“The number of black children ages 5-12 who have died by suicide has doubled since the 1990s. This is a national crisis,” Henson said.
During a speech for Variety’s Power of Women New York lunch, Taraji P. Henson of the critically acclaimed series Empire began tearing up while talking about the plight of black mentally ill youth in the U.S.
“The number of black children ages 5-12 who have died by suicide has doubled since the 1990s,” she said. “This is a national crisis.”
Henson was recently honored by Variety for the work she has done on and off the screen. In addition to becoming the first black woman to win the Critics Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series, she launched the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation in 2018 in order to battle the stigma against mental illness within black communities. The foundation is named after her father, who suffered mental health issues after returning from a tour in Vietnam.
“I named the organization after my father because of his complete and unconditional love for me; his unabashed, unashamed ability to tell the truth, even if it hurt; and his strength to push through his own battles with mental health issues,” Henson said in September. “My dad fought in the Vietnam War for our country, returned broken, and received little to no physical and emotional support. I stand now in his absence, committed to offering support to African Americans who face trauma daily, simply because they are black.”
One of the foundation’s goals is to support Black students majoring in mental health-related fields in order to increase the number of mental health professionals who intimately understand the difficulties of being black in America.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), only about 25% of black Americans seek out mental health services, while white Americans do so 40% of the time. Much of this gap can be attributed to discrimination as well as barriers caused by racial wealth gaps.
“Misdiagnoses, inadequate treatment and lack of cultural competence by health professionals cause distrust and prevent many African Americans from seeking or staying in treatment,” reads NAMI’s page on African American mental health.
Henson also drew attention to cultural stigma within the black community and fears of being labeled as “weak” or “inadequate.” Due to the long history of racial oppression in the U.S. going back to slavery, black Americans have passed down what Henson’s foundation calls a code of silence through the generations. Because much of mental health treatment requires opening up about one’s issues, creating a group of “culturally competent” mental health professionals is key to ending the national crisis of black mental illness and suicide.
“Often, we are asked to seek help from someone who does not look like us, who cannot relate to our stories. We fear we are seen, but not heard because the listener cannot relate to our problems. But, the ability to relate to one another helps us feel understood, helps us to heal. How does one do that if we are branded before we even speak?”
“We expected to hear that the opioid epidemic had an impact in classrooms, but not to this extent,” said one researcher.
The results of a unique survey illustrate the harms that the opioid epidemic has inflicted not only on young children, but their education as well. Teachers surveyed throughout West Virginia reported feeling “burned out” from having to deal with students affected by opioid abuse at home.
Among the 2,205 teachers surveyed across 49 counties, 70% say they observed a rise in the number of kids who are affected by substance abuse at home. Only 10% of teachers say they felt confident in knowing how to support students in this situation.
The survey’s findings were presented to the state Board of Education in March.
“The comments from the teachers were pretty shocking. We expected to hear that the opioid epidemic had an impact in classrooms, but not to this extent,” said Frankie Tack, addiction studies minor coordinator and clinical assistant professor at West Virginia University.
When kids are not taken care of at home, they carry those needs to the classroom.
“Teachers talked about having to wash the kids’ clothes at school. Letting kids not participate in class and go over to a corner on a mat and sleep because they hadn’t gotten sleep the night before because people were in and out of the home. Having extra snacks during the day because they don’t have enough food at home. Just all kinds of things that normally wouldn’t happen in the classroom,” said Tack.
These kids not only affect teachers, their behavior affects other students as well.
“What we’re also seeing is that the impact on students extends beyond those with direct experience with substance use disorders at home,” said another researcher Jessica Troilo, associate professor in the Department of Learning Sciences and Human Development. “The students who don’t have those experiences at home are witnessing behaviors in the classroom that they aren’t accustomed to. This is what we call the tertiary effect of higher classroom stress linked to the opioid crisis.”
The goal of the study is to use the findings to develop a teacher training module for dealing with the effects of addiction in the classroom, to implement statewide.
“West Virginia teachers are in desperate need of support in this area, and that’s what we hope to provide,” said Troilo.
Based on the findings, the research team recommends more training for teachers on how to handle students affected by substance use disorder, and how to interact with their families. They also recommend increasing support from counselors and other mental health professionals, and providing teachers information on 12-step support groups for friends and family members.
