December 4, 2024 • 48 mins
E436: Dr. Cheryl Rich bridges the worlds of entertainment, community service, and spiritual leadership. She’s a clinical psychologist, author and producer. She’s been active for two decades in street ministry, and is a Certified Victims Mediator and Intervention Specialist, focusing on helping those affected by trauma and adversity. Her personal journey, includes addiction, incarceration, and […]
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Episode Transcript
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(00:08):
Hey, humans. How's it going? Susan Ruth here.
Thanks for listening to another episode
of Hey, Human podcast.
This is episode 436,
and my guest is doctor Cheryl Rich.
Cheryl Rich is the worlds of entertainment,
community service, and spiritual leadership.
She's a clinical psychologist,
(00:28):
author, and producer.
She's been active for 2 decades in street
ministry and as a certified victims mediator and
intervention specialist,
focusing on helping those affected by trauma and
adversity.
Her personal journey includes addiction, incarceration,
and an unbearable
loss.
She's a woman of resilience and deep beliefs
(00:51):
who mentors and lifts up those around her.
We met by happenstance,
and her energy
and light radiated
and
really connected to her right away. And
she was so kind to say yes to
this interview,
and I'm excited for you to hear it.
Check out heyhumanpodcast.com
(01:13):
for links and to learn more about my
guests in the show. Hey Human Podcast is
on YouTube under official Susan Ruth. I'm on
patreon at susanruthism,
and I appreciate
your help there because it helps keep the
show going,
keeps it ad free.
My TikToks and Instagram
is under susanruthism.
(01:34):
Check out susanruth.com
to learn more about me and my other
artistic endeavors, and
find my music on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon
Music, wherever you get your music. Rate, review,
and subscribe to Hey Human Podcast on Apple,
Iheart, and Spotify
podcast places or wherever you get and listen
to podcasts.
Thank you for listening, and be well,
(01:56):
be kind,
be love.
Here we go.
Doctor Sholrich, welcome to Hey Human.
Honored.
How's it going?
Wow.
Everything is wonderful. We as long as we
wake up.
Oh, amen to that. By the way, your,
Zoom picture is so cool. I love the
white hair.
(02:17):
Yeah. That I mean, purple is awesome too,
but the that white is so cool.
Yeah. You know, auntie Cheryl.
Duh. That's what I always want you youngsters
to to know that I will I'm the
auntie around here. Somebody's gotta be willing to
grow
old.
I tell everyone you either get to grow
old or you make a beautiful young corpse.
(02:37):
Wow. I got a lot of young people
get mad at me when I say that,
but we've got to respect this thing called
age.
It's so important because, this society
has been set up not to respect
the gift of growing old. And that takes
me back to growing gold,
g o l d.
One day, you're gonna need that youngster and
all of you youngsters to see this wonderful
(02:59):
podcast that she was guided
to start way before podcasts got popular.
You know, you've been doing this a while.
So run gold, not old,
makes me have fun. So that's why the
white wig, the purple wig, the glasses,
and mama didn't give me enough attention when
I was little.
(03:20):
No mamas can.
Do you have kids? No. Uh-uh. I like
kids. I think kids are magical as I
but I feel the same about people who
are considered the elderly. That's why I love
that in a lot of cultures,
the the ref the reference of auntie or
uncle or grandfather. I'm reading a book right
now and it's, about an indigenous family,
(03:44):
Ojibwe.
And,
you know, all the elders are called uncle,
aunt,
or grandfather, and I freaking love or grandmother.
And I love that so much that honor
bestowed upon people who know some things.
My response to you is that all life
is a journey.
(04:04):
So I re you know, you embracing
that the creator made you the mother of
the earth.
So you can mother many instead of having
to focus on 1.
Having a child is a challenge, and,
I when you talk about wisdom,
I was talking to someone the other day,
and I said,
(04:25):
you really don't get that unless you get
the gift of age.
So I said, wait a minute. I was
a 12 year old mother.
I didn't have any wisdom.
12 years old.
So young.
Yes.
Very young. But I didn't have any wisdom,
you know, be to to do something so,
I think it's the most imp you know,
(04:46):
one of the most important things we're chosen
to do.
And, yet didn't get the wisdom till I
got a older golder.
We don't give
ourselves
lessons in
parenting
because we're, many of us were ill parented
by people who also had no parents,
(05:07):
and that generational trauma
that goes down through the ages.
And it go it can go one of
2 ways. Right? You can either love someone
with such veracity
because of what you were lacking,
or you can
hold them responsible
in a way for whatever happened to you.
(05:28):
Right? Those are the two ways it goes.
There's not usually a lot of middle ground
there.
There aren't any rules to being a parent.
I often say when I when I come
up out of my body, you know, get
my wings, I said we all get our
wings. I'm gonna, like I said I was
gonna get guidance. Wait a minute.
I snatched guard into just like, how could
you
(05:48):
give instructions to put a bike together, how
to work on a car?
I I would not become a parent.
So, you know, it,
there's no rules. And that's why we can
say, I'm so happy you said the trauma
that we've
somehow, most of us and I don't think
anyone gets out without experiencing some trauma,
(06:09):
no matter if you come from poverty or
privilege.
And the trauma that our parents endured
and the and the trickle down, I'm so
glad you said that because
it's so easy to say blame, blame, blame.
And Yeah.
That doesn't heal.
I remember when I was around 18, I
had a, you know, a complicated childhood. I
(06:30):
remember around 18, I
started seeing my parents as human beings separate
than mom and dad.
And that's such a weird shift to realize
that they have their own story
and that
I think everybody has a choice with how
you treat others.
And I think sometimes
we can fall back on an excuse of
(06:52):
like, oh, well, I was treated this way,
and that's why I do that. But I
still think you have dominion over your own
self.
Mhmm. But I think it does get
exponentially more complicated depending on the trauma you
carry
Mhmm. On how you treat others. It's boy,
humaning is not for the weak of heart.
(07:12):
That's for sure.
That's why I love the title of your
podcast, Hey Human. Hey. Hey.
You know?
I love it.
I'm your the generation that raised you,
and I apologize to all of you because
because
I'm 65.
I don't know. How old is your
They're they're much older. I was the accidental
(07:34):
baby. I came along. Yeah. They didn't know
they could still have children and surprise.
So you were the gifted child?
I I suppose. Let's get these virus right
back because they I'm telling you, we get
told stuff when we're little when we're little,
and it just follows us and be like,
I'm the accident. Like, I was my mother,
actually paid for an abortion.
(07:55):
Like, left one town, went back home to
her mother and paid money, and went and
got up on a makeshift abortion table, and
it took place.
So you understand when, 2 weeks later, she's
gushing blood, rushed to the hospital in the
ghetto streets of Cleveland, Ohio, and told,
you're pregnant. And she's like, no. I took
care of that. That's how the story goes.
(08:15):
That's how I've heard it. And she says
that,
they no. You may the doctor said you
may have thought you took care of it,
but she said, well, get rid of it.
You know?
And she said the doctor said, no, if
we don't pack you right now, you're gonna
bleed to death.
So I had to come into this world.
And I always say I hid behind the
left portion of the liver. Oh, you know,
(08:37):
like
so
that being said is,
you were the gifted child
by, let's see,
71,
72. We're hearing songs, like, in music is
medicine. Music can literally control the world if
you ask me. And we're hearing songs like,
(08:58):
runaway child, running wild.
Better go back home
where you belong.
And that's the temptations. Anybody wanna look up
those lyrics?
And
then we got into the disco.
And that was after Woodstock, and it was
just like,
you know, free yourself.
(09:18):
Yeah. And nobody talked about the past.
So your parents' parents and my mother, who's
89, that was the past. Leave it back
there.
And so we were the generation
that came and hit, like,
77, 78, early eighties, and we was loose.
It was sex, drugs, and rock and roll,
baby. And did nobody talk about the past,
(09:42):
and no healing,
was done. It was all medication,
you know, drugs.
The era era of the Quaalude. Right? Yeah.
Exactly. And many other things, and I've done
it all. I I was one of those
ones in a lot of pain. And if
it was a drug to try, I did
it. So with all that saying, is when
(10:05):
say it, when you understand that it's not
like I loved it when you said the
trauma. We're talking about
centuries ago. Yeah.
House passed down.
Then no excuses,
but we sure can make a choice. You
and I and everyone who's chosen and highly
favored to find you,
(10:25):
and, hey, human, we can make a choice
to heal into this thing called life. To
live. I also believe that when we do
our own healing, it goes backward.
It goes back through the generations, and that
I'd like to think that when I work
on me and that the trauma that I
have,
that it starts to repair and heal the
(10:45):
trauma of my mother and my grandmother and
my great grandmother, that it goes back through
the line.
Wow.
And that makes sense because I get a
chance to see an example.
You decided, I'm not gonna keep hurting. I'm
not gonna be addicted to chaos and confusion.
You know, when we think that, you know,
this thing called color is real, you know,
(11:07):
skin color,
You know, that nobody really understands that we
all suffered from the greed
that created,
the energy and specifically in this land. Could
you imagine
little Timmy,
who's in the big house,
and little black Sambo, who's enslaved?
(11:27):
I always like to say that no you
can't choose the best of the best of
the best and turn it to a slave.
We were enslaved.
