Urban Christian Veterans
Urban Christian Veterans
Shy Soldier, Strong Voice
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A shy soldier who never wanted the Army. A first-day love that turned into three decades of marriage. A devastating loss that changed how she sees medicine, paperwork, and the quiet ways systems fail people. Jennifer Harris sits down with us to share a candid, moving journey through service, grief, perseverance, and the kind of faith that refuses to give up.
We start with training at Fort Leonard Wood and Fort Lee, then land at Fort Hood, where Jennifer met Donald on day one. From there, life became a cycle of PCS resets and reinvention: finishing an accounting degree, chasing jobs across duty stations, and eventually pivoting into legal studies and personal injury work. Jennifer pulls back the curtain on PI cases, slow timelines, frustrated clients, and the emotional labor of being the front line for people in pain, while revealing how employers often overlook real capability when résumés don’t fit a neat mold.
Jennifer speaks openly about bias, from a surreal “wig committee” before graduation and an officer demanding a salute from behind, to civilian interviews that praised her, then quietly passed her over. The heart of the episode centers on her stillbirth and the missed preeclampsia warning signs that should have kept her in the hospital. She describes the keepsake box that holds her son’s memory and how that experience reframed her understanding of Black maternal health, advocacy, and the crucial habit of documenting everything for VA benefits. Through it all, her faith and family sustain her, along with a stubborn resilience that helped a shy recruit pass BRM on pop-up targets and later speak truth in rooms that didn’t expect to hear it.
If you’ve ever struggled with transition, questioned your worth after a rejection, or needed permission to grieve and keep building, Jennifer’s story will meet you where you are. Listen, share with a veteran or military family who needs it, and if this conversation resonates, subscribe and leave a review so others can find it too.
Welcome And Guest Introduction
SPEAKER_02U.S. Army veteran Jennifer Harris. Are you ready?
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_02All right, let's get into it.
SPEAKER_00Urban Christian veterans provide a safe place for Christian veterans of color to discuss the challenges you face in your daily lives. Being a person of color has its challenges. Being a Christian has its challenges. Being a veteran has its challenges. Thank you for tuning in to the Urban Christian Veterans Podcast. Here's your host, the Allen Rose.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for this. This is the Alan Rose. Listening to the Urban Christian Veterans Podcast. So first, thank you so much for taking the time to sit with me today. I greatly appreciate it. So let's jump right
Service Background And Family Roots
SPEAKER_02in. Do you mind telling the audience a little bit about yourself?
SPEAKER_03Okay. Like I said, I'm a U.S. Army veteran. I spent four years in the military. I only had one duty station, Fort Hood, Texas.
SPEAKER_02Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_03I did my um basic boot camp training at what is known as Fort Lawsonwood, Missouri. So Fort Linewood, Missouri. And then I did my AIT at Fort Lee, Virginia. And um got to Fort Hood, met my husband the first day.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_03Yep. First day. First day I got there and um been together 32 years, married 30. I'm a mother of one, but I have two stepchildren, and between the two of them, we have seven grandchildren. Wow. Um, our daughter together, she don't have any kids, so she's 25. She told me I had seven, so I didn't need any, but I want one biological one from her when she gets married. Okay, right on. So I'm a mother, wife, grandmother, they call me J-Ma. And a daughter, of course, a sister, and I'm a paralegal.
From Accounting To Paralegal Work
SPEAKER_02Paralegal, okay. Cool. So uh what's that like being a paralegal?
SPEAKER_03Wow. So the industry that I'm in, which is personal injury, but I don't know. Personal injury is, you know, mostly car accidents, slip and falls, and I've been in it 12 years now, was it 13, 13 years now, and the adjusters is everything is getting harder. Like Georgia passed a law about litigation things, and it's just getting harder. The process is a long process, so you know, clients kind of get frustrated, think we're not working on their case when we are. So it's it's just a lot, you know, dealing with um the public versus I was in accounting for 10 years and I didn't deal with people, but everybody thinks I am a people person, but everybody thinks, oh, you would be good at sales or um like customer service because I have a welcoming spirit, but that don't mean you want to deal with it all the time. So I'm like, I don't want to work on commission. Okay, and you could tell the difference back in the day. Like now with tipping, it's just like automatic now. But you know, back in the day, if you go into a clothing store or something, you can tell when they worked on commission because as soon as you walk in, they're complimenting you, they're all on you. Nowadays you can't even find the help. So it's like so so.
SPEAKER_02Let me ask you this. Did you what what was your MOS in the military?
SPEAKER_03My MOS was 76 Charlie, and then it went over, it switched over to 92 Alpha, so that's supply.
SPEAKER_02Supply, okay. So um when you went into the civilian world, you went totally away from everything you did in the military?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, um, sort of when so when I went got out of the military, before I went in, I only had completed two years of college. And I don't remember how many credits I got because honestly, how I ended in the military, high school I did good, college I kind of partied. So when I got out the military, I went back to school. Donald was stationed at Fort McCullough. So I went to school at um Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama, and I finished up my accounting degree, and I was shocked when I got my transcript. I had did better than I thought I had did because I knew I wasn't going to school when I got to Eastern Michigan. I was really going to Alabama AL. And I was like, wait, I did this good. So I mean, I some of it I did bad, but I did good enough to have some credit still. And so I had two years to finish up and I got my accounting degree in 1999. And so um I did accounting for 10 years, like I said, and Donald was still in the military, so I had to every three years get a new job.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03And I thought, so I ended up going back to school, which that's something I didn't want to do either. I never thought I would go back to school, but
Military Training, Stations, And Marriage
SPEAKER_03when we were stationed at Fort Campbell, that was the first time, usually when we PCS, it took me three months to get a job. We got to Fort Campbell. What year was that? Gosh, I don't remember what year it was. Like 2009 time frame.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_03And that's the first time it took me a year to get a job. I think I got a little depressed. And um Donald was sending out my resume, and he was making me mad by doing that. But uh, this lady I met at church introduced me to somebody and out on base, and I ended up getting $6,000 military spouses to go back to school or go to school. And I used that towards my master's, and I got my master's in legal studies. And while I was still in my master's program, like I said, Donald had sent my resume out, and I got a phone call. This was so weird. I got a phone call on Thursday, and they asked me, Can I start work on Monday? And I'm like, Who is this? I didn't even have an interview and I didn't send my resume to you. But Donald, you know, that networking on base or whatever. And I guess my resume was that good because I started work on Monday and I got paid for like two months to do nothing because my background check had took that long to come in, so they couldn't give me any passwords. So my supervisor let me do my homework. So I was getting paid to do homework. And um, so when I graduated, the actually the the day of my graduation, I didn't go to my graduation, we were moving from Fort Campbell to Georgia. And I thought once we got here, he was gonna retire, which he did. And now I said the first job I get, I'm retiring from that job because I was tired of switching every three years. Lo and behold, no, this company is probably my seventh law firm I didn't work for since I've been in Georgia. So it is the best one that I've worked at, but um, and it's black-owned. Um, but yeah, I was like, God, no, it didn't work. The first job I got, um, just like when I got my degree in accounting, my first job in Montgomery, I was so disappointed. I thought going to college, you know, you get your little business degree, whatever, you get your briefcase, you dressing all night, and you go start off making fifty thousand dollars. No, I my first accounting job, I was making twenty-seven thousand dollars. What kind of money with that? Oh, but the other question. So the when I got the military and I was in school, the job I ended up having because I work part-time, it was like what I was doing in the military, sort of in the warehouse. Okay, so that was the closest. But um, first I was working at a grocery store, and that was no money. That's embarrassing as a grown woman, thinking I have any kids, making $4.25 at the grocery store when I got the military. And um, and I remember this guy I interviewed for the grocery store as a cashier, and I interviewed for a hostess position. And he really I had already accepted the other job, but he really was trying to convince me to come. And I was scared to go for one reason because I always felt like if they were short on waitress, they would probably say, Oh, we need you to do the waitress job. He's like, No, no, we'll never do that. You know, you got a pretty smile. It was pretty back then. He was like, You got a pretty smile, you'll be a good hostess. And then I said, But you're not even enticing me to make me want to come because he didn't even want to offer me one cent more than the 425.
