Happy Heavenly Birthday Mama

0:01 Cousins, ken folks, come on in today. Welcome to the newest episode of You Know What It is, your favorite podcast also mine Colonel down in Construction. I'm your host, King Hub. Thank you so much for joining me today. Oh man, it's a special day today, there's a special day. Before I get into that, once again, I want to thank everyone for your support for all the poor and support for the emails I received yesterday, for everybody coming in saying how glad they are the podcast is back. I am so bad to be so glad to be back with you all. Listen, the hiatt was a bit long. It really was, And I've had some who've asked, but, hey, what was going on during your hiatus that you took off so long. For the most part, the short answer is I needed a break. I needed a mental break. But in the future episode I will give an entire full explanation of why I took that hiatus, almost seeming when we just kicked off the new season. So don't worry, cousins and ken folks, We're going to get in there to it, so just be patient with me. Again. It's coming in the future episode. But today we're not talking about that today is a different day altogether. Today is a day of celebration. Now, don't get me wrong.

1:21 Every day should be a day of celebration, you know, because the almost I gave us the opportunity to open our eyes again, the most I gave us an opportunity to be the breath of life in us again, to see yet another day, to have another opportunity to draw closer to Him and to get it right. But today, April twenty third, twenty twenty four, today, as most of you know, who of those of you who's been following me, who knows today it's a Queen's that Today, a queen was born. Today, very wonderful and special lady was born. And we're talking about my tea lady, my heartbeat, my mother, Xceella Overton.

2:09 Today is her birthday and we're celebrating it today now. Although for those of you who've been following me and they know, my mother transitioned in twenty twenty from COVID and I've had a difficult time with that at some point here and there. I still do have my days here and there, but for the most part, on today we're celebrating her. Today's her birthday and we're celebrating her special day today. Today's the day of joy, Today's the day of gladness. Today's day that we look and we remember and we honor my tea lady, you know, Estella Overton. And the thing is, I could even hear her laughter right now, you know. And she had the most wonderful, infectious laugh, you know, and it just george. And she had this big, beautiful smile. But for some reason, I don't know why, for some reason, my mom didn't like to smile a whole lot or better, Yeah, she didn't like to smile a whole lot in pictures.

3:19 And she's a beautiful woman. Oh my god, My mom's a beautiful, tall woman, you know. Uh, everyth melanding, you know, tall, strong, you know. Uh. They they definitely don't make them like her, no more. Ah, they don't make them like that. That that that cloth that my mam is cut from. Yeah, they don't make them like that no more. That that God only had a limited number of those when he he he he formed and created her. And and and that that that mold got thrown away, thrown in the sea of forgetfulness, thrown in the bushes some dog on where I don't know where it is, but they don't make them like that no more. Now. She she had no no, don't get me wrong now and like none of it. Like most of us, my mom was a perfect like most like all of us walk in this planet. You know, Uh, she wasn't perfect. She did the best she could, but she uh taught me and my sisters a lot. She did. She you know, gave us an amazing work ethic.

4:25 You know, I've seen my mom like go to work like in the rain, Like you've heard this, You've heard the term, you know, go to work rain, sleep, snow or shine. She did that. She did that. I've seen her go to work in the rain. You know, I've seen her go to work when it's it's snowing. I've seen her going to work, you know, just bust her tail off five I mean mostly six days a week to make sure that she, to Kim, was being able to provide for her family. She did that. She gave us an amazing work ethic, you know, my sisters and I she poured into everybody who she was around, and my mom had she had again can said, a real infectious personality. Also, I don't She's never met a stranger ever, never met a stranger. I've seen my mom in Walmart and strangers will come up to and just strike up a whole conversation and then five or six minutes later, they're sitting there laughing like they have known each other for thirty years and this is the first time they've seen each other in years, and they are going to town, do you hear me? And it always fascinated me when I saw that. But that was just her, That was her personality. That was the kind of of or she had when she

6:02 was around people, you know, and she had that that that it My great my my great grandmother was the matriarch of the family. So that mantle that's passed down from generation and generation from the among the women s. Somehow or another, I don't know, if she just didn't want it or whatever the case may be, it bypassed my grandmother and it went to my mom.