The video, which features dramatized moments from his childhood and teenage years, also depicts his mother buying what is assumed to be drugs from a dealer while the young Mario waits in the car.
In an interview with People magazine, Mario said that he hopes the video and song will provide support for those that may be experiencing a similar situation with a loved one. “Realize that your live is the most important thing to that person, because they don’t know how to say it,” he said. “Even in their choice, we have to love them through it.”
Mario’s mom, Shawtia Hardaway, died in 2017, and while a cause of death was not given, her issues with heroin had been made public through the 2007 MTV documentary special I Won’t Love You to Death: The Story of Mario and His Mom, which depicted his attempts to provide help for his mother with the assistance of family and friends.
After its airing, the singer, who most recently appeared in Fox TV”s live production of Rent, launched the Mario Do Right Foundation, which provided education and support to children of addicted parents.
“Care for You” is the second single from Mario’s 2018 album Dancing Shadows, which peaked at No. 9 on the “Billboard” 200. He told People that in addition to addressing the more painful aspects of his childhood, the song is “really about a man realizing that it’s okay to feel, it’s okay to be vulnerable.”
“I think a lot of times in our lives, especially men who have gone through things and who have built this warrior shield around their heart, don’t want to admit when they feel something or don’t want to admit when they love someone,” he explained.
With the opioid epidemic affecting nearly every demographic in the United States and claiming 115 lives every day, Mario understands that support for both the addict and the people around them is crucial.
“Addiction doesn’t just affect the user, it affects the family,” he said. “In some ways, you also feel like you’re addicted because you’re so close to it. You’re immersed into the hope of them healing and choosing a brighter path.”
And if a fan or even casual listener is going through the same tumult that Mario experienced, he hoped that they take the steps necessary to care for themselves as much as they care for the person with dependency in their lives. “It’s really important that you take time for yourself to heal and to un-blame yourself,” he said.
When people are hurting and struggling with addiction, the normal barriers that separate us fall away, and we are able to connect on a very deep, human level.
The tension along the border of Israel and Gaza has almost become old news. Every day we hear about more rockets fired and ceasefires that never seem to last. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been an ongoing struggle with seemingly no end in sight. Each side has their own view that will not be altered. Palestinian and Israeli people fighting each other for more than one hundred years.
But in Givat Shemesh, a small village in the hills of central Israel, we see a different battle going on. A very real struggle of life and death that has nothing to do with nationalism, religion, or land. A struggle in which people of differing backgrounds and faiths share and fight together, side by side.
Retorno, an addiction prevention and rehab center based on Jewish values, is a strictly kosher facility with daily prayer services, Torah learning, and Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath) observance. At the same time, the treatment center welcomes all nationalities and religions. Anyone dealing with addiction receives the help they need with openness and respect for all belief systems.
Although Retorno’s goals have nothing to do with peaceful coexistence, the rehab center has become a place where Jews and Muslims can interact in a safe and accepting environment. When a person is struggling with a serious addiction, the struggle to hold onto life is very real. This camaraderie of struggle offers an opportunity for the opposing groups to get to know each other and interact on a human level. They understand that underneath everything, we are all essentially the same people with the same needs and fears. In order to heal, we all require connections with others. In order to grow, we all struggle with the same fears and weaknesses.
A few years ago a judge called me and asked me if our center accepts religious youth. I said, “Of course!” So he told me he would send me a nice, religious youth. A few days later a 16-year-old Muslim boy arrived. We welcomed him as we would any other client.
The boy did not have a Koran, so one of our counselors bought him one. The boy brought it into the synagogue; he prayed from his prayer book while everyone else prayed from their own. As his colleagues prayed the morning Shacharit prayer, he prayed the morning Fajr prayer. In the evening, the Islamic Maghrib prayer accompanied the Jewish Maariv prayer in our synagogue.
The boy went through the full treatment program at Retorno. Three months after he left the facility, the boy called me and said, “Rabbi Eckstein, you will be happy to know that I am well and have started to go with my father on Fridays to the Mosque.”
From Addict to Counselor
There are many reasons why a person in recovery makes a good rehab counselor. They have firsthand experience of what it’s like to struggle with addiction and how hard it is to recover. Put simply, they can relate on a level that only one who has traveled the same path can. This type of empathy and understanding is extremely valuable in addiction treatment.