Career Transitions And Education Paths
SPEAKER_03He wanted to offer me the same thing. I think I'm gonna turn down the other job that I took prior. I'm like, if you had offered me 475 or 5, maybe I would have taken it. You offered me the same thing, and I gotta stand up all the time. But anyway, I end up, I don't know how I found a warehouse job, but I ended up getting that job. And I thought I was making money because I was double of what I was making at the grocery store. It was like $865 or something, and um, I got I stayed there until I graduated, and um yeah, we got I graduated right when we were moving to from Anniston to Montgomery for Donald to finish up his degree at Alabama State.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah, awesome. So, what was your reason for joining the military to begin with?
SPEAKER_03Basically, like I said, the commercials would come on and I would change the commercial, change the channel. I was not interested in the military. And like I said, I wasn't really doing it. It was summertime from my sophomore year. I guess I was a sophomore, I guess I was because my credits were better than I thought. But it was summer, I was at home, and the recruiter had called, and when he introduced himself as sergeant, whatever his name was, I thought he was this officer. And that's how he got because I was asleep taking a nap when I woke up. That's how he got as far as he did. Because I was like, dang, I thought you were somebody else, but you know, he was this recruiter, and you know, trying to convince me and everything. And I'm telling him all kinds of reasons why, you know, they got other they got a response to everything. I was just like, at the time I thought I was in love with this guy, and I was just like, you know, my boyfriend, this and that. He he gonna lie and say, Oh, your boyfriend can come and y'all can live on base or what all that kind of stuff. He ain't say y'all had to be married and all that, you know, he just feed me all this stuff. Your boyfriend can come and y'all can live on base and this, this, and that, and trying to make everything sound good. And I'm still like, oh no. So I don't even so I think because I really didn't know what I was doing in school. I changed my major every semester. I went in as pre-law thinking I wanted to be an attorney. Then I changed it to social work, I changed it to accounting from accounting to nursing, which I don't know why I tracked the nursing theme. That was because of my mother, but um went back to accounting. It I just wasn't, I don't know, I wasn't focused, didn't know what I wanted to do. And so I entertained it because even my mother, I think when she saw my grade, she was like, What are you doing? So it was so I entertained it because it was like, Okay, what am I doing? But when he picked me up that morning to take me wherever we went to end process before I swore in, and I went to my mother's room to tell her bye, it was like early, like maybe 3 a.m. And I was crying. She was like, You cried? I was like, Yep, I did not want to go. I did not want to go. But even though my recruiter lied to me, I do give him credit and thank him for he conditioned me because I'm not I hate running. I even hate working out. I'm I'm doing better with it, but I just you know, I don't like all that stuff. But he got me in shape. So when we get to wherever you get to, and they make the boys do 13 push-ups and the girls do the one push-up. Otherwise, you gotta go to that two-week prior boot camp training. I was like, Thank you, Lord, because people had to really go. And I did my one push-up and I did my singles or whatever, and I was like, Thank you for that. Well, yeah, so he he did. We he would come pick me up, we would go running, you know. We did it so and he didn't tell me I had to do it. I probably would have had more motivation, but I didn't know about that pre-thing or whatever. But yeah, he did get me in shape for that, so I thank him for that. But I still be mad at
Why She Joined And Early Conditioning
SPEAKER_03him about his lies. Yeah, yeah, that that that remedial um that remedial training you gotta go through if you don't if he didn't do what he did, I would have had to be in the remedial, and I probably would have said no, I changed my mind, but but he got me ready.
SPEAKER_02So wow, okay. So if you had a chance to do it all over again, would you?
SPEAKER_03Sometimes I say no just because I did not like the military.
SPEAKER_02Really? Okay.
SPEAKER_03I didn't I didn't like being in the military, but I don't regret. I like being a veteran. Okay, but um, and then like I said, I met Donald, but I think um, but sometimes you know you just sit around and you think about things if you can do things differently. I think sometimes I probably would do things differently, but at the same time, I don't know, because I always say uh I never wanted to join, but things always happen the way they're supposed to happen. So I don't know, intentionally I probably would say no, I wouldn't join. But I don't I don't know what my life would look like if I didn't, you know? And I got a good life. Right.
SPEAKER_02No, understood, understood. So um I guess this lends into the the next question, which is during your military career, did you experience any negativity due to you being a service member of color?
SPEAKER_03I'm sure I have, but I think I actually honestly I think I experienced more racism being a civilian than in the military. I just have um, I think with me, and it's not just the military, it's a lot of places, but with me, I my issues were with mostly black women.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Speak on that.
SPEAKER_03A lot of times it's them, sometimes I I hate to use the word jealous because like I don't have anything to be jealous of, but that's the only thing I can think of is like, and then why are you jealous of me? You're E5, you're E6, why you tripping on me, you know, but um, you know, um only thing I can think of, I remember in I don't know, was it boot camp or AIT? It might have been AIT, it was AIT, because we have more freedom, AIT. And I'm standing on steps facing the door, talking to some of my battle buddies, and this white officer he comes up behind me and he taps me on the back of my shoulder. And I look back and he says, You didn't salute me. And I looked at him, I said, Where are you tapping me on the back of my back? Obviously, I didn't see you. And it's like, really? He tapped me on the back of my shoulder for me to salute him. Wow. He walked away. But and then I remember when I was on the plane and my um green, the um, what you call the dress greens, the pants, right? Right. And this old white man, he's like, they let y'all wear pants now.
SPEAKER_02Oh, wow. Wait a minute, wait, wait, wait.
SPEAKER_03So, women, you know, they used to wear the dresses all the time because they didn't have pants.
SPEAKER_02So, so back to the officer when he tapped you on the shoulder. You mentioned that you were out there with your battle buddies. Did he say anything to anybody else?
SPEAKER_03No, and that was weird, just out of the blue, just and I don't remember my battle buddies. Um, let me see, it might have been because of who I used to hang with. It was two of us were black, then it was a white girl, then it was a Hispanic one, and then one was from Hawaii. So I don't we didn't really hang with a white person. But I don't know, it just was weird. I was just like, and I was surprised me because I'm like, even though I talk and people think I'm not shy the way I am, and it's a lot of times, and some people think I'm bold, but I'm really not. But I'm surprised I said what I said, but it was because and and not just go ahead and salute them. But it was just like, I don't know. Maybe I was feeling myself that day, I don't know, but it was just like, really? I don't know.
