Turning Your Life Around

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
For thirty five years, Cindy Stumpo has been a female
home builder with a passion for design, a mastery of detail,
and a commitment to her crack. With daughter Samantha Stumpo
by her side, I.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Don't need my whole family on a date with me.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
That's a good note.

Speaker 4 (00:12):
It's goddemn weird. See.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Stumpo Development is the only second generation female construction company
in the country.

Speaker 4 (00:18):
You're crazy, You're a wacko, You're insane.

Speaker 5 (00:22):
I mean, it just doesn't end together.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Cindy and Samantha welcome guests to explore the world of construction,
real estate, development, design and more.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
Unpredictable.

Speaker 5 (00:31):
Every time I think I know what you want, you'd
switch it out.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
But that's what makes your.

Speaker 5 (00:35):
Houses all your day.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Discuss anything that happens between the roof and the foundation.
Nothing is off limits. You truly do care about everybody.
She can yell at, chi can scream, but when you
get her alone, she's the best person on the planet.
Cindy Stumpo is tough as nails.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Welcome to Cindy Stumpo, Tough's Nails and w Ezy News
Radio ten thirty. Let's go, Samantha, Yes, mother. All right
with me at hun Are you going to introduce her?
I guess that's no. It was your experience that met her.
I was just a sidekick that day. But you were there, right,
I was there. Okay, you want to introduce yourself money,
go ahead. You introduced your.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
Said, hey, my name's Mel.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
We're going by Mel. Yeah, okay, Mel, now Melanie. Okay,
forget Melanie. I like me better, easier for her. Mel's cool.
Three lotter words, A good right now, dogcat and out. Okay,
all right, I want you to give my listeners. Go ahead,
tell the story how you and I met.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
I was at work.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
What's your work?

Speaker 4 (01:33):
I work in the lab mask general frego.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
What are you? What do you do there?

Speaker 4 (01:37):
I'm a phlebonomist okay, and told you I'm thirty years old.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
And I was at work and you were in the
chair needing some assistance because they.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Couldn't find it didn't have neat assistance.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Okay. So I'm sitting in the chair and another woman
is taking my blood and she put the needle in.
Then she re jammed and I went and you're hurting me.
And then you said I'll take it from here and
you walked over. I think we went in my left
arm and we found a vein. You went right in
there smoothly. I didn't wasn't poked twice, and I didn't
feel anything. I had no bruise. And at that point

(02:12):
we started to talk, and I think I asked you
how old you are, because that's typical question. I will
ask how old you are? Where are you from? What's
your zodiac? On my questions?

Speaker 4 (02:25):
Right, I think Mexico so much.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
And then I said to you, said to me, what
are you, Cindy? And I said, I'm a cancer and
you said, my brothers or my brother my brothers, right,
we're both cancers. And I said, what do you mean
they were?

Speaker 4 (02:41):
Yeah, they passed away.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Okay, So this is why I want you to pick
up the story. Okay, so and actually no, we're going
to come back there. Just let's hold that off for
a minute. Let's go back to when you were a
young girl. I want you. I want people to hear
what your life was at a young girl and how
you changed it up, so people know how we met.

Speaker 4 (03:01):
Now, yes, and we connected just because we have the
same kind of values and morals in life. And I
had a hard time.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
At well, those morals and values came a little bit
later for you. Yes, okay, so I got there. That
that's how you get this, as long as they get.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
There, right. I had lost my son when I was
around seventeen turning eighteen, and I kind of thought I
was a dude for a little bit, and dude, yeah,
I was on the streets, you know, doing things I
wasn't supposed to be doing, hurting people because I wanted
I don't know, I wanted everybody to feel how I
was feeling at the moment.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
So you can basically throw a haymaker, yeah, you know
the haymakers nice? Yeah, it's not nice, not nice. No,
but you have to strength to throw it.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
Yeah. And it's like like it's just like so much
energy energy that you exert in a negative way, it's
not even worth it. You have to leave people where
they're at and learned that that's just their capacity they're
in right now. And you can't do anything what control yourself?

Speaker 3 (04:03):
So from what age to what age were you running
and doing all the.

Speaker 4 (04:07):
Bad, bad things from eighteen till I was like twenty four?

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Okay, so at fifteen sixteen you were normal whatever? Normal
young girl was.

Speaker 4 (04:18):
Kind of I kind of transitioned once I went to
high school and kind of got brought into the world
of like being a grown up too fast.

Speaker 6 (04:28):
Basically, yeah, we've all been there, Yeah, and getting into
things I shouldn't have been getting to, and I kind
of got a little exposed, and you know, people didn't
really like me and my brother so it was a
lot of problems and even like why, well I don't
know why, they just always you know, the dudes always
had problems with my brothers, and I was always a
wicked protective so whatever problems were theirs were mine as well.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
How what's the difference in age between you and your brothers?

Speaker 4 (04:56):
Ranging from like who's two to three? Five years some
of them they are I'm the baby, I'm the youngest one.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
So but you stuck together as a family.