And little Timmy and and little black Sambo
are just friends, and they play together.
And Little Timmy says, Little Black Sambo,
Little Black Sambo, I'm gonna go in the
house, and I'm gonna go get some lemonade.
I'll be back.
And we'll start playing hide and seek when
(11:48):
I come back, because they were playing hide
and seek.
And Little White Timmy comes back out and
says, 'Little Black Sambo,
Little Black Sambo, where are you? Little Black
Sambo, come out. We're not playing Little Black
Sambo!' And he starts to walk around, and
then suddenly hears something in the bar.
And Little White Timmy looks in
and looks in his eyes
(12:09):
the eyes of his little black Sambo friend
while Timmy's daddy is sodomizing.
Little Black Sambal.
Now that evening at dinner,
Little White Timmy got to look at his
white father,
and the eyes lock while the family's sitting
at the table. And now
(12:31):
there's a secret,
a secret that rottens the soul.
So the enslavement trade
affected all of us
in such a profound way. So when you
say, maybe my ancestors weren't all good, they
were, a child is born with a heart
of gold.
(12:53):
Way of the world
makes his heart
so cold.
That's the earth, wind, and fire.
So we are all born good, and
every one of us
experiences
the trauma that was there
before us.
By talking about it and becoming aware of
(13:15):
it,
your healing is for your ancestors. You better
believe it. For your family to look at
you and say, wow. She's making choices
to not hurt anymore.
That's wonderful.
Yeah. And that's why I think it's so
important to
speak the words of history.
(13:35):
You know? People like to say, oh, we
don't need to talk about that anymore. We
don't need to talk about that anymore or
whitewash it or rewrite or whatever the heck.
And
we need to talk about the pain of
the past
because it's a deep freaking hole. It's a
deep,
deep
(13:55):
hole. And how do holes heal? You don't
just put a band aid on it and
walk away
because it leaves all that festering that no
one can see under the surface. Right? You
have to start healing a wound
from the bottom of it, and it comes
up. Anyone who's ever cut themselves knows that.
The it's it heals from the bottom up.
(14:17):
I the last person I shared that with
was a white male named Michael. And once
I shared that with him, he just burst
out crying.
Mhmm.
He started crying. He was like, my father
my father
molested me.
Everybody wants to heal.
That moment, he just and I just grabbed
and hugged him. It's so easy to bury
(14:38):
the past. Like you said, the sword doesn't
heal. Secrets are not secrets are pain. Secrets
are pain and secrets are shame.
There is no
there is no light in that.
Mm-mm. Yeah. Now that we've got that out
of
Yeah. So just a little backstory, you and
I met at a a movie.
(15:00):
Listen, I guess it was a premiere at
the premiere for no address.
And
I walked by and you said hello, and
I said hello, and we just started chatting.
And to me, you just
radiated,
And I thought, this is a person I
wanna talk to you on the show. So
Wow. It yeah. No address. It's a a
whole full movie about our houseless brothers and
(15:21):
sisters. Mhmm. Because earth is our home. None
of us are homeless.
But,
everyone that gets a chance to hear this
moment that we're talking about,
and, again, chosen
to tune in to Hey Human.
Thanks to Susan.
Check out that movie, because that's where we
met, and the energy, the vibration was it
(15:42):
was rocking high, wasn't it? Yeah. Susan.
And that's what we felt in the moment
when we we connected was that vibration.
And when you say, there's someone I want
to get to know, it's an honor for
you to say that,
my generation,
to be able to build a bridge
with the younger generation like you.
(16:03):
And so what you felt was,
energy, because it's like the wind. We don't
see it, but we feel it.
The best actor, the best actress can't cover
it. You see a leaf moving, but you
don't see. And then you look at someone
and they treat you good, and then you
see somebody else and you want them as
energy.
So that's what we felt.
(16:23):
And,
that takes me to we were in a
pure,
high vibrating environment, and that's how we ended
up here.
And I am from and no one likes
to claim the ghetto.
You know, people don't like that word, you
know, that's a negative.
But somebody gotta claim it, so I claim
it. And I am from the ghetto streets
of Cleveland, Ohio.
(16:45):
And when I say that,
luckily,
I did have 2 parents.
They were as functional as they knew how
to be.
But, if you're
it, again, came out of a mother I
shared earlier who had taken care of her
business and didn't want any other children. She
had an 8 year old
(17:05):
that she had to raise, and she had
left Baltimore to come to Cleveland all by
herself.
And so, that's where I'm from.
And,
you know, again, to
say a kid got pregnant and not at
12, but 11.
I was a mother by 12.
Was it consensual?
Not as much as a child can consent
(17:27):
to something. You know?
No. I actually,
priest.
Oh, fuck.
Makes you kinda I'm I I wanna keep
that brief because most people get really sick.
The stomach, like, yeah. Yeah. But it was
Catholic. I was in that environment.
And our preachers,
our preacher's 13 year old son
(17:48):
and those 2 things happened
simultaneous pretty close together. So baby came out
looking like me.
Got it. Who knows who you know, I
didn't have time to care. That's for sure.
Was there any thought of not keeping the
baby at that time?
By the time the 2 parent household found
out,
they thought I was 5 months. I was
(18:09):
7 months pregnant. Oh, wow.
It's a writer would have a hard time
writing this, and the book is eventually going
to come,
right now, a naked insanity.
And you could imagine
why the creator gave me those two words
to put it together.
Writing has not been my happy place, like,
torturous.
(18:30):
Mhmm. I didn't, I often say after having
a child at 12, I nearly stepped outside
of life,
and I just became a viewer
of it.
You know?
I was sent away to a maternity home,
and it cost a lot of money, as
well as some of the best,
quote, unquote,
care.
But I don't remember one person,
(18:52):
and it was caseworkers
and social workers.
I remember that. It was again, it was,
private.
But I don't remember one
thing
that any adult said to me at that
point.
Not one. And, as a clinical psychologist now,
(19:12):
I have a master's in clinical psychology
and an ex convict. Let me put that
out there. Yeah. We're gonna get there for
sure. Yeah.
You also have an honorary doctorate. Correct? I
do. Yeah. I earn master's honorary doctors, and
I hear all the time.
Hey, Sheryl.
Put more weight on what you are today.
You know, you gotta leave that in the
(19:33):
past.
You know? You put too much weight on
that where you come from, though. It's look
at who you are now, but It's all
the same, though. Who we were is who
we are.
Yeah. Yeah. You gotta gotta mention that past
to get to the future. Did did your
parents go after the
nope. No. It was always a secret
(19:53):
that rotten muscle.
I know we'll jump around a lot, but
I wanted to say that,
they you know, being in this space and
supposedly gonna give away this kid
and private, not remembering one thing that an
adult said.
As a clinical psychologist, I think, how could
that happen?
(20:15):
You know? But when
something like that happens and you reinforce,
I was in Cleveland, not Mississippi.
You know? So my father's mother had him
at 13. It was but in Cleveland, Ohio
in 1970
71, it was unheard of, almost.
And so I understand
(20:35):
they were so
outdone
that I was,
you know, 11,
that the, caseworkers and the social workers used
to just discuss that.
So no no healing.
Yeah.
And did you end up giving up the
child?
I was supposed to. It's strange to say
that because it was a maternity home where
(20:58):
you were known
first name, last initial only.
Lot of,
incest,
fathers, raped daughters, brothers.
And, at the 12th hour, because daddy was
from Mississippi, daddy said, the baby come home
while all you
gotta leave.
And, Eric came home,
(21:19):
and I became a sideshow.
And that's when I I say I stepped
outside of life. You know? That explains
and I often when I speak in foster
homes, funeral halls,
prisons,
I used to do it regularly. I always
let young people know that I could have
taken that pain and become I could have
become a rocket scientist. I didn't have to
(21:40):
become the criminal.
You know? So I always like to to
own
the choices we make, although a lot of
times we don't have the tools, and we're
so young,
but still own it.
Did you
come up with Eric as sibling, or did
you raise him as parent?
He actually knew I was his mother, and
(22:01):
my mother and father,
supplied
the money.
I chose
Milton, the 13 year old preacher's son,
to say that was his father. And as
far as the money and the bills and
that kind of thing was handled,
and
I I couldn't be a mother.
You know, that it was impossible.
(22:22):
But I was told, you know, you made
your red heart. You gotta lay in it.
And a lot of responsibility
was heaped on me that I didn't
understand. And, of course, everybody was literally in
shock.
It was just
unheard of. Well, and the fact that
somehow it was on you when you were
the victim is Yeah. But that's I mean,
(22:44):
it still happens today. That's the rhetoric around
it.
Yeah. Well, I was told I was fast.
You know, in in the hood, you you
know, we hear that a lot. Girl, you
fast. Ain't she fast? And then after having
the baby, well,
sheesh.
I was I was a sideshow.
You know? That's all I could say.
(23:05):
Mhmm.
Do you have siblings?
I have 1, 8 years older.
Oh, that's right. You said yeah. That's right.
Close.
Yeah. Ever close. Different fathers. Yeah. Half half
sibling. Yeah. And in the black community, we
rarely where I come from, we don't say
half. If if you came out of mama,
we pretty much leave the half aside. You
know, just the energy with mom and my
(23:27):
sister, you know, they were kinda I got
as I got older, I had to get
some understanding to heal. And they were a
team, and I was the outsider.
