November 22, 2023 • 30 mins
It doesn’t get any realer than this. Today Michael talks to two past crack enthusiast,like myself, who hooked up in the program (a big No No) and found the kind of true love that supersedes addiction and and laughs in the face of adversity. Let’s talk about it. Please.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
M hm, y'all ready, let's go.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Welcome missus. Michael called this world, started doing venice peach.
Now he reached in the world. He'll make you left.
Take the stomach cars, superfly, nice guys, prady to me
the crust, kidding old he ain't ready for the star
searching winter and oh ge three times, this ain't gonna beginning.
Whether you win ya house, you want your brother, how's
a dinner on your job and your brother? That I mean,
as a reb call Michael Taus, that everybody like to
(00:30):
call Michael Taus, that everybody like to.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Call Yes, Michael Taus, that everybody you know what shy
called Michael fuck to everybody to call.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Michael talks to everybody, Michael.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
To say, my body, everybody, everybody don't call Hey, everybody, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome,
Welcome to Michael talks to everybody. One day I get
to do a one on one with you. It's gonna
be Spectator. Today. My show is called Regular People. I
(01:04):
want to talk to two regular folks, and I was
so impressed by them. I had gone to an event.
I think it was in Sacramento. No, what's the other
place near Fresno was it Fresno, guys, Sam ber Sam Bernardino,
nowhere near it. Okay, so was Sam Bernardino. And I
went to this event and this lovely couple came up
(01:25):
and spoke, and they spoke their truth, and they talked
about where they came from, and they talked about where
they are and where they came from. Ain't easy. It
ain't easy, but the energy and the joy that they
have in their lives drives it so easy that you
don't even worry about where they were. Where they were
don't mean nothing. The more they've eradicated that by where
(01:45):
they are now, they've changed their minds. They say, if
you want to change your life, change your mind and
to hear these people be keynote speakers and then go
back and tell us a story where it began. I
thought it was fascinating. We brought them on the Morning
show and they did so I want to give them
even more time so people get to know who is
Truvette and Johnny. Hey, Truvett and Johnny. Welcome to the show. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome,
(02:09):
how y'all doing.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
Thank you, Michael Cargers, thank you. It's preasure for us.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
To be here.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
I appreciate you. How long have you guys been together? Now?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Thirteen years?
Speaker 4 (02:20):
That is so good. Most people can't stay to each
other for thirteen minutes. That's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Ken's for a good portion.
Speaker 6 (02:28):
Well, I'm saying about five of those years we were
together twenty four hours a day, every single day.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Really, why was that?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Because we weren't working. Wasn't nobody working?
Speaker 4 (02:45):
So you guys came up on a podium at the
event and you told your story about how you guys
started with adversity. Can you tell me a little bit
how you met that whole thing? We met?
Speaker 6 (02:55):
We met in a substance abuse program in Los Angeles.
What was this since it was crack cocaine?
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Well, I'm just surprised I didn't run into y'all won
them room?
Speaker 5 (03:05):
All right, all right, go ahead, right? That was no
not crack?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Now, all right? What was your what was your drug
of choice? Sir?
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Crack?
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (03:18):
But we did.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
We couldn't have been together if we didn't have an
appreciation for so.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Of y'all didn't have an appreciate the.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
That's that's where that's where, that's where our journey began.
Speaker 6 (03:32):
Well, it actually in the program. We were sober, and
I sometimes no, I was sober in the program, and
so he came in after I had been in there for.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Like six months. He weighed about one hundred and twenty pounds,
and she was.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
All on me, come on somebody.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
But all the girls were though. Really he came into
the program.
Speaker 6 (03:59):
So we were in the program doing everything under son
that you're not supposed to do with a program.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Johnny, y'all know, y'all not supposed to be the couple.
Y'all ain't supposed to couple up in the program, you know,
Johnny Johnny over there digging them down the rehab. I
don't know if that's okay. Now.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
We we did everything they told us not to do
in the program, and then we got out of the
program and relapsed and wonder why the program didn't work.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
He's so funny. He looked like that shit don't work.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
We had never done anything we were supposed to do,
so it wasn't gonna work.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Wow, I mean, this is a miracle in what this
is in that first of all, you guys aren't supposed
to have even hooked up because you're in the program,
but you you were able to hook up and take
that hook up and turn into a good thing. Because
y'all got together and stayed together. Y'all found some type
of common ground. They keep you going. And you told
(04:59):
me about it one time. It would got so bad
you guys have to move into an alley, But it
wasn't a bad alley. Tell me that story.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
In every neighborhood there's a Pops. Right in every crack
neighborhood there was a Pops.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So we saw we had been up like for days.
Speaker 6 (05:18):
We had been riding the buses in La and the
trains all night just to go to sleep. And we
were on Broadway and gauge and Pops comes walking down
the street with this basket, and you know, he stopped
and talked to us and we were like, yeah, we're
trying to find a spot.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
He said, I got a nice spot for you. I
got a nice spot. He said, just if you could
help me push this basket. And the basket had a
big old mattress.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
On it, So we helped him push the basket down
the street down Broadway in La. Turned up and he
said he had a spot right down here. So when
we got to the spot, it was a CALLI and
when I looked at the alley, That's how crazy I was.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
When I looked at the alley, I was like, oh
this is nice.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Oh my god, oh my god, this.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Is immediately flipped it, you know, housewives mode, and grabbed
a tree branch or some of the palm tree branch
laying on the ground. She grabbed that and started sweeping
the alley, you know, getting our little spot together. Yeah,
and that's where we set up shop, right there in
(06:35):
that alley.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
How long do you think you guys lived out there
in that alley.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
I think we were there probably for a couple of months,
in just in the alley, and I think we woke
up one day and in the smell and then just
kind of a moment had It was a moment.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Of clarity, and I'm like, oh, we got to get
up out of here, you know.