Speaker 4 (05:05):
Yeah, and I was I They never liked me to
be a part of anything. But I just imagine your
sibling getting hurt and you're just standing there like I
couldn't do that.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
But would they better kids than you were? No, So
everybody was the same because.

Speaker 4 (05:21):
They were ahead of me, so they had already gone
into the what they gone into, and then here I
come like, oh no, this isn't going to happen.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
They want you to be a good kid.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
Yeah. I was up until high school and then I
kind of like explode it. And then once my kids died,
I just amplified it. I was like turnt up.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
And what about your mom and dad at that time
trying to control embarrassed.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
They were just embarrassed and disappointed. Like my family come
from a literal jungle. Like my parents made out of
a jungle. My dad's a businessman.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Sercise when you say they made out of a jungle.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
So Caverd is western, Yeah, okay, And it's ten islands
in the middle of the ocean and most of it
is like a jungle and then there's like parts of
cities and stuff. It's very poor, especially back then they
were just farming and stuff like that. Both my parents
had to quit school and help their parents farm. Kind

(06:15):
of a few clothes, one two pair of shoes deal.
Growing up. They had it really hard. They came to
this country when they were young, before they were twenty
and worked and you know, my mom's been like a
CNA her whole life, but.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
She makes she so she does well.

Speaker 4 (06:31):
Wow, yeah, like.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Okay, so they were immigrants, yes, and they came here
the legal way.

Speaker 4 (06:36):
Legal way, and my dad brought over more than half
of his family here. He got here, did what he
was supposed to do, got a citizenship because back then,
when you got your citizenship, you can bring someone. Then
they have to go get the citizenship through the process
and then they can get somebody else.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
So then he get five mins dollars stream reals and
they didn't get so fun.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
No, my dad busted his ass studied. I used to
go to night school my day. I used to go
to school at New Bedford High School at night, and
I would go with him and help him with his
like English and stuff like that, because if you don't
know this language, it's very hard to pick up because
our tongue, our language is very heavy tongued.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
Our languages.

Speaker 4 (07:15):
Yeah, cave Verdian. So I feel like like Bundia. It's
like kind of like a broken down version of Creole,
I would say, like a slang version almost. So yeah,
I just it's just amazing, Like my parents are just.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
You know, looking at you, and they're pretty face to you,
as in I smile to think that you were throwing
Haymakers back in the day.

Speaker 4 (07:41):
You know, I was such a.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
But you know, we all were punks in some form
of our lives at some point. People that are honest, right, Like, yeah,
back in they seventies and eighties, we jammed up to
I mean, but this is good. That was then. We
weren't using guns and we weren't doing.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
What yeah what, you know, it's even worse. I'm thankful
that I was around what I was around back then
because now it's like, you're just gonna You're gonna die.
These kids are insane. Yeah, one of my friends got
killed like almost it's about to be a year almost
by a twenty year old. He's twenty seven.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
Before I let you keep going forward, I'm gonna bring
you back because that's what I have to do. Because
we'll go for my ninety five and go to four
ninety five, we'll go to Enter seventeen, and then we'll
be heading down in Florida and we'll be in the
Gaza Strip going Israel and then back to Italy. I
don't know where we can go, So let's go back
in time. You get in a bad place around eighteen
years old. If from eighteen to twenty something twenty what

(08:36):
twenty four? You're running crazy? Yeah, just beating people up
no reason? Yeah, were you robbing them?

Speaker 4 (08:44):
No? I was just beating their butts. And then I
got into a little issue. I went away for a
little bit.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
And what was your mom and dad saying to you
at that time?

Speaker 4 (08:55):
It was just hard. I was like listening. No, they
didn't know what to do because they did the best.
I feel like, as parents, you do the best you
can with situations.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
Don't know, I keep talking.

Speaker 4 (09:08):
You do the best you can with situations. So it's
kind of hard when your kid's going through something. You
have no idea what to do. So they try to
take me on vacation do things to Johanna Kana, It's like, what, oh, that.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
Thought would be right back? I'm Sinny stumpany listen Toughest
Nails on w BZ News Radio ten thirty To be.

Speaker 5 (09:22):
Right Back, sponsored by floor In Decor, National Lumber, and
Village Bang.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
Just yesterday morning, they let me know you will go.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
Susan the plans they may put an end to you.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
Welcome back to Toughest Nails on WBZ News Radio ten three.
That song going, this song you never heard James Taylor.

Speaker 4 (09:48):
Huh, what's up girl? No, but I love it. I'm
loving the guitar.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
If you actually listen to the song. He wrote this
song at McClain's coming off Heroin Seen Sundays. Yes, yes,
Yes to the to the history on James Taylor and
I've seen Fire and Rain Yes, m wow, So pick
it up from them. My music always has a reason

(10:14):
for what I play online.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
I love that well. I love my job, and I'm
so thankful where I'm at in life. I always wish
that I would live in Boston and work in Boston
and you're there.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah, but it's taken you some time to get there.
So I'm gonna take you back again. So your mom
and dad they're trying every which way to take you
on vacations.