This is how we met Yusef, an Israeli Arab who first came to us for treatment and then returned to work as a counselor. Yusef is an exceptional human being. He also holds special assets that are unique to his background. For example, Yusef had not been raised in a religious family and for this reason, many of our Jewish youth who grew up in strict religious homes felt comfortable opening up to him. They knew he would not intimidate or judge them. Over the years, Yusef has participated in the recovery of many young Israelis.
A Dangerous Situation
Just before Shabbat, I received a call from a panicked counselor. “It’s close to Shabbat and I want to let you know what’s going on. It’s Miriam, she’s sitting on the ground with a sharp piece of glass and she won’t listen to any of us. If anyone gets close, she threatens to cut herself, and has already cut herself. Each time she cuts deeper. It’s a very dangerous situation.”
I told her I would send an expert. I sent Yusef.
After Shabbat, the counselor called me to relate what had happened.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said. “Yusef got close to her, sat down, rolled up his sleeve, and said, ‘Listen, I know you have all the best reasons in the world to cut yourself. I’m sure you’ve gone through some terrible ordeals. I have, too. Listen to me. I’m not telling you not to cut. But every time you cut yourself, cut me as well.”
Within a few minutes, she handed him the glass, and the two went off to have a cup of tea together. “I’ve never seen anything like it!” she repeated.
Touring Together
I travel and lecture all over Israel about addiction and prevention. I always bring an alumnus with me to tell his own story of recovery. During one of these trips, I brought one of our Arab counselors, Amin, along. Since he has a driver’s license that allows access to the Arab territories, he drove and I dozed in the passenger seat.
At some point, I felt Amin shaking my shoulder.
“Rabbi, Rabbi, wake up!” I sat up to find us surrounded by several IDF soldiers, all pointing rifles at his head. It seems they thought an Arab had abducted a rabbi and was trying to take him to his village. It took some convincing, but they finally believed that Amin and I were working together and that he was helping me on a mission to give a prevention lecture in Beit-El.
The Rebellion
I remember we had an Arab youth counselor during the Intifada. During this time, even at Retorno, there were heightened levels of distrust and anger due to the increased violence in Israel. At some point, some of the youth in treatment held a rebellion. They insisted they would not tolerate working with an Arab. I will not have hostilities among my clients and counselors. Retorno is a place of healing and connection no matter what your background, religion, or national affiliation.
I spoke to the youth in recovery and related a personal story to them.
“Around 50 years ago when my parents were living in the U.S., my mother had a catheter placed in her foot. Subsequently, her vein collapsed and the doctor told her she needed to have an amputation. My father adamantly refused and sought additional help. He found another doctor, this one a world-renowned transplant surgeon from Israel. He agreed to treat my mother, and by inserting an artificial vein in her leg, saved her from amputation.
“This is a nice story, but it gets better. When my father went to settle the bill, the doctor would not accept payment. He considered my father a colleague since he was also considered a doctor (not a medical doctor but a PhD) and what’s more, they were both Israeli. But the doctor was not Jewish, he was an Israeli Arab from Lebanon.”
I looked at the faces of my rebelling youth.
“It was an Arab that saved my mother. If any of you want to leave because we have Arabs at Retorno you are welcome to leave now, the door is open.”
No one left.
Our struggles as a nation do not impact our healing at Retorno. When people are hurting and struggling with addiction, the normal barriers that separate us fall away, and we are able to connect on a very deep, human level. In a center for addiction, it is essential that clients feel they are in a safe, welcoming space. When this happens, we all learn something about ourselves and each other. Any organization that accepts all equally is a force for good in this world.
Together at Retorno (PC: Shoshana)
Rabbi Eitan Eckstein is the CEO and Founder of Retorno, the largest Jewish organization in the world for the prevention and treatment of addictions.
Previous research has shown that inflammation can increase risk of depression and make antidepressants less effective.
Anti-inflammatory medications designed to treat conditions like arthritis can help alleviate depression symptoms, according to recent research conducted in Denmark.
The research looked at 36 studies conducted around the globe, covering nearly 10,000 patients who had depression.