SPEAKER_02So we we need to explain some so people think you're shy, or you're saying I am shy, but people don't think I am. You're shy. Okay, so you are shy, but people don't think you're shy. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Because I talk.
SPEAKER_02I think I would fall into that category. I don't know you. I don't I don't think you're shy.
SPEAKER_03Donald does too. He doesn't think I am, but I said that's part of being shy. Some uh one of the characteristics, if you look it up, we talk and we talk a lot to kind of like cover it up, I guess. It's you know, we're talkative. Some people are not talkative, but mine I'm talkative.
Would She Do It Again
SPEAKER_03But um, I know that's why I don't like being I don't like being put on the spot, I don't like being embarrassed, I don't like video and I don't like public speaking, like and I'll talk like if it's one-on-one or a group of intimate, close family and friends, I would talk. But if it's like a group setting, a convention, all that public speaking stuff, mm-mm.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so so the dude who saw you in in your dress blue or your um the green, yeah, your your uh your pants.
SPEAKER_03Yes, yep. It was cold. I wasn't gonna wear that skirt.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Wow.
SPEAKER_03Then I think another thing I was mad about. So in boot camp, and I don't know if it's because it was just stricter because you're in boot camp, but you know, you get you still have AI regulations when you're in boot camp that you should follow, right? So in the military, here you go again. Um, most of the girls, it was this one girl, black girl, she was doing a lot
Subtle And Overt Bias In Uniform
SPEAKER_03of the females' hair and for graduation, and for whatever reason, me and her didn't get along, so of course she ain't do my hair, and you know, hair we sweating, whatever is looking a hot mess, and the people at the little beauty salon or whatever, they don't know nothing about our hair. So I I used to wear a um like a short wig, okay, and so I remember one of the drill sergeant because when we went into the gas chamber, I couldn't wear the wig in there. Okay, and so he was cheesing and laughing because the wig was in my helmet. Oh man outside, he was cracking up whatever he said. He was just like, that's the funniest thing. But anyway, when it came time to graduation, do you know they had like a whole committee about whether or not if I can wear that wig on graduation? And I'm like, it's in the little pamphlet that we get that you can wear as long as it whatever, whatever. And it was short, it wasn't like the you know, this or weave, whatever. It was a short, short, like pixie haircut. And I remember this black female, I don't know what she was one of the ones who decided, but I believe she was. On our locker, you know how they come and inspect your locker. So on my locker, I had this drawing of me that my ex-boyfriend had drew on me. Okay, and my hair, like back in the day, I had thicker hair, long, pretty hair. People used to think it was weave. I wish it would come back, but I don't know. I think it's gone. Okay, but I had a picture of me that he drew and it looked just like me. And I had the wig on. And the lady she kept looking and she was asking me, she said, Is that all your hair? You know, in the picture. I said, Yes. And she said, You still have it? I said, Yes, she said, it's under the wig now. I said, Yes. And she was like, How? Because I had so much hair, but it I was just wrapped around my head or pulled back or whatever, and I just you know had the wig on. And she was just like, I don't know, but anyway, like I said, they came back and they decided after I don't know, a week or two and told me no, I couldn't wear it at graduation. And I was so upset, like showing them this AR where it said, and nope, I think that lady has something to do with it. But um, no, I couldn't wear my wig graduation. So most of the girls they haired hair finger waves, she did the hair looking all cute. Nope, mine's just kind of like pull back in the ball, whatever. So I got to wear the whole time in boot camps. I'm I had my mother send it to me. So the whole time in boot camp, I'm wearing this wig, but on graduation. I didn't get to wear it.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So this is this is basic training uh graduation and they would not let you wear it.
SPEAKER_03That's crazy, right? And so is this I got to wear it doing boot count. So if if I could wear the graduation, I shouldn't have been able to wear it throughout boot count.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um that sounds like some foolishness, but yeah, I think it was crazy.
SPEAKER_03So is that around the time where you had your class A's on and and uh no that was before because the class A's were I'm thinking is when I was either
Shyness, Voice, And Self-Image
SPEAKER_03going home before going to AIT or leaving home after AIT going to my first duty station. It was one of those things. I got you.
SPEAKER_02So it's after boot camp. After that, okay. And so he makes the comment, so they let you wear pants now. Yeah, okay. So I I don't know how to take that.
SPEAKER_03Like it could was he you you mentioned he was he was an old white man, so we like women should be in dresses, barefooted pregnant, probably didn't even want me to be in the military.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Okay. Did it go with it? How did it how did that conversation go? Like he said, and then what then what?
SPEAKER_03So long ago, I think I just said yes and sat down and that was it.
SPEAKER_02Wow, okay.
SPEAKER_03That was it.
SPEAKER_02Okay, cool. At least you didn't, you know, respond all crazy, but no. Okay, so so looking back to the day you left the military, what advice would you give your younger self about how society would treat you as a Christian veteran of color?
SPEAKER_03I don't think people look at me and know, oh, she's a black Christian of color, okay. Veteran. You know, I don't think so. I think um how people treat if they're gonna treat you a certain way, it's not because you're a Christian, because a lot of times they don't even know unless they ask sometimes, because I remember I had a friend in Aniston, and she was a good person, you know, and she did right by everything. So I assumed that she was a Christian until she got saved. And I was just like, oh wow. I didn't know. And her and her husband at the time, they were just on fire for God, and I never knew because they, you know, they did things as a Christian would do, you know, they weren't bad people, but yes, I don't think I don't know. I don't that question is hard for me because I think um people, I think people know, like a lot of people I've been told my light shine sometimes. So um I think people, well, people know because at work, I mean people my gifts would be like prayers and things like that. So you know, they know that I'm a Christian and all that, but I don't think um like just an everyday passing, people would be like, oh, she must be a Christian and she black and she's a veteran, so I'm gonna treat her this type of way.
SPEAKER_02Okay, okay. And so is there any advice that you would give your younger self talking about the day you left? The day I left about how some challenges that society is gonna throw at you, period.