Speaker 4 (10:34):
Not be depressed and angry.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
And that wasn't doing anything. No, So what did it
take you to hit your rock bottom to say, okay,
I got to move this now that I don't want
to be this girl When I went to jail, and
that did a few But the thought of going to
jail did not scare you. No, you have to say
the word people can't see you. No, no thought of that.

(10:59):
Scharedule not in that moment, and now you find yourself
in jail.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
Yeah, and it was it was weird because I'm raised.
It was so such a weird experience because you know,
I walk in and I say hello and introduce myself
to everyone, and they're all looking at me like I'm
a literal psychotic person. No one even said a word
back to me. No, no, everybody in the cell. Yeah.

(11:23):
So you go through an intake unit. They make sure
that you're not on drugs or anything like that, and
then you go.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
Into an and you went on drugs.

Speaker 4 (11:30):
No, you go into besides you know, but.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
Whatever, but it's okay, you bought whatever. But okay, okay, okay, good.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
So yeah, you go through the intake process and stuff
like that. But if you are, like, you know, a
part of a street gang whatever, like you have to
also go through intake and stay in there or whatever.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
So you had your own streak gang that you were
involved in.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
Basically, it was like I was attached to and I
went out and I went they put me into the
unit and I walk in and just say hey, hey, hi, everybode,
I'm Melanie and nice to meet you, and not a
person's at a word back. Okay, So I just went
up to my style this year what myself was I
literally didn't come out until the next morning. I come
downstairs for a child that's what they would call a

(12:13):
chow and someone throws like the newspaper on the table
and they're like, how are you this normal and calm
right now? And this is what you're in trouble for.
And I'm like, because I didn't do nothing, girl, they
were telling, yeah, me, I my problem. It'll get sorted out.
Like I know, like you know the consequences that come

(12:35):
with the things that you're doing as an as even
a teen and adult, when you're raised correctly and you
do things you're not supposed to be doing, you know, consciously, subconsciously,
your conscience is always on your back. Like so you
did have a conscious yes, But it was like I
was just fighting it, like okay, like my I'm gonna
leend my demons when I want to be mad. I
want to feel this way because I don't want to

(12:55):
feel the pain of losing my kid. Like I couldn't
out my child, I couldn't do anything. I just sit
there and let him pass away, you know. So it
was like I didn't want to deal.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
With that at all and how they pass away.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
I basically had an infection in my universe, so I
gave birth too early and then Rhode Island it's against
a law of recessitated child that's under a certain amount
of weeks. I was like one week, shy being five months,
so they would have literally just crushed him if they
try to like do CPR or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
But that that that's in some states people board up
to that age, right, Yeah, but this still affected you
and just swung you the way it swung you.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
Yeah, it was not nice.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
Do you think you were going to go down that
path either way? And that's your You're out.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
No, I wasn't. I was in college to be like
criminal justice. I wanted to be like little a judge
and like like Supreme Court and be changing laws and stuff. Yes,
because look at the difference. Now I'm in the medical
field and I want to be a trauma surgeon.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Like, what do you think you went through a depression?
What do you think happened to me?

Speaker 4 (13:58):
I think it was a depression mixed with a little
bit of PTSD at a young age. Like once once
my kid died, they made me go on birth control.
I had no choice. I had to go see a
psychiatrist automatically. I'm freaking seventeen, like just about to turn eighteen,
and they're just like, oh, yeah, you're depressed. Here's some
freaking fifty milligrams of sarah quill. You'll be isis and

(14:19):
go to therapy. My parents are going to listen to
other doctors. They're supposed to know what they're doing. They're
supposed to give you a proper land.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
It sets you correctly that they don't.

Speaker 4 (14:28):
Seventeen year old on a fifty milligram dose of sarah quill.
Are you delusional? It literally makes you feel like a zombie.
You don't feel anything. You're just like an empty shell.
And I feel like it made me even worse because
now I can't feel nothing.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
Now there's no pain.

Speaker 4 (14:46):
It's like the Hulk at all times.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
Yeah, emotionless.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
It's not healthy. You people need to get in there
to get through it and clean it up the freak up. Sorry,
it's okay, you know what, you don't worry, but but
it's like, come on, so you see the world for.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
What it really is. Yeah, I feel like at these
meds are just it's almost like feel like it's like
my third eye opened up. If I didn't go that
route and I went to the justice system, like if
I didn't go through the justice system to see what
it was really like, I don't think I would have
switched to even and even all my flick being close
to who I was close with and losing who I lost,

(15:24):
like watching people I love die like. I don't think
I would have chosen the medical fields if I was
already in the legal fields and it's like, okay, so
now I'm gonna bring you back again. That's okay, No,
this is good. I like this and people need to
hear this because you did a three sixty in your
life like most people can't even do. Most people can't
change it up, and when they do, we call them, uh,

(15:48):
what's it called? OG's right, the O g's try to
come out. But you're young. The young will listen to you.
You're only thirty years old. You're young. It's it's easy
to listen to thirty year old than a six year
old guy that tries to say you, look, I've been
I've spent you know, ten cents in jail, blah blah blah.
They don't kill these kids, they don't care. They're not listening.

(16:09):
So now you're in jail for how long?