6:45 So my mom became like the central and center focus of everybody and everything in the family. Uh, if something needed done, my mom was who they called you maybe in between homes at that particular time. It just made they need a place to stay until you get back on your feet. That was my mama's house. Uh, my mama's house was where we met up on holidays, not just her ch us, her children, but that's where the family came to on the holidays for for July, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Christmas. It was done and had at my mom's house. So her so what whatever that that thing is that for that mantle was passed down to her and she assumed it and she I I'd have to say, she she was built for it. She was and it was just it just amazed me, you know that she would uh could handle that. My mom was one of the most intelligent women that I've known in my life, considering the fact that she only had a fourth grade education. Yeah, you heard me correctly, cousins and ken folks for those of you who don't know, my mom only had a fourth grade education. But she was one of the most intelligent women I've known in my life. She wasn't good at a lot of things

8:16 if you just looking at books, since books smart or whatever whatnot, but she had everything else. I've sit and I've watched her calculate with precision in her head. I've seen her at the bank, you know, work with them about loans and the percentages of whatnot. I've watched her sit here, you know, and and calculate and talk with realtor about the interest rate and the market value of a home and that thirty year mortgage, and that the difference between a thirty year and the twenty five year. Morga I said, I've watched her do this, and if you listen to you would swear up and up and down. She has a college degree. Oh she went to college for all of that shit she does, but she did not. One of the most intelligent people I've known in my life where I've ever seen that was my mom. She pushed us to always do and be better than her.

9:30 It's like most like most of us should do. As parents. We should want our children to do better than us, cause that's that's that's all. That's how it's supposed to be. That's a part of that. We want however far or whatever we've been able to accomplish in life. Sh they should. We should want that for our children to go above and beyond what we have done. And she did that. She can still live into us, especially me. I'm the first born, so of course a lot of that was fell on me initially first because I'm the oldest grandchild for my grandmother and I'm the first one to graduate from high school and go to college, so that was a lot of pressure on me. But it was until the point of constantly nagging or anything of their particular nature, you know. But it was the fact that she wanted to see that. My grandmother wanted to see that, and they poured into me to ensure that I did that, and I did and it made them both so very proud. My mama was hard in her ways, but she was fair at the same time, you know, but she had a knack to of also, I guess, like

11:05 most really good mothers, drawing in more children. Because all of my friends looked at and called my mom mama, so she was. She was like a second mom to all of my friends, you know, and they a lot of them still ask about her to this day, or or hey, you remember when your mama did this, this and the third you member it was at your house, and how your mom used to sit there and always made sure that we ate and everything. Because she was that type of mom, you know. She when she cooked and everything and my friends came back, they were there. She would just call me into the house and send them home and then I eat it whatever, don't She fed them, she knew them all by name. But come on in him and come on, go in and wash your hands, come on here and fix you up plate.

11:56 Yeah she did. And my friends were like her other her other children, because if she came to the school to uh see me a check up on my grades or whatever, or she came to a PTA meeting or whatever the case may be, she checking in on them too. Hey what his grades look like? What you've been doing? You know better than that, I might talk to your mama. Oh okay, then oh you've been acting up in class? Yeah, that was my mom. That was my mom. She was She was a second mom, told of my friends, and in many ways, she was like the neighborhood mom. You know, every every every really good community has one of those, a neighborhood mom and a neighborhood dad that just all of the kids and the parents gravitate too. So that's that's going back to connecting what I told you about. Whatever that mantle that was passed down from my great grandmother to my mama, whatever that is that it is, they recognized because again My great grandmama was the same way.

13:03 When she was living. You know, she was the neighborhood mom. Everybody, including their parents, they came to her four things, or about something, or advice about something. They came to my great grandmother, and in turn, everybody in my neighborhood came to my mom about stuff. You know, so she she knew what it was, She embraced it, and she she took it to town. She did. She loved people. She had a great love for people. If she didn't like you, she'd let you know. She would be playing and clear. She would literally if she didn't like you. There weren't many people who came along that my mom uh instantly disliked. But if you did certain things to her or her family or especially her children, of dude, that's a rap. She gonna let you know that she don't like you. She gonna make sure that you know that she don't by any means, she will cut you out three ways past Sunday and baby. When my mom was younger, my mama was cut cussed with the best of'em. She taught us. We listened to her. She taught us. Now, although I don't really cuss a lot anyone. And I've worked very hard over the years too not to do so, and I'm grateful for that. But and my mom did it. My mom did also.