Speaker 6 (07:01):
And so we packed up what we could, you know,
you know, in the little clothes that we did, and
we went downtown on the skid Row and we went
to the midnight mission.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
At that time, they had a courtyard.
Speaker 6 (07:14):
Okay, so we were sleeping on the ground and the
midnight mission, but it was a courtyard.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
You could shower every day you could eat, and.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
We weren't Courtyard Marriott.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
It was.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I'm sorry, go ahead, it was we was talfortable.
Speaker 6 (07:36):
We were like, oh my goodness, and you know, I'm
laying on the ground, and but you could shower every
day and then we're on skid row so we could
go around and get new clothes every day and all
of that. So we had decided that we weren't gonna
use until we got housing.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
We were going you but we worked on doing till
we got housing.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
So y'all have self controlling. I mean that self control
when the addicts can hold off from using until the
situation is better.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
That the fact that you know, we had no money helped.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
That helped.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
Made it a lot easier. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
So after those months, how'd you get in? Somebody gave
somebody a job.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
What happened, Well, now, what happened is that I decided
at this time, because I had a history of mental
health issues, so I decided I was going to get
some s s.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I again because I had I had it before.
Speaker 6 (08:39):
And so we started going to Social Security and he
was like, he was like, my uh, she was my advocate,
and so we would go to S.
Speaker 7 (08:52):
S I and and I want to want to say
that key percent of the stuff I presented in the
Social Security Office was true with the time, because you
know that crack capped me.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
You know, I was gone, But I was also smart
enough to make the some very greater.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
So I was talking to Walls. I just wasn't talking
to him as much as you know it appeared.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
So we ended up in what they called the GETAR program,
and that was just some tense military made tints that
the Midnight Mission would put people in when they were
in the housing program. And so we were in the
(09:41):
housing program, and it took us about five months before
we finally got an SRO.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Each of us got an SRO.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Was a SRO.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Stay in the room only finger room occupanted.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Okay, all right, go ahead.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
But it was a brand new building that was furnished
by the pair was Hilton Foundation. What okay, try to
pay I mean, we were the first ones in there
that moved in.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Yeah, come on, I believe they didn't throw it up now,
but it was nice when we moved in.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
And I believe his rent was fifty two.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Dollars, whopping buck too much?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
And my rent was fifty six dollars.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
That's a lot of money when you smoke crack.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Now you ain't lying a lot of money for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
And we paid rents about three months.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
Out of that year.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
A happen the rest of the time and we were
on skinned row.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
We were smoking. Can't have money for rent.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
That was everisode wasn't no money left for rent Rockney.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
We was lucky. We was lucky. We was all scared
road that they fed everywhere.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
You could all go get a play of food somewhere
because we didn't buy no food.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Now we weren't buying. We were yes, that are our
rooms were the smoke house.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
That's what it winds, you know.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
And so has it turned out?
Speaker 6 (11:09):
For whatever reason, people always gave us credit. You know.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I guess we seem like nice attics.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Yeah, plus you're a couple.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Plus we're a couple.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
Okay, So they gave us credit. And we owed everybody
in l A. I hope none of them are watching
your soul right now.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
They don't know. And if they're not watching them to
call and tell them. Now I'm just joking.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
And so we had to get up out of there,
so tell them what.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
So we owed a guy in the s r O.
We lived, and we owed him like what nine hundred
dollars or something. They would us run up stupid tabs
right now, you know, knowing that we're smoking, and uh
you know we can't pay no.
Speaker 5 (11:55):
Nine in our tab. So no, but she got her well,
she got her check.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
We started smoke that night and then decided that we
got to get up out of here because we ain't
gonna have this boy's money in the morning.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
And when he comes to it to get his money,
we're not gonna have it.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
We didn't already start it. And uh so we left
and uh we left. We got a room and uh, well,
we smoked a little bit. Then we got a room
and then I called my Uh I called my sisters
and and stocked him, and I told they had never
met her.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
And I called him and I said, hey, look, you.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Know I'm out here in LA and things have gotten
hectic and it could get dangerous for me, and I
need you to send me a ticket one way because
I ain't coming back here one way, just uh Sacramento
or stocked him, and because I have sisters a Sacramento
and stocked him. And I said, but I'm not coming
(12:49):
if you don't send her a ticket, and they had
never met her.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
And one of.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
My sisters was like, you know, I'm not sending them
no ticket for no girl that he got out there
with every this. And then my mother was like, well,
if he's saying that and she's with him, then she's
with him and we can't get him and leave her.
And so she sent us two tickets, and so we
took those two tickets, and we.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
We had sold stamps and everything.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
No, we go, well, we went and got on the
bus and got out of la.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
We couldn't pay all them, Yeah, we couldn't.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
We couldn't pay all their people.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
And we got out of l A and uh and
he had Sacramento.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
And then my younger sister she got us an apartment.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
She put down the down payment, everything got us in
this apartment and that's where we started.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
But then a new restart that was the risk kind
of Okay.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
So let's stop right there because now we're at the restart,
we're gonna take a quick break. We gotta sell some
soap to some of you. Oh need to wash anyway,
we'll be right back. Michael talked to everybody and we're black,
(14:09):
I mean we're back. Hello, man, I am with True
Vett and Johnny and these are real people, you know.
I mean, in life, you have real circumstances. The one
thing I think a lot of us forget to look
at is one hundred percent of the times that think
that things went bad in our lives, we get to
the other side of them, one hundred percent. No matter
(14:31):
how bad, how terrible, how scary, how frightening, how ugly,
how embarrassing a thing was, today you're on the other
side of it. And so we can always get to
the other side. We just have to realize how take
our time, figure it out and go step back step
got watch the steps. So you guys, okay, pick up
where we left off.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
So, so my sister got us into the apartment, and
so we have a place to stay.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
Now we have an apartment.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
We're paying rent for three years.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah, we paid rent, and but then we started using
in this apartment and then so kind of the same scenarios.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
That was in hold up. How long did you stay
in there before y'all start using again?