“Our study shows that a combination of anti-inflammatory medicine, which is what arthritis medicine is, and antidepressants can have an additional beneficial effect on patients with a depression,” said researcher Ole Köhler-Forsberg. “The effect was also present when anti-inflammatory medicine was compared with a placebo in patients with a physical disease and depressive symptoms.”
Köhler-Forsberg said that the findings could help improve care for people with depression, many of whom do not experience relief by using depression medications alone.
“This definitely bolsters our chances of being able to provide personalized treatment for individual patients in the longer term. Of course we always have to weigh the effects against the potential side-effects of the anti-inflammatory drugs,” he said. “We still need to clarify which patients will benefit from the medicine and the size of the doses they will require. The findings are interesting, but patients should consult their doctor before initiating additional treatment.”
Previous research has shown that inflammation can increase risk of depression and make antidepressants less effective.
“Crosstalk between inflammatory pathways and neurocircuits in the brain can lead to behavioural responses, such as avoidance and alarm, that are likely to have provided early humans with an evolutionary advantage in their interactions with pathogens and predators,” authors of one study wrote. “However, in modern times, such interactions between inflammation and the brain appear to drive the development of depression and may contribute to non-responsiveness to current antidepressant therapies.”
Michael Eriksen Benros, research director at the Mental Health Centre Copenhagen, said that the new study is important because it shows significant improvements for people with depression.
“What’s persuasive is that we’ve found that several of the anti-inflammatory drugs have what can be characterized as a medium to a large effect on depression and depressive symptoms, in particular because the results build on almost 10,000 people who have participated in the placebo-controlled studies with anti-inflammatory treatment,” he said.
“The results from the meta-analysis are particularly promising not only because of an effect of the anti-inflammatory medicine on its own but also due to the supplementary effect when the anti-inflammatory medicine is given simultaneously with the antidepressants that are used today.”
The monumental new law was approved on World Autism Day.
Autism spectrum disorder has been added to the list of disabling conditions that may be treated with medical marijuana in the state of Colorado.
High Times reported that Governor Jared Polis signed a house bill legalizing the use of medical marijuana for the treatment of autism last Tuesday (April 2); House Bill 1028 had initially passed the Centennial State’s House and Senate in 2018, but was rejected by Polis’ predecessor, John Hickenlooper, who cited a lack of support from pediatricians and certain autism groups as the root of his decision.
A young person may become a medical marijuana patient if they are diagnosed with a disabling medical condition by two physicians.
The bill’s passed the House unanimously on February 7.
Parental groups who advocated for the bill say that the outcome was worth the long wait. “This passage happened for a reason,” said Michelle Walker of Mothers Advocating Medical Marijuana for Autism. “Because with 1028, we were able to ensure that individuals with autism and autistic people would have access, whereas the previous program created would have restricted access. Now, we’ve expanded access.”
Currently, nine states including Colorado, and Puerto Rico, include autism as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana treatment. Five other states, including California and Massachusetts, as well as Washington, D.C., are regarded as “autism friendly,” because they allow doctors to use their own discretion when recommending marijuana for debilitating conditions.
Though opinions vary as to the effectiveness of cannabis for autism, families have reported seeing positive results in their autistic children after using medical marijuana.
Medical professionals have often cited the lack of a large clinical trial that could determine the effectiveness and safety of using marijuana to treat children with autism.
Trials have taken place in Israel and Chile, and the first large-scale clinical trial in the United States began in 2018. Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, the trial will examine whether a cannabis-based compound called CBDV is effective in treating aspects of autism spectrum disorder. It is expected to be completed in 2021.
The Legal Aid Justice Center is taking the law to federal court, questioning its constitutionality.
Virginia law allows the state to declare that a person is legally a “habitual drunkard,” and one infraction is all it takes to earn the title.
While it’s unknown exactly how many Virginians carry the legal title of habitual drunkard—according to the Daily Press it could be in the thousands—it is used as a punishment for the vague crime of being someone who has “shown himself to be a habitual drunkard.”
According to the statute, simply being in close proximity to alcohol or smelling like alcohol is grounds for arrest. A conviction under the statute can come with a year in jail and possible $2,500 fine.
The label can also be applied to someone for their first DUI conviction, although in Virginia it is more likely to be used after a second offense. The statute arose from the 1800s and exists only in Virginia and Utah, according to the Legal Aid Justice Center in Virginia. The Justice Center is taking the law to federal court, questioning its constitutionality.