So definitely not close at all, still to
today.
How did still today even.
Still to today. Interesting.
So you're a kid,
having a kid,
and feeling
(23:49):
rightfully
ostracized
that that those feelings are absolutely valid, of
course, that
how does one
in absence of a parent, one must parent
oneself whether they do it well or not.
So how was
your parenting of yourself through that time?
Or were you just completely out of body
until you were an adult?
(24:12):
Good question.
Was I out of body? I I
I really
understand
disassociating
from life
and being on autopilot.
That is I don't wanna jump too soon
in the story, but,
and again, you guys gotta buy the book,
so I can't tell it all here. I
(24:32):
do hope you join me when the book
comes out. It's so much just like a
blur. Yeah. I just again,
once I was if you tell a child
they're bad, that's what they become.
Mhmm. And because no one was around that
knew how to handle this,
they told me I was bad.
And so I internalized that.
(24:55):
And,
that's where the medication of drugs came in.
You know, I skipped over marijuana, cigarettes, liquor,
and started shooting heroin.
Mhmm. Go big or go home.
Oh, you you are so right. The monster
was so big, you know, and he would
not go home.
So, yeah, I,
(25:16):
actually,
I think back now and just say
thank God for deliverance.
In this very moment, when I think I
let I literally
drew up drugs and stuck a syringe in
my veins. I tell everybody
that's a level of self hatred
that the average cannot understand.
(25:40):
Definitely.
Was there anyone
in your life that
noticed your pain?
Mhmm.
I had a grandmabula,
and she was my mother's great grandmother.
And by the time I had Eric, she
(26:00):
was older,
but she couldn't read.
And when I was little,
really little, like
6,
7,
I remember threading the needle for Grandma Beulah
and picking the fabrics, and I designed this.
I believe that's where it comes from, taking
the going in the trunk
and getting the fabric, and she would give
(26:22):
me the scissors to cut the patches in,
and we quilt together.
And my Grandma Beulah, who couldn't read, would
say, my nickname is Tootie.'
And she would say, Tootie,
you the strongest
and the nicest
and the smartest
and the prettiest little girl in the whole
(26:42):
wide world. Well, Tootie, you can do anything.
And then she was saying, grandma leave pretty
for last,
because pretty is as pretty does.
And then she would say, show me your
muscles.
And I remember putting you know, I would
be threading her needle, and she clap for
me. And I'd lay the needle down and
show my muscles,
(27:02):
you know, and she just clap.
And so when I got off in a
hardcore drug use,
I used to look in the mirror, and
I would always see her grandma,
Hula's voice.
Why Tootie?
You're the strongest
and the nicest. And I would look at
everybody around me and say, why am I
doing this?
(27:22):
Why am I shooting this? I gotta speak
up.
I really believe, girl, my Beulah's voice,
those seeds that got planted.
I wanna say to every parent,
clap
every chance you get for little ones.
Instill in them, take this, those words. Every
(27:43):
time you even if you're not a parent,
wherever you see a little kid in a
store,
wherever,
like, you're the smartest
and the nicest and and give them a
hand clap
and
plant those seeds as early as possible.
Make that,
serious practice in every young
(28:05):
little kid's life you meet, because
it followed me.
And I kept on hearing grandma Beulah's voice,
and people say, how did you pull yourself
up out the dirt like you
there is a creator.
I call that creator god that gives us
grace.
And god's saying, grandma, you
(28:27):
I remember my mom coming in, you know,
because she worked 2 jobs. Why are you
spoiling her? Why are you spoiling? You're not
the nicest. You're not the
and she would be, like, in my face,
you know, because
and I remember, oh, grandma Beulah being over
her shoulder.
And I would look at grand grandma Beulah
would be like,
don't you listen? Yeah.
(28:48):
And my mom walk away, grandma Beulah would
pick me up. And don't you pay no
attention to seeing you.
She don't know what she talk why, Tootie,
you're the nicest.
And that's if there's anything I attribute
to assisting me while drowning inside of self
hatred,
grab my pillow. So how did you start
(29:10):
to pull yourself out? Was there a rock
bottom? Does was there a
did someone come along? Was it all you?
Well, luckily, I got rescued, not arrested,
and ended up in prison.
And,
my father had a brick company, 3rd grade
education from Mississippi, but he built a brick
business, worked at Republic Steel. We had a
(29:33):
family attorney.
And so when I caught a case,
my website is,
helping people grow.org,
and or look up Cheryl rich.com.
And,
when I caught
drugs,
sales, car theft, check fraud,
(29:55):
you know, luckily, never anything with any,
youngsters
or, you know, any death. Thank you, god.
My father would give our family attorney the
money bag, and I actually went in the
judge's chambers
with the family attorney
and watch the judge get his cut out,
the money bag, the prosecutor, and our attorney.
(30:18):
So I got a chance to see the
just
non justice system early on,
and a young mind, and I will come
out and stand in front of the judge,
get probation.
And that happened not once, not twice, not
3 times, not 4 times, not 5 times,
but 6. Woah.
Seven times.
Mhmm. Before my family found out, I had,
(30:40):
marks on my arms, tracks from shooting heroin.
And my daddy stopped giving mister Lee the
money back,
and I went away.
And that's where
God intervened in my life. I tell everybody
I did not get arrested. I got rescued.
And how long was your sentence?
4 years, 5 months.
(31:00):
It's almost they call it a nickel.
It's almost 5.
But I don't take away a day or
don't add 4 years, 5 months,
and I got it down to the hours
and the minutes.
I bet.
But
while I was there, the power of music
and tell live vision,
so about two and a half years in,
(31:21):
Michael Jackson's man in the mirror. How many
people
claim that song as the healing and within
their lives?
The moment that
one turned around and really looked in the
mirror and said,
I'm a start with me.
And, first time he sang that on television,
(31:42):
that I I jumped off of off the
bunk, and I went to the mirror. And
I said, I I don't know how I'm
gonna find a way to love myself,
but I'm not gonna hate myself anymore. And
if mom loved my sister more than me
and they were my torture team, why not
shoot the drugs in them?
I'm like, why that hurt me? I'm like,
that's it.
(32:02):
When I get out of here, if they
bother me, I'm a shoot the drugs in
them.
So right after Michael Jackson,
Don King came on.
He's from Cleveland.
Okay?
Television,
again.
But I had a chance to see someone.
People say, well, that wasn't the best role
model, but he was a role model. He's
(32:24):
from ghetto streets of Cleveland. He had been
to prison,
and he was doing something with his life.
And in that moment, I said, I'm gonna
do something with my life when I get
out of here. And I said, boxing is
grueling. Oh, I'll go find the Beverly Hillbillies.
The power of television.
When I was little, I used to look
at their floors, look at our floors. I
(32:44):
was like, I gotta blow this joint.
Granny and Jethro, they had a pool and
a poodle and so and then this last
name, Sheryl Rich, didn't help.
Rich in the hood? Like, Sheryl Rich and
no money? I was like, I'm out.
And then something said, okay. Go go chase
the ghost, the dream.
Because I thought there was something you could
(33:05):
find called success
outside of oneself.
And the creator held that back until I
got that message. Was there a sobriety plan
in
prison?
Would did you have
people that supported you there? Because, I mean,
you know, you're filled
it's filled with people that have also
carry a lot of pain and are trying
(33:27):
to find their way or not.
Prison is another world. You know? The
a lot of guards, you know, make their
living by bringing things in and out. You
know? And
in that moment, I had the opportunity,
and that's where
grace
intervened, and I made a choice.
Healing is a choice.
(33:50):
And nobody can tell me because I've been
through it.
I am here to say that regardless of
what
a person has endured,
that if you really
decide I'm tired of hurting,
tell me, well, how quick do you make
up your mind? Faster than you could blink
(34:10):
your eyes.
Your mind has to tell your eyes to
blink.
And people are in the Betty Ford Center
right now paying,
I think last time I checked, almost a
100,000 a month or something. Woah. Yeah.
Yeah. Maybe it's I don't know the price.
And when last time I checked, it was
(34:30):
over 50.
But for what has to happen,
they're paying for what they must do, and
that's blink their eyes and say, I'm done.
Hurdle.
And so I am a witness that by
the grace
yes, you must
claim this creator
who created you.
(34:50):
And I tell everyone, if you don't believe
in it, go create yourself. Come back. Tell
me how that went for you.
There is something.
Show me who lives forever.
So
everyone who is chosen again and highly favored
to catch this podcast,
I don't care what you're going through.
(35:12):
We can't be we become addicted to the
pain. We become addicted to the chaos and
the confusion. And just like we because it's
not the substance.
It's never the substance.
So we can make that choice, and that's
when I made the choice that I didn't
want any drugs that I could get into
prison.
I was like, I'm
done. So just really understanding
(35:34):
that,
chaos and confusion is an addiction,
and just as
as
we as easy as it is to accept
that we're addicted to the pain,
it is just as easy to become addicted
to
joy.
That's where I'm at now.
(35:55):
Happy meal. You eat a meal, you're it's
delicious. An hour later, you forgot. I'm talking
internal
joy.
