Mark Munger
This is a Manager's Special from Siouxland Public Media. I'm Mark Munger. Today's special: Fitz Grant tells us about a most remarkable woman, his mother. Happy Mother's Day to you. From us.
Fitz Grant
My mom was a single mom, raising six kids by herself. You know, unfortunately for us, my dad went off to war, the Vietnam War. When he came back, he had post traumatic stress, and he couldn't be in the home, because, you know, some of the effects of the war. We watched him, you know, in a mental hospital, more or less, growing up, you know. But my mom, she filled the gaps. She taught me that I could do anything I want to. I just had to believe that I could do it. But more importantly, just try. She was like, "just try." She said, "Fitzy, you can make nothing into something." And she would tell us that all the time, "you could do anything you want to." And I kept on believing that. I believed it.
You know, I remember this, you know, growing up, you know, I was in junior high, and the one time... I'll tell this story.... The one time I ever saw my mom cry over me because I did something crazy, well, I was in the band, and I played drums and things of that nature, and our band director told us, she said, "Hey, listen, don't leave any of the band instruments in the band hall," because we actually was going to lunch after we got done. And my cousin, he played saxophone. And we're back there because when you're drummers, you sitting on the outside so you can see everything. So he left his sax in the band hall. So we decided we'd hide it behind the drums. So when he came back from lunch, he come back to get his sax, but it wasn't there. He knew we had did it though. We laughing! You know how boys are, right!
And let me tell you something. He went home and he told his mom. And when I got home, I went to my friend's house to play basketball. When my mom got home, the cops were sitting in the yard. So I'm at my friend's house playing basketball, and all of a sudden I see the car coming. But I knew something was going on, because, like I said, we lived on this island, so we had dirt roads, so I saw all the dust coming back from behind the car. I was like, "Oh, my word. What has happened?"
And my mom got out of that car. She was crying. She's like, "Fitzy, where's that sax?"
I said, "But Mama!"
She was upset. And when I saw the tears, I said, "Never again will I make my mom cry tears because I did something bad. The next day she'll cry for me is because I'm doing something good."
And the next time she cried was when I graduated from high school, when I graduated from college, and when I got married.
Let me tell you how we got the one-on-one time, how I did it. So, you know, like I said, my mom worked multiple jobs. Okay, she'd come in, sometimes she eats, sometimes she didn't eat, but my mom sold Avon. And one of the cool things to do for me, I remember, I told you, we had that big Caprice, right? I used to get in the car and hide in the backseat, and she couldn't see. So by the time I knew we got far along down the road where she not gonna turn around, I would jump up, and she'd be like, "How'd you get back there?"
And I would go with her to sell Avon, and we would just have some good conversation. Just talking. She would tell me about a job, just talk to me about life, things of that nature. And that's how I got that one-on-one time with her, you know, just being a little boy wanting to go hang out with my mom, you know. And I'd go on Avon runs with her.
I could remember, you know, even like now, Mother's Day, her coming home from work on a Friday, and she'd sit at that sewing machine and make clothes for my sisters to wear to church on Sunday. And just, just made sure those kids, my sisters, had nice outfits to wear to church. She would make them.
I said the first word that ever came out of my mouth was, "Mama." Mama. That's all I knew, Mama.
You know, and I don't take that lightly. When I think about it now, it's just like, Wow, you know? So I am blessed, and I'm thankful that God gave me my mom, you know. So I'm thankful for that. Really. I am.
Mark Munger
Fitz Grant, talking about his mom, Williemae Grant.