Speaker 6 (15:10):
Well, when we stayed there for three years and we
were able to keep rent consistently for three years.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
But to ask your question we started using as soon
as my sister drove off.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Oh my god, boy, the truth was set you free,
won't it.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Yeah, So we'll fast track a little bit.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
So after a couple of years of that, you know,
the same we find ourselves in the same situation.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
We old people money, the same thing. It was all bad,
all ugly, and but she had.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
You know, she was great at you know, she could
go into uh uh, the Social Security office and everything,
and she knew how to She's a therapist, she's a
clear so well you you already, but she already knew
all the diagnoses this emptomes and out of which which
role you have to play to get whatever diagnoses. So
she was getting her SSI. I was in in all
(16:08):
supportive care worker and they gave us back pay which
allowed us to get twenty sixteen vehicle and that we
still have today, still have it today.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
I'm gonna plaud that because you can get a couple
of really big rocks for that type of carr go ahead.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
That shop and so but because we have this car now,
we don't feel the apartment is as important as it was.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
So we decided not to pay rent and stay in
the car. And then we did that, and.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Then we smoked a little bit and realized that the
car is uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Ye, we realized that the car was.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Uncomfortable to try to stand up and live in a car.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
We were parking around Sacramentos would be their skin row area,
and we went to.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Fit it to that way. To wait, so I said,
we had found out. What did you found out?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
We found out.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
They stretch out correctly in the car.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
Let's see in my day when we were really out
there and we didn't have a car anything, it looked
like the people that were sleeping.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Cars like they had it me.
Speaker 7 (17:23):
So, you know, so that's that's as far as the
that's as far as the dream went the car to
sleep in.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
He didn't go any prefer in there, And.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
So we wait, I want to I want to touch
on this because earlier you said that something was a miracle.
But this is what I want to touch on, is
what I think is a real miracle. We woke up
one day and we said, you know what, I'm tired
of this life.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
I'm tired of this ship.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
And she said me too, And I said, you want
to throw these pipes, all this stuff, all this garbage,
weighing just you know, and she said yeah, And from.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
That day to this day, we ain't using no more, right,
and that is the true miracle.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
That is And were God that how long ago was that?
Speaker 7 (18:10):
God?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Two and fourteen?
Speaker 4 (18:13):
I thought you gonna say that was Tuesday? Okay, all right,
so you guys have gone almost ten years without using Yes, yeah,
I love it. I'm proud of you.
Speaker 6 (18:28):
We were still homeless though, So we were in the car,
we were parking in Sacramento skid row areas, watching everybody hush.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
We're just watching this stuff. And I'm like, I can't
believe that we have gotten ourselves in a situation where
we are no longer in the community what I call
the community. It's the real world. And we're sure.
Speaker 6 (18:53):
But I decided that I would go to a place
called the hold are guess how in Sacramento, and I
have to give those people crops because what they did
is I have a history.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Of mental health issues.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
They got me back on medication that I'm not taking
right now, but I did take them, and we were
making all of our appointments, and within like three or
four months, they were like, you know, we have money
for housing. We were like, okay, but we have an eviction.
They were like, we have money for housing, but we
(19:30):
didn't get people to make their appointments. So you guys
are making all You're making all your appointments. So I'm
gonna talk to the director and see if.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
We can get you paid up. And I was like,
but we don't want to.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
Live here because my mother. By that time, my mother
had let us come live with her. So we were
driving back and forth from Sacramento, from President to Sacramento.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
To make appointments, okay, and so my mom was needing help.
And I said, so we like to move to Fresno.
Do we have to get housing year? And they did things.
We're like, no, we will pay.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
Off the eviction and you guys find an apartment in
Presnoe and we will pay down your whatever they want
you to pay.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
In order for you to get that apartment. And they did.
They did that, and so we stayed in that apartment
for four years.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
So just tell me where are you now? We're We're
in prest not the city, not the city. Where are
you where we are?
Speaker 1 (20:32):
So we stayed. We stayed in the apartment during that time.
I got I went back to school, I got my
master's degree in clinical Counseling.
Speaker 6 (20:44):
I got off medication, I started working at Presno County
where I was a client.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
So I began my first job at Presno County as
a therapist.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
And then I started working at a hospital now in
Fresnel as a therapist.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
And I'm doing my PhD. I'm it's my first semester
of my PhD program.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
So I am presently pursuing my bachelor's I'm going to
fast track to the masters.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
And I'm at the Pavarello House working with the homeless.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
And so in this story, we went from you know,
the depths of skid row to homeowners.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Now we own our own place and her mother now
lives with us. And yeah, and we're still evolving, We're
still growing.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
He just got his age ye.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Degree this summer, so he was gonna be content with
that degree because.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
I'm a school person, okay.
Speaker 6 (21:47):
And so he started working at the Pavarello House, and
he knows all the good ideas.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Johnny is a great manager.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
He has a bunch of ideas, and so the organization
keep taking as ideas.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Yeah, I keep creating groups and programs to so it's
a housing first program. Makes some low barrier and uh
harm reduction and so you know, we know that the
way it is that what is that?
Speaker 4 (22:14):
What's low barrier and high reduction? Would you say it's low.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Low barrier, meaning that we're not putting a lot of
pressure on them to stop, you know, using or anything
like that. The objective is to get them housing first,
and the harm reduction is that they're inside in a
in a room where they can get high in the room,
which is safer than where they work, shive and so.
But nobody's so the ultimate goal is to give them
(22:39):
some keys to their own place. And we've given our
sense of keys to different residents so far. But my
concern was that we're not equipping them with anything, you
know what I mean. They're taking the same addictions and behaviors.
We're handing them keys. And I already know what you
gave when I got keys, And I was still adding,
I know what I did, so I know what they're
(22:59):
going to do. And so I wanted I started creating
these groups and these programs to you know, to give
them some substance, to give them, to arm them with something.