Advice To Younger Self And VA Benefits
SPEAKER_03This was a question I probably should have prepared for I don't know. Only this is not even advice, but I think sometimes, and I and I asked down on this a couple of weeks ago because the difference between like PCS and or eat not PCS and ETS and out and retiring. When you retire, you go, I guess, through a whole different chain of things. And so, because I remember, you know, he he gets disability, and I don't know, everybody keep telling me, Oh, I need to apply for it, and I always like, oh, I want to do it, but lately I've been thinking about doing it because I got frosted in boot camp. And every time we get it, don't even have to be real cold, it could be the AC could be on too um high or low or whatever, and my toes and fingers are starting getting really cold or burned or whatever. And I was like, I don't even know if it's in my records though, because my battle buddies literally had to carry me to boot count because I couldn't walk on my feet. And the wait was so long, by the time they got to me, I had thawed out, and it was so dismissive that I don't even think it was in that they put it in my um records. Um, one of our friends from Cap 4Count was like, it's in your records in your records. But um, every time just matter of fact, today at work, my toes got cold and they started like that burning sensation. I was like, Yeah, maybe I need to go ahead and get my records and apply, even if it's just 10%. But I think getting out when I ETS out and went through, I don't even remember a lot of it, but you know, you go through your little classes to help you accolade to civilian world, especially if you went straight after high school. But I don't remember anything about them asking about any disabilities or whatever. I don't remember, it was just so simple when I got out, versus when Donna retired, it was a whole different package thing that he went through and all this, and like almost automatically getting disability or whatever. But um, and he didn't automatically 100%, but you know, it was just it was different, and then you know, with being retired, you have different benefits, you know. As a veteran, you know, we have access to the VA and all that, but the things is being retired is a blessing, like our daughter, she got to go to school free. Thank God for that. And then, you know, we had tri was it tri care for life or triprime life or whatever health care. I never paid for health care out of my pay. You know, and that's a lot, you know, that's savings because some people are paying three, four hundred dollars a month, so that's a blessing, and it has good um it's good um benefits because I remember when I had surgery in Montgomery, all I ever paid was a $50 co-pay for that surgery, and that's included my follow-up visas and everything. So we're blessed with that. Um, so yeah, the retirement versus just getting out is different, and so I sometimes I but up getting out. I think I wish I had have maybe prepared more and applied for certain things. But I the time like I only spent four years, uh, ain't nothing wrong. But I think like I said, my frostbit won first frostbite, and then I had a stillborn when we were in the military. And those records definitely would show that it was their negligence. Um, especially I lost my baby on a was it a Monday? Oh, on a Monday, and they told me my baby had been dead for two weeks. And I said that's impossible because I just had a prenatal visit Thursday prior to that Monday, and they were just trying to cover up some stuff. But I don't know what they're trying to cover up because by me being in the military, Donald being in the military, um, me being married, nobody could sue. And he, if he had to live one second, then he could have sued on his own behalf, but he was born dead, so it was no loophole that we can go through to even sue on that. Because you know, you're not you can't sue the military and all that, but um them saying he was dead for two weeks. When I had that prenatal visit, they was not even supposed to let me leave the hospital. But as a person, and now I'm not so so much like that, but at the time, you kind of trust the medical providers, what they're telling you. You know, you're not the doctor. So when they let me leave, far as I knew, everything was good. But got my records, they should have admitted me that day because I had protein in my urine, my blood pressure was sky
The Stillbirth, Medical Neglect, And Grief
SPEAKER_03high, I had too much weight gain in one week, and I forget it was another one now, but I know those three protein in my urine, the weight gain, the high blood pressure. I want to say something else, I don't know, but those three things alone, they were supposed to admit me to the hospital. So I had pre-eclampsia. And so that Monday we had a football game on base, and I just had this sharp pain, and I have a high tolerance of pain. My friend always reminded me of that because they kept saying you need to go to the doctor, and I was like, I think I had it before. And I was like, No, it's it's normal, it's normal. We got home and I went to the bathroom and it was just blood everywhere. So Donald and our friend, though they called, you know, 911, the ambulance was taking too long. They carried me to the car, and I get, I think they were doing like 150 with the hazard lights on to get me to the hospital on base. But I already knew that he was deceased, and then when I got there, I remember asking one of the doctors, a physician, or whatever, but was he okay? And it's mean he was so mean, and I was like, Is my baby okay? And he was like, he was like um something about he said something really ugly, and he's like, We're trying to figure it out. And then I threw a ball over him and I was like, Good, that's what he gets. Because he was just really ugly. I couldn't remember exactly what he said, but at the time I remember like it was just ugly, and I'm just like, What? But um, yeah, he um so yep, he was born dead, and um, so I know that's in my records, but um, other than that, I'm like, I don't know what else I'd have to be in there to be trying to claim anything. But like I said, I'll tell my younger self to maybe do more paperwork. I was just concerned with just getting out. I was happy to get out. But nothing to prepare myself for. I think by me being married when I got out and married to who I'm married to, the um person I knew who was gonna take care of me. He, like I said, at that time he was an officer. Um, he was he might have been an E5, maybe an E6. I don't know if he had made an E6 yet, but he always been the leader type of person and wanted to go. So I uh even though like I said, I worked part-time when I got out while he was um stationed at Fort Innocence, but um, I don't know, I just I don't know. It just I don't know. It's I didn't feel like I um I guess if I wasn't married, it would have been different, and maybe I would have stayed even longer if I hadn't been married. I don't know. But things work out the way they do. I don't really have anything to tell myself except for we maybe we're gonna doing so whatever paperwork you need to do to get disability at that time instead of having to now try to get your paperwork, missing work to go on doctor visits and all that's it's just a lot. But every time my toes and fingers get cold, I think, yeah, I need to go ahead and see if I can just even get five percent for that.
SPEAKER_02Okay, well, first let me just say um my condolences. Uh I hate that you that you went through that. Um thank you. And just out of curiosity, um the doctor that and the and the the whole staff that you were dealing with at the time. Um I'm just curious, were they black, white? What what was their makeup?
SPEAKER_03Most of them was white. I don't remember if I encountered, I think once maybe after um by doing the prenatal thing, I think most of them was white, but I remember after they delivered him. I vaguely want to remember there was a black person because I remember um after they delivered him and we got to hold him, and they told me, uh, and I I regret to this day that I didn't ask to hold him again because they said let us know, you know, if you want to hold him again. I never did, but um, when I got home, they had prepared, we still have it as a purple box, and it had two flaps with a ribbon, and you open it up. One side has his um his footprint, the other side has his birth information. Well, he was never born, his death information, but um then inside I put his death certificate inside of it, and it had his um his little clothes, and they look they're so little, they're like a little square, they were so tiny. He was only three pounds 0.05 ounces. His hat with like I guess it's blood on it. It looked like ink, but it has to be blood. His little hat are bracelets, and it was a porn from one of the nurses, and for some reason, and she might have been white, but in my mind, she was black, but it was a porn that somebody had sent that I put in there, and it was um it's like a little keepsate of what they have a lock of his hair. And another thing I didn't know that I was gonna have this when I got home, that is two pictures of him, and both of the pictures have his hat on because you know if the baby's alive, they're gonna keep the hat on. I said, gosh, I wish they had taken a picture with his hat off because he had pretty hair. He has oh, he had pretty hair. Y'all boys, I don't know why boys have pretty hair and the girls don't, but he had a lot of pretty hair, and I have a lock of his hair, but not a picture without his hair. So both the pictures they took of him, his hat is on, but um, you know, we still got that, and then he he would be in October, he would have been 30. And I remember when Janaya, I forgot she was probably four, maybe five. And I talked to her about him, and she told me one day that that was her angel. And I was like, oh, that's so sweet. So that's her big I always wanted a born a girl, I wanted my boy to be older, and in a sense, that's what happened, and she said that's her guardian angel. So um, but yeah, and I remember um so like I don't know how long I stayed in the hospital, but I was in the hospital for a while. Donald had to take care of all of
Civilian Racism And Job Interviews
SPEAKER_03the arrangements. We had a um on base, we had a I guess like a memorial service. My unit was there, his unit was there, and I remember sitting at the front, stuffed in this outfit that I could really fit. But we sitting there and the um priest or whoever he was, he was just like, you know, take your time, and you know how they be, like your sister-in-law probably be. I just couldn't do that job, but you know, we there, you know, we crying, and it was like, just take your time. I remember when I got up, it's it was empty, and I was like, dang, nobody was here. And my friend was like, Girl, this place was packed. Everybody from Donald's side, everybody from your side was there. You just stayed in there forever, right? But um, you know, his unit they sent flowers or whatever. The same friend that helped Donald carry me to the car, he gave us this peace lily. We still have that flower to this day. And I asked him one time, um, I said, Did you know when you gave that to us that it was last that long? He said, No, it was just right. I said, Yeah, I said, Um, so that's my son. That that and I'm not a I don't have a green thing. It survived probably because of Donald, but also it's just hard to kill. It jukes when it needs water. So it's um, we still have that plant that he gave us um when we lost our son.
