again, chosen to tune in to Hey Human. Thanks to Susan. Check out that movie, because that's where we met, and the energy, the vibration was it was rocking high, wasn't it? Yeah. Susan. And that's what we felt in the moment when we we connected was that vibration.
And when you say, there's someone I want to get to know, it's an honor for you to say that, my generation, to be able to build a bridge with the younger generation like you. And so what you felt was, energy, because it's like the wind. We don't see it, but we feel it. The best actor, the best actress can't cover it. You see a leaf moving, but you don't see. And then you look at someone and they treat you good, and then you see somebody else and you want them as energy. So that's what we felt.
And, that takes me to we were in a pure, high vibrating environment, and that's how we ended up here. And I am from and no one likes to claim the ghetto. You know, people don't like that word, you know, that's a negative. But somebody gotta claim it, so I claim it. And I am from the ghetto streets of Cleveland, Ohio. And when I say that, luckily, I did have 2 parents. They were as functional as they knew how to be.
But, if you're it, again, came out of a mother I shared earlier who had taken care of her business and didn't want any other children. She had an 8 year old that she had to raise, and she had left Baltimore to come to Cleveland all by herself. And so, that's where I'm from. And, you know, again, to say a kid got pregnant and not at 12, but 11. I was a mother by 12. Was it consensual? Not as much as a child can consent to something. You know? No. I actually, priest. Oh, fuck.
Makes you kinda I'm I I wanna keep that brief because most people get really sick. The stomach, like, yeah. Yeah. But it was Catholic. I was in that environment. And our preachers, our preacher's 13 year old son and those 2 things happened simultaneous pretty close together. So baby came out looking like me. Got it. Who knows who you know, I didn't have time to care. That's for sure. Was there any thought of not keeping the baby at that time? By the time the 2 parent household found out,
they thought I was 5 months. I was 7 months pregnant. Oh, wow. It's a writer would have a hard time writing this, and the book is eventually going to come, right now, a naked insanity. And you could imagine why the creator gave me those two words to put it together. Writing has not been my happy place, like, torturous. Mhmm. I didn't, I often say after having a child at 12, I nearly stepped outside of life, and I just became a viewer of it. You know?
I was sent away to a maternity home, and it cost a lot of money, as well as some of the best, quote, unquote, care. But I don't remember one person, and it was caseworkers and social workers. I remember that. It was again, it was, private. But I don't remember one thing that any adult said to me at that point. Not one. And, as a clinical psychologist now, I have a master's in clinical psychology and an ex convict. Let me put that out there. Yeah. We're gonna get there for sure. Yeah.
You also have an honorary doctorate. Correct? I do. Yeah. I earn master's honorary doctors, and I hear all the time. Hey, Sheryl. Put more weight on what you are today. You know, you gotta leave that in the past. You know? You put too much weight on that where you come from, though. It's look at who you are now, but It's all the same, though. Who we were is who we are. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta gotta mention that past to get to the future. Did did your parents go after the
nope. No. It was always a secret that rotten muscle. I know we'll jump around a lot, but I wanted to say that, they you know, being in this space and supposedly gonna give away this kid and private, not remembering one thing that an adult said. As a clinical psychologist, I think, how could that happen? You know? But when something like that happens and you reinforce, I was in Cleveland, not Mississippi. You know? So my father's mother had him
at 13. It was but in Cleveland, Ohio in 1970 71, it was unheard of, almost. And so I understand they were so outdone that I was, you know, 11, that the, caseworkers and the social workers used to just discuss that. So no no healing. Yeah. And did you end up giving up the child? I was supposed to. It's strange to say that because it was a maternity home where you were known first name, last initial only. Lot of, incest, fathers, raped daughters, brothers.
And, at the 12th hour, because daddy was from Mississippi, daddy said, the baby come home while all you gotta leave. And, Eric came home, and I became a sideshow. And that's when I I say I stepped outside of life. You know? That explains and I often when I speak in foster homes, funeral halls, prisons, I used to do it regularly. I always let young people know that I could have taken that pain and become I could have become a rocket scientist. I didn't have to become the criminal.
You know? So I always like to to own the choices we make, although a lot of times we don't have the tools, and we're so young, but still own it. Did you come up with Eric as sibling, or did you raise him as parent? He actually knew I was his mother, and my mother and father, supplied the money. I chose Milton, the 13 year old preacher's son, to say that was his father. And as far as the money and the bills and that kind of thing was handled, and I I couldn't be a mother.
