How could Tonya, Anita, and Antonio go almost a lifetime without knowing each other? We explore the tangled roots of this family tree and the man Tonya, Anita, and Antonio all have in common – O.C. Hill. We want to hear what you think about She Has A Name. Please help us out by filling out a short audience survey: https://www.apmstudios.org/survey
This is episode four of the she Has a Name series.
I think you're going to really enjoy it, but you'll really get the most out of it if you listen to 1 through 3 first.
So if you haven't, I highly recommend you go back before continuing.
Also, a heads up, we talk about some heavy topics, including domestic violence, murder, and other acts of violence.
Listener discretion is advised.
Antonio, I still think about the story you told me about when you first saw me in front of my grandma's house.
You remember it?
I do, I do.
A few summers ago, before we started working on this podcast, my nephew Antonio had a flashback from his childhood.
At the time of this flashback, the two of us were sitting on my grandma's porch in Detroit in that space of quiet contentment, watching our youngest boys run around the front yard, when Antonio looked over at me with a stunned look on his face and said that he remembered being here, right here in front of my grandmother's house, decades before, in the mid-1980s.
Yeah, it was a nice summer day.
Classic Detroit.
At the time, Antonio had an aunt who lived just down the street from my grandma on the northwest side of the city.
The blocks in this neighborhood are long and wide.
The house is set back from the road, separated by sprawling, well manicured lawns.
And for me, my grandma's front yard felt like a playground.
So growing up, it was my favorite place to be.
Antonio remembers one day when he was around 11 or 12, his mother did an unusual thing.
It happened after they pulled off from his aunt's driveway.
As we started making our way back to her seven mile, she just abruptly pulled over and that's when she made the comment, wow, that's my sister.