The city of Roanoke has slapped 162 people with the label of “habitual drunkard.” This far exceeds other cities and counties in Virginia, many of which do not apply the statute at all.
The Legal Aid Justice Center believes that the statute effectively criminalizes poverty. In 2016 it filed a class action lawsuit in Roanoke federal court. The lawsuit claimants are five homeless men who had been given the label of drunkard, who accuse the state of criminalizing addiction and homelessness. A decision is pending in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mary Frances Charlton, a former Legal Aid attorney, told the Daily Press, “It treats fundamentally what is a public health problem as a criminal justice problem. What these folks need is access to affordable housing and medical care—not incarceration.”
Attorney Andy Rosenberg handles Virginia Beach’s prosecutions relating to the statute, and told the Daily Press that only 3% of the arrests relating to the law are of homeless people.
Between 2007 and 2018, over 1,700 people were declared a habitual drunkard in Virginia. Two-thirds of those people were arrested in Virginia Beach. Enforcement of the law was originally ramped up in 2006 as the police sought a way to reduce DUIs. They began using the statute in cases of two or more DUIs.
That year, 10% of Virginia’s DUI arrests were made in Virginia Beach, despite the fact that the city only accounted for 6% of the population at the time, according to a story published in The Virginian-Pilot.
Regardless of the intentions, the law failed. In 2009, DUI arrests were at a record high of 2,733, compared to 1,959 in 2007.
The man was inspired to help others after a sober mentor helped him into recovery for his addiction to meth and opioids.
Lewis Blanche’s rock bottom wasn’t the day in 2009 when he almost blew himself up cooking meth. That time, he ended up in the hospital being treated with opioids, but quickly returned to using street drugs. It wasn’t until a year later, on March 4, 2010, that Blanche vowed to get serious about sobriety.
“I was living out of my car. I was riding around making meth. It was midnight, and I had to pull over at a McDonald’s because I hadn’t slept for a month,” Blanche told The Advocate. “A Baton Rouge Sheriff’s deputy saw me, and he realized what was going on, so he made me get out of my car and take my clothes off. They were scrubbing me with a brush from a fire engine because they were worried about contamination from the meth lab. All this was happening while people were coming in and getting their coffee … it was absolutely horrible … but it was also the date I got sober.”
At that point, Blanche’s addiction to meth and opioids had taken everything he had. Despite using drugs since his teen years, Blanche went to law school and ran a successful practice for a time.
“I decided to open my own firm. Things went well at first, and it was easy to get clients with my dad being a lawyer,” he said. “But the pressure to be right, to run a law practice … that made me start dabbling with opioids again. This time it was Oxycontin. I was buying prescriptions from people who were selling them.”
In 2005 he had to give up his law license when his addiction got out of control. That, he said, sent him “off to the races.”
However, after being scrubbed down in the McDonald’s parking lot, Blanche connected with a sober mentor who was able to help him get into recovery.
“He picked me up and said, ‘I need two things from you: wake up every day and find someone to do something for, without expecting anything in return, and when anyone asks you to do anything here for the first year, your response needs to be OK.’ The idea of me saying OK put an end to the most corrosive element in my life: me trying to control everything.”
After maintaining his sobriety, Blanche didn’t start practicing law again, but decided to help others get into recovery. Today he runs three sober homes and is a partner in a detox center. He says that learning to give up control and focus on recovery has changed his life.
“I started floating down the stream of life instead of swimming upstream – and it’s changed everything,” he said.
“I don’t think people understand managing it. It’s a daily choice. It really is,” Hale said in a recent interview.
As both Arrested Development and Veep come to an end, actor Tony Hale’s next plans include a book (and soon-to-be Netflix show) about a chicken named Archibald, with a wider message about the importance of being present.
“You have to be present,” Hale recently told GQ. “Everything is a big thing. Me talking to you right now: this is my big thing. It’s not somewhere else. And this whole idea of, if you’re not practicing contentment where you are, you’re not going to be content when you get what you want.”
The idea of being present, Hale says, is a constant work in progress for him as well, as he has long struggled with anxiety.
“This therapist I worked with talked about how you have to wake yourself up 100 times a day to where you are,” Hale told GQ. “And in creating stories for Archibald it’s been good practice, and it’s an absolute joy.”