And I never thought, and I'll tear up
and start crying, that I would experience
the feeling of having
joy inside,
that nothing
and when I say nothing can tamper with
(36:15):
that, I just got tested. My mother just
had a stroke, and she's 89 years old,
and I love my mom. You know, we
we still had our challenges,
but I love my mom, and she just
had a stroke. And
any other time, I would be allowing the
demonic forces that's what I call them.
Baby, I hate to bring in. I'm not,
(36:36):
you know, the old girl, the old black
woman. It's the holy holy roller,
but they it come a time where you
just gotta acknowledge them for what they are,
and that is,
the demonic forces. It is good and evil
definitely exist.
And at this point,
I could literally be a basket case about
the whole situation that happened, like, September 10th.
(36:57):
So you're talking very not long ago.
And right off the top,
the holy spirit I normally say the spirit
voice because I would like to turn nobody
off with the religious stuff. It's not religion.
It's spiritual.
That's what I am. But, someone said, girl,
you gotta clarify
which spirit voice?
So the holy spirit voice recently said to
(37:19):
me when it happened,
your mother is my child.
I loaned her to you.
So now are you gonna, like,
second guess me?
And I had to go back and forth
because the voices in my head was telling
me, hey. You're supposed to be sad, devastated,
(37:39):
and that's fine. Have a conversation.
The more you practice, the better you get
at this.
So my faith just got tested, and
feels good to know you're gonna get tested
with all that come out your mouth. Well,
you bring up such a good point. Our
emotions
(37:59):
when our emotions rule us instead of we
being having dominion over our
emotions, that's where we get into trouble.
Yes. Especially with the negative ones. But even
I think people can be in ecstasy
and be manic.
So even the joy side can get problematic
if it's you know, there's a balance to
(38:20):
everything. Everything in nature has a balance. Yeah.
And that's what we are work in progress.
You're right.
5 happy medium.
Yeah.
Did your family visit you while you were
incarcerated?
My mom. Mhmm. Yes. She did. Eric?
Yeah. Eric came.
Yeah. But mom had to bring him.
(38:41):
So yeah.
What what happened next then? You you get
out? Yeah. Eric gets killed in a car
accident. Oh my god.
My only kid.
Yes. I'm so sorry. Okay?
What happened
around that drunk driver?
Well, well,
he was actually high himself.
He had a mother that got high. Yeah.
(39:03):
That pain travels if we don't heal. Right?
And 6 months, 17 days later, he was
killed in a car accident, you know? He's
creating he's the reason the car accident happened,
and and God,
allowed him to get his wings.
And
all of this to say and that's what
I packed up 5 boxes of Computer and
a Dream and took off to find the
(39:24):
Beverly Hillbillies, came to the state called Hollywood.
I want to say that,
life's a journey.
And when Eric got killed,
I was I mean, when Eric died, I
was devastated,
and I never ever thought I would recover.
And that was
January 28, 1989.
(39:45):
I went away to prison
March 10,
1985.
I came home July 11, 1989,
and
January
28th 1990 is when Eric left. 6 months,
17 days
later. But I had a chance to, like,
say, hey. I
(40:06):
despised you when I had you. Now I
love you. We had 6 months, 17 days
together, and
learned so much in such a small amount
of time,
and most of all, to understand
it's all just a journey.
When we really grasp
that what we perceive as the good, the
bad, and the ugly,
(40:26):
is all just a part of the journey,
and that's what I am a witness
to.
You know,
Eric, once he left, I packed up 5
boxes of Computer and a Dream. I hit
Hollywood,
was chasing the ghosts called The Illusion Called
Success. God held it back many years.
1st executive producer,
(40:49):
credit.
Thank you, Doug DeLuca, co executive producer of
Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Gave me my first break in this town
called Hollywood, cracked that door for me. The
name of the show is called The House.
It was on Fox Soul.
Did 2 seasons, 3rd season.
I realized, be careful what you ask for.
(41:09):
You might get it.
After all that, from ex con to executive
producer
and then
the lesson,
you sure you want this?'
a lot of
toxicity started happening,
within my Black people.
(41:30):
You know,
the enslavement trade, it taught us
to teach them to hate themselves. We won't
have to worry about it. It's real serious.
And many communities have their challenges. Definitely in
the Black community, we have ours.
So 3rd season, I said, no, nothing is
worth my peace
of mind.'
(41:53):
And that was that was a moment that
I was like, you sure?
I'm sure.
So now
honorary doctorates, Word of God International
University,
Doctor. Joshua Smith
has his own Jewish diction.
Anybody that doesn't know what that means, do
you some research.
The name of the nonprofit
is called
(42:14):
Helping People
Grow. I came to LA to chase the
ghosts of
Hollywood, and I stopped off at Antioch University
here in Marina del Rey,
and got the earned Master's in Clinical Psychology.
Then I put it on the shelf
and started, chasing all Hollywood.
So now at this stage with an honorary
(42:36):
doctorates,
thanks to Word of God International University,
I was able to get the nonprofit,
and I'm in the streets. I've had a
25 for 25 years. It's been a street
ministry.
I pay people for their words of wisdom
that are sleeping on the ground.
I don't look for the 1 in a
(42:56):
SUV
or RV or car tent.
I pass out pillows to the ones that's
laying on the ground, and that's the most
important thing I do in my life
is see how I can make someone else's
life a little easier.
So I don't. I've never done the grants
and the proposals and those kinds of things,
(43:16):
but I've been funding things myself,
and I've got some things in the pipeline
now. And all of you that's getting ready
to hear this,
hey. Reach out to auntie Cheryl by way
of Susan
and Hey Human and who knows how we
will all come together and
and work to make this place,
this earth a better place. What's something from
(43:37):
your street ministry that has really stuck with
you as far as
the people who are unhomed,
what their outlook is, and what you see
in their humanity?
Well, when I we came together again
at the movie, no address,
and it is a feature film.
(43:58):
They put in work, and there really is
a real people that's been in the entertainment
industry, came together
for a topic that is just people don't
want to,
a lot of people don't wanna pay attention
to that when it comes to a feature
film. So it was very powerful to see
that a feature got put together because
what I have learned
(44:19):
from those who
have to sleep in the cold elements at
night,
didn't want to exploit, so I started paying
people for their words of wisdom.
For whatever reason,
I think they are the strongest of the
strongest of the strongest.
Not suicide,
but to choose to just say,
(44:41):
I can't take it, and I'm just gonna
live like this. And this society that teaches
you the more you have, the better you
are.
So it's the words of wisdom
from that one that's laying on the ground,
from that one that's living in a tent.
I encourage all of you.
Carry an apple or orange. Set at a
distance. Because what I was doing is quite
(45:02):
dangerous.
Can be very dangerous sometimes to really walk
up on people, and, you know, that's really
in a lot of pain.
But do everything you can
to see how you can help somebody,
And that's the only way I could say
that joy
manifests in your lives. Yeah. Making it outside
(45:23):
of oneself is really the key because then
you don't have time to obsess over yourself.
We were really put here. We're hardwired to
care about each other. Heaven forbid,
if if somebody gets punched right now, we
see it. We're like, oh,
because we feel it.
We're here for each other. And to serve,
(45:44):
there's no higher honor.
Remind people again how to find you on
the websites.
Yes.
So Cheryl Rich, c h e r y
l r I c h.com,
and
it's pointed to the helping people grow.org.
Sometimes on the Android, people have a a
(46:04):
problem getting to helping
people grow.org.
So both of those, and
look out for me coming I'm coming to
live stream with Susan. I'm gonna let you
know about it so you can reach out
to your population.
Absolutely. And, see what the creator has in
store for auntie Shirl
for the
the next chapter of her journey. And you're
(46:25):
writing a book too. Yes. I am. Naked
Insanity.
Hopefully, I have an editor. She's been torturing
me because she knows I'm so handicapped when
it comes to this.
And I'm hoping Diane commits to assisting me
so I could get this finished she's paid
already.
So let's hope so. Do you have a
space that you go and sit and write?
Is that the issue, or is it just
(46:47):
trying to get your head wrapped around digging
up old stories?
No. I wrote a rough draft. I life
has been too full. So it's just from
birth
to Eric's
hitting his wings. I hate to say death.
And, I wrote 260 some pages, but
I I like I said, I didn't get
the foundation, really,
of education under my belt after a 12
(47:09):
year old mother. It's been all willpower.
So my writing has gotten so much better.
I've I've spent maybe over I don't wanna
even talk about how much money I've spent
with wrong people
that said they could assist me with getting
this done. So Rayanne has learned how to
work with me, and I'm hoping that we
get to follow through.
And if not, I'll be on my livestream
(47:29):
coming to the world telling the world, somebody
come help me finish this book, please.
Yeah. Well,
I'm excited to read it when you're done,
and all things in their time. I really
believe that.
That's right. So it it will be and
Eric, I'm sure, is also guiding you. I
also believe that very strongly. I
agree. Yeah. And your great grandmother.
Grandma Beulah.
(47:51):
Thank you. You you your warmth is just
infectious, and you're gonna stay in touch, you
love. Absolutely.
Thank you for listening, everybody.
Thank you, Cheryl. Thank you, everyone.
Oh, I'm so happy that the creator touched
you. You're gonna you've touched a lot of
lives. You're gonna keep on.