SPEAKER_02So that's that's wild. Um well, I asked the question that I did um because it's been proven, I believe, through studies that you know, when it comes to uh black women and care, health care, um there's story after story after story of situations like that where the medical professionals seem to not you know neglect those people. There you go. Yeah. And um I'm just wondering, you know, I just again uh, you know, I'm I'm not speculating. I just I was just curious about that because that could have been a possibility.
SPEAKER_03So yeah.
SPEAKER_02Did they ever make you feel that way?
SPEAKER_03Or was it I don't think I felt only the only time I really felt something is the day that I was losing him because that one doctor was being ugly. And he wasn't my you know, my primary one. He was in the emergency room. Um, and I remember the nurses, they were so nice because they they were I got tired of them, but they were doing their jobs because I hear a lot, especially being in the PI, that people are not doing this, you know how they're supposed to switch you over so you don't get your bed sores and things like that. And it seemed like as soon as I either get to sleep or get comfortable, they're like, Oh, Mrs. Harris, we gotta turn you over. And I was just like, oh, but thank God they were doing that to keep me from having these bed sores. So, you know, that you know, they were um really nice there. It was um, and I I'm not even gonna say during my prenatal visit, they weren't nice, but the fact that you neglected things that you should have admitted me to the hospital on that Thursday, my baby could have probably still been here. And then, you know, even though people have babies every day, it's still a life-threatening thing for a woman to have a baby that would be like in death. And so with pre-eclampsia, we both could have died, the baby could die, which in my case did, or I could have. And ironically, Donald had a cousin that same year, her name was Jennifer as well, and she was only 16. She had the same thing, and unfortunately, she passed, but her baby lived. And she wasn't in the military, but so um that pre-acclumps is like you it's life or death, and it's I mean, both of you can survive if it's caught early enough, but it's like both can also die or one or the other. And in our case, I survived, and then in her case, she did not.
SPEAKER_02Wow sad. Um well this next question is sort of tied into um what you the the statement you made before about some of the racial issues you faced more so when you got out than when you were in. And so that's the question. Have you know, have you personally faced any challenges uh specific to being a person of color?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I have, and I think sometimes I try to ignore it because you don't want to be that person to say, oh, she's just claiming race because you know how they say that. Oh, and I remember the where I was telling about this white guy, it was two, two of my white supervisors. It was funny because one of them I think people thought, I don't know if they thought he was racist or just mean or both, when they were like, and so I don't know, sometimes uh older white men just like me, but he's like, Jennifer, that man knows he mean, but he likes you. And so, um, and I knew he liked me because when I I was in school and I worked at 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. shift, and he came to me and he told me he had some bad news. He's like, I know you're in school, but we're getting rid of the 2 to 10 um p.m. shift. And then I was like, So they was only doing the a.m., which at the time was I think it was 6 a.m. They changed it to 5:30, 6 a.m. to whenever
Politics, Belonging, And Safety
SPEAKER_03we finish. And so I said, Well, if I do my classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, or vice versa, can I work those days? He was like, Yeah. So we worked it out that way, and they was like, Yeah, he likes you. There's the other white guy, he was cool too, but he made a comment about prejudice, um, racism don't exist anymore. And I said, Only white people say that, you know.
SPEAKER_02So But you shy though, right? You shy, right?
SPEAKER_03It was just one-on-one though, so it wasn't like it was in a group, okay. But it was like, so, but you don't, you know, when you feel it, and sometimes you you dismiss it because you don't want to be like, oh, there she go playing a race card again. But I, you know, we know what we feel, the examples and everything. So with jobs, sometimes you can't prove it, sometimes you can. I had a person at the um store would not put my money back in my hand, put it on the caver belt. It is like, yeah, just sometimes it's subtle, sometimes it's blatant. I think since Trump is in office, it's more blatant again. But you know, um, if yeah, yeah, I yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Wow, so you want to know?
SPEAKER_03I have an example if you want to hear recently that I had about a job. Okay, so before I got the job I have now, I was trying to get back into accounting because I was kind of burnt out with personal injury, and it was hard to get back into it because I had been out of um accounting for about eight years, maybe 10. And so I would get a first interview, the first interview would go well. And now you would think I would be an expert at interviewing, being going every three years with Donna Get Out, but I hate interviewing, it's part of my shyness, and just. Trying to convey and articulate what I know that I can do is hard, and you know. Um, but I had this one interview, and I just knew I was about to get this job, and the interview was going well, and then all of a sudden, it was an older white man. And when I walked in, of course, it was all white people. But I didn't think nothing of it at first. But in hindsight, after I didn't get the job, I said, okay, yeah. He started, he got nervous all of a sudden, he started rambling and talking about you know his black customers and his Hispanic customers and something. And it called my God, I was like, where's this going? But then I guess he had to rule it in, so he was like, you know, said, you know, um, it's gonna be between me and this other person. I'm like, okay, good. So he he bamboozed me, right? Because I guess he realized I don't need her to think that I don't want her because she's black. So, you know, they called me in to meet two women that came from the Blue Ridge office. Um, and my interview was kind of late, it was like 3 p.m. So they was like, Oh, yeah, we gotta still speak with the
Making It Through Basic While Shy
SPEAKER_03other candidate. And I was like, Oh, I thought y'all would have already spoken to let's just say Tracy. He told me her name, but I can't think of what it's like, Tracy. And they both looked and they were like, Well, who's Tracy? I said, Tracy is the other candidate that he told me it was between me and her. And the one lady was like, Oh, so one lady's like, Oh, after my interview, she was like, Oh, I can see why he was impressed with you. Then we get to me saying that, and then one lady was like, Oh, well, you know, I probably shouldn't say this, but it's just us girls. We kind of wanted a woman in this position, and Tracy turned out to be a man. And I was like, Well, did she come on the interview as a woman? I mean, I'll say, How did that? I didn't I didn't get that, so she didn't really answer that. So they was interviewing somebody else, not Tracy, supposedly, right? So then I get the dreaded email, which I like getting it because I'd rather have one telling me I didn't get the job versus no response at all. But I get the email and tells me that they chose to go with the other candidate because she had more experience. So I was pissed off because you knew she had more experience before we went to the second interview. So you could have just chosen her based off that. Why make us go? Well, why make me come on the second interview just to tell me that? Because what changed between the first interview and that she already had more experience. So for you, you could have came up with a better excuse. So in my mind, going back and replaying everything, I said, Yeah, he put his, he felt like one, my name is Jennifer Harris. A lot of people think I'm white from my name. Then when I get there, they say I'm black. It's like, oh, um, so I felt like that's why they didn't want me and had to say face. Then he tried to say more face, and he said, because he knew um I was working in the law at a law firm. He had an attorney friend that was working something with accounting. So he gave me his information to like maybe submit my resume to him. I looked this person up and as a Trump supporter. You didn't want me because I was black. You think your friend gonna want me because I'm black? What? So it was like what wow, so yeah, that that was one and the worst one, I think. It's a it's a kind of a bunch of them when it comes to job, and most of it's because my name. Another one I don't I'm gonna go to another one, but this one, I talked to this lady on the phone. My interview, first interview was a phone interview, and I don't sound white. My name might sound white, but I don't sound white. So when I got to the in-person interview, I don't know why she was shocked to see that I was black, and then tell me, Oh, well, and I'm still thinking I'm being naive, thinking certain words they say that I got the job. She's like, Oh, well, you wouldn't be able to wear those pretty clothes because we just wear jeans and t-shirts. But I wasn't supposed to wear that on the interview, right? I didn't get that job. Well, but anyway, the one I wanted to talk about, the last one at Fort Campbell.
