Author & Wellness Advocate Evelyn Brooks is in THE HAVEN (Pt 2)!

Catch V. Helena's interview with breast cancer survivor, NAACP award winner and Emmy nominated producer Evolyn Brooks Mack! They chat about Hollywood, rising above circumstances, and Evolyn's must read memoir, Her Name is Cranberry. This is part 2 of a 2 part series. #HerNameIsCranberry #InMySolitude

Episode Transcript

(00:54):
Grim Catchers. This is part twoof my conversation with executive producer her author,
entrepreneur Evelyn Brooks. Were talking abouther book Her Name is Cranberry.
Well, let's talk about another facetof your story. Who is Cranberry.
Let's talk about Cranberry. Okay,so Cranberry, the book is called.

(01:19):
Her name is Cranberry. And Inamed the book Cranberry because when I received
the cancer diagnosis, the doctor saidit was the size of a cranberry.
And I'm like, huh, okay, I'm going to roll with that because
it made it less scary and itallowed me to kind of like decide how

(01:40):
I wanted to tell myself this story. Build the story, move through the
situation in my life. And soin that moment, I decided that I
am going to choose how I movedthrough this experience. And the first thing
I decided it was that I'm goingto live. I knew because in my

(02:02):
mind, I felt like if Iwas able to get an early diagnosis,
if if I learned about it early, that means that God wants me to
be here so you know, figureout what this situation is here to teach
you. I didn't I didn't lookat it like I'm going to you know,

(02:25):
oh my god, you know,I'm gonna die. I thought,
huh, everything that's ever happened inmy life was for my growth. It
always took me to another level ofhumanity, not just towards myself, but
just in general, you know.And I said, Okay, well,
let's let's see what this what thisis here for? And so I would

(02:50):
call it cranberry. And so alot of times when you when you hear
people and they're like, you know, f cancer or whatever. You know,
I just thought, okay, welllet me look at it in a
way where it has something to teachme. It's here for a reason,
and let's approach it from that pointof view. When did you decide to

(03:10):
write the book? So the bookhas always been there, but there was
a sense of urgency, probably aboutsix months ago, where I felt like
it's time to write this story becauseI see a lot of people that are

(03:37):
struggling with challenges in their lives,and a lot of times they don't necessarily
know that you don't have to letit take you under you know what I
mean that it's everything is here tohelp you grow, to help you evolve,

(04:00):
and if you can stay in thepresent moment with it, you know
what I mean, it's kind ofsit in it. What not sit in
it in a in a negative way, like oh whoe, it's me,
But just try not to run fromit. You know, a lot of
times when we're going through things,we don't want to feel the pain.
We don't want to feel the sadness, we don't want to feel the fear.

(04:21):
We don't want to feel our humanemotions. And so as long as
you try to escape the emotions thatyou feel, you're gonna constantly have experiences
that are putting you back in thesituation where you have to kind of feel
it. Like we're human, wehave emotions. We're here to feel,
We're here to feel joy, We'rehere to feel pain and sadness. The

(04:44):
key I discovered was to allow itto go through you and out. It's
not to let it come in andstay and like you know, feel it
and let it go, feel it, let it go, and then that
way it doesn't it's not able toreally take root, you know what I
mean. It's like when we ruminateon things, this happened, and this

(05:09):
boy did this to me, andyou know what I mean. It's like,
if I had really like kind ofheld on to what happened to me
at seventeen, all of the otherblessings that were in store for me would
not have been able to get throughbecause my anger would not have allowed them
to come through, because I wouldhave been so focused on what this person

(05:32):
did to me that I wouldn't havebeen able to receive the gifts that came
as a result of going through thatexperience. So you know, and that's
why what you say about forgiveness justplays a really really big part in propelling
you forward and whatever it is thatyour purpose to do on this planet.

(05:57):
Yes, because if you sit init and I'm gonna use the negative way
of sitting that, yeah, andnot at not allowing that anger to well
having the anger, so it's nit doesn't allow things to pass through it
the way that you described it,you're really missing out on some real blessings
in life. Yeah, that's sotrue. That's so true. So,

(06:20):
as I mentioned, you go reallyreally deep in this book. You you
mention that, uh, in findingyour Strength, you know it it had
a foundation that was laid with auntElvira. That's a really cool Auntie to
have aunt Elvira and and so,and that was the foundation of you having

(06:42):
that strength and and that connection athorizontal connection to God, which also allows
you to have a a vertical connectionwith the people around you, because in
that connection with Him, you know, you're able to forgive, You're able
to let go of pain and fearand hurt that other people visit upon you.
Right. So, in writing thebook and getting passed, and I