Thank you so much. Oh. Hey, humans. We
(48:12):
love you. Bye. Bye.
Rate, review, and subscribe to Hey Human Podcast
on Apple, Iheart, Spotify, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Thanks. Bye.
Hey, humans. How's it going? Susan Ruth here.
Thanks for listening to another episode
of Hey, Human podcast.
This is episode 436,
and my guest is doctor Cheryl Rich.
Cheryl Rich is the worlds of entertainment,
community service, and spiritual leadership.
She's a clinical psychologist,
(00:28):
author, and producer.
She's been active for 2 decades in street
ministry and as a certified victims mediator and
intervention specialist,
focusing on helping those affected by trauma and
adversity.
Her personal journey includes addiction, incarceration,
and an unbearable
loss.
She's a woman of resilience and deep beliefs
(00:51):
who mentors and lifts up those around her.
We met by happenstance,
and her energy
and light radiated
and
really connected to her right away. And
she was so kind to say yes to
this interview,
and I'm excited for you to hear it.
Check out heyhumanpodcast.com
(01:13):
for links and to learn more about my
guests in the show. Hey Human Podcast is
on YouTube under official Susan Ruth. I'm on
patreon at susanruthism,
and I appreciate
your help there because it helps keep the
show going,
keeps it ad free.
My TikToks and Instagram
is under susanruthism.
(01:34):
Check out susanruth.com
to learn more about me and my other
artistic endeavors, and
find my music on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon
Music, wherever you get your music. Rate, review,
and subscribe to Hey Human Podcast on Apple,
Iheart, and Spotify
podcast places or wherever you get and listen
to podcasts.
Thank you for listening, and be well,
(01:56):
be kind,
be love.
Here we go.
Doctor Sholrich, welcome to Hey Human.
Honored.
How's it going?
Wow.
Everything is wonderful. We as long as we
wake up.
Oh, amen to that. By the way, your,
Zoom picture is so cool. I love the
white hair.
(02:17):
Yeah. That I mean, purple is awesome too,
but the that white is so cool.
Yeah. You know, auntie Cheryl.
Duh. That's what I always want you youngsters
to to know that I will I'm the
auntie around here. Somebody's gotta be willing to
grow
old.
I tell everyone you either get to grow
old or you make a beautiful young corpse.
(02:37):
Wow. I got a lot of young people
get mad at me when I say that,
but we've got to respect this thing called
age.
It's so important because, this society
has been set up not to respect
the gift of growing old. And that takes
me back to growing gold,
g o l d.
One day, you're gonna need that youngster and
all of you youngsters to see this wonderful
(02:59):
podcast that she was guided
to start way before podcasts got popular.
You know, you've been doing this a while.
So run gold, not old,
makes me have fun. So that's why the
white wig, the purple wig, the glasses,
and mama didn't give me enough attention when
I was little.
(03:20):
No mamas can.
Do you have kids? No. Uh-uh. I like
kids. I think kids are magical as I
but I feel the same about people who
are considered the elderly. That's why I love
that in a lot of cultures,
the the ref the reference of auntie or
uncle or grandfather. I'm reading a book right
now and it's, about an indigenous family,
(03:44):
Ojibwe.
And,
you know, all the elders are called uncle,
aunt,
or grandfather, and I freaking love or grandmother.
And I love that so much that honor
bestowed upon people who know some things.
My response to you is that all life
is a journey.
(04:04):
So I re you know, you embracing
that the creator made you the mother of
the earth.
So you can mother many instead of having
to focus on 1.
Having a child is a challenge, and,
I when you talk about wisdom,
I was talking to someone the other day,
and I said,
(04:25):
you really don't get that unless you get
the gift of age.
So I said, wait a minute. I was
a 12 year old mother.
I didn't have any wisdom.
12 years old.
So young.
Yes.
Very young. But I didn't have any wisdom,
you know, be to to do something so,
I think it's the most imp you know,
(04:46):
one of the most important things we're chosen
to do.
And, yet didn't get the wisdom till I
got a older golder.
We don't give
ourselves
lessons in
parenting
because we're, many of us were ill parented
by people who also had no parents,
(05:07):
and that generational trauma
that goes down through the ages.
And it go it can go one of
2 ways. Right? You can either love someone
with such veracity
because of what you were lacking,
or you can
hold them responsible
in a way for whatever happened to you.
(05:28):
Right? Those are the two ways it goes.
There's not usually a lot of middle ground
there.
There aren't any rules to being a parent.
I often say when I when I come
up out of my body, you know, get
my wings, I said we all get our
wings. I'm gonna, like I said I was
gonna get guidance. Wait a minute.
I snatched guard into just like, how could
you
(05:48):
give instructions to put a bike together, how
to work on a car?
I I would not become a parent.
So, you know, it,
there's no rules. And that's why we can
say, I'm so happy you said the trauma
that we've
somehow, most of us and I don't think
anyone gets out without experiencing some trauma,
(06:09):
no matter if you come from poverty or
privilege.
And the trauma that our parents endured
and the and the trickle down, I'm so
glad you said that because
it's so easy to say blame, blame, blame.
And Yeah.
That doesn't heal.
I remember when I was around 18, I
had a, you know, a complicated childhood. I
(06:30):
remember around 18, I
started seeing my parents as human beings separate
than mom and dad.
And that's such a weird shift to realize
that they have their own story
and that
I think everybody has a choice with how
you treat others.
And I think sometimes
we can fall back on an excuse of
(06:52):
like, oh, well, I was treated this way,
and that's why I do that. But I
still think you have dominion over your own
self.
Mhmm. But I think it does get
exponentially more complicated depending on the trauma you
carry
Mhmm. On how you treat others. It's boy,
humaning is not for the weak of heart.
(07:12):
That's for sure.
That's why I love the title of your
podcast, Hey Human. Hey. Hey.
You know?
I love it.
I'm your the generation that raised you,
and I apologize to all of you because
because
I'm 65.
I don't know. How old is your
They're they're much older. I was the accidental
(07:34):
baby. I came along. Yeah. They didn't know
they could still have children and surprise.
So you were the gifted child?
I I suppose. Let's get these virus right
back because they I'm telling you, we get
told stuff when we're little when we're little,
and it just follows us and be like,
I'm the accident. Like, I was my mother,
actually paid for an abortion.
(07:55):
Like, left one town, went back home to
her mother and paid money, and went and
got up on a makeshift abortion table, and
it took place.
So you understand when, 2 weeks later, she's
gushing blood, rushed to the hospital in the
ghetto streets of Cleveland, Ohio, and told,
you're pregnant. And she's like, no. I took
care of that. That's how the story goes.
(08:15):
That's how I've heard it. And she says
that,
they no. You may the doctor said you
may have thought you took care of it,
but she said, well, get rid of it.
You know?
And she said the doctor said, no, if
we don't pack you right now, you're gonna
bleed to death.
So I had to come into this world.
And I always say I hid behind the
left portion of the liver. Oh, you know,
(08:37):
like
so
that being said is,
you were the gifted child
by, let's see,
71,
72. We're hearing songs, like, in music is
medicine. Music can literally control the world if
you ask me. And we're hearing songs like,
(08:58):
runaway child, running wild.
Better go back home
where you belong.
And that's the temptations. Anybody wanna look up
those lyrics?
And
then we got into the disco.
And that was after Woodstock, and it was
just like,
you know, free yourself.
(09:18):
Yeah. And nobody talked about the past.
So your parents' parents and my mother, who's
89, that was the past. Leave it back
there.
And so we were the generation
that came and hit, like,
77, 78, early eighties, and we was loose.
It was sex, drugs, and rock and roll,
baby. And did nobody talk about the past,
(09:42):
and no healing,
was done. It was all medication,
you know, drugs.
The era era of the Quaalude. Right? Yeah.
Exactly. And many other things, and I've done
it all. I I was one of those
ones in a lot of pain. And if
it was a drug to try, I did
it. So with all that saying, is when
(10:05):
say it, when you understand that it's not
like I loved it when you said the
trauma. We're talking about
centuries ago. Yeah.
House passed down.
Then no excuses,
but we sure can make a choice. You
and I and everyone who's chosen and highly
favored to find you,
(10:25):
and, hey, human, we can make a choice
to heal into this thing called life. To
live. I also believe that when we do
our own healing, it goes backward.
It goes back through the generations, and that
I'd like to think that when I work
on me and that the trauma that I
have,
that it starts to repair and heal the
(10:45):
trauma of my mother and my grandmother and
my great grandmother, that it goes back through
the line.
Wow.
And that makes sense because I get a
chance to see an example.
You decided, I'm not gonna keep hurting. I'm
not gonna be addicted to chaos and confusion.
You know, when we think that, you know,
this thing called color is real, you know,
(11:07):
skin color,
You know, that nobody really understands that we
all suffered from the greed
that created,
the energy and specifically in this land. Could
you imagine
little Timmy,
who's in the big house,
and little black Sambo, who's enslaved?
(11:27):
I always like to say that no you
can't choose the best of the best of
the best and turn it to a slave.
We were enslaved.
And little Timmy and and little black Sambo
are just friends, and they play together.
And Little Timmy says, Little Black Sambo,
Little Black Sambo, I'm gonna go in the
house, and I'm gonna go get some lemonade.