Speaker 4 (16:12):
I uh, it was thirty days. They sentenced me to
ninety because they found me dangerous, and then my lawyer
got me out in thirty days.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
And then the thirty days. Were you afraid to be
there at all?

Speaker 4 (16:22):
No? Like I told you, I walked in sell hello
to everybody. Like one person tried me, but I was
just like, we can just go find you myself, but
you better leave me the fuck alone after this. So
that's it was. No one's gonna no and everyone it's
so nuts. Everyone just treats me like a baby everywhere
I go. Not the baby, but like like I don't
know what the energy is of me or what I
give off. It's just like everywhere I go, even at

(16:44):
like work, I'm just not baby, but I'm just treated
as like what a nice person, yeah, like a young
little like they would do my hair and braids before
my court days. They threaded my eyebrows for the woman
liked you. Oh my god, they were so nice. They
were all older than me. A lot of them have
passed away. My Sally passed away. God bless us. So
I'm sorry, but.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
Yeah, try anything on you sexually in there? No, So
is that all overrated in jail?

Speaker 4 (17:10):
Or is it? Yes? It is? I feel like TV
and all stuff, and especially for the women's side. The
men's side, it's like in a zoo.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
You were in schedule though, right, No, it was state. Yeah,
so but over the men's it's like a bunch of crazy.

Speaker 4 (17:29):
Oh, it's like an a zoo. It's absolute zoo. I
would be you don't have to fight.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
There wasn't one tough girl that want to.

Speaker 4 (17:36):
Yeah, there was one, but I told her we can
go in the cell and fight right now, but it's
about to be done. After that, you're not about to
be antagonized and about to be nine olse like we're
about to get that and that's it's done.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
And then you would have watched just kicked a Biden
called it a day.

Speaker 4 (17:48):
Yeah, And then she was like, oh, I like you, like, yeah,
what did you think I was about to make Like
I'm a nice person. I'm not going to give off.
You know, I'm going to kill you. But it's like,
don't come for me. I'm not gonna come for you,
like I just wanted to.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
Come for me.

Speaker 4 (18:03):
Yeah. Yeah, you see Mortal Combat, you know them special
moves too. Yeah, absolutely, make me take one.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
We're not gonna show she's my new body. God by
the way. Okay, so now let's go. Now you've stepped
it up and you have got out of jail, and
you said, okay, it's time to.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
What changed my life?

Speaker 3 (18:25):
And then the introm Did you have both your brothers
living while you were in jail? Yeah, so while you're
in jail, you get out with a pissed to you
when you got sense.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
Yeah, and the people that I was with, because it
was like, why would you ever, you know, put that
her in that type of situation knowing.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
So your brother's are upset with the people that you
were hanging with.

Speaker 4 (18:46):
Yeah, and me of course too, Like I took accountability.
It wasn't like even when my parents try to like
bail me on stuff like that, and I got a lawyer,
like I'm just like no, I'll handle it myself. Like
I knew what I was doing, and I chose to
do what I chose. So I got to reap the
the coccief questions, you know what I mean. You can't
expect to be out here.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
And right now, Mom, and Dad are completely embarrassed. No
now for you, No, no, back then.

Speaker 4 (19:09):
Back then, Yeah, that's I mean, people were talking crap
about me. They like forced to situate like, you know,
I was old and one a situation, so you know,
I just looked like an I was just trying to
like kill people around the school and all was crazy
and like so you just look Google. Yes, so it's
like people are talking crap all the time, and it's like,
you know, you're a kid, but unfortunately the circumstances are

(19:30):
gonna say otherwise.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
Yeah, of course people are gonna talk. Yeah, well that
thought wore going to break comes City Stumble and you
listen to Tempest Nails on WBZ News Radio tenth Grady.

Speaker 5 (19:39):
Will be sponsored by Pillow Windows of Boston, Next Day
Molding and Kennedy Carpet.

Speaker 3 (19:58):
And Welcome back to Tenness Hills on WBZ. It's Radio
ten thirty and we're in the studio with Mel. I
think Sammy's right there. Okay, glad you're right here.

Speaker 4 (20:10):
Mel.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Talk to me about something. You still live in the
same area that you grew up, which is what's Bedford,
New Bedford. In the last ten years, how much worse
did New Bedford get with crime and gangs and everything
in the last decade. Worse better at the same.

Speaker 4 (20:27):
I would say worse and everyone. I feel like people
always think like one generation is always complaining about the next,
and I totally get that. But I feel like my generation,
I forget what we're called millennials. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
I hate that whole holony.

Speaker 4 (20:44):
I know, but I feel like my generation, thirty year
olds or whatever. I think the thirty year olds like,
we yeah, we tripped up and stuff like that, but
a lot of us try to do our best every
day and try every day. And it's like, but you
covered the good family mom, and yeah, they're amazing. Okay,
A lot of kids don't come from that, right, No,

(21:05):
And but I have friends that are amazing.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
Oh she's literally like the last year of the money
and then what comes after them?

Speaker 3 (21:13):
Gen z.

