00:00She'll call me a thieving bitch when I beat her in cards. Crazy.
00:03From the day that I was born, my grandmother was my primary caretaker.
00:07My grandparents played a huge role when I was growing up.
00:10My mom was in school. My mom had me when she was 18, so she was in college.
00:14My mom was a single mother, but my grandmother really picked up where my mom couldn't.
00:19If I could describe my grandmother, honestly she's like really tall, really skinny.
00:24She's just like a little gangly, sassy lady.
00:27She's like a black woman from the Midwest. She's really, really smart.
00:32She has super fair skin. She used to have red hair and very, very rosy and big cheeks.
00:37She's very quiet yet stern, and when she does talk she says crazy things.
00:42She's just a short, petite, sweet lady, very opinionated lady.
00:48My grandpop is a retired cop. My grandpop is just always jokes.
00:53My grandparents have been together 54 years.
00:56I grew up with my grandmother in my home. I wanted to stay until I was in second grade.
01:01My grandpop would wake me up in the morning, get me ready for school, cook me breakfast, and the same
01:06thing with my grandma.
01:06Every day my grandmother drove me to school, although it was legitimately right around the corner.
01:11I shared a room with my mom until I was maybe like five.
01:14I would kind of go between sleeping in my mom's bed and my grandmother's bed.
01:18Mostly my grandmother's bed because she was much more comfortable than my mom.
01:21Me and my mom shared space downstairs, and then you went to the front of the house, and it was
01:25my grandmother's room.
01:27And that used to be my favorite place to go.
01:29Honestly, my grandmother probably wished I would have respected her space.
01:33Having my grandmother as my second parent is definitely, I think, better than having a traditional dad.
01:40I noticed my dad being in and out in my life, but it never, it didn't affect me that much
01:45because I had my grandparents.
01:47I had a father figure, my grandpop.
01:49So being that my father wasn't in my life, and I, from that point when my parents separated,
01:55I wouldn't have seen my father again until I was in high school.
01:59That didn't ever really affect who I was as a person.
02:02Of course you question, like, why is this person not there?
02:05Why is this person not in my life?
02:07But my grandmother really did step in and step up when it came to being my co-parent.
02:12All three of them always showed me how much I was loved, how much I was cared about.
02:16They always told me, even still to the day I don't get off the phone with all three of them
02:20without telling them I love you.
02:22Right when I graduated from college, my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer.
02:25And my graduation date was actually the last day of her chemotherapy.
02:30So it was really this interesting culmination of milestones in both of our lives.
02:34And we kind of had a moment together at my graduation party,
02:37and I made this speech about how I was so happy that she was there,
02:40and that I couldn't have done any of, like, four years of college without her.
02:45When I was younger, before I really got into school, my grandmother used to take me to zoos a lot.
02:49Then it just used to be magical to me, and she really just let me do my thing.
02:52And that's really why I appreciate my grandmother so much because she does not police me, and I don't police
02:58her.
02:58Being raised by two women has equipped me with just this amazing, like, strength in being who I am,
03:05my family, my sense of womanhood, my sense of confidence.
03:09She absolutely still necessarily values in me, helped me learn my worth,
03:15talked to me about racism at a very early age.
03:18Today, my relationship with Nana is the most important relationship in my life.
03:23I talk to my grandparents all the time.
03:25I probably don't call them as much as I should.
03:28Yeah, we're still extremely close.
03:31She's bomb.
03:33I love you, Nana.
03:34donde ella es enero.
03:36glitches!
03:36I love you, from fragen!
03:36I love you, encer獄.
