00:00With my grandmother I always had like a connection with her like I used to sit
00:05there and rub on her foot her feet and stuff like that because she even paint
00:09like paint on her toenails and stuff. You would? Yeah. You know how to paint a
00:13toenail? I could paint a toenail. He says you're the one who loves him the most.
00:19I hear you always keep his favorites in the fridge just in case he comes by.
00:23What are his favorites? Cheese crackers and cranberry juice.
00:29I called her to tell her I was going to be on this show and she said well say
00:35hello to me and I said nanny they're not going to let me say hello to you on
00:38television I didn't but I had some friends who would pull their ear for their son
00:43their little boy whenever they were on television they were a dance team and I
00:48said nanny I'll pull my ear for you so that's when that started and just kind
00:54of casually do that and that was hello to her and I did that ever since. Every
00:59time I was on TV I'd find a place to do this when I was on camera so that she
01:04would know I was thinking of it. My grandmother, my father's mother raised me.
01:09She was an amazing woman. She told me sister when you get give, when you learn teach.
01:19These are lessons to live by. I thought for a long time that my grandmother was
01:23God. She was so tall and she used to tell me sister mama don't know what she's
01:30going to do. Mama just going to step out on the word. Just step out on the word of
01:35God. Some of you heard that my grandmother who helped raise me passed away early this
01:42morning. And look she she she has gone home. I want everybody to know though a
01:53little bit about her. Her name was Madeline Dunham. She's one of those quiet
01:57heroes that we have all across America who they're not famous. Their names aren't in
02:05the newspapers. But each and every day they work hard. They look after their
02:13families. They sacrifice for their children and their grandchildren. They
02:19aren't seeking the limelight. All they try to do is just do the right thing. But you
02:25know you and I both raised by our grandmothers have that experience. Your
02:29grandmother must have seen something because what grandmother southern
02:33grandmother in Texas says you need to become classically trained as a pianist.
02:38Yeah. Do you think she saw something felt something? Here's that my grandmother said
02:42I'm gonna give you all the things that I wanted to give my other children but they
02:46were a little too old to understand. So she said I'm gonna make sure you play the
02:50piano because I think that can get you on the other side of the tracks. So I'm sure
02:54she didn't put into her mind that it was gonna be something like this but she
02:59knew that you had to get a place. That was a way out. Way out. Certainly a way up. Yeah.