And they're taking my ideas and using my ideas and
then giving them to this guy who's got a master's
degree and letting him run with, you know, the.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Things that I came up with.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
And it was kind of like the second time because
I helped these design a program at the Fresno Black
Chamber of Commerce and they did the same thing to me.
So I made a I was like, Okay, I need
some letters behind my name because you're not gonna just
keep taking my vision and then and then just pushing
me to the side.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
That's not going to continue to happen.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
So that's what inspired me is now go back and
you know I can't catch after her because she's in
her PhD program now. But you know, if I can
get the masters there together, you know, we can manifest
some vision and kind of you know, give back with
some of the experiences that we have combined with our education.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
It's got to be can't be that we went through
all of those experiences in vain. It cannot be that.
Speaker 6 (24:08):
It has to be that we were equipped with some
knowledge and some understanding and some compassion and some empathy
that we can use for people that shit.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
That's that is the beliefs, and for me it is
it's like it's giving.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Back saying we only have five minutes left. So what
I want you guys to do is say what is
the one thing you would like people to know? I
just gotta say, you are a magical success story. You
are a wonderful survival story. And when I first saw
you on stage speaking, I was like, I love this couple.
(24:46):
How you love each other and how you found each
other in God, I guess the stop and the pile
of trash. Basically, you found each other in the den
of hell, but you saw through all the bullshit and
you saw each other and you was able to see
each other, and through your duel working together, you guys
are lifting yourselves up and turning lives around because you're
(25:08):
believing in yourself and your marching forward. What would you
like to leave the people with? First, Truvett, what would
you like to leave people with?
Speaker 6 (25:16):
I think I would that when you see people walking
down the street that are homeless in any city, that
you remember our story so that you know that you
don't know where those people came from, and you don't
know where those people.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Are going to go.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
And the important thing is that we pray and we
provide what we can to everybody, you know, if it's
on your heart, where nobody is any better or any worse.
We just are all in situations, and sometimes we're in
situations that we're not able to get out of.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Hmm, that's so true, mister Johnny. What's your final words?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
My final word is now, you know in life, you know,
we have experiences in life, you know, and sometimes you know,
storms hit us in life, and you know the ability
to be able to stand through a storm and weather
the storm because you know, you trust it and you
have faith that you believe those experiences and those storms.
Because once the storm clears, you know, the sun, the
(26:17):
sky is sunny, there's a rainbow, maybe a pot of
gold at the end of the rainbow.
Speaker 5 (26:21):
But you have to weather the storm.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
And so I would like to encourage everyone to you know,
no matter what you're going through, it's a temporary storm,
and if you stand tall through that storm.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
It's gonna clear up and the sky is gonna get
sunny again.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
And that's that's what I would like to encourage people
to remember as they're in a struggle or or experiencing
some things.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Lord give me the serenity to accept the things that
cannot change, en courage to change the things I can
and different. You are my brothers in sobriety and and
and I appreciate you my brother and my sister in sobriety.
(27:10):
You're also are heroes of mine. I hold you in
high esteem because you've been all the way in the lions,
not just in the den. You walked into the lion's
mouth and to the jaws of the lion, and you
did what day you had to do to get you
back to where you are. And now you're trying to
help other people. You've got a ten years sobriety. God
is great no matter what anybody else tell you. And
(27:31):
y'all pretty dog on good yourself. So I want to
say thank you so much for sharing part of your
story with us. Like I said, I'm calling I'm calling
this episode real people, because y'all real people. Y'all down
on earth. You found each other. You see where the
love and light is. God bless you real good.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
Appreciate you, Michael Fowler.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Appreciate you for allowing us to just share.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Thank you. Do you guys have social media they can
follow on?
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Well, we do.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
We have that.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
We have Facebook and we have a you know, Instagram account.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
I believe, all right, so under what name on Facebook?
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Facebook?
Speaker 6 (28:09):
I'm under true that Fun and he is under Johnny
Funny Fun.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
Okay, I think everybody should have heard that bat now, Okay, good,
it's clear. It's clear where everybody's from. I love y'all.
I appreciate y'all. Thank you so much for coming in
and sharing with us, and keep on being who you are,
authentic people who are continuing to evolve out of a
situation that you don't want and evolving into a bright,
well lit situation where you want to do your dance
(28:37):
with spirit and life and God. I appreciate you. Thank
you so much. Have an amazing Evening's keep on being
y'all because y'all a real deal. Holy feel Thank you.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
I appreciate you. Hey, y'all, you've been listening to Michael
talk to everybody today. I talk to regular folks, just
real people, you know what I'm saying. And they had
a struggle similar to mine, and they worked it out.
They worked it out. You might be going through something
yourself today. I just want you to use this as
an example of knowing that you can work it out too.
Speaker 6 (29:07):
Man.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
You know, if anybody can you can't, and if you can,
why not now? So God bless you real good. I
hope everybody is doing really really well. If you're out
there and you struggling with any type of addiction, please
get some help. Don't be ashamed to ask somebody to
help you. Reach out, people to phone, make a call.
Somebody got you, and I got you today in prayer.
(29:28):
Have a magnificent day and I'll talk to you soon.
Bye woo. I had a good time today. I hope
y'all did too.
Speaker 6 (29:40):
Man.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Thank y'all for checking us out here at Michael talks
to everybody. Hey, you can follow me, man, I'm easy
to follow. I'm on Instagram just under act Michael Kya.
I'm on TikTok that's Michael Kye one three five. I
have a very sexy web page called the Realmichael Kaye
dot com. You know, you go over there. You can
find out bout my merchandise and what I'm doing and
with all my shows. Airything is right there. Or if
(30:03):
you really love me, you can go to my cash shaft.