You know, that it was impossible. But I was told, you know, you made your red heart. You gotta lay in it. And a lot of responsibility was heaped on me that I didn't understand. And, of course, everybody was literally in shock. It was just unheard of. Well, and the fact that somehow it was on you when you were the victim is Yeah. But that's I mean, it still happens today. That's the rhetoric around it. Yeah. Well, I was told I was fast. You know, in in the hood, you you
know, we hear that a lot. Girl, you fast. Ain't she fast? And then after having the baby, well, sheesh. I was I was a sideshow. You know? That's all I could say. Mhmm. Do you have siblings? I have 1, 8 years older. Oh, that's right. You said yeah. That's right. Close. Yeah. Ever close. Different fathers. Yeah. Half half sibling. Yeah. And in the black community, we rarely where I come from, we don't say half. If if you came out of mama,
we pretty much leave the half aside. You know, just the energy with mom and my sister, you know, they were kinda I got as I got older, I had to get some understanding to heal. And they were a team, and I was the outsider. So definitely not close at all, still to today. How did still today even. Still to today. Interesting.
So you're a kid, having a kid, and feeling rightfully ostracized that that those feelings are absolutely valid, of course, that how does one in absence of a parent, one must parent oneself whether they do it well or not. So how was your parenting of yourself through that time? Or were you just completely out of body until you were an adult? Good question. Was I out of body? I I I really understand disassociating from life and being on autopilot.
That is I don't wanna jump too soon in the story, but, and again, you guys gotta buy the book, so I can't tell it all here. I do hope you join me when the book comes out. It's so much just like a blur. Yeah. I just again, once I was if you tell a child they're bad, that's what they become. Mhmm. And because no one was around that knew how to handle this, they told me I was bad. And so I internalized that. And, that's where the medication of drugs came in.
You know, I skipped over marijuana, cigarettes, liquor, and started shooting heroin. Mhmm. Go big or go home. Oh, you you are so right. The monster was so big, you know, and he would not go home. So, yeah, I, actually, I think back now and just say thank God for deliverance. In this very moment, when I think I let I literally drew up drugs and stuck a syringe in my veins. I tell everybody that's a level of self hatred that the average cannot understand. Definitely.
Was there anyone in your life that noticed your pain? Mhmm. I had a grandmabula, and she was my mother's great grandmother. And by the time I had Eric, she was older, but she couldn't read. And when I was little, really little, like 6, 7, I remember threading the needle for Grandma Beulah and picking the fabrics, and I designed this.
I believe that's where it comes from, taking the going in the trunk and getting the fabric, and she would give me the scissors to cut the patches in, and we quilt together. And my Grandma Beulah, who couldn't read, would say, my nickname is Tootie.' And she would say, Tootie, you the strongest and the nicest and the smartest and the prettiest little girl in the whole wide world. Well, Tootie, you can do anything.
And then she was saying, grandma leave pretty for last, because pretty is as pretty does. And then she would say, show me your muscles. And I remember putting you know, I would be threading her needle, and she clap for me. And I'd lay the needle down and show my muscles, you know, and she just clap. And so when I got off in a hardcore drug use, I used to look in the mirror, and I would always see her grandma, Hula's voice. Why Tootie? You're the strongest
and the nicest. And I would look at everybody around me and say, why am I doing this? Why am I shooting this? I gotta speak up. I really believe, girl, my Beulah's voice, those seeds that got planted. I wanna say to every parent, clap every chance you get for little ones.
Instill in them, take this, those words. Every time you even if you're not a parent, wherever you see a little kid in a store, wherever, like, you're the smartest and the nicest and and give them a hand clap and plant those seeds as early as possible. Make that, serious practice in every young little kid's life you meet, because it followed me. And I kept on hearing grandma Beulah's voice, and people say, how did you pull yourself up out the dirt like you there is a creator.