I'll be back.
And we'll start playing hide and seek when
(11:48):
I come back, because they were playing hide
and seek.
And Little White Timmy comes back out and
says, 'Little Black Sambo,
Little Black Sambo, where are you? Little Black
Sambo, come out. We're not playing Little Black
Sambo!' And he starts to walk around, and
then suddenly hears something in the bar.
And Little White Timmy looks in
and looks in his eyes
(12:09):
the eyes of his little black Sambo friend
while Timmy's daddy is sodomizing.
Little Black Sambal.
Now that evening at dinner,
Little White Timmy got to look at his
white father,
and the eyes lock while the family's sitting
at the table. And now
(12:31):
there's a secret,
a secret that rottens the soul.
So the enslavement trade
affected all of us
in such a profound way. So when you
say, maybe my ancestors weren't all good, they
were, a child is born with a heart
of gold.
(12:53):
Way of the world
makes his heart
so cold.
That's the earth, wind, and fire.
So we are all born good, and
every one of us
experiences
the trauma that was there
before us.
By talking about it and becoming aware of
(13:15):
it,
your healing is for your ancestors. You better
believe it. For your family to look at
you and say, wow. She's making choices
to not hurt anymore.
That's wonderful.
Yeah. And that's why I think it's so
important to
speak the words of history.
(13:35):
You know? People like to say, oh, we
don't need to talk about that anymore. We
don't need to talk about that anymore or
whitewash it or rewrite or whatever the heck.
And
we need to talk about the pain of
the past
because it's a deep freaking hole. It's a
deep,
deep
(13:55):
hole. And how do holes heal? You don't
just put a band aid on it and
walk away
because it leaves all that festering that no
one can see under the surface. Right? You
have to start healing a wound
from the bottom of it, and it comes
up. Anyone who's ever cut themselves knows that.
The it's it heals from the bottom up.
(14:17):
I the last person I shared that with
was a white male named Michael. And once
I shared that with him, he just burst
out crying.
Mhmm.
He started crying. He was like, my father
my father
molested me.
Everybody wants to heal.
That moment, he just and I just grabbed
and hugged him. It's so easy to bury
(14:38):
the past. Like you said, the sword doesn't
heal. Secrets are not secrets are pain. Secrets
are pain and secrets are shame.
There is no
there is no light in that.
Mm-mm. Yeah. Now that we've got that out
of
Yeah. So just a little backstory, you and
I met at a a movie.
(15:00):
Listen, I guess it was a premiere at
the premiere for no address.
And
I walked by and you said hello, and
I said hello, and we just started chatting.
And to me, you just
radiated,
And I thought, this is a person I
wanna talk to you on the show. So
Wow. It yeah. No address. It's a a
whole full movie about our houseless brothers and
(15:21):
sisters. Mhmm. Because earth is our home. None
of us are homeless.
But,
everyone that gets a chance to hear this
moment that we're talking about,
and, again, chosen
to tune in to Hey Human.
Thanks to Susan.
Check out that movie, because that's where we
met, and the energy, the vibration was it
(15:42):
was rocking high, wasn't it? Yeah. Susan.
And that's what we felt in the moment
when we we connected was that vibration.
And when you say, there's someone I want
to get to know, it's an honor for
you to say that,
my generation,
to be able to build a bridge
with the younger generation like you.
(16:03):
And so what you felt was,
energy, because it's like the wind. We don't
see it, but we feel it.
The best actor, the best actress can't cover
it. You see a leaf moving, but you
don't see. And then you look at someone
and they treat you good, and then you
see somebody else and you want them as
energy.
So that's what we felt.
(16:23):
And,
that takes me to we were in a
pure,
high vibrating environment, and that's how we ended
up here.
And I am from and no one likes
to claim the ghetto.
You know, people don't like that word, you
know, that's a negative.
But somebody gotta claim it, so I claim
it. And I am from the ghetto streets
of Cleveland, Ohio.
(16:45):
And when I say that,
luckily,
I did have 2 parents.
They were as functional as they knew how
to be.
But, if you're
it, again, came out of a mother I
shared earlier who had taken care of her
business and didn't want any other children. She
had an 8 year old
(17:05):
that she had to raise, and she had
left Baltimore to come to Cleveland all by
herself.
And so, that's where I'm from.
And,
you know, again, to
say a kid got pregnant and not at
12, but 11.
I was a mother by 12.
Was it consensual?
Not as much as a child can consent
(17:27):
to something. You know?
No. I actually,
priest.
Oh, fuck.
Makes you kinda I'm I I wanna keep
that brief because most people get really sick.
The stomach, like, yeah. Yeah. But it was
Catholic. I was in that environment.
And our preachers,
our preacher's 13 year old son
(17:48):
and those 2 things happened
simultaneous pretty close together. So baby came out
looking like me.
Got it. Who knows who you know, I
didn't have time to care. That's for sure.
Was there any thought of not keeping the
baby at that time?
By the time the 2 parent household found
out,
they thought I was 5 months. I was
(18:09):
7 months pregnant. Oh, wow.
It's a writer would have a hard time
writing this, and the book is eventually going
to come,
right now, a naked insanity.
And you could imagine
why the creator gave me those two words
to put it together.
Writing has not been my happy place, like,
torturous.
(18:30):
Mhmm. I didn't, I often say after having
a child at 12, I nearly stepped outside
of life,
and I just became a viewer
of it.
You know?
I was sent away to a maternity home,
and it cost a lot of money, as
well as some of the best,
quote, unquote,
care.
But I don't remember one person,
(18:52):
and it was caseworkers
and social workers.
I remember that. It was again, it was,
private.
But I don't remember one
thing
that any adult said to me at that
point.
Not one. And, as a clinical psychologist now,
(19:12):
I have a master's in clinical psychology
and an ex convict. Let me put that
out there. Yeah. We're gonna get there for
sure. Yeah.
You also have an honorary doctorate. Correct? I
do. Yeah. I earn master's honorary doctors, and
I hear all the time.
Hey, Sheryl.
Put more weight on what you are today.
You know, you gotta leave that in the
(19:33):
past.
You know? You put too much weight on
that where you come from, though. It's look
at who you are now, but It's all
the same, though. Who we were is who
we are.
Yeah. Yeah. You gotta gotta mention that past
to get to the future. Did did your
parents go after the
nope. No. It was always a secret
(19:53):
that rotten muscle.
I know we'll jump around a lot, but
I wanted to say that,
they you know, being in this space and
supposedly gonna give away this kid
and private, not remembering one thing that an
adult said.
As a clinical psychologist, I think, how could
that happen?
(20:15):
You know? But when
something like that happens and you reinforce,
I was in Cleveland, not Mississippi.
You know? So my father's mother had him
at 13. It was but in Cleveland, Ohio
in 1970
71, it was unheard of, almost.
And so I understand
(20:35):
they were so
outdone
that I was,
you know, 11,
that the, caseworkers and the social workers used
to just discuss that.
So no no healing.
Yeah.
And did you end up giving up the
child?
I was supposed to. It's strange to say
that because it was a maternity home where
(20:58):
you were known
first name, last initial only.
Lot of,
incest,
fathers, raped daughters, brothers.
And, at the 12th hour, because daddy was
from Mississippi, daddy said, the baby come home
while all you
gotta leave.
And, Eric came home,
(21:19):
and I became a sideshow.
And that's when I I say I stepped
outside of life. You know? That explains
and I often when I speak in foster
homes, funeral halls,
prisons,
I used to do it regularly. I always
let young people know that I could have
taken that pain and become I could have
become a rocket scientist. I didn't have to
(21:40):
become the criminal.
You know? So I always like to to
own
the choices we make, although a lot of
times we don't have the tools, and we're
so young,
but still own it.
Did you
come up with Eric as sibling, or did
you raise him as parent?
He actually knew I was his mother, and
(22:01):
my mother and father,
supplied
the money.
I chose
Milton, the 13 year old preacher's son,
to say that was his father. And as
far as the money and the bills and
that kind of thing was handled,
and
I I couldn't be a mother.
You know, that it was impossible.
(22:22):
But I was told, you know, you made
your red heart. You gotta lay in it.
And a lot of responsibility
was heaped on me that I didn't
understand. And, of course, everybody was literally in
shock.
It was just
unheard of. Well, and the fact that
somehow it was on you when you were
the victim is Yeah. But that's I mean,
(22:44):
it still happens today. That's the rhetoric around
it.
Yeah. Well, I was told I was fast.
You know, in in the hood, you you
know, we hear that a lot. Girl, you
fast. Ain't she fast? And then after having
the baby, well,
sheesh.
I was I was a sideshow.
You know? That's all I could say.
(23:05):
Mhmm.
Do you have siblings?
I have 1, 8 years older.
Oh, that's right. You said yeah. That's right.
Close.
Yeah. Ever close. Different fathers. Yeah. Half half
sibling. Yeah. And in the black community, we
rarely where I come from, we don't say
half. If if you came out of mama,
we pretty much leave the half aside. You
know, just the energy with mom and my
(23:27):
sister, you know, they were kinda I got
as I got older, I had to get
some understanding to heal. And they were a
team, and I was the outsider.
So definitely not close at all, still to
today.
How did still today even.
Still to today. Interesting.
