I pulled up to pick up a passenger from a day care center, in what’s now referred to in the era of ‘Gentrification’ as Federal Hill, but known to Baltimorian’s as South Baltimore
Lyft Chronicles March 4, 2020
A young twenty-something year old looking African-American full-sized brown skin attractive woman enters the care with a lot of jovial energy
Lyft Driver: Hi. Did you call a Lyft for Betty?
Lyft passenger: Hi
Lyft driver: Hi. Are you Betty
Lyft Passenger: My momma’s Betty
Lyft Driver Inner Thoughts
She didn’t look like a Betty to me
Lyft Driver: So you’re Betty’s baby
Lyft passenger laughs. In her very thick Baltimore flash New York accent says…
Lyft passenger: Oh! That’s a new one. I ain’t never heard no Lyft Driver come up with nothin that clever app fast. You definitely Gettin FIVE stars
Lyft Driver: What fo mist driver’s day when you tell them you’re not Betty? Your mom is Betty
Lyft passenger: Oh! You a momma’s gurl.
Lyft Driver: Hum! I don’t know how your mom calling you a Lyft makes you a momma’s girl!
Lyft Passenger: I tell um, ‘Oh! Soon as I get home, Betty gets her money
Lyft driver innermost thoughts
‘I knew we would talk the entire ride. What I didn’t know was what would be revealed in a 10-minute ride from South Baltimore to Station North Adjacent
Lyft Driver: Are you from New York
Lyft passenger. No. Born and raised in Baltimore. My mom’s side of the family is from New York and Louisiana. My father’s people are from North Carolina and Baltimore.
Lyft Driver: Have you visited New York and North Carolina
Lyft passenger: I called myself being grown when I was a teenager. I moved down to North Carolina to live with my father. The woman he married couldn’t cook. I lost forty pounds be-in down there with them
Lyft Driver: She must not have been from Down South
Lyft passenger: That’s the crazy part. She IS!! What kind of Southern woman can’t cook. I mean… They are Muslim; but still. You should be able to cook a meal for your husband
Betty’s baby shared with me that she’s the youngest of 12 children on her father’s side. Her father was in the military. He was somewhat of a rolling stone.
For some of you who may not have heard this term, From The Urban Dictionary: A person who likes to move often or is unwilling to settle down in one place or with one person or both. This phrase is based on the old saying “a rolling stone gathers no moss.”
Her father had twelve children with four different women… her mother being the last.
She shared with me the beautiful way that her mom and dad met in the neighborhood of East Baltimore. They would later have two daughters together.
Lyft Driver: Was your father a good father, I asked.
Pause! Pause! Crickets!
She paused and took several breaths and then a deep sigh before responding
Lyft passenger: let me put it to you this way…
Lyft Driver: When someone starts a response like that, it usually means Not..
Lyft passenger: After being in therapy and years of explaining to him how his not being there for me affected me, I can honestly say we’re in a good place now. We have an open relationship that supports talking. I’ll say he wasn’t a good ‘DAD’; but he is a ‘GOOD’ father. We’re cool today.
She then passes her cell phone to me to show me photos of her mother and father; both of which are very attractive
Lyft Driver: Gurl! Your father is fine. Oh! That’s right, he’s married. I see why he has a lot of children
The crease of my eyes were watering by the tine Betty’s baby exited the Lyft.
Lyft Driver: You’re hilarious. You should start a YouTube channel and share your story
As I spoke these words OUTLOUD- I thought to myself You SHOULD take your own advice by revamping your own YouTube channel to Inspire -Encourage & EMPOWER others by sharing ‘Your stories’
I took the liberty to give Betty’s baby a writing homework assignment; which was to spend ten minutes writing down her story. I told her to start anywhere and just write from her memory and her heart. Just get what’s in you out of you
Lyft passenger: Ms. Fylicia- if I finish my book….
Lyft Driver: When you finish..
Lyft passenger: YES!When I finish my book, I’m going to invite you to my first book signing
I handed her my business card and told her that no matter where I am in the World- that I would be there.
Fee King
Each one…Inspire One!