Speaker 4 (21:14):
Yeah those judges.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
The girl.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
Even at McDonald's they had the slowest energy artist one
in the affirming for you. Oh my girl, can I
just use the machine I used to work here when
I was fourteen. Let me just do them myself. What
is going on?

Speaker 2 (21:28):
There's no in between, There's no pep in this step
nod that like no pep in their step or the
overachiever this way, there's no in between.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
I've had to meet many overachievers in that age group.
I really have all my friends. Yes, you have thirty
seven hundred.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
No, they're all younger than me. How much they're all like,
they're all twenty six, twenty seven. They're all crushing it
in tech.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
Oh tech tech this tech techi. Okay, we'll do it.

Speaker 4 (21:56):
Spartiate.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
They have to crush Okay, good for them. Not a story.
We don't want to here about this story. No, I
just want to know what we don't care so much.
I don't know. We can't answer those questions. But we're
gonna stay on mel story and stop going up by
ninety five. For the love of God, this is.

Speaker 4 (22:11):
What happens when we get together.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
Okay, so bring it to me. You come home. Your
two parents will love you, your auditor as far as I'm concerned,
you're rich right there because you're lucky to have him.
All the dad right, yes, that love you and care
about you, and they're trying to straighten you out but
being oh my.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
God, one the best they could.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
Okay, So now what happens you come home? How old
is your first brother when he passes?

Speaker 4 (22:34):
He was about twenty four and this was where what
year twenty eleven?

Speaker 3 (22:40):
So he was twenty four twenty eleven? And how did
he pass he was shot shot?

Speaker 4 (22:48):
Yep?

Speaker 3 (22:48):
Was he the one stying the trouble or ented into
a trouble trying to break.

Speaker 4 (22:53):
Them and get both parties to end peacefully?

Speaker 3 (22:57):
And because those two parties ended peace when the pop pop,
how he goes down?

Speaker 4 (23:02):
Yes, and.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
They know him, yes, they didn't want him to die. No,
So what happens to the one that kills him? How
long does he get for jail time? Ten and they
still spend ten years? Or is the out out? That's it?
Ten years because it's what it's still murder? Yeah, why
do you only get ten years?

Speaker 4 (23:25):
That's it? My brother? Oh my brother, the one that
got chop fifteen times and lived.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
Let's stay with one brother.

Speaker 4 (23:30):
Sorry, sorry, they don't get no time and then you
have good time also as well. So yeah, they got
ten years, but if they have good time, they get
months chopped off their time, so they could come home
anywhere from like seven six years eight? Why because they
have good time they behaved in prison.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
But so you kill somebody, only get ten years in prison?
What happens to the days that you got life?

Speaker 4 (23:54):
I don't They don't have that Massachusetts. That's why I
wanted to be a judge in Supreme Court. They don't
have Massachusetts. It is illegal. I mean not that I think. No.
The stipulations for life is very difficult to gather on somebody,
and they don't have what's one to murder someone? Now
murder someone?

Speaker 3 (24:11):
But if you thought, okay, I'm only you're spent ten
years in Gailman to murder somebody, that's not really like
a long a time when you're fifteen, sixteen years old, eighteen.

Speaker 4 (24:20):
And then if you're fifteen and sixteen and you're committed
to DYS, you're not going to real prison. You're going
to DYS because you're committed till you're usually twenty one
unless they literally fight for you. But if you're committed
to you're twenty one with UYS, it's it's like you're
ordering Chinese food, you're playing PS five yere chilling. Why

(24:42):
wouldn't you do that? It's enabling you.

Speaker 3 (24:44):
And then your other brother go ahead.

Speaker 4 (24:46):
It was also shot.

Speaker 3 (24:48):
How well was she?

Speaker 4 (24:49):
He was twenty six.

Speaker 3 (24:50):
At the time, twenty six, two thousand and what.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
That one was twenty and fifteen? What was he doing
getting ready to go out to a party? It was
New Year's Eves?

Speaker 3 (25:04):
And what happened?

Speaker 4 (25:05):
He just was in the car with his friends and
people pulled up and started shooting, and he got shot
in the head. His friends trying to drive him to
the hospital.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
But it was hold on too late. He's in a
car with a group of friends.

Speaker 4 (25:14):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
How he's twenty six, is going out New Year's Eve?
Another gang? Was he part of a gang?

Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (25:22):
So another gang members pull up, yep, and they start
shooting at this game. And this is going on right
here in New Beije, in New Bedford. It doesn't even
make the news. It made your local papers. Yeah, was
this on Channel seventy five or four news? Either one
of your brother's shootings?

Speaker 4 (25:42):
I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
No, doesn't that seem weird?

Speaker 4 (25:45):
Of course they don't care, though. They They need these
things to happen. They need chaos, They need chaotic That's
why they brought crack into our communities back then. That's
why if you notice that most of the banks and
certain is in low income areas, they literally target from

(26:08):
the get go. It's like a lifelong curse that everybody
inherits a generation generation why, and everybody's like warped to
make it look like it's school. You got rappers that
are like it's our, it's our about my life. But
it's like it's one thing to say that something is
your art, but it's one thing to not turn your
life around and still be doing what you're doing and
not you know what I mean, still putting that image

(26:29):
out or you know what I mean, Like it's just
fed into these kids every day. I feel so bad
for them.