I call that creator god that gives us grace. And god's saying, grandma, you I remember my mom coming in, you know, because she worked 2 jobs. Why are you spoiling her? Why are you spoiling? You're not the nicest. You're not the and she would be, like, in my face, you know, because and I remember, oh, grandma Beulah being over her shoulder. And I would look at grand grandma Beulah would be like, don't you listen? Yeah. And my mom walk away, grandma Beulah would
pick me up. And don't you pay no attention to seeing you. She don't know what she talk why, Tootie, you're the nicest. And that's if there's anything I attribute to assisting me while drowning inside of self hatred, grab my pillow. So how did you start to pull yourself out? Was there a rock bottom? Does was there a did someone come along? Was it all you? Well, luckily, I got rescued, not arrested, and ended up in prison.
And, my father had a brick company, 3rd grade education from Mississippi, but he built a brick business, worked at Republic Steel. We had a family attorney. And so when I caught a case, my website is, helping people grow.org, and or look up Cheryl rich.com. And, when I caught drugs, sales, car theft, check fraud, you know, luckily, never anything with any, youngsters or, you know, any death. Thank you, god.
My father would give our family attorney the money bag, and I actually went in the judge's chambers with the family attorney and watch the judge get his cut out, the money bag, the prosecutor, and our attorney. So I got a chance to see the just non justice system early on, and a young mind, and I will come out and stand in front of the judge, get probation. And that happened not once, not twice, not 3 times, not 4 times, not 5 times, but 6. Woah. Seven times.
Mhmm. Before my family found out, I had, marks on my arms, tracks from shooting heroin. And my daddy stopped giving mister Lee the money back, and I went away. And that's where God intervened in my life. I tell everybody I did not get arrested. I got rescued. And how long was your sentence? 4 years, 5 months. It's almost they call it a nickel. It's almost 5. But I don't take away a day or don't add 4 years, 5 months, and I got it down to the hours and the minutes. I bet.
But while I was there, the power of music and tell live vision, so about two and a half years in, Michael Jackson's man in the mirror. How many people claim that song as the healing and within their lives? The moment that one turned around and really looked in the mirror and said, I'm a start with me. And, first time he sang that on television, that I I jumped off of off the bunk, and I went to the mirror. And I said, I I don't know how I'm gonna find a way to love myself,
but I'm not gonna hate myself anymore. And if mom loved my sister more than me and they were my torture team, why not shoot the drugs in them? I'm like, why that hurt me? I'm like, that's it. When I get out of here, if they bother me, I'm a shoot the drugs in them. So right after Michael Jackson, Don King came on. He's from Cleveland. Okay? Television, again. But I had a chance to see someone. People say, well, that wasn't the best role model, but he was a role model. He's
from ghetto streets of Cleveland. He had been to prison, and he was doing something with his life. And in that moment, I said, I'm gonna do something with my life when I get out of here. And I said, boxing is grueling. Oh, I'll go find the Beverly Hillbillies. The power of television. When I was little, I used to look at their floors, look at our floors. I was like, I gotta blow this joint. Granny and Jethro, they had a pool and a poodle and so and then this last name, Sheryl Rich, didn't help.
Rich in the hood? Like, Sheryl Rich and no money? I was like, I'm out. And then something said, okay. Go go chase the ghost, the dream. Because I thought there was something you could find called success outside of oneself. And the creator held that back until I got that message. Was there a sobriety plan in prison? Would did you have
people that supported you there? Because, I mean, you know, you're filled it's filled with people that have also carry a lot of pain and are trying to find their way or not. Prison is another world. You know? The a lot of guards, you know, make their living by bringing things in and out. You know? And in that moment, I had the opportunity, and that's where grace intervened, and I made a choice. Healing is a choice. And nobody can tell me because I've been through it.
I am here to say that regardless of what a person has endured, that if you really decide I'm tired of hurting, tell me, well, how quick do you make up your mind? Faster than you could blink your eyes. Your mind has to tell your eyes to blink. And people are in the Betty Ford Center right now paying, I think last time I checked, almost a 100,000 a month or something. Woah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it's I don't know the price. And when last time I checked, it was over 50.
But for what has to happen, they're paying for what they must do, and that's blink their eyes and say, I'm done. Hurdle. And so I am a witness that by the grace yes, you must claim this creator who created you. And I tell everyone, if you don't believe in it, go create yourself. Come back. Tell me how that went for you. There is something. Show me who lives forever. So everyone who is chosen again and highly favored to catch this podcast, I don't care what you're going through.