So you're a kid,
having a kid,
and feeling
(23:49):
rightfully
ostracized
that that those feelings are absolutely valid, of
course, that
how does one
in absence of a parent, one must parent
oneself whether they do it well or not.
So how was
your parenting of yourself through that time?
Or were you just completely out of body
until you were an adult?
(24:12):
Good question.
Was I out of body? I I
I really
understand
disassociating
from life
and being on autopilot.
That is I don't wanna jump too soon
in the story, but,
and again, you guys gotta buy the book,
so I can't tell it all here. I
(24:32):
do hope you join me when the book
comes out. It's so much just like a
blur. Yeah. I just again,
once I was if you tell a child
they're bad, that's what they become.
Mhmm. And because no one was around that
knew how to handle this,
they told me I was bad.
And so I internalized that.
(24:55):
And,
that's where the medication of drugs came in.
You know, I skipped over marijuana, cigarettes, liquor,
and started shooting heroin.
Mhmm. Go big or go home.
Oh, you you are so right. The monster
was so big, you know, and he would
not go home.
So, yeah, I,
(25:16):
actually,
I think back now and just say
thank God for deliverance.
In this very moment, when I think I
let I literally
drew up drugs and stuck a syringe in
my veins. I tell everybody
that's a level of self hatred
that the average cannot understand.
(25:40):
Definitely.
Was there anyone
in your life that
noticed your pain?
Mhmm.
I had a grandmabula,
and she was my mother's great grandmother.
And by the time I had Eric, she
(26:00):
was older,
but she couldn't read.
And when I was little,
really little, like
6,
7,
I remember threading the needle for Grandma Beulah
and picking the fabrics, and I designed this.
I believe that's where it comes from, taking
the going in the trunk
and getting the fabric, and she would give
(26:22):
me the scissors to cut the patches in,
and we quilt together.
And my Grandma Beulah, who couldn't read, would
say, my nickname is Tootie.'
And she would say, Tootie,
you the strongest
and the nicest
and the smartest
and the prettiest little girl in the whole
(26:42):
wide world. Well, Tootie, you can do anything.
And then she was saying, grandma leave pretty
for last,
because pretty is as pretty does.
And then she would say, show me your
muscles.
And I remember putting you know, I would
be threading her needle, and she clap for
me. And I'd lay the needle down and
show my muscles,
(27:02):
you know, and she just clap.
And so when I got off in a
hardcore drug use,
I used to look in the mirror, and
I would always see her grandma,
Hula's voice.
Why Tootie?
You're the strongest
and the nicest. And I would look at
everybody around me and say, why am I
doing this?
(27:22):
Why am I shooting this? I gotta speak
up.
I really believe, girl, my Beulah's voice,
those seeds that got planted.
I wanna say to every parent,
clap
every chance you get for little ones.
Instill in them, take this, those words. Every
(27:43):
time you even if you're not a parent,
wherever you see a little kid in a
store,
wherever,
like, you're the smartest
and the nicest and and give them a
hand clap
and
plant those seeds as early as possible.
Make that,
serious practice in every young
(28:05):
little kid's life you meet, because
it followed me.
And I kept on hearing grandma Beulah's voice,
and people say, how did you pull yourself
up out the dirt like you
there is a creator.
I call that creator god that gives us
grace.
And god's saying, grandma, you
(28:27):
I remember my mom coming in, you know,
because she worked 2 jobs. Why are you
spoiling her? Why are you spoiling? You're not
the nicest. You're not the
and she would be, like, in my face,
you know, because
and I remember, oh, grandma Beulah being over
her shoulder.
And I would look at grand grandma Beulah
would be like,
don't you listen? Yeah.
(28:48):
And my mom walk away, grandma Beulah would
pick me up. And don't you pay no
attention to seeing you.
She don't know what she talk why, Tootie,
you're the nicest.
And that's if there's anything I attribute
to assisting me while drowning inside of self
hatred,
grab my pillow. So how did you start
(29:10):
to pull yourself out? Was there a rock
bottom? Does was there a
did someone come along? Was it all you?
Well, luckily, I got rescued, not arrested,
and ended up in prison.
And,
my father had a brick company, 3rd grade
education from Mississippi, but he built a brick
business, worked at Republic Steel. We had a
(29:33):
family attorney.
And so when I caught a case,
my website is,
helping people grow.org,
and or look up Cheryl rich.com.
And,
when I caught
drugs,
sales, car theft, check fraud,
(29:55):
you know, luckily, never anything with any,
youngsters
or, you know, any death. Thank you, god.
My father would give our family attorney the
money bag, and I actually went in the
judge's chambers
with the family attorney
and watch the judge get his cut out,
the money bag, the prosecutor, and our attorney.
(30:18):
So I got a chance to see the
just
non justice system early on,
and a young mind, and I will come
out and stand in front of the judge,
get probation.
And that happened not once, not twice, not
3 times, not 4 times, not 5 times,
but 6. Woah.
Seven times.
Mhmm. Before my family found out, I had,
(30:40):
marks on my arms, tracks from shooting heroin.
And my daddy stopped giving mister Lee the
money back,
and I went away.
And that's where
God intervened in my life. I tell everybody
I did not get arrested. I got rescued.
And how long was your sentence?
4 years, 5 months.
(31:00):
It's almost they call it a nickel.
It's almost 5.
But I don't take away a day or
don't add 4 years, 5 months,
and I got it down to the hours
and the minutes.
I bet.
But
while I was there, the power of music
and tell live vision,
so about two and a half years in,
(31:21):
Michael Jackson's man in the mirror. How many
people
claim that song as the healing and within
their lives?
The moment that
one turned around and really looked in the
mirror and said,
I'm a start with me.
And, first time he sang that on television,
(31:42):
that I I jumped off of off the
bunk, and I went to the mirror. And
I said, I I don't know how I'm
gonna find a way to love myself,
but I'm not gonna hate myself anymore. And
if mom loved my sister more than me
and they were my torture team, why not
shoot the drugs in them?
I'm like, why that hurt me? I'm like,
that's it.
(32:02):
When I get out of here, if they
bother me, I'm a shoot the drugs in
them.
So right after Michael Jackson,
Don King came on.
He's from Cleveland.
Okay?
Television,
again.
But I had a chance to see someone.
People say, well, that wasn't the best role
model, but he was a role model. He's
(32:24):
from ghetto streets of Cleveland. He had been
to prison,
and he was doing something with his life.
And in that moment, I said, I'm gonna
do something with my life when I get
out of here. And I said, boxing is
grueling. Oh, I'll go find the Beverly Hillbillies.
The power of television.
When I was little, I used to look
at their floors, look at our floors. I
(32:44):
was like, I gotta blow this joint.
Granny and Jethro, they had a pool and
a poodle and so and then this last
name, Sheryl Rich, didn't help.
Rich in the hood? Like, Sheryl Rich and
no money? I was like, I'm out.
And then something said, okay. Go go chase
the ghost, the dream.
Because I thought there was something you could
(33:05):
find called success
outside of oneself.
And the creator held that back until I
got that message. Was there a sobriety plan
in
prison?
Would did you have
people that supported you there? Because, I mean,
you know, you're filled
it's filled with people that have also
carry a lot of pain and are trying
(33:27):
to find their way or not.
Prison is another world. You know? The
a lot of guards, you know, make their
living by bringing things in and out. You
know? And
in that moment, I had the opportunity,
and that's where
grace
intervened, and I made a choice.
Healing is a choice.
(33:50):
And nobody can tell me because I've been
through it.
I am here to say that regardless of
what
a person has endured,
that if you really
decide I'm tired of hurting,
tell me, well, how quick do you make
up your mind? Faster than you could blink
(34:10):
your eyes.
Your mind has to tell your eyes to
blink.
And people are in the Betty Ford Center
right now paying,
I think last time I checked, almost a
100,000 a month or something. Woah. Yeah.
Yeah. Maybe it's I don't know the price.
And when last time I checked, it was
(34:30):
over 50.
But for what has to happen,
they're paying for what they must do, and
that's blink their eyes and say, I'm done.
Hurdle.
And so I am a witness that by
the grace
yes, you must
claim this creator
who created you.
(34:50):
And I tell everyone, if you don't believe
in it, go create yourself. Come back. Tell
me how that went for you.
There is something.
Show me who lives forever.
So
everyone who is chosen again and highly favored
to catch this podcast,
I don't care what you're going through.
(35:12):
We can't be we become addicted to the
pain. We become addicted to the chaos and
the confusion. And just like we because it's
not the substance.
It's never the substance.
So we can make that choice, and that's
when I made the choice that I didn't
want any drugs that I could get into
prison.
I was like, I'm
done. So just really understanding
(35:34):
that,
chaos and confusion is an addiction,
and just as
as
we as easy as it is to accept
that we're addicted to the pain,
it is just as easy to become addicted
to
joy.
That's where I'm at now.
(35:55):
Happy meal. You eat a meal, you're it's
delicious. An hour later, you forgot. I'm talking
internal
joy.
And I never thought, and I'll tear up
and start crying, that I would experience
the feeling of having
joy inside,
that nothing
and when I say nothing can tamper with
(36:15):
that, I just got tested. My mother just
had a stroke, and she's 89 years old,
and I love my mom. You know, we
we still had our challenges,
but I love my mom, and she just
had a stroke. And
any other time, I would be allowing the
demonic forces that's what I call them.