Speaker 3 (26:37):
But it wasn't fed into you and your brothers.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
No, I chose that I had a choice.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
Okay, So one brother breaks up a fight, he definitely
doesn't deserve that. No, the other brother isn't a gang
and and he didn't deserve that either. So there were
no gangs killing each other back then. There was no retaliation.
This wasn't They just shot up them.

Speaker 4 (26:58):
And I still don't even know why.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
Did they ever find out who did that?

Speaker 4 (27:04):
Yeah, they're still out away. I'm pretty sure they both
got life.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
Did they? So did you get to did you get
to go to the court?

Speaker 4 (27:15):
I didn't go to any of that.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
No, I can't parents.

Speaker 4 (27:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
So coming from from parents that have lost a child
at twenty eight years old to a sudden death, and
watching the demise of my parents, how do your parents
bury two children and ever be the same or they're
not the same, or you you have a sister? Right?

Speaker 4 (27:35):
No?

Speaker 3 (27:35):
No, sure, and so it's just you left like me,
we're orphans, right, So they had to pick up all
the pieces for them. Since the age of what.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
I was young, let me seey eleven, I was still
I was about to graduate high school. Next.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
No, no, no, you went to jail. Then you come out
of jail, and that's when the football got thrown to
you and you need to pick it up.

Speaker 4 (27:58):
Yeah, and then I had just lost, like I got
kicked out of college and all that because I was
in a criminal justice program at the time. I got
out of my program. Had to just kind of start
from scratch. Nobody would hire me.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
Okay, so let me go back. Both brothers died by
twenty six. The last one dies.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
You're how old the last one I died? So I
was a fifteen, I was twenty. Oh my god, what
is it twenty twenty four? I'm not gonna have math girl.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
Okay, that's okay. What's the difference in age between you
and your brother?

Speaker 4 (28:27):
It's about only like four.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yeah, So let's say you were twenty two. At twenty two,
were you out of jail by then? Yes, as you
came out of jail, he passes. How long afterwards? The
other brother passes before you go to jail?

Speaker 4 (28:41):
No? That yeah, he passed away before I went to jail,
and the other one after after, and then when I
got came home. It was probably maybe like two three
years after Yeah, right, head talking, Sorry, maybe like two
to three years after I came home that happened.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
And is that when you decide I need to fly
straight or when you go out of jail.

Speaker 4 (29:02):
No, when I got out of jail, I tried my
best to do what I needed to do. One of
my friends ended up taking me to church New Life
South Coast in New Bedford, and I was still doing
bad things on the streets, you know, trying to make
money at least. And I used to like, the first
day I was in there, I'm just looking at everybody
like going side to side swing. I'm like, what the

(29:23):
hell's going on in here?

Speaker 3 (29:25):
Doing church swing?

Speaker 4 (29:27):
No, I'm watching everybody else wing, am I what the
hell's going on in here? And then they play this
song called Reckless Love by Corey I think it's Alm
or something like that, and I start sweating. I'm like, what,
like now I'm thinking of my head, like, oh my god,
is this the part of the Bible. I'm about to
melt because I'm the devil or something. And I start

(29:48):
end up swinging and I started just crying, and I
just feel like this warm feeling come over me and like,
I don't know, I felt.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
Like cheefs for that thing. Hold that thought well, coming
right back. It's City Snupple Toughest Nails WBZ is Radio ten.

Speaker 5 (30:00):
Thirty, sponsored by new Brook Realty Group, Boston Wood Smaller Insurance,
World Auto Body and Tosca Drive Autobody.

Speaker 4 (30:08):
Now that we churised, thank you's so warm.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
And welcome back to stupp His Nails on WBZ News
Radio ten thirty. And I'm Simney Stumpo and I'm here
with Sammy and I'm here with mel mel So We're
now we're going to church, We're swaying, We're going what
are we doing here? And how fast does the light
bulb go off that you go. I got straightened my acto.

Speaker 4 (30:37):
The moment I start crying in church, it was like
the spirit came over me, like what are you doing?

Speaker 3 (30:44):
And you left that one day? How many days you
go to church before you got that feeling.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
That one day?

Speaker 3 (30:50):
That one day?

Speaker 4 (30:51):
One day? And then I started going every single Sunday
ever since. Then. I joined Crew, which is they put
you in a group of a certain amount of women.
It's like four or five women, different kind of all
different ages, different areas of life, and you guys meet up,
you pick a day to meet up every week and
you guys touch base, you talk about church. It was

(31:13):
like such a beautiful experience because the women that I
was around, So that got you help, Oh so so good.

Speaker 3 (31:19):
Okay, now your mom and dad today, So now you
put yourself to school, you get a church, and you say,
all right, I'm going to make something in my life. Yes,
and then you do.

Speaker 4 (31:29):
What I applied to Brigham thirty times.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
Thirty times yep.