(07:10):
use the word anger, I don'tknow if that's the right word. There
was anger, but as it relatesto your your mom and then you and
you took care of her until shedied at a pretty young age too,
right, Yeah, And so it'sit's interesting, and it's like when I
l when I look at my lifeand in certain pivotal, pivotal moments,

(07:34):
I really see how, you know, I had to release whatever that was
to be able to kind of moveforward, you know. And and my
mother was definitely interwoven into so manymoments in my life. It's like,
you know, I cherished her,you know, as a young age,
dedicated the book to your mommy andd I did, I said, my

(07:57):
mother and father, they they aremy greatest tea and everything that they were
not able to work out and everythingthat they went through. It allowed me
to look at, you know,relationships and see that they were doing the
best that they could, you know, based on what they knew at the

(08:18):
time. And when my mother andI, you know, when I was
younger, it was like she wantedthe best for me. If there was
a ballet class, an acting class, and whatever, she had me there.
You know, she was always rootingfor me. And so, and
I think that moment when she wasupset that I opened the door, I

(08:39):
think that also was her pain showingthrough because she could not protect me,
you know what I mean. Andso a lot of times, you know,
instead of maybe she didn't know tohold me, you know what I
mean, maybe she was angry too, and so she was angry, you
know, who knows. But Ithink that I recognized, as as a

(09:01):
grown woman now, that sometimes youdon't have the correct emotional response because you
don't know how, you know.And so, but we were strange for
many years, and then she wasdiagnosed with breast cancer. And you know,
it's shocking because like my mother ranmarathons, like she was physically fit

(09:24):
in all of those things. Butyou know, we now know that doesn't
have anything to do with it.You know, it's good to be healthy,
you know, you actually when yougo through chemo or radiation or whatever,
the healthy healthier you are, theeasier it is for you to go
through it. But it was ashock, you know, and she didn't
tell anyone. And so by thetime I found out she had she in

(09:50):
retrospect. She had six months leftto live. Wow. And so she
lived in New York and so Iwentn't got her, and I brought her
to Toledo. And that's when Iwas a reporter, the anchor in the
whole nine yards. Oh. Andthat was a shift. That was another
moment where you know, having totake care of her. And then I
was still like, you know,going out and reporting a story. And

(10:15):
then we worked it out. Youknow, it was just it was not
pretty, but we got to reallyreally work it out. And you know,
I knew the moment that she wasabout to transition, you know,
with her. Yeah, I wasthere, she was in my home.
I had hospice come in. It'slike till the very end. I was
there when she literally, you know, her last breath. And then it

(10:41):
after that happened. That shifted youknow, she was able also to come
to that special I did so,and she was very ill, and she
surprised me and came, oh,that was so beautiful. It's such a
beautiful memory. But then that experiencedid something to me. It shifted my

(11:07):
heart. It made me more compassionatebecause at that point, until that point,
I had never really had like apersonal loss. You know, I'd
never lost a you know, Ididn't know my grandparents or anything like that,
so I had never had a loss. And losing my mother, as

(11:31):
you know, it's like by thetime I lost her, we had just
gotten back together. So that wasso hard, and you only had the
six months. We only had sixmonths. And then after that, it
was just hard for me to puta microphone in someone's face and ask them
how they felt without any compassion anymore. You know what I mean. It

(11:58):
changed my heart. What do youmean with that compassion? What I mean
is, you know, as ayoung reporter, we were all kind of
after the same story, you knowwhat I mean. It's like you were
you were in a race to getthe story, to get back to the
station, to cut it, toget it on air, to be first,

(12:18):
and you were always trying to finda good source, someone who could
talk, you know, whether itwas you know, a family member,
whether it was an eyewitness or whateverit was. We were relentless about getting
someone on tape to talk about it, you know, whatever that story was.
And so sometimes and I see it, you know, to this day

(12:41):
where it's kind of like, youknow, you you see where it's not
the most opportune time if someone's youknow, at the scene they just lost
someone and they're crying, they're hysterical, and then here you are with a
microphone asking job. You're doing yourjob. But I just wanted after going

(13:03):
through that experience, I just feltlike and and it's funny, it all
kind of aligned with really trying toget to the heart of why people are
experiencing pain and challenges and how doyou move through it as opposed to just
capturing the surface of it it,I wanted to go deeper after that.