We can't be we become addicted to the pain. We become addicted to the chaos and the confusion. And just like we because it's not the substance. It's never the substance. So we can make that choice, and that's when I made the choice that I didn't want any drugs that I could get into prison. I was like, I'm
done. So just really understanding that, chaos and confusion is an addiction, and just as as we as easy as it is to accept that we're addicted to the pain, it is just as easy to become addicted to joy. That's where I'm at now. Happy meal. You eat a meal, you're it's delicious. An hour later, you forgot. I'm talking internal joy. And I never thought, and I'll tear up and start crying, that I would experience the feeling of having joy inside, that nothing and when I say nothing can tamper with
that, I just got tested. My mother just had a stroke, and she's 89 years old, and I love my mom. You know, we we still had our challenges, but I love my mom, and she just had a stroke. And any other time, I would be allowing the demonic forces that's what I call them. Baby, I hate to bring in. I'm not, you know, the old girl, the old black woman. It's the holy holy roller, but they it come a time where you just gotta acknowledge them for what they are, and that is,
the demonic forces. It is good and evil definitely exist. And at this point, I could literally be a basket case about the whole situation that happened, like, September 10th. So you're talking very not long ago. And right off the top, the holy spirit I normally say the spirit voice because I would like to turn nobody off with the religious stuff. It's not religion. It's spiritual. That's what I am. But, someone said, girl, you gotta clarify which spirit voice?
So the holy spirit voice recently said to me when it happened, your mother is my child. I loaned her to you. So now are you gonna, like, second guess me? And I had to go back and forth because the voices in my head was telling me, hey. You're supposed to be sad, devastated, and that's fine. Have a conversation. The more you practice, the better you get at this. So my faith just got tested, and feels good to know you're gonna get tested with all that come out your mouth. Well,
you bring up such a good point. Our emotions when our emotions rule us instead of we being having dominion over our emotions, that's where we get into trouble. Yes. Especially with the negative ones. But even I think people can be in ecstasy and be manic. So even the joy side can get problematic if it's you know, there's a balance to everything. Everything in nature has a balance. Yeah. And that's what we are work in progress. You're right. 5 happy medium.
Yeah. Did your family visit you while you were incarcerated? My mom. Mhmm. Yes. She did. Eric? Yeah. Eric came. Yeah. But mom had to bring him. So yeah. What what happened next then? You you get out? Yeah. Eric gets killed in a car accident. Oh my god. My only kid. Yes. I'm so sorry. Okay? What happened around that drunk driver? Well, well, he was actually high himself. He had a mother that got high. Yeah. That pain travels if we don't heal. Right? And 6 months, 17 days later, he was
killed in a car accident, you know? He's creating he's the reason the car accident happened, and and God, allowed him to get his wings. And all of this to say and that's what I packed up 5 boxes of Computer and a Dream and took off to find the Beverly Hillbillies, came to the state called Hollywood. I want to say that, life's a journey. And when Eric got killed, I was I mean, when Eric died, I was devastated, and I never ever thought I would recover. And that was January 28, 1989.
I went away to prison March 10, 1985. I came home July 11, 1989, and January 28th 1990 is when Eric left. 6 months, 17 days later. But I had a chance to, like, say, hey. I despised you when I had you. Now I love you. We had 6 months, 17 days together, and learned so much in such a small amount of time, and most of all, to understand it's all just a journey.
When we really grasp that what we perceive as the good, the bad, and the ugly, is all just a part of the journey, and that's what I am a witness to. You know, Eric, once he left, I packed up 5 boxes of Computer and a Dream. I hit Hollywood, was chasing the ghosts called The Illusion Called Success. God held it back many years. 1st executive producer, credit. Thank you, Doug DeLuca, co executive producer of Jimmy Kimmel Live. Gave me my first break in this town
called Hollywood, cracked that door for me. The name of the show is called The House. It was on Fox Soul. Did 2 seasons, 3rd season. I realized, be careful what you ask for. You might get it. After all that, from ex con to executive producer and then the lesson, you sure you want this?' a lot of toxicity started happening, within my Black people. You know, the enslavement trade, it taught us to teach them to hate themselves. We won't have to worry about it. It's real serious.