Baby, I hate to bring in. I'm not,
(36:36):
you know, the old girl, the old black
woman. It's the holy holy roller,
but they it come a time where you
just gotta acknowledge them for what they are,
and that is,
the demonic forces. It is good and evil
definitely exist.
And at this point,
I could literally be a basket case about
the whole situation that happened, like, September 10th.
(36:57):
So you're talking very not long ago.
And right off the top,
the holy spirit I normally say the spirit
voice because I would like to turn nobody
off with the religious stuff. It's not religion.
It's spiritual.
That's what I am. But, someone said, girl,
you gotta clarify
which spirit voice?
So the holy spirit voice recently said to
(37:19):
me when it happened,
your mother is my child.
I loaned her to you.
So now are you gonna, like,
second guess me?
And I had to go back and forth
because the voices in my head was telling
me, hey. You're supposed to be sad, devastated,
(37:39):
and that's fine. Have a conversation.
The more you practice, the better you get
at this.
So my faith just got tested, and
feels good to know you're gonna get tested
with all that come out your mouth. Well,
you bring up such a good point. Our
emotions
(37:59):
when our emotions rule us instead of we
being having dominion over our
emotions, that's where we get into trouble.
Yes. Especially with the negative ones. But even
I think people can be in ecstasy
and be manic.
So even the joy side can get problematic
if it's you know, there's a balance to
(38:20):
everything. Everything in nature has a balance. Yeah.
And that's what we are work in progress.
You're right.
5 happy medium.
Yeah.
Did your family visit you while you were
incarcerated?
My mom. Mhmm. Yes. She did. Eric?
Yeah. Eric came.
Yeah. But mom had to bring him.
(38:41):
So yeah.
What what happened next then? You you get
out? Yeah. Eric gets killed in a car
accident. Oh my god.
My only kid.
Yes. I'm so sorry. Okay?
What happened
around that drunk driver?
Well, well,
he was actually high himself.
He had a mother that got high. Yeah.
(39:03):
That pain travels if we don't heal. Right?
And 6 months, 17 days later, he was
killed in a car accident, you know? He's
creating he's the reason the car accident happened,
and and God,
allowed him to get his wings.
And
all of this to say and that's what
I packed up 5 boxes of Computer and
a Dream and took off to find the
(39:24):
Beverly Hillbillies, came to the state called Hollywood.
I want to say that,
life's a journey.
And when Eric got killed,
I was I mean, when Eric died, I
was devastated,
and I never ever thought I would recover.
And that was
January 28, 1989.
(39:45):
I went away to prison
March 10,
1985.
I came home July 11, 1989,
and
January
28th 1990 is when Eric left. 6 months,
17 days
later. But I had a chance to, like,
say, hey. I
(40:06):
despised you when I had you. Now I
love you. We had 6 months, 17 days
together, and
learned so much in such a small amount
of time,
and most of all, to understand
it's all just a journey.
When we really grasp
that what we perceive as the good, the
bad, and the ugly,
(40:26):
is all just a part of the journey,
and that's what I am a witness
to.
You know,
Eric, once he left, I packed up 5
boxes of Computer and a Dream. I hit
Hollywood,
was chasing the ghosts called The Illusion Called
Success. God held it back many years.
1st executive producer,
(40:49):
credit.
Thank you, Doug DeLuca, co executive producer of
Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Gave me my first break in this town
called Hollywood, cracked that door for me. The
name of the show is called The House.
It was on Fox Soul.
Did 2 seasons, 3rd season.
I realized, be careful what you ask for.
(41:09):
You might get it.
After all that, from ex con to executive
producer
and then
the lesson,
you sure you want this?'
a lot of
toxicity started happening,
within my Black people.
(41:30):
You know,
the enslavement trade, it taught us
to teach them to hate themselves. We won't
have to worry about it. It's real serious.
And many communities have their challenges. Definitely in
the Black community, we have ours.
So 3rd season, I said, no, nothing is
worth my peace
of mind.'
(41:53):
And that was that was a moment that
I was like, you sure?
I'm sure.
So now
honorary doctorates, Word of God International
University,
Doctor. Joshua Smith
has his own Jewish diction.
Anybody that doesn't know what that means, do
you some research.
The name of the nonprofit
is called
(42:14):
Helping People
Grow. I came to LA to chase the
ghosts of
Hollywood, and I stopped off at Antioch University
here in Marina del Rey,
and got the earned Master's in Clinical Psychology.
Then I put it on the shelf
and started, chasing all Hollywood.
So now at this stage with an honorary
(42:36):
doctorates,
thanks to Word of God International University,
I was able to get the nonprofit,
and I'm in the streets. I've had a
25 for 25 years. It's been a street
ministry.
I pay people for their words of wisdom
that are sleeping on the ground.
I don't look for the 1 in a
(42:56):
SUV
or RV or car tent.
I pass out pillows to the ones that's
laying on the ground, and that's the most
important thing I do in my life
is see how I can make someone else's
life a little easier.
So I don't. I've never done the grants
and the proposals and those kinds of things,
(43:16):
but I've been funding things myself,
and I've got some things in the pipeline
now. And all of you that's getting ready
to hear this,
hey. Reach out to auntie Cheryl by way
of Susan
and Hey Human and who knows how we
will all come together and
and work to make this place,
this earth a better place. What's something from
(43:37):
your street ministry that has really stuck with
you as far as
the people who are unhomed,
what their outlook is, and what you see
in their humanity?
Well, when I we came together again
at the movie, no address,
and it is a feature film.
(43:58):
They put in work, and there really is
a real people that's been in the entertainment
industry, came together
for a topic that is just people don't
want to,
a lot of people don't wanna pay attention
to that when it comes to a feature
film. So it was very powerful to see
that a feature got put together because
what I have learned
(44:19):
from those who
have to sleep in the cold elements at
night,
didn't want to exploit, so I started paying
people for their words of wisdom.
For whatever reason,
I think they are the strongest of the
strongest of the strongest.
Not suicide,
but to choose to just say,
(44:41):
I can't take it, and I'm just gonna
live like this. And this society that teaches
you the more you have, the better you
are.
So it's the words of wisdom
from that one that's laying on the ground,
from that one that's living in a tent.
I encourage all of you.
Carry an apple or orange. Set at a
distance. Because what I was doing is quite
(45:02):
dangerous.
Can be very dangerous sometimes to really walk
up on people, and, you know, that's really
in a lot of pain.
But do everything you can
to see how you can help somebody,
And that's the only way I could say
that joy
manifests in your lives. Yeah. Making it outside
(45:23):
of oneself is really the key because then
you don't have time to obsess over yourself.
We were really put here. We're hardwired to
care about each other. Heaven forbid,
if if somebody gets punched right now, we
see it. We're like, oh,
because we feel it.
We're here for each other. And to serve,
(45:44):
there's no higher honor.
Remind people again how to find you on
the websites.
Yes.
So Cheryl Rich, c h e r y
l r I c h.com,
and
it's pointed to the helping people grow.org.
Sometimes on the Android, people have a a
(46:04):
problem getting to helping
people grow.org.
So both of those, and
look out for me coming I'm coming to
live stream with Susan. I'm gonna let you
know about it so you can reach out
to your population.
Absolutely. And, see what the creator has in
store for auntie Shirl
for the
the next chapter of her journey. And you're
(46:25):
writing a book too. Yes. I am. Naked
Insanity.
Hopefully, I have an editor. She's been torturing
me because she knows I'm so handicapped when
it comes to this.
And I'm hoping Diane commits to assisting me
so I could get this finished she's paid
already.
So let's hope so. Do you have a
space that you go and sit and write?
Is that the issue, or is it just
(46:47):
trying to get your head wrapped around digging
up old stories?
No. I wrote a rough draft. I life
has been too full. So it's just from
birth
to Eric's
hitting his wings. I hate to say death.
And, I wrote 260 some pages, but
I I like I said, I didn't get
the foundation, really,
of education under my belt after a 12
(47:09):
year old mother. It's been all willpower.
So my writing has gotten so much better.
I've I've spent maybe over I don't wanna
even talk about how much money I've spent
with wrong people
that said they could assist me with getting
this done. So Rayanne has learned how to
work with me, and I'm hoping that we
get to follow through.
And if not, I'll be on my livestream
(47:29):
coming to the world telling the world, somebody
come help me finish this book, please.
Yeah. Well,
I'm excited to read it when you're done,
and all things in their time. I really
believe that.
That's right. So it it will be and
Eric, I'm sure, is also guiding you. I
also believe that very strongly. I
agree. Yeah. And your great grandmother.
Grandma Beulah.
(47:51):
Thank you. You you your warmth is just
infectious, and you're gonna stay in touch, you
love. Absolutely.
Thank you for listening, everybody.
Thank you, Cheryl. Thank you, everyone.
Oh, I'm so happy that the creator touched
you. You're gonna you've touched a lot of
lives. You're gonna keep on.
Thank you so much. Oh. Hey, humans. We
(48:12):
love you. Bye. Bye.
Rate, review, and subscribe to Hey Human Podcast
on Apple, Iheart, Spotify, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Thanks. Bye.
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