That's dollar sign Michael Kaya's money. I'm playing with y'all,
but I accept Green Stem foods. And Canadian money. I'll
take your bus transfer if you got some time left
on it. And my morning show, Oh my good, Michael
Kaya Morning Show. That's seven eight in Pacific time YO,
five days a week. This has been a ray Lock
Group production. I see y'all later
M hm, y'all ready, let's go.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Welcome missus. Michael called this world, started doing venice peach.
Now he reached in the world. He'll make you left.
Take the stomach cars, superfly, nice guys, prady to me
the crust, kidding old he ain't ready for the star
searching winter and oh ge three times, this ain't gonna beginning.
Whether you win ya house, you want your brother, how's
a dinner on your job and your brother? That I mean,
as a reb call Michael Taus, that everybody like to
(00:30):
call Michael Taus, that everybody like to.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Call Yes, Michael Taus, that everybody you know what shy
called Michael fuck to everybody to call.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Michael talks to everybody, Michael.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
To say, my body, everybody, everybody don't call Hey, everybody, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome,
Welcome to Michael talks to everybody. One day I get
to do a one on one with you. It's gonna
be Spectator. Today. My show is called Regular People. I
(01:04):
want to talk to two regular folks, and I was
so impressed by them. I had gone to an event.
I think it was in Sacramento. No, what's the other
place near Fresno was it Fresno, guys, Sam ber Sam Bernardino,
nowhere near it. Okay, so was Sam Bernardino. And I
went to this event and this lovely couple came up
(01:25):
and spoke, and they spoke their truth, and they talked
about where they came from, and they talked about where
they are and where they came from. Ain't easy. It
ain't easy, but the energy and the joy that they
have in their lives drives it so easy that you
don't even worry about where they were. Where they were
don't mean nothing. The more they've eradicated that by where
(01:45):
they are now, they've changed their minds. They say, if
you want to change your life, change your mind and
to hear these people be keynote speakers and then go
back and tell us a story where it began. I
thought it was fascinating. We brought them on the Morning
show and they did so I want to give them
even more time so people get to know who is
Truvette and Johnny. Hey, Truvett and Johnny. Welcome to the show. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome,
(02:09):
how y'all doing.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
Thank you, Michael Cargers, thank you. It's preasure for us.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
To be here.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
I appreciate you. How long have you guys been together? Now?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Thirteen years?
Speaker 4 (02:20):
That is so good. Most people can't stay to each
other for thirteen minutes. That's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Ken's for a good portion.
Speaker 6 (02:28):
Well, I'm saying about five of those years we were
together twenty four hours a day, every single day.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Really, why was that?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Because we weren't working. Wasn't nobody working?
Speaker 4 (02:45):
So you guys came up on a podium at the
event and you told your story about how you guys
started with adversity. Can you tell me a little bit
how you met that whole thing? We met?
Speaker 6 (02:55):
We met in a substance abuse program in Los Angeles.
What was this since it was crack cocaine?
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Well, I'm just surprised I didn't run into y'all won
them room?
Speaker 5 (03:05):
All right, all right, go ahead, right? That was no
not crack?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Now, all right? What was your what was your drug
of choice? Sir?
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Crack?
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (03:18):
But we did.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
We couldn't have been together if we didn't have an
appreciation for so.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Of y'all didn't have an appreciate the.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
That's that's where that's where, that's where our journey began.
Speaker 6 (03:32):
Well, it actually in the program. We were sober, and
I sometimes no, I was sober in the program, and
so he came in after I had been in there for.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Like six months. He weighed about one hundred and twenty pounds,
and she was.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
All on me, come on somebody.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
But all the girls were though. Really he came into
the program.
Speaker 6 (03:59):
So we were in the program doing everything under son
that you're not supposed to do with a program.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Johnny, y'all know, y'all not supposed to be the couple.
Y'all ain't supposed to couple up in the program, you know,
Johnny Johnny over there digging them down the rehab. I
don't know if that's okay. Now.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
We we did everything they told us not to do
in the program, and then we got out of the
program and relapsed and wonder why the program didn't work.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
He's so funny. He looked like that shit don't work.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
We had never done anything we were supposed to do,
so it wasn't gonna work.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Wow, I mean, this is a miracle in what this
is in that first of all, you guys aren't supposed
to have even hooked up because you're in the program,
but you you were able to hook up and take
that hook up and turn into a good thing. Because
y'all got together and stayed together. Y'all found some type
of common ground. They keep you going. And you told
(04:59):
me about it one time. It would got so bad
you guys have to move into an alley, But it
wasn't a bad alley. Tell me that story.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
In every neighborhood there's a Pops. Right in every crack
neighborhood there was a Pops.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So we saw we had been up like for days.
Speaker 6 (05:18):
We had been riding the buses in La and the
trains all night just to go to sleep. And we
were on Broadway and gauge and Pops comes walking down
the street with this basket, and you know, he stopped
and talked to us and we were like, yeah, we're
trying to find a spot.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
He said, I got a nice spot for you. I
got a nice spot. He said, just if you could
help me push this basket. And the basket had a
big old mattress.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
On it, So we helped him push the basket down
the street down Broadway in La. Turned up and he
said he had a spot right down here. So when
we got to the spot, it was a CALLI and
when I looked at the alley, That's how crazy I was.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
When I looked at the alley, I was like, oh
this is nice.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Oh my god, oh my god, this.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Is immediately flipped it, you know, housewives mode, and grabbed
a tree branch or some of the palm tree branch
laying on the ground. She grabbed that and started sweeping
the alley, you know, getting our little spot together. Yeah,
and that's where we set up shop, right there in
(06:35):
that alley.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
How long do you think you guys lived out there
in that alley.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
I think we were there probably for a couple of months,
in just in the alley, and I think we woke
up one day and in the smell and then just
kind of a moment had It was a moment.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Of clarity, and I'm like, oh, we got to get
up out of here, you know.
Speaker 6 (07:01):
And so we packed up what we could, you know,
you know, in the little clothes that we did, and
we went downtown on the skid Row and we went
to the midnight mission.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
At that time, they had a courtyard.