SPEAKER_02Fort Campbell, okay.
SPEAKER_03This was the worst one.
SPEAKER_02Um Kentucky.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And this is where my boldness should have come in because in hindsight, I wish I would have given them a piece of my mind. So a recruiter sent me to this job. I know they thought I was white. I'm sitting in the waiting room. Do you know? I sat there for probably I should have walked out. I'm gonna say face and say maybe 45 minutes, but I probably sat there an hour before they came out to get me. These two young white women kept walking past, looking through the window at me, giggling or whatever, walking back and forth. And I was saying in my head, are
Duty Stations, Dream Sheets, And Home
SPEAKER_03they some ones that were supposed to interview me? Because it's like, so that when it was them, that just really like infuriated me. So when she finally they finally came and get me, the one would not shake my hand and say she had a cold. Yet she had not coughed, sneezed, or sniffled one time while we were in the interview. Um, the other lady, why is she interviewing me when the person they were gonna hire was replacing her because she couldn't get it? But you got the nerve to ask me questions, but you can't even get it yourself. So she asked something, and I forget what it was, but it was something stupid. So the lady, now she's trying to act like she got her cold. So she sits on one end. The lady who has the cold supposedly allegedly had the cold, she sits across from me, and she the one who don't know what she's doing, so I don't know why she's in the interview. She kicked her because it was like and I can see it. It's like really. So that one I wish I would have given peace of mind. So when I left the interview, usually when recruiters send you um um to a place they want to know how to how the interview goes. And normally I tell him, you know how I feel, oh, I think it went good, or yeah, I don't know. This one, I wish I had told him what and I told him, but I asked him, I said, because he met with her the day before. I said, Did she shake your hand? He said yes. I said, Okay, she didn't shake my hand, and I said that interview didn't go good, and I just left it at that. But um, like you walking back and forth giggling, and you take an hour to call me back there, and then you don't want to shake my hand, then you're trying to make it seem like I don't know what I'm talking about, but you got the person who y'all replacing, and then if that had been a black person, she would have been fired. They're just gonna relocate her to a different department and have her sit on an interview to interview the person that replacing her because she don't know what she's doing. Make that make sense.
SPEAKER_02Well, I have a question, I don't know which way this is gonna go, but you mentioned you looked at a profile, you saw that the person was a Trump supporter. Right. My question since you said that is um what if or what are your thoughts on if the person would have been black yet still a Trump supporter?
SPEAKER_03I probably still would have gone because the man who recommended him that means y'all got the same views, and you still trying to say face, and I just looked at it just for the heck of it because I already had felt what I felt and was mad that you wasted my time because you didn't want me to come back and probably try to sue. So now you'll say, No, we even had her on a second interview. We even told her it was, you know, she was close and running second, but she just didn't have experience. You knew that on the first interview, and then there's so many interviews I went on on my second interview for accounting.
Closing Reflections And Gratitude
SPEAKER_03The second the first interview goes good, and the second people will say, Oh, well, you haven't done accounting in 10 years, but you knew that on my first interview. I don't get it. Why are you wasting people's time?
SPEAKER_02Okay, well, I only asked the question because I'm wondering um if I say the words black Trump supporter, not even in that context, not having nothing to do with a job interview or anything, just black Trump supporter. What kinds of thoughts come to mind?
SPEAKER_03Well, so normally I don't like to I matter of fact, before probably before Obama became president, I really wasn't even into politics or followed it like that. And the only reason I'm following it now is I'm waiting for them to say Trump has been impeached, removed, and convicted. But so when they say black supporters, I'm disgusted, but at the same time, for the most part, like I was saying, if you look at me, you can't, you know I'm black, of course, but you don't know unless you look at my like my license plate. You don't know I'm a veteran, you don't know I'm a Christian. So a lot of people we come into contact with, whether it's with on our jobs, in passing, grocery stores, whatever, we don't know what they support, you know, until we get deep with them. Like, you know, when people want to counsel people out. For example, R. Kelly, people, you know, didn't play his music a lot when he got convicted of the child pornography and all that. Yes, what he did and what he was convicted of was bad. But we cannot take away that that man made some great music. And so it's like these people, the CEOs over whatever it is, people who made our TV. We go back and find out, oh, he molested his child. What we gonna do? We're gonna throw our TV out the window, so we don't know what people do behind closed doors. And when it comes to light, then it's like this up whole uproar. But you I don't know. I just um I guess sometimes that's probably why you don't want to discuss it because once you find out something, it's like, oh my god, I can't talk to you anymore. But no, I um I'm disgusting with the white people too, not just the black people shoot. Because it's like y'all, even if you are a Trump supporter, black or white, after seeing what he's doing, why are y'all still lying for him and gun-hoing for him? It just don't make any sense, and telling us what we're seeing is not true, or what we're hearing is not true, so it's like wake up and just be for real. But that's how how bad it is for the white racist person. And just they're gonna go and go hope because they be like, he white, it don't matter, he white, he right. Then that's what we're going with.
SPEAKER_02Okay, all right. Um, so what is the one thing people get wrong about you the most?
SPEAKER_03One, they don't believe I'm shy.
SPEAKER_02Okay, right.