Speaker 4 (31:33):
I was working overnight at South Coast Behavioral Health and
I finally got an interview, and of course it was
right after my overnight, so I said, okay, let me
go and I go there. They're like, oh, we're building
which who's the lady that I They never gave me
a last name, only the lady's first name, Tracy. They're like, girl,
there's Tracy and almost every department. So it's like an
hour now over my interview, I can't find them. And

(31:55):
then I just I walk into over into the Shapiro building.
I didn't know was the Schabarron at the time, and
I just asked somebody that was like rolling around with
a car and I'm like, hey, do you know who
Tracy is that. They're like, honestly, I think I heard
that name before. I follow me. I think it's upstairs.
So they take me to the sixth floor the Cardiac
I see you, and they bring me inside. They're like, hey,
I have a girl here. She's looking for Tracy. And

(32:17):
the lady gets out and she's like, I'm Tracy, and
I'm like, I'm Melanie. I've been looking for you, guys
for over an hour. They only gave me your first name.
I'm from a small town. Saint Luke's don't even got
four fluols, Like this is crazy bridges and this and that.
So they're like, oh my god, you're still here, didn't
you don't you work overnights or something like? We saw
your resume and I'm like yeah, They're like, yeah, you

(32:39):
have the job. That's more than persistent. The job is yours.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
So Tracy gave your job, yes, and that that job
was doing.

Speaker 4 (32:45):
What I was in CNA in the cardiac I see you?

Speaker 3 (32:48):
And then how did you learn how to do blood?

Speaker 4 (32:50):
I went back to school and they paid for it.
I went to Roxburgh Community College, but I learned while
I was in the cardiac I see you because the
nurses like they saw how good I was and they
wanted to help me learn. So we had a dummy
and then they would let me practice on.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
Them on them. Yeah, stick a needle in my vein.
Go ahead, let's just hope you don't get in main
lottery was literally so nice. Okay, So then now you're
going to work every day, you're in Brigham's. And now
what's the relationship like with you? Your mom and dad?

Speaker 4 (33:19):
So much more healthier. I wish sometimes that I could
take back how much of an I was back then,
and like, like, you know, cause your parents are your
God's gift. You know what I'm saying. People don't get
that every day, and to have parents that just try
every day and do their best with you, it's just
amazing and it shouldn't be taking for granted. And I

(33:39):
feel like I took it for granted. Like before my
grandma daed, she'd always tell me that, like, make sure
you take care of your mom. Make sure you take
care of your mom. Like it makes you want to cry,
because like my mom's such a good person, you know,
and like I can't wait to eventually retire her so
she won't got to work, like, you know, just being
my friend, never judging me, always loving me, like everybody
was talking shit about me. She saw who I was,

(34:01):
you know, from the beginning. It's never a doubt.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
So your mom knew you'd come out of this crazy stage.

Speaker 4 (34:08):
She knew what I was like made for so to
my grandmother. My grandmother literally didn't die until the day
my first day of orientation I got. I got the
job at Brigham on my birthday. I got my badge
on my birthday, May nine, six years ago, and the
day of my orientation, my mom called me two hours
into it, like your grandma's we're gonna save the body,

(34:31):
hurry up and get here. And they even pushed my
orientation like further from me. They like, oh my God,
Like it was crazy. It was like, how is that
not God right there showing you. Here, you are your
introduction to life. Now stay to the right and don't
go left anymore, like come on.

Speaker 3 (34:47):
And that's all it took. Oh, that craziness. And all
we do is put you in church three years, four
years prior to that, and you would have went.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
There, like I just focused on people who loved you.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
Sometimes you have to have bad really good yeah, and
then sometimes yeah, that's life. And then sometimes to know good,
you gotta feel bad. Then you can pick out which
which is something to compare. So I want the feeling
of good, I want the feeling of bad. Then there
are people like me that vicariously move through everybody because

(35:18):
I can. That's part of being a cancer. With your
brothers knew that. They knew that. So they were really
good souls. I know they were.

Speaker 4 (35:26):
They were. My cards were like I have a video
I once to go see Maureen Hancock and she literally
is like, oh, you're not You're not dying anytime soon, sorry,
because oh no, yeah, nobody knows that though, how would
you know that.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
She's that spiritual woman.

Speaker 4 (35:43):
Yeah, she's I told you to go there, girl, told
you to look that up. Well, you're going to take
amazing again. I love that she's amazing. They literally were
like you are made for so much more. It's not
your time and it won't be for a long time.
Like we miss you too, but you have way too
much to do.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
That's your brother's talking.

Speaker 4 (35:59):
Yeah, it was crazy. It was the craziest experience. We
have to go. You have to go.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
And now you were saying to me in the hospital
when we met that you literally wait for your dad
now to come home from work to make sure he's safe,
and you feel that's your responsibility to make sure he
gets in that house.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
Everybody. It just makes me like it's so crazy because
it's like after losing so many people, I feel like
you just get scared, Like it's just like an anxiety,
like you just expect a ball to drop or something
to happen, Like every year I've lost someone, it's like
it's like a domino effect almost. It's like like so
it's like you get stuck in.