Speaker 6 (07:14):
Okay, so we were sleeping on the ground and the
midnight mission, but it was a courtyard.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
You could shower every day you could eat, and.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
We weren't Courtyard Marriott.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
It was.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I'm sorry, go ahead, it was we was talfortable.
Speaker 6 (07:36):
We were like, oh my goodness, and you know, I'm
laying on the ground, and but you could shower every
day and then we're on skid row so we could
go around and get new clothes every day and all
of that. So we had decided that we weren't gonna
use until we got housing.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
We were going you but we worked on doing till
we got housing.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
So y'all have self controlling. I mean that self control
when the addicts can hold off from using until the
situation is better.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
That the fact that you know, we had no money helped.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
That helped.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
Made it a lot easier. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
So after those months, how'd you get in? Somebody gave
somebody a job.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
What happened, Well, now, what happened is that I decided
at this time, because I had a history of mental
health issues, so I decided I was going to get
some s s.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I again because I had I had it before.
Speaker 6 (08:39):
And so we started going to Social Security and he
was like, he was like, my uh, she was my advocate,
and so we would go to S.
Speaker 7 (08:52):
S I and and I want to want to say
that key percent of the stuff I presented in the
Social Security Office was true with the time, because you
know that crack capped me.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
You know, I was gone, But I was also smart
enough to make the some very greater.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
So I was talking to Walls. I just wasn't talking
to him as much as you know it appeared.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
So we ended up in what they called the GETAR program,
and that was just some tense military made tints that
the Midnight Mission would put people in when they were
in the housing program. And so we were in the
(09:41):
housing program, and it took us about five months before
we finally got an SRO.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Each of us got an SRO.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Was a SRO.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Stay in the room only finger room occupanted.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Okay, all right, go ahead.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
But it was a brand new building that was furnished
by the pair was Hilton Foundation. What okay, try to
pay I mean, we were the first ones in there
that moved in.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Yeah, come on, I believe they didn't throw it up now,
but it was nice when we moved in.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
And I believe his rent was fifty two.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Dollars, whopping buck too much?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
And my rent was fifty six dollars.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
That's a lot of money when you smoke crack.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Now you ain't lying a lot of money for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
And we paid rents about three months.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
Out of that year.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
A happen the rest of the time and we were
on skinned row.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
We were smoking. Can't have money for rent.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
That was everisode wasn't no money left for rent Rockney.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
We was lucky. We was lucky. We was all scared
road that they fed everywhere.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
You could all go get a play of food somewhere
because we didn't buy no food.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Now we weren't buying. We were yes, that are our
rooms were the smoke house.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
That's what it winds, you know.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
And so has it turned out?
Speaker 6 (11:09):
For whatever reason, people always gave us credit. You know.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I guess we seem like nice attics.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Yeah, plus you're a couple.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Plus we're a couple.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
Okay, So they gave us credit. And we owed everybody
in l A. I hope none of them are watching
your soul right now.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
They don't know. And if they're not watching them to
call and tell them. Now I'm just joking.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
And so we had to get up out of there,
so tell them what.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
So we owed a guy in the s r O.
We lived, and we owed him like what nine hundred
dollars or something. They would us run up stupid tabs
right now, you know, knowing that we're smoking, and uh
you know we can't pay no.
Speaker 5 (11:55):
Nine in our tab. So no, but she got her well,
she got her check.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
We started smoke that night and then decided that we
got to get up out of here because we ain't
gonna have this boy's money in the morning.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
And when he comes to it to get his money,
we're not gonna have it.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
We didn't already start it. And uh so we left
and uh we left. We got a room and uh, well,
we smoked a little bit. Then we got a room
and then I called my Uh I called my sisters
and and stocked him, and I told they had never
met her.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
And I called him and I said, hey, look, you.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Know I'm out here in LA and things have gotten
hectic and it could get dangerous for me, and I
need you to send me a ticket one way because
I ain't coming back here one way, just uh Sacramento
or stocked him, and because I have sisters a Sacramento
and stocked him. And I said, but I'm not coming
(12:49):
if you don't send her a ticket, and they had
never met her.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
And one of.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
My sisters was like, you know, I'm not sending them
no ticket for no girl that he got out there
with every this. And then my mother was like, well,
if he's saying that and she's with him, then she's
with him and we can't get him and leave her.
And so she sent us two tickets, and so we
took those two tickets, and we.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
We had sold stamps and everything.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
No, we go, well, we went and got on the
bus and got out of la.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
We couldn't pay all them, Yeah, we couldn't.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
We couldn't pay all their people.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
And we got out of l A and uh and
he had Sacramento.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
And then my younger sister she got us an apartment.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
She put down the down payment, everything got us in
this apartment and that's where we started.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
But then a new restart that was the risk kind
of Okay.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
So let's stop right there because now we're at the restart,
we're gonna take a quick break. We gotta sell some
soap to some of you. Oh need to wash anyway,
we'll be right back. Michael talked to everybody and we're black,
(14:09):
I mean we're back. Hello, man, I am with True
Vett and Johnny and these are real people, you know.
I mean, in life, you have real circumstances. The one
thing I think a lot of us forget to look
at is one hundred percent of the times that think
that things went bad in our lives, we get to
the other side of them, one hundred percent. No matter
(14:31):
how bad, how terrible, how scary, how frightening, how ugly,
how embarrassing a thing was, today you're on the other
side of it. And so we can always get to
the other side. We just have to realize how take
our time, figure it out and go step back step
got watch the steps. So you guys, okay, pick up
where we left off.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
So, so my sister got us into the apartment, and
so we have a place to stay.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
Now we have an apartment.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
We're paying rent for three years.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah, we paid rent, and but then we started using
in this apartment and then so kind of the same scenarios.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
That was in hold up. How long did you stay
in there before y'all start using again?