And many communities have their challenges. Definitely in the Black community, we have ours. So 3rd season, I said, no, nothing is worth my peace of mind.' And that was that was a moment that I was like, you sure? I'm sure. So now honorary doctorates, Word of God International University, Doctor. Joshua Smith has his own Jewish diction. Anybody that doesn't know what that means, do you some research. The name of the nonprofit is called Helping People
Grow. I came to LA to chase the ghosts of Hollywood, and I stopped off at Antioch University here in Marina del Rey, and got the earned Master's in Clinical Psychology. Then I put it on the shelf and started, chasing all Hollywood. So now at this stage with an honorary doctorates, thanks to Word of God International University, I was able to get the nonprofit, and I'm in the streets. I've had a 25 for 25 years. It's been a street ministry.
I pay people for their words of wisdom that are sleeping on the ground. I don't look for the 1 in a SUV or RV or car tent. I pass out pillows to the ones that's laying on the ground, and that's the most important thing I do in my life is see how I can make someone else's life a little easier. So I don't. I've never done the grants and the proposals and those kinds of things, but I've been funding things myself, and I've got some things in the pipeline
now. And all of you that's getting ready to hear this, hey. Reach out to auntie Cheryl by way of Susan and Hey Human and who knows how we will all come together and and work to make this place, this earth a better place. What's something from your street ministry that has really stuck with you as far as the people who are unhomed, what their outlook is, and what you see in their humanity? Well, when I we came together again at the movie, no address, and it is a feature film.
They put in work, and there really is a real people that's been in the entertainment industry, came together for a topic that is just people don't want to, a lot of people don't wanna pay attention to that when it comes to a feature film. So it was very powerful to see that a feature got put together because what I have learned from those who have to sleep in the cold elements at night, didn't want to exploit, so I started paying people for their words of wisdom.
For whatever reason, I think they are the strongest of the strongest of the strongest. Not suicide, but to choose to just say, I can't take it, and I'm just gonna live like this. And this society that teaches you the more you have, the better you are. So it's the words of wisdom from that one that's laying on the ground, from that one that's living in a tent. I encourage all of you. Carry an apple or orange. Set at a distance. Because what I was doing is quite dangerous.
Can be very dangerous sometimes to really walk up on people, and, you know, that's really in a lot of pain. But do everything you can to see how you can help somebody, And that's the only way I could say that joy manifests in your lives. Yeah. Making it outside of oneself is really the key because then you don't have time to obsess over yourself. We were really put here. We're hardwired to care about each other. Heaven forbid, if if somebody gets punched right now, we
see it. We're like, oh, because we feel it. We're here for each other. And to serve, there's no higher honor. Remind people again how to find you on the websites. Yes. So Cheryl Rich, c h e r y l r I c h.com, and it's pointed to the helping people grow.org. Sometimes on the Android, people have a a problem getting to helping people grow.org. So both of those, and look out for me coming I'm coming to live stream with Susan. I'm gonna let you know about it so you can reach out to your population.
Absolutely. And, see what the creator has in store for auntie Shirl for the the next chapter of her journey. And you're writing a book too. Yes. I am. Naked Insanity. Hopefully, I have an editor. She's been torturing me because she knows I'm so handicapped when it comes to this. And I'm hoping Diane commits to assisting me so I could get this finished she's paid already. So let's hope so. Do you have a space that you go and sit and write?
Is that the issue, or is it just trying to get your head wrapped around digging up old stories? No. I wrote a rough draft. I life has been too full. So it's just from birth to Eric's hitting his wings. I hate to say death. And, I wrote 260 some pages, but I I like I said, I didn't get the foundation, really, of education under my belt after a 12 year old mother. It's been all willpower. So my writing has gotten so much better.
I've I've spent maybe over I don't wanna even talk about how much money I've spent with wrong people that said they could assist me with getting this done. So Rayanne has learned how to work with me, and I'm hoping that we get to follow through. And if not, I'll be on my livestream coming to the world telling the world, somebody come help me finish this book, please. Yeah. Well, I'm excited to read it when you're done, and all things in their time. I really believe that.
That's right. So it it will be and Eric, I'm sure, is also guiding you. I also believe that very strongly. I agree. Yeah. And your great grandmother. Grandma Beulah. Thank you. You you your warmth is just infectious, and you're gonna stay in touch, you love. Absolutely. Thank you for listening, everybody. Thank you, Cheryl. Thank you, everyone. Oh, I'm so happy that the creator touched you. You're gonna you've touched a lot of lives. You're gonna keep on. Thank you so much. Oh. Hey, humans. We
love you. Bye. Bye. Rate, review, and subscribe to Hey Human Podcast on Apple, Iheart, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks. Bye.