Speaker 3 (36:37):
That, you know, and I hold your mom and dad.

Speaker 4 (36:41):
My mom is fifty five, my dad is fifty four.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
Yeah, but you still want to make sure that you
think you can keep them safe forever forever.

Speaker 4 (36:50):
You can't be selfish, I know, but yeah, forever. That's
not being selfish, Like you know, like what's that? What
was that? Found the founding.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
Youth out of the youth?

Speaker 3 (37:00):
I wish I had the fountain of youth too. So
you want your parents around you for a long time?

Speaker 4 (37:04):
Yeah, because I want to make it up, you know,
like I want to make it up to them. Yeah,
Like they came from nothing from me for me, like
and my siblings, like like my whole family, like my aunts,
my uncle's, like they all raised us, like you know
what I mean, Like we was raising that whole school setting.
They all dropped us off at my name in his house,
like they all went to work, like you know what
I mean, Like my name always taught us, Like this
is who God gave you to do life with.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
You take care of me from a family of hard
working people.

Speaker 4 (37:27):
Hard working God driven people.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
Yeah, nobody's doing anything illegal.

Speaker 4 (37:31):
So the next channel, Oh yeah, it's embarrassing, bro, Like
my family came from nothing. This is what you want
to do with your life? What are you doing? Girl?

Speaker 3 (37:39):
Wake up now you woke up?

Speaker 4 (37:41):
Yeah, Like I want to be in d I want
my parents to be like my daughter is a doctor,
like you said she was going to be a what Yeah,
Like people were so mean to my mom during that
time when I was away, Like I wanted to come
home and beat up everybody because like it's not her fault.
Like your parents do the best that they can do,
and whatever they instill in you doesn't mean that you're
gonna have a perfect life. You still can take that left.

Speaker 3 (38:05):
You're right, that's why good kids come out of bad
homes and bad kids can come out.

Speaker 4 (38:08):
I'm telling you because like sometimes when you're I come
from a strict ass culture. I'm the only girl I
was allowed to do so obviously I'm a rebel. I
want to learn. I want to see what's up, Like
what I don't guess go out. Till I was twenty one,
I didn't even have a fig id the hell?

Speaker 3 (38:23):
What's so wrong with that?

Speaker 4 (38:25):
Like you, I know, of course, and I used to
be like I want to be like my man is
friends and the moms I don't give.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
Up damn mothers. What it's like mothers is so.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
You Yeah, a mother, that's what I'm saying, like, and
it's crazy because it's like you don't see it in
the moment. I've been trying to tell these kids, like,
if I had listened to my mother ten years ago,
I would not be where I would be, even I
would already be a doctor.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
Like what, So a lot of your friends didn't come
from didn't have moms and dads.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
Yeah, like I have nobody. Like I watched all of
my friends be single parents and bust their ass, and
I try my heartiest to help them and try to
kind of be a step and dad or whatever the
hell I can be for them, because it's not easy.
You need a tribe like.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
To raise a child, my god, especially.

Speaker 4 (39:06):
If they are autistic or have any type of Like.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
So you're out there helping your friends now that have
children that are single.

Speaker 4 (39:12):
Anytime I can, girl girl, like I'm a girl's girl.
We but we all need to be helping each other
way more. I don't care, like time is time is
valuable and it shouldn't be.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
Wasting good kids you're staying around now, you're not you
got away from yeah from the bad?

Speaker 4 (39:30):
Yeah, and you know they say so bad. I still
pray for them because God will work through people when
he's supposed to be.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
You know, God might be able worth of them, but
at the end of the day, water seeks its own level,
and you're seeking a whole different level of water. Now
that it's good, that's good. That's sometimes you put those
kids in the rear view mirror if you want better,
and that's called survival. Never ever disrespect your mom and

(39:56):
dad always thought them ever right. Okay, we're going off.
Break upon me stumbling with some Toughest Nails on w
BZ News Radio ten thirty.

Speaker 4 (40:04):
Became so.

Speaker 5 (40:19):
Became the world of fat. This only warm place water.

Speaker 4 (40:28):
I can't remember when you were.

Speaker 3 (40:35):
Okay, welcome back to Toughest Nails on WBZ News Radio
ten thirty. Nol You got fifty seconds. What do you
want to say, honey, that.

Speaker 4 (40:42):
I am grateful I met you and life always brings
you exactly where you're supposed to be and put you
in front of exactly who you need to be in
front of. If you would never went to my job
that day or needed.

Speaker 3 (40:53):
Assistance, if I need never needed blood, I would have
got the crazy blood lady that took my blood. But
you offered you said, I got this I got her.
You got her like you came over right. I'm twice
your age.

Speaker 4 (41:07):
That's just my heart. I don't like people. I don't
want people in pain. I got it. I will take
care of you. I don't you take care of people?

Speaker 3 (41:13):
Yeah, I got her. So we got a new friendship.
Yes we do, girl, okay, And I love you still.
And by the way, we went out in the hallway
and we talked for another twenty minutes after that. By
the way, everybody have a great, safe weekend. This is
Cindney Stumbo tough his nails on WBZ News Radio ten
thirty