Speaker 6 (15:10):
Well, when we stayed there for three years and we
were able to keep rent consistently for three years.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
But to ask your question we started using as soon
as my sister drove off.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Oh my god, boy, the truth was set you free,
won't it.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Yeah, So we'll fast track a little bit.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
So after a couple of years of that, you know,
the same we find ourselves in the same situation.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
We old people money, the same thing. It was all bad,
all ugly, and but she had.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
You know, she was great at you know, she could
go into uh uh, the Social Security office and everything,
and she knew how to She's a therapist, she's a
clear so well you you already, but she already knew
all the diagnoses this emptomes and out of which which
role you have to play to get whatever diagnoses. So
she was getting her SSI. I was in in all
(16:08):
supportive care worker and they gave us back pay which
allowed us to get twenty sixteen vehicle and that we
still have today, still have it today.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
I'm gonna plaud that because you can get a couple
of really big rocks for that type of carr go ahead.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
That shop and so but because we have this car now,
we don't feel the apartment is as important as it was.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
So we decided not to pay rent and stay in
the car. And then we did that, and.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Then we smoked a little bit and realized that the
car is uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Ye, we realized that the car was.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Uncomfortable to try to stand up and live in a car.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
We were parking around Sacramentos would be their skin row area,
and we went to.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Fit it to that way. To wait, so I said,
we had found out. What did you found out?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
We found out.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
They stretch out correctly in the car.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
Let's see in my day when we were really out
there and we didn't have a car anything, it looked
like the people that were sleeping.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Cars like they had it me.
Speaker 7 (17:23):
So, you know, so that's that's as far as the
that's as far as the dream went the car to
sleep in.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
He didn't go any prefer in there, And.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
So we wait, I want to I want to touch
on this because earlier you said that something was a miracle.
But this is what I want to touch on, is
what I think is a real miracle. We woke up
one day and we said, you know what, I'm tired
of this life.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
I'm tired of this ship.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
And she said me too, And I said, you want
to throw these pipes, all this stuff, all this garbage,
weighing just you know, and she said yeah, And from.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
That day to this day, we ain't using no more, right,
and that is the true miracle.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
That is And were God that how long ago was that?
Speaker 7 (18:10):
God?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Two and fourteen?
Speaker 4 (18:13):
I thought you gonna say that was Tuesday? Okay, all right,
so you guys have gone almost ten years without using Yes, yeah,
I love it. I'm proud of you.
Speaker 6 (18:28):
We were still homeless though, So we were in the car,
we were parking in Sacramento skid row areas, watching everybody hush.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
We're just watching this stuff. And I'm like, I can't
believe that we have gotten ourselves in a situation where
we are no longer in the community what I call
the community. It's the real world. And we're sure.
Speaker 6 (18:53):
But I decided that I would go to a place
called the hold are guess how in Sacramento, and I
have to give those people crops because what they did
is I have a history.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Of mental health issues.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
They got me back on medication that I'm not taking
right now, but I did take them, and we were
making all of our appointments, and within like three or
four months, they were like, you know, we have money
for housing. We were like, okay, but we have an eviction.
They were like, we have money for housing, but we
(19:30):
didn't get people to make their appointments. So you guys
are making all You're making all your appointments. So I'm
gonna talk to the director and see if.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
We can get you paid up. And I was like,
but we don't want to.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
Live here because my mother. By that time, my mother
had let us come live with her. So we were
driving back and forth from Sacramento, from President to Sacramento.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
To make appointments, okay, and so my mom was needing help.
And I said, so we like to move to Fresno.
Do we have to get housing year? And they did things.
We're like, no, we will pay.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
Off the eviction and you guys find an apartment in
Presnoe and we will pay down your whatever they want
you to pay.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
In order for you to get that apartment. And they did.
They did that, and so we stayed in that apartment
for four years.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
So just tell me where are you now? We're We're
in prest not the city, not the city. Where are
you where we are?
Speaker 1 (20:32):
So we stayed. We stayed in the apartment during that time.
I got I went back to school, I got my
master's degree in clinical Counseling.
Speaker 6 (20:44):
I got off medication, I started working at Presno County
where I was a client.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
So I began my first job at Presno County as
a therapist.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
And then I started working at a hospital now in
Fresnel as a therapist.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
And I'm doing my PhD. I'm it's my first semester
of my PhD program.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
So I am presently pursuing my bachelor's I'm going to
fast track to the masters.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
And I'm at the Pavarello House working with the homeless.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
And so in this story, we went from you know,
the depths of skid row to homeowners.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Now we own our own place and her mother now
lives with us. And yeah, and we're still evolving, We're
still growing.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
He just got his age ye.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Degree this summer, so he was gonna be content with
that degree because.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
I'm a school person, okay.
Speaker 6 (21:47):
And so he started working at the Pavarello House, and
he knows all the good ideas.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Johnny is a great manager.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
He has a bunch of ideas, and so the organization
keep taking as ideas.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Yeah, I keep creating groups and programs to so it's
a housing first program. Makes some low barrier and uh
harm reduction and so you know, we know that the
way it is that what is that?
Speaker 4 (22:14):
What's low barrier and high reduction? Would you say it's low.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Low barrier, meaning that we're not putting a lot of
pressure on them to stop, you know, using or anything
like that. The objective is to get them housing first,
and the harm reduction is that they're inside in a
in a room where they can get high in the room,
which is safer than where they work, shive and so.
But nobody's so the ultimate goal is to give them
(22:39):
some keys to their own place. And we've given our
sense of keys to different residents so far. But my
concern was that we're not equipping them with anything, you
know what I mean. They're taking the same addictions and behaviors.
We're handing them keys. And I already know what you
gave when I got keys, And I was still adding,
I know what I did, so I know what they're
(22:59):
going to do. And so I wanted I started creating
these groups and these programs to you know, to give
them some substance, to give them, to arm them with something.