SPEAKER_03A lot of people don't believe that um because I talk, but I am. I'm I'm very I I was more shy growing up, I was very timid, uh very shy, and I'm so glad my daughter didn't get that trait from me. She was things I wanted to do, she did. I wanted to be a cheerleader. I was too shy, probably too stiff, too. But okay, she was a cheerleader, she's outgoing, she she's traveled the world even before she became a flight attendant. And it's like, I don't want to do anything. Man, I'm better now, but I wouldn't go to the movies by myself, I wouldn't go eat by myself, I didn't want to go shopping by myself. I do those things now, but I just didn't do those things, and now she does all that by herself. She's you know, whatever. And I'm so glad she didn't get that shy trait, timid trait. But she didn't grow up in a household either to wish she would be timid. Um, I think the reason why I grew up timid was because of my father, my biological father was killed when I was one. And um, my mother's second husband, my sister father, I didn't like him. Um, and I don't want anybody to read between the lines, it was no molestation or anything like that, but he was not that great of a guy. He was kind of mean. Okay. Um didn't like him, and I was timid at the time that we lived with him. And um, my mother left him at the end of my fifth grade year, and her third husband, who passed away probably about three years ago. I wish she hadn't met him first. But but so when I met when we met him, I was in the seventh grade. Um and that was like a father that I never had, but um but by that time, you know, those principal years, I was already it was imprinted in me to be shy and timid growing up from three to ten with the one I didn't like. And um I remember being mad at my sister because she loved her daddy so much, and I used to be mad at her for loving him so much. Wow, but um yeah, um, but I didn't get to experience the daddy's girl thing because with Bill, he was like the father I never had, but he, you know how like I don't know, do you have a daughter?
SPEAKER_02I do not have a daughter, I have a granddaughter.
SPEAKER_03But you know, daddy's little girls, you know, they get to sit on their daddy's lap, and then they just daddy's girl, whatever. Bill, you know, when when I met him, like I said, I think I was 11 or 12. And one, I'm too old to sit on his lap, and then two, he's a stepfather, so he has to be careful so people don't get the wrong impression and things like that. But he took care of me, he loved me, and he loved my mom, and you know, he you know, whatever. And um I remember, matter of fact, when I met Donald, well, I I won't say that, but um, yeah, I wish he hadn't met him first, but then I guess my sister wouldn't be here. But um but her, I believe her father is why part of the reason why I was so timid and I was so shy. And um I'm still shy, but I talk, I have friends, I make friends. I remember I have an ex-friend 20 years we were friends, and we're not friends anymore. But I remember her making a comment about because we moved every three years, and she's like, How you always making friends? And people would tell me that I never meet a stranger. And I told her, One, I'm I smile and I'm approachable. You're always looking mean, so nobody's gonna approach you. So, but um, so that's one thing people don't really believe on shy, but people who really really know me, they might know because I might not. If I'm gonna do something, if I'm gonna do karaoke or if I'm gonna dance, I wanted to be like a crowd, or I feel like nobody's really looking at me, type of thing. But if it's open or something like that, I'm not gonna probably dance too much, or I'm not gonna do the karaoke because I can't sing, but you know, I'll I'll hold back on certain things because I'm shy. And then another thing that people get wrong about me, I don't know what the word is. I know um a lot of people think, well, women would think I am, I guess the nice version would be a diva, because that's what people use at Fort Campbell, and I didn't like it at all. I didn't like it because a diva can be a compliment, but in the way they were using it, it felt like an insult, like I thought I was better than, or Siddhi, stuck up, or whatever, and that type of thing. And um, and I don't know why I'm not materialistic. You know, I like to drive a nice car and I like to wear cute clothes, but they're not name brand. Well, you don't know. But I think the way sometimes you might carry yourself or what you drive, because people make comments about that, or also sometimes if I am, sometimes I'm reserved, and sometimes people take people being quiet as being standoffish sometimes when I'm in certain because some you know I will talk, but I have to feel comfortable or whatever. So that's the misconception.
SPEAKER_02Well about this being shy thing, how does one make it through basic training shy? Because you know they they make you, you can't hide in basic training, they make you sound off, they make you you know, I don't know.
SPEAKER_03But I don't think I think in basic training though, everything was as a group because I wasn't like a squad leader or anything, so when you sound off, we're sounding off together, it'd be that leader that started off and then you end. Well, honestly, I told you that was God that I was not trying to go into the military. God made me go some type of way, and I I don't even know how I made it through Bucal. And you know, this one friend from Fort Campbell, he always would say when he would introduce us, can y'all believe that Jim was in the military? Because he thinks I'm so pretty and so girly and all that. Can y'all believe she was in the military? Wow, and so um I don't know that I remember uh so I told you I cried today, I kissed my mom goodbye, and then I cried one more time, and I said I'm not gonna cry no more. So I don't remember if it was the first night or not. I think it was the first night when we, you know, you get off that little cattle bus thing, you get to your room, and it was two of us in a room, and it was a bunk bed, and of course I was on top, which is harder to make the bed. Right.
SPEAKER_02Oh man.
SPEAKER_03And I remember laying there and I cried and I said, What did I get myself into? And then I said, Okay, Jennifer, you made you made a commitment. I'm not crying no more, and we're gonna get through it. So I didn't cry anymore, but I remember one phone call I made to my mom that said, I don't think I'm gonna make it because I couldn't get my weapon to what you call it when you have to um when you when you get your weapon um you shooting it, you know how you have to get it. I don't know what the word is, but I couldn't get it.
SPEAKER_02So when you so when you're talking about when you um So I know part of BRM, right? They take tell you how to take it apart, how to clean it, how to put it back together, um when it gets jammed, how to recover from that.
SPEAKER_03Like what is it that you when you so when we're trying to shoot it and you trying to get it oh zero? Yes, I couldn't get my weapon to zero. Okay, and so I said, and you only get three times to pass something before you get kicked out. So I said, I don't know, mom. I think I'm gonna uh and the hardest part before that was the PT, the running and all that. I passed, not made it through that. Thank God to the recruiter, but you know. Um, I said, I don't know, mom. I might be coming home because I don't think I'm gonna pass this this marksman, whatever the shoot thing that we had to shoot. Because when we're practicing and trying to zoom zero our weapon, we're shooting at paper targets.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03And I could never get it right. But God was on my side because when it came to the test, it had them green pop-up people. So how could you miss them? How could you miss that target? So I passed.
SPEAKER_02Stop playing. Stop playing.
SPEAKER_03So I made it through.
SPEAKER_02Not the pop-up people. Okay, I'm with you. Yeah, the pop-up targets. I yeah, those were those were helpful.
SPEAKER_03Right, because if it had still been that paper, I don't know. I probably would have been had the boot. They wouldn't have made it because I couldn't zero my weapon.
SPEAKER_02Now that's surprising. Uh, you know, I'm glad you made it because usually they won't even let you move forward to get to the pop-up targets or to qualify if your weapon isn't zeroed properly. But and they must have said, man, let it go.
SPEAKER_03Everything was God.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, let her go, man.
SPEAKER_03I was like, she got to get to Fort Campbell to meet Donald. Right.
SPEAKER_02Right. Okay.
SPEAKER_03It is funny because I remember Fort Hood being the worst place to be stationed. And then I was praying when they was giving our orders, please let me stay stay stateside, please let me stay stateside. Then I get Fort Hood because I did not want to go overseas on my first duty station. Then while we're in and Donald's end, we like, dang, they never give us Germany. We're not gonna get Hawaii. We was all just stateside, so but it's just and I didn't even used to like to travel. Now I love to travel, I can't wait till my next trip, but you know, things just come full circle, things change, whatever.