14:35 But Baby, when she was younger cousins of Kim folks, do you hear me cussed with the best of them? She made up cuss words. You be like, wait, is that even a word? Or she'll put two cuss words together, or and it's since that she like, wait that tho, those don't even go together? But it did when you heard it from her. You did, you did when you heard it from her, man, I promise you. But she had this light about her though, that people just loved. They truly did. She was she was warm soul when she when my dad died and she gave her life to God. She always did believe in God. Don't get me wrong, she always did believe in God. But when she truly gave her life to God, you begin to s to see a true change in her. Then it was like her true purpose beginning at that moment, because she she found her church home and she was completely devoted to being a better her, preparing her soul for the afterlife and doing whatever it takes doing whatever it took to be a good Cristest, to be a good person, to be a good neighbor, and to

16:08 be a good church member. She did all of those things. I mean, her life completely changed around. I mean, she was doing things in the community. She was very active in her church. She became one of the not probably not the at her church. From what I understand, she became the youngest to be elected to the motherboard, even though she wasn't at the age yet to where that once that she would be elected to it. But she had done the work and she was still doing the work and they recognized it, and she was elected to the motherboard before the age of seventy.

16:55 That was amazing for in her church. And she she was the epitome of what a church mother should do or what a church mother is. She was the epitome of that. And she didn't take her role or her activities in the church. She never took them lightly. She never took her relationship with God lightly. Again, when she gave her life to God, she truly did. And you begin to see the change in her, you know, you begin to see, you know, her development and her relationship with God because she so began to see it in her everyday actions, you begin to see her shine. And that's an amazing thing. You know, like all of us, we have our quirks and our faults here there, but that's not the case. That's not the point or the thing in being a believer and that she's supposed to be perfect or anything of that nature. Know, you having a relationship with God is you know, you're working every day to draw closer to Him, to have that relationship with him, to do and be better than you were the day before. And she she did that.

18:25 She was doing that each and every day, and I couldn't be more proud of her. I mean, she she singing the evolution of her over the years or and and just even sitting back right now remembering it, it's leaps and bounds. It leaps and bounds. It is what we should strive for as people. We all have w certain periods in our life that we are but we should continue to keep growing and evolving. We should never stop trying to evolve in life. The day we should stop evolving is today, the most high transition us from this world to the next. That's when it should stop. It should never stop until then we should be ever evolving, each end, every day we should. So I miss you, Mama, I do. I'm not sad today or or anything. I am full of joy. I've had my moment after midnight last night when her birthday hit.

19:52 I had my moment, and I'm okay. I am truly happy to celebrate her born day today because without her coming into this world, my sisters, I, our children, we wouldn't be here because we're her legacy. We're her legacy. We wouldn't be here. And the lessons that she taught us and the way that the things that she poured into us never forget it, we never forget it. It's it's it was an amazing, phenomenal woman who she loved. She loved her family, she loved her community, she loved people period, and she loved God. That cousins and ken folks is the epitome of currently under construction, of being and under construction, that is the epitome of it. That is the epitome of it. Estella Overton, you are missed, you are loved, You appreciate it, and we just pray that you continue to watch over us the way that you've been doing and keep

21:26 smiling. You, Grandmama, dear Daddy, and everybody up there. Y'all just keep dancing and having the time of your life up there with the most time, and keep looking down at us. We love you all with every part of us, and you are truly missed, cousins, ken folks. That wraps up today's episode of Currently Down to Construction. Once again, we do this thing twice a week. We are completely back. Even though this is technically your second episode of the week, it will not be your last. We will go. We're back on our regular rotation days Tuesdays and Fridays, so your next episode will be this Friday. So be on the lookout for wherever you remember where we broadcast. We broadcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcasts, Pocketcasts, Spotify Radio, Public Radio One, iheartradiodzer castro cast Box, and many many other platforms. Or you can go straight to our site and you can listen to us if that's the way that you choose to do so through your browser at underconstruction dot com. That is under construction dot com. Remember to continue to send in your emails if you have a show idea, a topic idea, or you just want to higher at your cousin and you got something that you that's on your mind that you want to send us, then email us here at the show at under construction nineteen seventy four at yahoo dot com. That is you N D E R CO N

23:00 st r U K t I O N nineteen seventy four at yahoo dot com. So get those emails in and we're back. We are back. We're in full swing and we're gonna keep this thing rolling. This is season five of your favorite podcast, currently under construction, So get on in here, cousins and Ken folks. You know what time it is. It takes a village for us to do this thing, and you all are my village, and we're gonna continue to keep building this thing together, you and I, step by step, one brick at a time, currently under construction. Happy birthday, Mama, we love you Modea. It's show day, baby.

23:44 I love you all, cousins and kenfolks. Have a great day. I'll see you all later this week. Peace.