And they're taking my ideas and using my ideas and
then giving them to this guy who's got a master's
degree and letting him run with, you know, the.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Things that I came up with.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
And it was kind of like the second time because
I helped these design a program at the Fresno Black
Chamber of Commerce and they did the same thing to me.
So I made a I was like, Okay, I need
some letters behind my name because you're not gonna just
keep taking my vision and then and then just pushing
me to the side.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
That's not going to continue to happen.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
So that's what inspired me is now go back and
you know I can't catch after her because she's in
her PhD program now. But you know, if I can
get the masters there together, you know, we can manifest
some vision and kind of you know, give back with
some of the experiences that we have combined with our education.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
It's got to be can't be that we went through
all of those experiences in vain. It cannot be that.
Speaker 6 (24:08):
It has to be that we were equipped with some
knowledge and some understanding and some compassion and some empathy
that we can use for people that shit.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
That's that is the beliefs, and for me it is
it's like it's giving.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Back saying we only have five minutes left. So what
I want you guys to do is say what is
the one thing you would like people to know? I
just gotta say, you are a magical success story. You
are a wonderful survival story. And when I first saw
you on stage speaking, I was like, I love this couple.
(24:46):
How you love each other and how you found each
other in God, I guess the stop and the pile
of trash. Basically, you found each other in the den
of hell, but you saw through all the bullshit and
you saw each other and you was able to see
each other, and through your duel working together, you guys
are lifting yourselves up and turning lives around because you're
(25:08):
believing in yourself and your marching forward. What would you
like to leave the people with? First, Truvett, what would
you like to leave people with?
Speaker 6 (25:16):
I think I would that when you see people walking
down the street that are homeless in any city, that
you remember our story so that you know that you
don't know where those people came from, and you don't
know where those people.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Are going to go.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
And the important thing is that we pray and we
provide what we can to everybody, you know, if it's
on your heart, where nobody is any better or any worse.
We just are all in situations, and sometimes we're in
situations that we're not able to get out of.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Hmm, that's so true, mister Johnny. What's your final words?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
My final word is now, you know in life, you know,
we have experiences in life, you know, and sometimes you know,
storms hit us in life, and you know the ability
to be able to stand through a storm and weather
the storm because you know, you trust it and you
have faith that you believe those experiences and those storms.
Because once the storm clears, you know, the sun, the
(26:17):
sky is sunny, there's a rainbow, maybe a pot of
gold at the end of the rainbow.
Speaker 5 (26:21):
But you have to weather the storm.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
And so I would like to encourage everyone to you know,
no matter what you're going through, it's a temporary storm,
and if you stand tall through that storm.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
It's gonna clear up and the sky is gonna get
sunny again.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
And that's that's what I would like to encourage people
to remember as they're in a struggle or or experiencing
some things.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Lord give me the serenity to accept the things that
cannot change, en courage to change the things I can
and different. You are my brothers in sobriety and and
and I appreciate you my brother and my sister in sobriety.
(27:10):
You're also are heroes of mine. I hold you in
high esteem because you've been all the way in the lions,
not just in the den. You walked into the lion's
mouth and to the jaws of the lion, and you
did what day you had to do to get you
back to where you are. And now you're trying to
help other people. You've got a ten years sobriety. God
is great no matter what anybody else tell you. And
(27:31):
y'all pretty dog on good yourself. So I want to
say thank you so much for sharing part of your
story with us. Like I said, I'm calling I'm calling
this episode real people, because y'all real people. Y'all down
on earth. You found each other. You see where the
love and light is. God bless you real good.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
Appreciate you, Michael Fowler.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Appreciate you for allowing us to just share.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Thank you. Do you guys have social media they can
follow on?
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Well, we do.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
We have that.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
We have Facebook and we have a you know, Instagram account.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
I believe, all right, so under what name on Facebook?
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Facebook?
Speaker 6 (28:09):
I'm under true that Fun and he is under Johnny
Funny Fun.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
Okay, I think everybody should have heard that bat now, Okay, good,
it's clear. It's clear where everybody's from. I love y'all.
I appreciate y'all. Thank you so much for coming in
and sharing with us, and keep on being who you are,
authentic people who are continuing to evolve out of a
situation that you don't want and evolving into a bright,
well lit situation where you want to do your dance
(28:37):
with spirit and life and God. I appreciate you. Thank
you so much. Have an amazing Evening's keep on being
y'all because y'all a real deal. Holy feel Thank you.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
I appreciate you. Hey, y'all, you've been listening to Michael
talk to everybody today. I talk to regular folks, just
real people, you know what I'm saying. And they had
a struggle similar to mine, and they worked it out.
They worked it out. You might be going through something
yourself today. I just want you to use this as
an example of knowing that you can work it out too.
Speaker 6 (29:07):
Man.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
You know, if anybody can you can't, and if you can,
why not now? So God bless you real good. I
hope everybody is doing really really well. If you're out
there and you struggling with any type of addiction, please
get some help. Don't be ashamed to ask somebody to
help you. Reach out, people to phone, make a call.
Somebody got you, and I got you today in prayer.
(29:28):
Have a magnificent day and I'll talk to you soon.
Bye woo. I had a good time today. I hope
y'all did too.
Speaker 6 (29:40):
Man.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Thank y'all for checking us out here at Michael talks
to everybody. Hey, you can follow me, man, I'm easy
to follow. I'm on Instagram just under act Michael Kya.
I'm on TikTok that's Michael Kye one three five. I
have a very sexy web page called the Realmichael Kaye
dot com. You know, you go over there. You can
find out bout my merchandise and what I'm doing and
with all my shows. Airything is right there. Or if
(30:03):
you really love me, you can go to my cash shaft.
That's dollar sign Michael Kaya's money. I'm playing with y'all,
but I accept Green Stem foods. And Canadian money. I'll
take your bus transfer if you got some time left
on it. And my morning show, Oh my good, Michael
Kaya Morning Show. That's seven eight in Pacific time YO,
five days a week. This has been a ray Lock
Group production. I see y'all later
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