(13:30):
I wanted to go you know,I wanted to help people as opposed to
just capture their pain. I wantedto help them heal their pain. So
is that where the self discovery throughdy Yes. So it's interesting, you
know, working in television. Youknow, I worked, We all worked,

(13:56):
you know, long hours, andand so I, you know,
had the ability to go to aspa and you know, get massages and
things like that, you know,just to help you relax. Yeah,

(14:16):
and so I just started to thinkabout like, wow, you know,
I'm able to do this, butso many people are not. And then
I started to think about, butit's not even really the physical aspect of
it. It's the emotional healing.That's the thing that kind of helps you
move through transitions in your life.And so I started my company called In

(14:43):
My Solitude because I felt that itis when you take the time for yourself.
It is when you are in solitude, when you meditate, when you
journal, when you when you youknow, get your massage or whatever it
is. It's when you carve outtime for you to really, you know,

(15:07):
feel better, find ways to kindof connect with yourself and connect with
your higher power. That is whenyou're able to grow push through like whatever
it is that you need to do, you have to take that time.
You have to take some time forsolitude. So that was in response to
your going about the work of beinga journalist, sticking the mic in people's

(15:33):
face and feeling like, you knowwhat, there's something missing, or there's
something more, there's there's a purposein me that is driving me to want
to really help these people, notjust tell the surface level of the story.
I love the way you said that, but to just really have empathy

(15:56):
and want to do something about seeingthat pain that was in front of you.
And so you because there's such ayou're such an entrepreneur. You started
this company in my solitude, andnow you have your products and you have
workshops and you're doing this all overthe country. Yes, and so would

(16:19):
you say that that is a transitioninto another part of who you are,
another part of your story. Areyou still doing well? Yeah, you
were still doing the journalists and theexecutive producing stuff. But this is a
higher power, if you will,of who you are and where you are

(16:41):
in your life. Yeah. Sohere's the thing that kind of propelled me
to start in my solitude to writethe book and all of that. And
so it goes back to when Iwas diagnosed with breast cancer and I was
talking to my surgeon and you knowthe one question you always ask whenever something

(17:03):
happens, It's like, why me, Why did this happen. And so
she said something to me that Ithought was really profound. She said,
well, you d you decide that, you decide what it means. And
I thought that was a very verypowerful thing, and I decided that,
Okay, well, I can lookat my life and I can see many

(17:27):
successes, and I can also seemoments of tragedy, but I was also
able to move through them. AndI thought, well, that's valuable.
That's valuable because that's human and weall go through things, but there are
many people that are not able tofigure out how to get past this,

(17:48):
how to get past that, howto get unstuck. And I just felt
like, I want to share mystory. I want to share these moments
in my life to show that nothingthat happens to you has to stop you.
Nothing, no matter how terrible itmay be or how bad you may

(18:12):
feel, it doesn't have to stopyour life if unless you decide that it's
going to stop your life. Andso that's just a message that I wanted
to share. And then the workshopscame about because I was like, Okay,
well now I want to share,but I want to show you,

(18:33):
you know, I want to showyou the steps and people would ask me
about my story, and you knowhow like I came out with I created
a candle line that gives you thesteps of the journey Candle collection how to
kind of move through obstacles. Andso I was just like, well,
I think I want to write itbecause then it'll be something like maybe you

(18:56):
can't come to a workshop and soyou can order. And then I wanted
to you know, I made thebook small and mighty because I want everyone
to be able to afford it,you know what I mean. I have
many more books to write, butthis one, I wanted to write it
for everyone so that it was accessibleto everyone, because no matter where you

(19:21):
are in your journey, we allhave things that trip us up. And
I just wanted people to understand thatyou have to visualize and imagine yourself on
the other side of it, andthen somehow God just pulls you through.
It's in little moments, little pointsalong the way. Don't always look for

(19:44):
the big picture, the big story. You don't know how it's gonna all
come together. Half the things thathappened in my life, I don't know
how it's gonna all come together,or you know what I mean. But
I try to stay in the presentmoment. I try to do the thing,
the message thing that I hear.And that's why I meditate and I
pray, because that's where you canhear. And then it's like sometimes I

(20:06):
don't know what the next thing todo, and then I'll just get quiet,
I'll meditate and I'll listen, andthen I'll hear. I believe that
it's God's voice say call this person, do this, and then just do
that one thing. You don't haveto know everything to start. So those
are some of the things that Iput in the book. In the book

(20:27):
because it should be something that everyonehas access to to know that you get
to decide how your journey will turnout if you believe that you want to
be here, that you know whatI mean and sometimes and how you want

(20:48):
to be and how you want tobe here. No one else has the
right to change your story unless youallow them to, no matter what it
is that how or write your story, and everyone's story is important. Everyone's
story matters. You know, mystory matters. Your story matters. Everyone's