SPEAKER_02But um so when you went in, they didn't do a dream sheet.
SPEAKER_03Well, you know, when you do the three things, they don't never give you what you pick. Donald always put Hawaii and Germany, and one time he put Hawaii Germany, and I didn't know this till later. He put Michigan. Why he put Michigan and I hate the code. I'm from Michigan, but I wanted to come to the South for a reason. He put excuse me, Hawaii, Michigan. In Germany.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03Guess what we got?
SPEAKER_02What'd you get?
SPEAKER_03We got Illinois. Because you never get what's on your list, but Illinois was close to Michigan, right? And so when we got Illinois, I was like, how did we get stationed here? It was so cold. And I hate the cold. So he was born in Alabama. Our daughter was born in Alabama. They out there in the snow. They had the prettiest snowman on the block. I said, Y'all can have it. I've been there, done that. Had to go to never had snow days, still had to go to school. I did not enjoy that. Come to find out, he put Michigan down. And I'm like, why do you do that? He said, because I thought you want to be close to your mom. I left Michigan for a reason. It's cold. So that's how we got Illinois.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, but um, no, I hate the cold.
SPEAKER_02Right on. Okay. Well, last question. Is there anything you wish I had asked? And if so, what and how would you answer it?
SPEAKER_03No, because as you can see, I just talked like a went on to my different stuff. Oh, nothing that I wish you would ask me. And glad I got this interview over with. I probably want you to take some things out here.
SPEAKER_02You're good. You're good. All right. Well, that being the case, that was easy. So regarding current events, what current event would you like to share your opinion on?
SPEAKER_03I already did. I'm ready for Trump to be impeached, removed, and convicted.
SPEAKER_02Why?
SPEAKER_03Because he it's obvious. He is, oh my God, he's an embarrassment. I pray that he don't target Georgia because I was wondering, I said, what is going on in Minnesota that the ICE is so rampant up there, and then found out it's because of the Simoneans. So it's like he's it's it's sad. It's just sad. I feel bad every time I see. And even if these people that they're targeting and they're dragging off their homes and taking to Venezuela, not Venezuela, it's taken to um what's the count they was taking those people to? They weren't even deporting them back to their home country. They were taken to the to like this prison count. Is it in Venezuela? It's not in Venezuela.
SPEAKER_02No, so there's a bunch if there's if you're talking in the States.
SPEAKER_03Well, let's just say these people were the worst of the worst, like they're claiming. Even if they were, we still, as human beings and Americans, we treat humans supposed to be, you know, humane. And they treat dogs better than what they're treating these people. Just because Trump then gave them this green card. Well, that wasn't supposed to be um a pun. But you know, they gave them the the goal, the right-of-way to just go back to the good old white-old boys to act like they're acting and just run rapid with it. It's just it's sad, it's sad. And like I said, I listen and watch because I'm ready to hear what I want to hear, but at the same time, it's like bringing tears to my eyes seeing that because I'm like thinking, okay, we're blessed, but it could be us, you know, and just because we're there's most of them are citizens and they're still being targeted. We can, and I don't know, I don't have an accent. Well, somebody, I guess I have a southern accent, but we don't have the accent of another country. But just because we're black, they could just pick with us and think, oh, you're Dominican, you know, where's your papers or whatever? So I'm just like, oh, don't come to Georgia. But you know, they're they're moving from state to state mostly. I know I'm some they were in Chicago, right? Because I know when we were in Chicago, there was a lot of um Hispanics there. And when we was in Joaquin, my girlfriend, I thought she was joking, but a Hispanic told her there was a sign in Mexico that said Joaquin got work. So they was coming to Joaquin for work, and I was just like, You lying? She said no. So I wouldn't be surprised they won't be out there, but it's just I don't know, it's just sad, and it's just like we already know it's black people, we came a long way, but we're still not where we should be, and now we're going backwards. And if Trump had his way, we probably have slavery again. So it's just crazy.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_03That's how I feel.
SPEAKER_02Okay, right on. That's how you feel. So all right, well, we have come to the end of this thing. You made it, you made it. Um is there anything else on your mind? Anything else you wanna you wanna say before we wrap it up?
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, I'll say when we're talking about my son that we lost, when um I got pregnant with my daughter. I wasn't in the military, but because of what happened, I was high risk. So, and this was a white doctor, and he was uh he was a very good doctor. He got on my nerves, that's how good he was, because he was like, You're not losing a baby on my watch. He said that, but that's how he felt because he had me coming to the doctor. I swear I had to go every day, but uh, I knew it wasn't every day, but that's what it felt like. And when I would go, because Janaya, she was a lazy baby, so she was not moving, and he would make me drink a coke, and he was like, he would let me leave until she moved 10 times. He would have to get 10 kicks out of her before he would let me leave the hospital. So once I she burped, and he said, Oh, well, that don't count. She burped. I said, Well, if she burping, that she's good, right? Like counting, he wouldn't even count that. Wow, he was like, he wanted to see some kicks, some punches before he would let me leave. But um, he was he was good. Um, and she ended up coming early too. She was small, she was only 4'11. But she came early as well. And um obviously she came early, it made me mad because my the doctor that I liked and was used to, he didn't even get to deliver her because they had to get the doctor that was on call. But he he was he did good though, especially with me being high wrist. He um he was monitoring me real good or whatever. But and I always wanted two kids. I don't know how people do it because one was really enough. But at the same time, I if I wanted a second one, I didn't want them to be no more than five years apart when she turned five. I was like, God, that went by fast. Um not ready. And then I was scared to get pregnant again because the doctor, after I had her, well, while I was running with her, he told me I would never carry full term. My placenta is just weak like that. I had to be watched, you know, and all that. So I was like, yeah, I'm good. Donald got this respect to me, we're good.
SPEAKER_02So right on. Right on.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Well, listen, thank you so much. Um, I really appreciate you stepping out of your shyness. Wow, I don't know that anybody's listening to this is gonna think or believe that you're shy, but okay. Step it out of your shining.
SPEAKER_03No, a lot of people don't, but I don't know. Even when I have to do those recordings, because there's a lot of words I can't say. Well, mostly the FR and BR words, it's hard for me to say. And so it was a joke I told you when me and Donna was doing the litany one time, and we was practicing, he's like, Nah, you say that, you you say that. I was like, nope, you get it. So it's just like no, because I get tongue tied sometimes, and it's just like that's why I don't like your interviews. It's hard to articulate sometimes, and it's just I don't know, like I said, it's just that timidness from being little, even if I grew out of that, all the shiners is just not gonna be so I don't like eyes.
SPEAKER_02I think you did well. I think you did very well. Thank you and uh I uh I thank you for for uh you know just taking the time to stay with me and uh let's try and get this out to the world and and and let the world he's so let me listen to it first.
SPEAKER_03It is a no, let's do it over. I might need to take it over.
SPEAKER_02If anything, I'll let you add to it. How about that? So listen. All right, again, thank you so much. I really appreciate you. And uh with that said, may God keep you, may God bless you, and may God continue to be with you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Amen.