Working on being present, like Archibald, is one of the strongest tools for Hale personally when it comes to managing anxiety.
“My default is to be checked out somewhere,” he tells GQ. “My default is to be living in some reality that hasn’t even happened.”
He has to remember that being an actor also comes into play when it comes to his anxiety, Hale says.
“As an actor you are a very emotional being,” he said. “And because of that, you kind of give a lot of power to emotions or thoughts, and you sometimes become a victim to that. I try to be like, ‘Oh, there’s that thought. There’s that emotion.’ As if I’m watching cars on a highway.”
Like many people who battle anxiety, Hale has also had experience with panic attacks. He discusses one instance in particular that stands out: early in his career, he was about to be on a talk show and says he had yet to feel like he belonged there. So, to manage his anxiety, he shifted his focus to someone other than himself.
“There were these two guys who were pulling the curtain. I just started asking them questions…and then they pulled the curtain and I went out. It might only have been a few seconds, but it saved everything.,” Hale recalled.
Now, Hale just focuses on the day-to-day and acknowledges that anxiety is something that has to be managed. He says he talks about it so often because of the role it plays in his life daily.
“I don’t think people understand managing it,” he said. “It’s a daily choice. It really is.”
In a commercial marking his career achievements, Wade’s mother thanks her son for never giving up on her when she was in active addiction.
Dwyane Wade played his final game in Brooklyn, New York on Wednesday. The NBA star, who led the Miami Heat to their first NBA Championship in franchise history, is retiring at 37.
But behind Wade’s success is his mother Jolinda. In a new Budweiser commercial marking Wade’s retirement, she thanks Wade for the impact he’s had on her life. Jolinda, an ordained Baptist minister, came a long way from her life as a chronic drug-using, struggling mother on the south side of Chicago.
“When you bought your mother that church, you don’t even understand the lives that you changed,” she said. “You were the joy of my life. But I was dropping the ball.”
Wade gave his mother her own church in 2008, symbolizing her redemption from her past. “I respect my mother so much, from the life that she used to live and to see her today in the life that she lives. I’m so proud of her,” Wade said at the time. “Everybody thinks I’m the miraculous story in the family. I think she is. I think what I’ve done means I’ve been very blessed, but she’s been more than blessed. She’s been anointed.”
Growing up, Wade and his siblings witnessed their mother use and sell drugs, abuse alcohol, and disappear for “long periods.”
“We would sit on the porch some nights, hoping she would just walk around that corner,” Wade said in a past interview with Oprah Winfrey. “I kept my ear to the window, hoping I heard her voice or I’d walk myself, hoping to see her.”
Tragil Wade, Dwyane’s older sister, helped raise her brother in their mother’s absence. She recalled fearing the worst whenever she’d hear about someone dying in nearby abandoned buildings. “I can’t even tell you what it was like,” she said in 2008 at the opening of her mother’s church. “It’s beyond words.”
Jolinda’s addictions landed her in jails, halfway houses and foreclosed homes, according to the Washington Post. She once nearly died from shooting up an unknown substance.
In 1994, she was arrested for possession of crack cocaine with intent to sell. She recalled the flurry of emotions she felt when her son came to visit her in jail. “I seen the look on his face, like ‘Why is my Momma behind there? What’s going on?’ He did not understand why I was behind that glass, and I was so mad.”
Jolinda continued on this path until 2001, when she finally had a change of heart during a church service with her daughter Tragil. At the time, she was on the run after vacating her jail sentence during a work-release program. Wade was a sophomore playing basketball at Marquette University. Jolinda turned herself in, and was released after serving nine months in prison.
While she was in prison, she became a devout Christian and dreamed of being a pastor.
In the commercial, Jolinda thanks her son for never giving up on her.
“That day that I just couldn’t do it no more was the day that I was going to have to turn myself in. And I seen the tears just fall from your eyes. Your momma went down a road, Dwyane, that I didn’t ever think I’d come back from. But on that road, I noticed you kept showing up. And you’d come and see about me. And because you believed in me, when I got out of prison I was a different woman.”
In his interview with Oprah, Wade expressed the respect that he had for his mother, no matter what she was going through. “I never gave up on her. Never blamed her. Because that was her life, her journey, her path. Without that path, I’m not who I am today.”