(21:11):
story matters. And sometimes when thingshappen to us that we feel bad about
or we feel shame about, youknow what I mean. It's like then
you allow it to change you andto make you feel that you're less than
because this happened. And so whenI tell you what happened, I take

(21:32):
that off the table. You can'tmake me feel shame about anything that's happened
if I own the story, ifI tell you this happened to me.
But this is how I move throughit, and this is where I am
now, and if I can doit, then you can do it regardless
of what your story is. Wow, that is so incredibly powerful, very

(22:00):
powerful, And I know that inwriting the book and sharing not just the
details of your story more so it'ssharing your inspiration having had that be your
story, all of it, allof it, and just allowing that to

(22:23):
continue to inspire you as it inspiresothers and propelling you to furthering your greatness.
Well, you know, the thingis that I think there is also
something about the timing, you knowwhat I mean. And the timing is
not just my timing or God's timing, but like just looking at the world

(22:45):
right and looking at what's happening withwomen, and looking at you know me
too, and just all of thesethings where like there's a shift in terms
of you know, we are takingownership of our stories and using them to
teach and learn from other women becausethere there's so much that we have to

(23:07):
offer as women, and sometimes whenthings happen to us, we allow those
incidents to take away our power insteadof using those incidents to get stronger.
Because if I own it, ifI if I don't run away from what

(23:30):
happened, if I'm not afraid,if I'm not if I am not diminished
by it, then there's nothing thatI can accomplish. And so I know
that there are young girls seventeen fifteen, older, younger women. You know,
there's someone as we're talking, youknow they're they're they're The statistics are

(23:55):
crazy. So but I I justwant you know, young women, young
men, you know, whenever you'regoing through anything that could be viewed as
such, know that you own yourbody, you own your story, you
own your life. You and youcan decide that, you know what,

(24:21):
I am going to take this situationand I am going to heal from it.
I'm going to be stronger for it, and I'm going to use it
to help someone else. Yeah,what message do you have for those living
with the Cranberry, I would saythat the most important thing is to decide

(24:52):
no matter what the doctor says,you know, whether they say it's terminal,
whether they say you have you know, a lifetime, six weeks,
whatever, you know, because noone, we're all going to leave this
planet eventually. But when someone givesyou a cancer diagnosis, it just brings

(25:14):
your mortality into perspective, right,And so the thing that I think is
most important is that you decide foryourself that you're going to live, however
long that is, and how you'regoing to live, how you're going to
be right. Don't let other peopletell you how to be be be your

(25:42):
authentic self. Your authentic self,like, enjoy your life, your time,
your moments each day, do exactlywhat you want to do. And
what I mean by that is likeyou start to see that so many things

(26:02):
you take for granted in life,like when someone says, oh, you
may not be here, a birdsounds different because you think, yeah,
I may never hear that bird again, or the smell of grass, you
know, or the color of thesky. You start to realize everything is

(26:26):
important. Sitting and having a conversationwith you know, your niece or your
brother, or your family, yourpresent And so what I learned from that
experience is to be present. Itdoesn't matter how much time we have,
it's how we're using the time infront of us in this moment. Are

(26:48):
you present? Are you present toyour family? Are you present to your
spouse? Are you present to yourchildren? Are you present in the way
that matters the most to you inlife? From the wellness expert that you
are, amongst other titles that youhave that make you the phenomenal woman that
you are. Thank you, Thankyou so much for joining us in the

(27:11):
Haven and sharing your story and yourlife's work and just being the inspiration that
you are. Thank you so much, So glad to come. You're so
easy to talk to. Oh mygod, I was so nervous. I
really was, but it was justit was wonderful and just thank you for
having me and I really appreciate theopportunity to really talk to you. Jim

(27:36):
Catchers. I know you enjoy thissegment of our show. It is part
two of a great great Conversation witha dear, dear friend, and tune
in for more of our award winningshows. As we talk to songwriters,
writers of literature, playwrights, filmmakersabout their craft of writing. Stay tuned

(27:59):
and until next time, catch fireon purpose. I fell and I had

(28:41):
to have meals, some wheels.They're my savior. My name is Lola
Sylvestry. America. Let's do lunch. Drop off a hot meal and say
hello volunteer by donating your lunch breakat America. Let's do lunch dot org.
Look at you. You're at thetop of your game. You're unstoppable,

(29:03):
nothing to throw you off track.Wait, is that your card?
Oh yeah, I saw that coming. That will throw you off track.
You're looking at around ten grand andfines, legal fees and increase insurance rates.
Let's try this again. Smart move, because buzz driving is drunk driving.